Pathway: Composer for Advertisements

Prior to this course, I had an understanding on how to navigate Logic and Mix, however throughout this course, I have learnt many skills that have proven highly useful and have helped me gain a more developed understanding of how to mix, like my understanding of compression and Equalisation, now having deeper knowledge on how to mix my track to a higher level, and how each contributes to more a refined sound. I have found that particularly my development and new understanding shows in my ability to sound engineer and produce, when comparing to my understanding at the start of the year. This has particularly been in areas of compositional work and studio work. Examples of my development in my compositional work are prevalent in my understanding of Music to Film, now providing me with an understanding of techniques such as leitmotifs and how they can be used to draw attention, reflect emotions of characters and help the viewer create a link to a person or item through such. This will prove particularly useful when creating music to advertisement, as being able to draw a viewers attention to a product or company is highly important. As for my ability to work in a studio, I have seen significant improvement with my ability to set up a session on logic, ensuring everything has been correctly set; and my understanding of how to mic up different instruments, including the most effective microphone use (dynamic or condenser), and ways to capture or avoid specific sounds within a given space.

Previously to this year, I was able to design sounds through means of synthesis by experimentation and fine tuning by analysing what each part did to change the sound, however through this year, I have further developed my knowledge and skill in sound design and can now effectively alter and create sounds through an understanding of each element of a synthesiser. This is important if I continue down a progression route of music and advertisement, as it means I can create specific sounds if described in a brief by a possible employer. Over these past 2 terms, I have gained improved understanding of ways in which I can use sampling creatively. To compare and provide an example, when I started this course I could effectively navigate and use quick sampler in logic to add more depth into my music, however now I have a broader knowledge on different samplers aswell and can use them to create melodies, instrumental parts and ambiance. It is relevant to note however that if I were using sampling for a piece for an advertisement, I would have to ensure I had permission from the original composer/creator. 

This project will help my time management skills and my ability to hit deadlines. This will be helped by the use of the weekly timetable, as sticking to a weekly plan will help me stay on a steady pace of work flow and will help divide my end goal into smaller and more easily achievable goals. Having good time management and being able to hit deadlines is very important when working in music and advertisement, as employers will expect this. If you miss a deadline, you wont be fully paid for your work and you will gain a bad reputation which may cause you to miss more work opportunities. Developing these skills will assist me to continue on a career path to Music and Advertisement. 

For this Project, I am focusing around Music and Advertisement. For this, I aim to reimagine and compose the music for 2 different Ads, both juxtaposed to each other. For both of these 2 tracks I will aspire to create an edit fitting of the length of the Ad and an edit for each, as by the aim of this project I aim to send these compositions to a sync agencies, in which multiple edits of each song is a standard. In this project I will collaborate with a sound engineer, as I will be using the studio to record and require someone to be in the control room. I will also wish to work with a mastering engineer to master my work for me, as I think this will save me time and allow me to have more time in my compositional work and mix, helping to create a better final product. In this project I should strive to be highly communicative with these engineers, as well as clear and concise with my communication, as any miscommunication could affect the structure of my plan and cause me to fall behind. For this I also aim to record live drums, so for this I will find a session drummer, this importance of communication upholding to the session drummer too. I will be usinng logic for this project, as it is the DAW I am most comfortable with and because of that it will help me to work more efficiently and stick to my plan with a lot more ease. As well as this, I will use the synthesisers in logic to design sounds to create more impact in my compositions.

Evaluating my work will be highly important as to manage my time better and ensure the quality of my work is to a standard which is required by the course, but also something I am proud of. When evaluating, I will video/record myself weekly, discussing what I have done within the week, my processes, my achievements and what I could have done better. However If I find video or audio logs don't comprehensively represent my reflection on my work, this may be replaced/accompanied by a typed evaluation, further accompanied by videos, screenshots and bounces of my work. This reflection on the work I have done during each week will help assure me that I am on the path I have set in my plan, and will give me a good reminder and starting point for the following week/weeks. On top of this, I will also do an evaluation to provide an overview of my project in it's entirety upon completion. This will be important to collectively assess my result from the prior weeks, as well as highlight what could have been done differently and how it would have changed the end result. To ensure a high quality of detail in my evaluations, I will have my teachers and parents review my work. I have chosen my teachers and parents, as my teachers will have a deep understanding on music production and of the course as a whole, whereas my parents don't, this allowing me to have a broad range of feedback that will help to provide clarity of what I have done in my project. 

