Below is a week by week account of my progress and personal reflection within this project. The phrases in italics are copied from my blog post at the begining of the project named Timescale & Planning. I will use these initial entries to compare my current progress to my origonal timescale and as an oportunity to inform of any changes throughout the project.
Week 4 – Week beginning 10th February 2014
Week 4 will be spent constructing a presentation for the project proposal ready for week 5′s tutorial. As well as this i will be updating my blog and beginning research to underpin some creative choices within my product.
After a few weeks of researching possible ideas for my second audio project I came to the desison that I wanted to work on behalf of a client, preferably in writing and producing my own electronic music to a brief. Composing electronic music isnt something that Im particularly farmiliar with, as most of my previous writing expirience comes from playing the guitar in various bands. However I felt that it was something that I wanted to accel at and develop my skills within the field. Luckily, through a discussion with a friend about my project I was pointed in the direction of John O’Donoghue, owner of Lincolns largest nightclub ‘Home’. John was in desperate need of some new music for his VIP room, the Reserve Lounge as the current playlist so uninteresting that it was causing his customers to leave and go elsewhere, therefore loosing potential business. Upon speaking with John he was keen for me to use my skills in music production to fill his need and was given a brief. As John was not a technical or musically minded individual, the brief was thourough but lacked any musical terminology or specific requirements in terms of instrumentation, just a specific style he wanted to achieve. Although i found this dificult to comprehend at first, it later dawned on me that this allowed me more creative freedom when creating the tracks. Keen to start early, I spent the previous week preparing my blog, posting photos of the room and writing up my aims and objectives within my blog. As well as this I began preparing my short presentation ready to pitch my idea to my tutor next week. Unlike my previous audio project I was working alone in this module, which alowed me to work when needed, rather than relying on others which i found particularly refreshing on this ocasion.
Week 5 – Week beginning 17th February 2014
Week 5 i will being presenting my proposal for the project with my tutor. Following this I will be continuing my research using various methods and looking into how specific genres have various effects on the human mind. Towards the end of the week i will then look at beginning to compose the 1st of the 3 tracks and start drafting ideas and rough demo’s. Finally at the beginning of the week i will be having a meeting with my client so he can give me some more specific details about the specifications of the sound system within the room and give more specifics in terms of the products content.
At the begining of this week I attended my 2nd client meeting with John to discuss the room specifications in terms of audio equipment and exactly what he wanted from the music I was going to produce for him. I felt the meeting was very informative and particularly helpful in defining the specific styles my client wanted the music to encompass. This gave me a good basis to start researching into genre psychology and how certain frequencies effect the brain. Two subjects i knew nothing about, yet was excited to learn more in the interest of producing work to the highest standard of my clients brief. The following day, I pitched my project proposal to my tutor Lee Gretton, which recieved positive feedback and was feasable enough to be given the go-ahead. I felt particularly relieved at this point as I was keen to begin researching into the depths of my project. The rest of this week was spent researching genre in music psychology to establish the correct genre to base my work around. I eventually decided on a mixture between ‘designer music’ and ‘downtempo’, two genres designed to promote relaxation and calm thinking, in which more information can be found in the post entitled ‘Genre in music psychology’. Following this I spent many hours listening to reference material given by John in the client meeting and music from the downtempo genre for creative inspiration. Things are slowly starting to take shape.
Week 6 – Week beginning 24th February 2014
The majority of week 6 will be spent composing the 1st of the 3 tracks and drafting and demoing ideas for the song within ProTools as well as updating my blog and researching other venues around the country similar to my clients to see what their VIP lounges feature in audio terms.
As originally planned, this week I began composing and drafting the 1st of the 3 songs of the Reserve Lounge collection. This started off as a particularly slow process unfortunately, due to the exploration of various plug-ins and sounds and a personal struggle with writing electronic music as I had not attempted something like this before. However after a day of trial and error (mostly error) I started to find my feet and began creating music I felt I could show my client and that i felt i could be proud of. As well as the production side, I spent the other part of my week researching genre collaboration in an attempt to establish the exact style I wanted my music to encompass. I learnt that through collaborating in 2 different musical styles I could gain the audience of both of these genre’s and hopefully even create an entirely new audience. I felt this helped me gauge more of a direction to write and produce my music towards, and after some stumbles on the way, I began making progress.
Week 7 – Week beginning 3rd March 2014
Week 7 will be spent composing the 2nd track as well as drafting ideas and demoing within ProTools and researching into production techniques for the specified genre’s ready for the production of each of the tracks to ensure they carry a professional sound.
