Midpoint Blog

a blog.

Mid Term Reflections

Hopeful Beginning

When the trimester started, I was very hopeful about how things could play out for MMS 172. Like I said in my post in the self-introduction forum, music has been a major part of my life because of videogames. In this website alone, I literally talk about three cool videogames that were my favorite at the time I created the site. So I think it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I was excited for this course, since I believed that it would provide me with priceless insights on audio production and basically teach me all about what I needed to improve my craft further. "Craft" referring to my online presence as a VTuber as well as a digital multimedia creator.

Lessons So Far

Now, did I learn something new from this course? Definitely and absolutely. It would be a blatant lie to say that I didn't learn anything. Just to name things off the top of my head: the fact that there's a distinct difference between critical and analytical listening, the art of making recorded sound effects having a proper term called 'foley', the significance of proper wiring and understanding signal flows, and the meaty details of pre, mid and post-production audio editing like acoustic treatment, gain-staging, equalizers, compressors, limiters, modulation, and all kinds of nifty stuff that aren't only cool but also very practical to learn how to utilize!

And I guess I'm not really dissatisfied with how the topics have been covered so far. If anything, I very much sincerely appreciate having all of the lessons available from the get-go so that we can all move at our own pace. Professor Al also didn't format his lessons in a way that needed us to leave the MMS 172 portal to learn more about obscure topics in a website packed to the brim with overwhelming informative text. The general discussions are also a great way of engaging with the professor while also being exposed to little nuggets of insightful information that expound upon the knowledge discussed in the course manual!

So it wouldn't be wrong to say that, so far, it's been quite a satisfactory experience. But... I feel like there's something lacking. You can think of me as quite a knucklehead in terms of learning, I can figure stuff out through readings and whatnot, but I'm very much heavily a visual and kinesthetic learner. I learn more effectively by doing, essentially. And on that note, that's where I think the lessons are lacking, for me at least. I'm well-aware that this is a me issue, but I just couldn't help but hope for more activities... like, don't get me wrong! What we currently have in the portal is already quite a treasure trove of knowledge, and honestly, I even hope that I can still access this portal later on so that I can review audio production concepts when I need them.

It's just that while the readings and discussions have been great for theory, I'm sort of starting to crave for more hands-on work to really cement the concepts in my head, and put the stuff that I've learned to the test! For example, in the general discussion for using compression on vocals, I wish we got the opportunity in a dedicated activity to apply the concept in a guided, step-by-step manner. Although to be fair, I know that I can do it on my own, and I probably should try it for myself in my own time, but I think it would have been a pretty cool addition to the class if we had a structured "lab" type exercise, and would have been a major help for learners like me who thrive through doing!

Assignment 1

As for assignment 1, I found the planning and prep stage pretty interesting to do, especially making a pre-production outline for the course project! It's like creating a research proposal but for audio production. And honestly, I'm thankful to prof Al for providing a sample pre-production blog to act as a guide. It helped me a lot in creating my own blog, and also gave me a structure to follow. I feel like without an example, I would have been flying by the seat of my pants for this project. Things wouldn't be organized, I would be trying to wing things with just an insanely vague idea of a plan, and trust me, that isn't a good idea at all!

So far though, the strings for my guitar that I ordered online have arrived. And I've gone to work replacing the rusty strings, cleaning up the dust and all kinds of grime on it over the years of use and neglect. (The guitar belonged to my sister and she got it 10 years ago during her guitar-craze era, but that has long since faded, and since she doesn't use or play it anymore, I might as well take it for myself.)

And I've finally re-strung this old guitar, and tuned it myself! ...with the help of a guitar tuning app, of course. Let's be real now, I'm not that good yet, nor do I have perfect pitch or whatever. Afterwards, for the past few days, I've just been practicing playing the guitar and singing. I've tried playing the guitar years ago, but I never got to stick to it consistently, so I've long since lost my 'kalyo' for playing. Playing for an hour or so straight hurts like hell, and my fingers are in a bit of pain, but it is what it is!

I've skimmed through some of my other classmate's work for assignment 1 as well, and I'm looking forward to their outputs, honestly. I'm excited to see the variety of talents they'll be able to showcase through their work. I saw a girl that was planning to re-mix the audio of her and her old friend's prior work on a whiteboard animation video on parables of all things, and it's genuinely exciting to see high quality work from fellow students! It motivates me to do my best too!

Yap Fest Break

Taken from Google Maps

The F2F Meeting

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the face to face meeting last August 6th, and honestly, I don't think I'll be able to attend any face to face events in the foreseeable future either. I just live too far away, and my family doesn't own a car, nor do we have the funds for me to commute all the way to UPOU's headquarters, it's like more than a three hour commute. (I chose to go to UPOU cause it's the cheapest option compared to living via dorm or commuting everyday to UPD or UPLB)

Hopefully however, future F2F meetings will also be livestreamed and or recorded for the people that couldn't attend, might as well, right? It's an online university, after all.

All in all so far, MMS 172’s been a pretty eye-opening and honestly fun experience. I’ve picked up way more than I thought I would, and I can already tell that a lot of this stuff is gonna come in super handy not only for the course project, but also for my own stuff as a VTuber and digital multimedia guy. I’m excited (and honestly a little nervous) to see how much I can do by the end of the trimester, but hey, the journey's just as important as the destination, huh?

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