I had never done any form of mixing and mastering by myself before this term, I would always just use the Logic master analyser, which was good but it wasn't authentic. So it felt good for me to mix and master for the first time authentically. I found It a bit difficult at the start but the more and more I did it the easier it got for me. Flex time was something I used for the first time, and it was interesting to use. Usually if I had something that was out of time I would just cut up the audio track and move it to be on time, but by using flex time to move the audio parameters to be on time I didn't have to split up the audio track, flex time as also a lot easier to use and get audio on time without changing the audio track in a way that could damage how it sounds. I also had never really done any form of synthesis and making my own sounds, I would always just use presets on logic that were made by other people. Creating different sounds using different waveforms was a new experience, I managed to make a pluck, bass, and pad sound. I feel like I did well for it being only my first time too, I didn't really have any problems with it. I had used sampling before in my projects, but I have now learnt new ways to sample which I can use in my projects in the future. I have learnt how to use the multi sampler to load different samples at once which creates loads of different ideas for me in my future projects. I had also learnt about found sounds and have used them in some projects, I sampled someone stamping on a staircase and turned it into a snare, and I also turned a recording of the wind and boosting the frequencies of the key of the song using an EQ. I got someone to record some guitar for me in the studio which I incorporated into one of my tracks. I also sampled a recording of someone in the studio playing the guitar. I think I incorporated both of these correctly in their own way. The one where someone recorded it for me fits well into the track, and the one I sampled adds some ambience to the track it is in, and it works well as it is an ambient track. I hadn't really explored many effects before this term, I had only really used reverb and delay. But this term I started using effects like a flanger and a chorus to give some instruments a dreamy feeling when paired with reverb and delay. The use of these effects adds a sense of dynamics that I would've never thought of using before. I have also experimented with reverb a lot more on my ambient track, I added AVerb to the whole mix as well as there being reverb on other individual tracks, I did this because I saw that Brian Eno did it with a lot of his own ambient tracks so I wanted to test it, and it ended up sounding really good. I wanted to create this ambient track as a song that you can just get lost in and relax to.
I have also learnt this term that it is important for there to be a composition brief when working on projects, this means that I plan my ideas out before starting a composition. It can be important for the likes of artists and producers to have a composition brief so that they don't get stuck on ideas when making songs, if they have an idea of what they would like to do before they start it will be a lot easier for them to perfect the project. It is also important for record labels to have a brief too as then they can understand the type of song that will be getting published onto their label. I think my ambient composition fits the style that I was aiming for in my brief, I created an ambient soundtrack which also has samples being played throughout, I could've possibly added more layers to the ambient layers to add more depth to the sound, but it sounds great as it is. The other track I made was a track that is influenced by an artist called Mk.gee, I think I have managed to create a composition in this way successfully, as it is similar to his songs, but different in its own way. I wanted to create a much more uplifting track to contrast with my ambient track, which is why I made this. In mixing and mastering, it is important for there to be a solution for performing producing issues. For example, in the project I worked on there was a moment in bar 10 where the drums were out of time compared to the rest of the track, I fixed this by using flex time slicing to edit the audio of the track and moving the slice markers to where the drums would then be on time. There was also a moment where the bassline was really distorted, so I cut out the distorted areas, and found another part of the bassline where it was playing the same melody as the distorted part, and I cut it out and copied it into the areas where the distorted parts would be. There was a moment in my ambient track where my pads started to sound distorted, even though I hadn't added any distortion, to overcome this I had to restart logic, which fixed the problem and it didn't happen again. There was also a moment where some of the samples were just not playing, I tried just restarting logic but that didn't work, so I deleted and re-added the samples and that fixed the problem. I didn't really have any other problems with my other project though apart from logic freezing a few times, which I fixed by force quitting.
In my development project I adecided to work on my vocal skills, and it was a difficult process. I found it hard as it's quite an exposing task as it is my voice, compared to if I we're to learn the guitar or make my piano skills better. I started out by researching musicians and how they sing, this helped as it showed their singing techniques off and how they project their voice. I also studied some breathing techniques to help with vocal warmups, they felt weird at the start but I eventually got used to it. I then started finding out the chords of the song I was covering, which was pretty simple. The song I was covering was "Little bit more" by Mk.gee. During the recording process of the cover, I kept n going out of key a lot which was annoying, but over time as I kept on singing it was happening less and less. After I listened back to the recording, I wasn't out if key necessarily, but it was obvious that I still need work on my vocal skills down the line, as there were a lot of moments throughout where it didn't sound the greatest. From listening to it back, I don't really have that good of a natural singing voice, I feel like it sounds a bit too dry and not really that expressive, but with more practice I can get better at this. Doing this though and exposing my voice has increased my confience in my performing skills, as before I would't really want to perform in front of others, but now I don't think that It would be too bad.