There are issues that may occur in the weeks to come. To provide examples:

• Collaboration

With collaboration there can sometimes be issues. They're may be miscommunication between either end that can lead to an undesired result from the collaboration or work being received outside of an expected time period. This could lead to certain parts taking more time and affecting the timetable, so trying to avoid this by communicating clearly and regularly to ensure there is no miscommunication will be highly important to this project. There is a risk, however, that there may be issues due to unexpected events or illness from either side. This highlights an importance to have more people to contact to collaborate on hand if these issues arise. It is also important that if the person I am collaborating with or I unexpectedly cannot perform a task, that I communicate this with them, ensuring to blog and evaluate it, as it may effect the timeline and progress of my project. It is also important that, when collaborating, I am friendly and approachable, as this will make the collaboration process smoother.

• Time Management 

Time management is essential for this project, as managing my time incorrectly can lead to me falling behind in my weekly plan which may affect the quality of my final result. As I mentioned prior, there is a possibility of unexpected things happening to set me back or miscommunication in collaboration. This idea has made apparent the importance of having a plan to catch up on work missed from the prior week/weeks. If I fall behind, it is important that I catch up with that work as soon as possible to stay on track. I will also review the next weeks timetable and find time to do this work, highlighting this next weeks most important and time consuming tasks as to make sure not to affect them by reorganisation and cause further delays. I will then place the work I have fallen behind on into my weekly plan and assess from this point how I need to manage my time to achieve this, also making sure to blog and evaluate my falling behind and how I intend to catch up. It is also important that if my falling behind affects my plans including the engineers, I contact them and let them know any changes that may happen.

• Issues with Stem Splitting

For this project, I will be ripping ads from YouTube and using the stem splitter feature to remove the background music for each. This proposes a few issues. If an Advertisement has both a person speaking and singing, it may end up removing some of the speaking for the Ad, making it lose its context. This could also happen when removing the song from an Ad with say gunshots or sound effects, as the stem splitter may assess these as part of the music rather than the Ad, causing them to be removed with the music. This may mean that the Ads I select in my proposed research may have to change at the start of the project because of issues like this, and if so this will be assessed in my blog and evaluation.

Ensuring that I have an understanding of how I will approach the beginnings of this project is very important, as it will assist me in producing a more developed and better final result. This is especially important for this project as I have limited knowledge on this area of the industry, and researching will help me to create a more professional outcome.

For my research, I will aim to talk to someone who knows about music and advertisement. This will be better compared to secondary research as it allows me to ask specific questions that I would like the  answer to, giving me a better understanding on how I should approach this project. My teacher Matt Wilkey has an understanding on how this part of the industry works, so I will ask him if I can interview  him, coming prepared with questions to ask. However, if this is  not possible and I am unable to interview him, the website below goes in depth on how music complements advertisements, so I will refer to Peralta, L. (2024a) The relationship between music and advertising, Save The Music Foundation. Available at: https://www.savethemusic.org/blog/the-relationship-between-music-and-advertising/ (Accessed: 23 March 2025).

Another website I can possibly use for my research is shown below, this focusing on the individuals experience in the industry and what skills they have learnt, both in how to visualise the music to an Ad, but ways in which you can start a career in Music and Advertisement.

username yapa (no date) I write music for commercials. here’s what they pay and how to get into it... Available at: https://vi-control.net/community/threads/i-write-music-for-commercials-heres-what-they-pay-and-how-to-get-into-it.135703/ (Accessed: 23 March 2025).

(Tasks per Week Not in Specific Order)