Week 1 Evaluation
This week I did a collaboration In the studios, mixed and mastered a song my friend made, and also did a composition for Matheus França.
Studio collaboration - The studio collaboration went fairly well. There were moments that things did go wrong however. When we first set up the microphone and DI there was no audio coming through the control room so we spent a bit trying to sort that out. We ended up sorting out the microphone but the DI box wasn't working, and we couldn't fix that. We should've probably got help from a teacher to help us out but we didn't think of that at the time so we ended up just not bothering with recording the DI box. When recording the guitar we ended up just recording over certain bits constantly, we didn't realise this at first but when we sorted it out the recording flowed nicely. We ended up recording chords and then the guitar player did a lead over the chords, we ended up just keeping him recording the whole time so we could go back and choose which was a bit of a 50/50 decision, there were some moments where he messed up on a take so it ruined the next one as well, but we eventually got the take that we wanted. We could've done this whole recording process a lot more efficiently but we got what we wanted in the end.
Mixing and Mastering - I had been given 2 audio files from my friend for a demo song that he is currently working on. He gave me the instrumental and the vocals for the track. I had to use the STEM tool in Logic to split up the audio in the instrumental so I could mix it. There is always a risk with using the STEM tool as there are usually bits of instruments in the background of some tracks that shouldn't be there. I had this in my track too. But I managed to sort it out by using an EQ to cut out the frequencies where these unwanted instruments were playing. My friend wanted to mix it with an emphasis on the bass being hard hitting throughout, and I think I did that very well. When I first listened to the track without mixing it whenever he said his Ts or Ss they would clash with the hi-hats a lot, and when they did it would hurt my ears, so I had to sort that out. To overcome the problem I used an EQ on the drums to reduce how high the hi-hat frequencies were peaking, and I also used an EQ and compression on the vocals. The EQ was used to cut out the frequencies where the vocals were clashing with the hi-hats, and the compressor was used to make sure the vocal chain had a balanced volume throughout and that there were no random loud or quiet parts. The snare was really quiet compared to the hi-hat, so to fix that I boosted the mid frequencies in the drum EQ. The vocals were also very dry, so to help with that I added reverb and delay to the vocals to add some more depth to them. I think I did this well as I usually struggle to mix vocals into a track, so I am very proud with how they came out. On the whole track, I added another EQ and boosted the low end of it to give the bass more punch which is what my friend wanted. I also boosted the high end a bit to add more clarity to the whole track.
This was the first time that I mixed and mastered a track by myself, and I think I did it very well, I had no real problems throughout the whole process of mixing and mastering the demo, and I hope that this is the first of many tracks that I end up mixing and mastering, whether they are mine or if I am doing it for others.
Matheus França composition - I wanted to task myself with making a traditional Brazilian samba and funk track, I think I managed to do this very well. I used guitars as the main instrument for the drums and the bass to sit on top of, I used a mix of hard hitting drums, a vocal beatbox, and percussion to create a very fun groove to dance to. However, if I were to redo the track again, I would probably choose a different bass and also add another instrument behind the guitars, there are pads playing but you can't really hear them that well when the guitars are playing as well, so I would probably add a piano or a synth.
Week 2 Evaluation
This week I tasked myself with making a song with French Jazz and Congolese Rumba elements for Jean-Philippe Mateta, however this did not really go to plan. I wanted to combine some accordion playing with Congolese drumming, but it did not it well together. This annoyed me as my original plan could not be done the way I wanted it to be. What I did instead was have some guitar pairing with French horns and the Congolese drums with a faint accordion in the background. It worked a lot better when the accordion wasn't the main instrument of the track. I didn't achieve my targets for this week but I managed to overcome them successfully by changing what I did a little bit. I managed to learn that not all genres will fit together, no matter what I did to try and get the accordion to sound well as the main instrument with the drums it just wouldn't work. However after I managed to make it sound good the project went very well afterwards. I am happy with the way my project ended up sounding, but if I were to go back and add anything to the track, I would probably add a bass to fill in a bit more of the low ends, as the drums do it well but not well enough for my liking.
Week 3 Evaluation
This week I tasked myself with making an Afro-beat song for Ebere Eze, this went to plan very well. I wanted to combine some afro-beat drums with some groovy electric piano, marimba, and bass, and it came off very well. This was the first time I had ever learnt and tried to make an Afro-beat track, and for my first time it went very well. I also learnt that it is best to keep things simple in a track, as if something is too complex all the sounds can clash together and perhaps the song wont sound that good, but if the track is simple then there is room for the instruments to live and sound well together. I am very happy with the way that I used certain instruments to give off certain feelings throughout the track, and how I also processed them. For example, I used an electric piano and a marimba together playing chords and the combination of these 2 instruments playing together creates an interesting sound that works very well within this style of song. The choice of instruments I used worked very well together, and if I were to edit the track, I probably wouldn't change the instruments that I used, but I maybe would change up the drum pattern a bit more, as it is very repetitive after a while.
