Unit 8-Planning/Context

In this part of the Blog I am going to be taking about planning and how much I progressed during the 12 weeks when recording Screaming walls.

Week	Date	Activity	Resources/what equipment I need
1	18/03/19	Researching Heavy Metal techniques for Mixing and mastering	Personal computer needed can be done at home
2	25/03/19	Recording drums for 1st recording track using studio 1	Studio needed for sound desk, do not have access to studio at home studio 1 gives best sound quality
3	23/04/19	Researching Techniques for Heavy Rock Vocals	Personal computer needed can be done at home
4	29/04/19	Recording band guitars and bass	Studio needed for di boxes and amps to record bands guitar and bass, don’t have access to these at home
5	06/05/19	mixing tracks that have been made	Personal computer needed to mix the tracks that are completed
6	13/05/19	Developing writing proposal	Personal computer needed to write up the proposal
7	20/05/19	Recording vocals for tracks	Studio needed don’t have access to microphones at home
8	27/05/19	Mixing	Personal computer needed to mix using Logic ProX software on personal computer
9	03/06/19	Mixing	Personal computer needed to mix using Logic ProX software on personal computer
10	10/06/19	Mixing	Personal computer needed to mix using Logic ProX software on personal computer
11	17/06/19	Mastering	Personal computer needed to master using Logic ProX software on personal computer
12	21/06/19	Mastering	Personal computer needed to master using Logic ProX software on personal computer

 

Above shows my plan, but overtime many things happened and many mistakes made me change my plans multiple times

Week1- As I wasn’t in the studio til next week I felt that proposal would be best to start to research into different types of techniques for mixing and mastering heavy metal songs as I haven’t really been recording with these types of genres before and as I am not good at mixing and mastering I felt that this would be the best thing to do for preparation for when I am going to be recording the band next week.

Week 2- Then me and my Partner Michael started to record Screaming Walls  first track “Pray for the Day” We first encountered many problems during being in the studio because first of all we had no microphones in studio 2 not only that we also couldn’t get sound into the headphones so that the drummer could hear the guitars we only had an hour and half but not only that the main guitarist didn’t arrive for half an hour which delayed our recording time, after rushing around getting microphones and then finally managing to have sound in the headphones we fortunately managed to get a drum track done.

Week 3- During my breaks at college I decided to research into Heavy Rock vocals techniques so that when I get round to recording the vocals I am already familiar with what effects and plugins I am going to use on the Vocals them self.

Week 4- When we was in Studio 1 on the fourth week I felt that we would be able to produce a much better track because me and Michael were both familiar with this studio and how to use the equipment, we didn’t have any problems apart from  when the overheads didn’t work but we solved this by recording the guitars, we decided that it was best we redo the drums so that the guitars and drums sound much better together, We only had 10 minutes left to try and record Vocals but fortunately we were able to do it and we both had a finished track we were both happy with.

Week 5- Again I wasn’t in the studio so I decided to start to mix and master my finished track using the techniques I found in my  research.

Week 6 – The week of recording we encountered another problem unfortunately the main guitar fell sick on the day of starting the second track and the drummer was in but he needed a backing track of the guitars to actually create a drum track so we unfortunately wasn’t able to create our next song.

Week7- we were nearing the final stage of finishing our tracks off and I have researched all the things I think that are necessary for my tracks, So I decided that I would spend my time developing my proposal.

Week8- Our final and last recording session with Screaming Walls in Studio 2 we managed to in the whole hour and a half we managed to completely finish Council of the gods, as we managed to be able to use studio 2 now we had completely finished the tracks and I was happy with both of the tracks and I was now happy to mix and master it.

Week 9- Mixing the track but still developing my word press blog.

Week 10- Mastering the last tracking by adding final touches such as Reverb Delays etc.

Week 11 – Completely finished with mixing and mastering and is ready to upload to my word press blog

Choose 3 pieces of work that inspired you

Choice 1: the reason why this inspires me is because of how heavy the beat is and this inspires to me try and create tracks just like this and it creates me to have dedication to create these in the future.

Choice 2: the reason why this track inspires me is due to how old this song is and as it  is one of the most popular drill songs, ever since I listened to it, it has inspired to me create and listen to drill songs. I also enjoy how punchy the drums are in all songs.

Choice 3: The reason why this inspires me is because not only is this a different genre to drill I like the

Make a comparison between yourself and those that have inspired your project

I feel like the reference track above sounds a lot more ambient, with elements of the reverb softening the track ready for the build-up. The drums is my project are louder than that of the reference track, which can be changed further into the mixing and mastering process. The use of panning in the reference track gives diversity throughout the stereo filed to keep elements of the track interesting.

What are the biggest challenges that you face in the way of your ambition for the project? 

My biggest challenge throughout the project has been issues with the band members not turning up for sessions, this has created a great struggle in recording material towards the tracks and has made myself and members of the band communicate more so that parts of the track played by other members can be replicated or changed accordingly, for example: one of three guitarists had to play all parts and improvise new parts in order to complete the track.