Rather than just composing and drafting ideas for each track and then moving on I decided it was more efficient to compose and produce the product at the same time. The reason for this is down to the fact that I tended to loose my creativity while jumping from track to track and only drafting ideas, I found it was much easier to compose and produce the track as I went. This meant that this week was spent producing the 1st track rather than moving on to composing the second track like originally planned. Now I had got my head around ProTools and the creation of electronic music I found it a lot easier to be creative and start producing good work. This meant that the production of the 1st song was completed this week, ready for the mixing and mastering stage. As usual this week also consisted of supporting research. I found my research into the emotional responses to music particularly interesting and helpful towards defining the genre of my music. The circumplex model of emotion splits emotions into 4 categories by the effect they have on the subject, meaning i could use this to aim for one of the positive emotional sections with my work. Researching into Brian Eno’s Music for Airports as a case study helped greatly in establishing what can go wrong if ambient music is used in the wrong space, something I obviously wanted to avoid.
Week 8 – Week beginning 10th March 2014
During week 8 i will simply finish composing the 2nd track and begin the composition of the final track of the 3 and hopefully finish within the same week as this will be my main focus for the week.
This week began with a meeting with my client. I had the opportunity to play my work so far in the room that It was intended to fill, which really excited me. Although at first I thought the fact that John was not from a musical background was a positive thing, the tables soon turned. John was very pleased with the work I had done for him so far, however “It sounds great”, or “It really suits the room”, could not really be described as constructive feedback. I was hoping for something a little more technical and constructive so I could then go back and improve my work to a higher standard. I was essentially flying blind with the creative process. All I had to go by so far was that he was happy with my current work. The remainder of the week went into composing and producing the 2nd track, which luckily came a lot quicker than the first, after just 3 days of work I felt that the 2nd song was ready for the next stage of mixing and mastering. I assume I was getting used the concept of writing electronic music, therefore helping me produce work to a more superior standard and more quickly. Any free time this week was spent updating my blog and writing up the production process and techniques used to create my first two songs of the Reserve Lounge collection.
Week 9 – Week beginning 17th March 2014
I will finally begin the production of the 3 songs during week 9. As well as this i will be researching more production and mixing techniques, once again to ensure my final product comes off professionally. This will only be conducted if the client is happy with progress so far during our scheduled meeting on the 18th March.
Unfortunately the meeting with my client scheduled for this week had to be pushed back due to John attending meetings all day. Although this wasn’t an ideal situation to be in, it gave me some more time to bring the songs to a full demo stage. The entire of this week was dedicated to the creation of the 3rd song and documenting the production process of this on my blog. As I began coming to the end of the production process of the 3rd song I realised that my first song was completely inferior to my 3rd. This was a positive thing as it meant that I was obviously improving in both my song writing and technical skills throughout my project, unfortunately the negative side of this was that I had to return to my 1st song and edit it to match the quality of my 2nd and 3rd song. Although this would set me back a few days, I was happy to do so if it meant I could deliver a higher quality product at the end of the project.
Week 10 – Week beginning 24th March 2014
Production continues during this week. Also i plan to book the multitrack studio for this weekend so i can track any acoustic instruments and vocal samples i may need for the tracks. Not only will this give the product a fresh approach but it also gives me chance to enter another recording environment and use more professional equipment. Finally i will also be updating my blog this week with any extra research and relevant supporting materials.
This week mainly consisted of adding finishing touches to the production of all 3 songs and ensuring that the 1st song of the collection was up to the same standard as the 2nd and 3rd in terms of production. I decided to scrap the previous plan of entering the recording studio this week to record some vocal parts and samples of the song. The reason for this decision is that I felt the music alone was strong enough to be used alone, and that any additional vocal parts may take the focus away from the music and possibly even prevent the songs from being as relaxing or calming. At this point I was feeling confident In what I had produced so far and was looking forward to showing John what i had done so far in our scheduled meeting next week.
Week 11 – Week beginning 31st March 2014
During week 11 I plan to schedule another client meeting to show what work i have done so far and talk about what feel he would like the songs to encompass through the mixing and mastering stage as by now i hope to have completed the production process. This week will also be set aside for further mixing and mastering research specifically for the chosen genre and what effects applying certain techniques will have on the final product.
This week I felt that I was back on schedule as everything I had planned to do was easily possible. The week began with a client meeting with John to showcase my work so far. Unfortunately once again I ran into the problem that my client wasn’t particularly musically trained meaning that any constructive feedback was almost useless. His one negative comment was that my work didn’t sound as ‘big’ and ‘loud’ as the other commercial music on his playlist. At this point I then explained the process of mastering and how this helps music sound big and professional. Through Johns naivety I did realise that I was faced with a dilemma. I had the choice of mastering my tracks the way that most commercial tracks are mastered, with loudness in mind at the sacrifice of dynamic range, or master them to be dynamic at the risk of the tracks not being as loud as the other tracks on the playlist. Because of the nature of my music and that hyper-compressed music can cause a fatiguing effect (the exact opposite of what I was trying to achieve) I chose to master music with dynamics in mind, a decision that was later enforced by the discovery of automatic gain control featured on the rooms music playback system. This meant that I was able to master my tracks as dynamically as I wanted and the system would ensure that my music would play back at the same volume as the other songs on the playlist. The remainder of the week was spent adding final touches of mixing that wasn’t done during the production of the songs, ready for the final mastering stage.