Week 4 Evaluation
This week I tasked myself with making an Ambient song for Adam Wharton, this went to plan very well. I wanted to create an ambient track to match his playstyle as he is a very calm and composed player, and it came off very well. This is not the first time that I have made an ambient track, but I do think it is the best one in this genre that I have made so far. I have learnt this week that too much Reverb can cause a frequency clash and cause a hash feedback sound to occur, this happened a few times for me within this track but I managed to overcome it by reducing the amount of Reverb that I used on certain pads and I also added a Limiter on the ones that had these harsh sounds coming through, I also cut out the frequencies that were clashing by using an EQ. I am very happy with the way that I used the pads throughout the track, and how I also processed them. The way I did this created a nice ambient soundscape that evolves as you listen to it. If I were to make the track again, I probably wouldn't change much but the main thing that I would do would be to make the track a lot slower to allow the pads to evolve slower.
Week 5 Evaluation
This week I tasked myself with making a Reggaeton song for Daniel Muñoz, this went to plan well, but not as well as I thought it was going to be. I wanted to combine some groovy guitar rhythms with a dembow beat, which is the most common drum rhythm for this genre. This was the first time I had ever learnt and tried to make a Reggaeton track, but I know a decent amount about the genre so for my first time it went fairly well. I learnt that this genre stems from the African roots within modern day Colombia, this is why the drums used within the genre are very similar to those used within genres from all over Africa. I am very happy with the way that I processed the drums for the track. For example, I managed to make the kick hard hitting yet I ensured that it wasn't clashing with the bass. The choice of instruments I used worked very well together, and if I were to edit the track, I would probably add some more instruments to back the guitar, as it feels very empty in the track. I have a synth lead that comes in for a bit and it works, but it doesn't work well enough. So I would probably change the type of synth I used and have more instruments in the track as well.
Week 6 Evaluation
This week I tasked myself with making a Malagasy and Guadeloupean combination song for Maxence Lacroix, but I also ended up side tracking whilst making the song by also adding a French Hip-Hop section, this whole track went to plan vey well, and it turned out better than I expected it to. I wanted to combine all of these genres as they are from the countries that his family members are from. This was the first time I had ever learnt and tried to make a song with all of these genres combining, but I think that for my first time doing it it went very well. I learnt that Guadeloupean music stems from a lot of African and Caribbean influences as well as some French influences as well. I have also learnt that Malagasy music has influences from all around the world, this includes Indonesia, other southern Asian countries, African, European, North American, and South American influences. This gives a lot of free range for what you can do within this genre of music. I am very happy with the way that I managed to combine all of these genres together well. For example, I sampled some Guadeloupean drums and I also sampled a Valiha which is a traditional Malagasy instrument, and I managed to make these 2 work very well with each other. The choice of instruments I used worked very well together, and if I were to make the song again, I probably wouldn't change anything.
Entire FMP evaluation
Over the course of my FMP, I wanted to make a song per week based around a different player from Crystal Palace Football Club. I wanted these songs to be a representation of their different ethnic backgrounds, where they were born, and wat they are like as people and players. And I certainly feel like I have done this in the best way that I can. I ended up doing more in certain weeks than others, but it all came out to work great in the end. For example, in the first week I had started working on the composition that I wanted to do that week late in the previous week, so I didn't have that much to work on in the first week. That meant that I could do some other work during the week, such as a collaboration in the studio and also mixing and mastering a song that my friend had sent me over. All of this work within the first week meant that I also had a lot more to write about in my blog and my evaluation for that week too. For the remaining weeks, the work I did was around the same amount for every week because I started focussing a lot more on my own projects to work on.
During my FMP I had learnt how to make songs of multiple different genres, It was my first time doing anything like this, I had done nothing similar to this in the past at all, so for a first time I think I can call it a success. I think it is a success because I managed to combine instruments of different backgrounds all together to make specific tracks for each of the players. I used instruments that are common within the genres that I used for the players, this gave a wide variety of tracks with all different sounds. I really like how I managed to combine some genres too, for example for Maxence Lacroix I combined some traditional Malagasy instruments with some traditional Guadeloupean and French instruments. This can really help with future projects of mine that I create as I can use the various different styles of music that I have used over these 6 weeks as influences for my own songs that can make them sound really unique and interesting. I do think however that doing 1 song per week was probably too much too quickly as well as doing all of my blog work alongside them. I have learnt that it is best to take your time carefully on projects like these. This is because I often found myself rushing over my blog work whilst prioritising making the songs, and I definitely think that if I were to do my FMP again, I would cut the amount of songs that I did from 6 in 6 weeks to 4 songs in 6 weeks so that I would have enough time to go over my blog work and not have to rush it.
