Assignment 2: Midpoint Blog

At the start of the course, I didn't expect different things. Before reading the course guide, I expect we will discuss how artists/ singers produce or own their sounds. Produce music and have some exposure to its technical aspects. Not all are wrong, but the course goes into a completely different direction. But it changed the way I see, consume, and approach audio now. Funny thing is, at the start of the course, I still associate audio with other media like text or videos. It was always with other modalities but not only itself. That is why I have a hard time separating audio from other modalities. But I guess that is the charm of the approach of the course, it highlighted audio on its own, an often forgotten modality.

The coverage of the topics and how it was delivered is effective. For me, it makes it more progressive and connected, so the ideas I want to be answered in Unit I can be answered in the other units and vice versa. I also appreciate the science side of explaining audio; it makes me imagine the audio waves everywhere I go now. Reverberation is also my favorite part to learn about and play around on the course. Although an audio effect of distortion, it is prominent in today’s music. I enjoyed learning about it, especially since it is my favorite sound effect in music. All my go-to songs use reverberation as a way to accentuate the theme of the song. Making it feel youthful, careless, chaotic, but also lasting. 

Speaking of listening to music, listening has been a different experience for me now. Before, I just blindly listened to things, but due to practicing critical and analytical listening, everything has changed. Every music I hear, loud noise when going to work, and even white noise when I am about to sleep, everything I naturally distinguish and separate from other modalities. Somehow, I understand now why certain music hits and official soundtracks of movies feel close to the story. I also hear very low sounds now, due to feeling it in my chest and stomach, which I always feel to bass-prominent songs or horror thriller movies. This also changes my actions on audio itself, and I understand that taking care of my ear is important, too. I spent 8 hours already in headphones at work, and then another few hours when I need to take up my lessons. This resulted in me stopping to use headsets when I am outside both work and school. When I travel from house to work, I just listen to the surroundings, rest my ears to so high volumes/decibels of music. I also don’t use my Samson headphones I bought outside of school and production. If it is only for leisure, a maximum of one song is enough for those headphones. I became aware and critically listen to audios now and can access them as well when I need to rest my ears.

Working around activities is a challenge. Listening exercises, although they are not required in terms of requirements, are still my weekly challenge for myself. Not only to train my critical and analytical listening skills, but also to make the most of this course. I try to put my word out there and apply what I learn in the modules. It was also exciting to listen to unfamiliar music and access it without any expectation. The exercises were my way to navigate to assignment 1 as well. 

Assignment 1 started with a very ambitious attempt to make my music. I was so excited to create a The Weeknd type of sound, but the exercises made me realize how hard it dissect music, so how much more on making it out of nothing. I was fighting for it on the project approval forum and took Prof. Al’s words as my challenge, but the funny thing is, it redirected me back to the purpose of this course. So after 2 days for stages of grief, I found another project that I can make within my capabilities, but it still challenges me to trigger certain emotions when listening to it. Doing assignment 1 is more of an emotional battle for me to accept that the course goal is not to focus on being the best at producing music, but to understand how things work on the backend and to create something based on what I learned. SMART, as they say, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, is what guided me to make the applicable decision.

I did get some inspiration from others’ production plans as well. It was not directly taken from it, but it just made my brain open a new space for other audio platform products. Although some are similar to my first plan, their plan seems to be more possible, the details and how they will go about the production, whereas mine was too big a dream. It was not eliminating my passion for it, but rather redirecting my plans, making them possible. I stumble on some of the story reading, but what separates mine is that you don’t know what the story will be unless you listen to it. It was not a project out of familiarity, but using sounds as a way to tell a fresh, new story effectively.

I was excited to share my project as soon as possible, so I plan to at least try to go to the F2F session in the class. But the possibility grew far away, and it was such a shame as it was my way to collaborate or connect with my fellow classmates. What I do now is interact with discussions, group chats, and forums just to connect with students which has similar activities as mine. But it is still uncertain if I will indeed scare my listeners, and the plans in my head are harder than I think. Right from the bat, I experience difficulties in using the DAW and microphone limitations as well. At the same time, there is this excitement to the challenge, and nailing it means fulfilling my excitement. Doing each step is needed either way since I cannot stop the time nor the deadline, only I can do now is to face the inevitable and beat it.


But right now let us listen to my should be "inspiration" on my attempt on making music below.