Week 12 & 13 – Week beginning 7th April 2014
During weeks 12 and 13 I plan to be at the mixing stage of the project. I want to put aside 2 weeks for this to ensure I have plenty of time to smooth out any rough edges and ensure the tracks a refined and professional sounding by the end of the project. During this time i will also be updating my blog with regards to personal reflection and supporting materials for the mixing process.
As the majority of the mixing had been completed prior to this week, I used this time to update my personal reflection and supporting materials pages of my blog. At this point I was extremely happy to be ahead of schedule as it gave me some free time to smooth over any rough edges in the tracks. The rest of these two weeks were spent working on my research and development module and my independent study module as I had some extra free time.
Week 14 – Week beginning 21st April 2014
Week 14 will mark my final week of production. During this week i plan to be mastering the final tracks, ensuring they give a professional sound. As well as this i will be researching the business side of music composition and the licensing behind purchasing these tracks should the client decide that its what he wants. I will also be adding the finishing touches to my blog across all of the sections.
As previously planned this week was spent almost entirely on mastering research and the practical mastering process. I spent at least a day on each track making sure It sounded as good asI could possibly make it. As well as this I spent a great deal of time testing the dynamic range of each song to ensure that my music did not cause a fatiguing effect and render my entire project void. To find that my tracks all had a dynamic range value of DR10 and above was fantastic as most modern day releases sit between DR3 and DR6, meaning my music could be considered extremely dynamic in comparison. As well as this I felt relieved that I had created particularly dynamic music as this was what I was heavily marked down for in my previous project. Through individual learning and research I was able to overcome this issue over this semester, which was great news. During this time also took the chance to document my mastering research and mastering practice in my blog as well as adding some valued research on copyright law and music licensing. This meant that I was entirely aware of the laws and regulations of my music being used in a public space and the consequences of it being used inappropriately or without permission.
Week 15 – Week beginning 28th April 2014
During week 15 I plan on attending my final client meeting to ensure that everything is to his taste and that he is happy with the final product as well as discussing possible future plans for more music for the Reserve Lounge. Apart from this week 15 will be kept free just incase i over-run the schedule during the previous weeks.
Unfortunately John was called away on a business trip for 10 days this week, meaning I would not be able to have a face to face client meeting until after my deadline, which was not ideal. Knowing this I chose to send him my finished work via email for him to listen to when he had some free time on his trip. I received an extremely positive response from John explaining how he loved the tracks and how much they have improved since the mastering process which put my mind at ease. Although I appreciated Johns kind words, I wanted to test my music for myself. Throughout this final week I invited 4 groups of friends to my flat over the the course of a few days to hold ‘listening parties’ where each subject would fill out a brief survey describing their current emotions, listen to my music and then fill out the same survey again and see how the test subjects emotional state changed throughout the course of the test. Upon plotting the results on radar graphs I found that 85% of my test subjects all showed an emotional response towards the positive side of the circumplex model of emotion, which I found particularly reassuring as it meant that my product had worked! The final few days were spent adding my research and results to my blog and adding any final touches to my research, personal reflection and supporting materials section.
Week 16 – Week beginning 5th May 2014
Final deadline and project submission.
Overall Reflective Summary
To judge my products success and evaluate my individual learning throughout this module I must look at my original aims and objectives I set myself at the beginning of the project. I felt that I built a trusting relationship with my client due to his lack of musical knowledge, it meant that was entirely trusted to deliver a product to a given brief without much guidance from John, which I felt I achieved to a high standard. Unfortunately Johns lack of musical and creative knowledge acted as a limitation to my project in the end, as it meant that I was essentially guessing exactly what he wanted the music to encompass with only a few rough criteria to work upon. Although this limitation played a large part in how the product was created, It did help me create something unique as I had a lot more creative freedom than I should of had, allowing me to really express my creative writing ability and to test my technical skills. The research side of this module played the largest part in how my music was modelled. My research into genre psychology and emotional responses to music helped me gain more direction into what style and genre my music should feature, therefore improving the effectiveness of the final product. My mastering research particularly helped in making the decision on how my work should be mastered based on current industry trends and new technology. It allowed me to create music with a wide dynamic range that would still allow my music to be played at the same volume as other commercial music despite it being perceived as quieter in the initial mastering stage. Below you can see my original objectives set at the beginning of the project, and Im sure you can agree that through the entire of this reflective summary, each objective has been completed:
- Compose, record and produce 3 tracks totalling 12 – 15 minutes in length.
- Encompass various sound design techniques and post production to help create a professional product.
- Mix and master the tracks to a professional standard.
- Organise and attend regular meetings with the client to discuss the needs and the progress of the project to ensure it meets the clients requirements.