For collaborations, I only did it in my first week where I helped Leon, Josh, and Eli in the studio setting up the mic in front of the guitar amp, and helping on Logic as Josh and Eli wanted Leon to record guitar for their respective tracks. The recording went well and setting up the mic wasn't a problem either. I also helped out by choosing the audio effects used on the guitar to get the desired sound that Josh and Eli wanted. This collaboration didn't directly impact my project, but it did give me more to write about in my blog and evaluation for that week, and I think that collaboration with others is important because it can expand your creativity as a musician/producer as others can influence what you know and what you want to do in your projects. You can also influence others musicians/producers that you work with and they can learn from your skills as well. My communication skills have definitely improved since doing collaborations, and I am more confident with talking to people that I haven't spoken to before, or people that I have rarely spoken to before. I think next time, communications between the control room and the live studio need to improve, because there was a bit of a struggle when doing it with Eli, Josh, and Leon where maybe Leon didn't have headphones on in the live studio at times or the rest of us weren't using the communication device between the control room and live studio very well. From this collaboration, I have learnt how having other peoples ideas reflect on you can give you some really interesting ideas of your own within your own compositions. I have also learnt that communication is very key when collaborating with others, as without communicating well, you can't get your ideas across fluently and efficiently to others that you are working with.
During this project, there was a moment in week 4 where the file for my composition corrupted after I had made a lot of process on the song. This meant that I had to restart the track all over again as I couldn't recover the file, so it made me lose a lot of time to work on my blog entry for that week. Unfortunately there wasn't a more efficient way to overcome this problem so this was the best option that I had. I still managed to complete this track and it didn't interfere with any other remaining tracks that I had to do, so it did not affect my entire project as a whole that much apart from just my blog for that week.
Over the course of this project I have learnt loads about different genres around the world. For example, as I researching Reggaeton music I discovered how the "Dembow beat" is one of the most common drum beats not just in that genre, but in the whole world of music too. I had also learnt about new genres that I had never heard of before, such as Malagasy music, Zouk and Gwoka music from Guadeloupe, as well as Congolese Rumba. I can use aspects of these genres that I have learnt and can potentially use them in future songs that I would like to make. During this project, I improved my drum sequencing skills a lot by having these various genres with different drum patterns. It meant that I had to put the drums in loads of different rhythms that I wouldn't of though of doing before making these tracks, as they are very unique rhythms that are very specific to these genres. I researched about these genres to get ideas for my tracks, I looked up traditional instruments for that genre, Wikipedia pages about the genres, and I also did research on the players and their backgrounds as people to see if that could further influence the music I made about them. I also did some primary research where I put out a Google Form and I asked questions for people to answer about the countries that the players were from and what music they would expect to hear from the respective countries. Research is important for projects like these as I knew barely anything about the genres before I started this project, so researching about them expanded my knowledge about these genres and I utilised that knowledge to make these 6 separate tracks.
I originally planned to do 8 songs over this project, but I had messed up my timings as I had spent the first week of my FMP writing my proposal, and then spent my final week doing this and writing my final evaluation. This meant I had 6 weeks in between instead of having 8 weeks like I originally thought, so I had to cut 2 songs out of my plan. This was a difficult decision to make as I had to choose my 2 weakest ideas to cut from my project and keep my 6 strongest. The first song that I chose to drop was a song I was going to do for Tyrick Mitchell, who has Jamaican parents. And with me already doing a Reggaeton track I chose that I was going to combine Jungle with Drum and bass as he plays for the England national team. I cut this one out as Jungle and Drum and Bass are too similar of a genre and the song would probably sound very basic and would've become very repetitive over time. The second track that I cut out was a metal track for Will Hughes as he is an aggressive player. I cut this one out as it is very far out of my comfort zone and I don't think that I would've been able to make a track in this genre that sounded good.
I personally think that the song I made in the first week was my best one as to me it's the one that has the most depth with sounds, the EQ is evenly balanced, and all the instruments that I used work well together and fit within the genre of music that I was basing it off of, which is a Brazilian Samba and Funk style song. There were bits that I sampled such as the vocal beatboxing and background drums which really fit within the style of song that I was going for, I also chose the guitars that I used and also the pads that were used as well. There is only really 1 big flaw within my project and that is the tracks don't really flow well with each other, as they are so drastically different in genres. I could've chosen players of backgrounds that have similar styles of music for it to flow a lot better and not sound so different. Another way that I could have fixed the issue of the tracks not flowing properly, is that if I had enough time at the end I could've put all the songs into a brand new Logic session and process them all in a way that they fit well together.