Overlook

     Over the course of this evening (Friday night) I spent from around 5pm to 2am listening, finalizing, and editing the 12 tracks that have been in the works. The one that I "unofficially" finalized is called Man Of The Year, and started with the basis of one lovely piano sample from one of my favorite rap artists, Logic. The second one is called The Rebel, and takes a sample from a very famous song by Bonnie Tyler, called Total Eclipse Of The Heart, and the loop is also of a piano for this one too. My third track and final for this evenings mastering uses a loop from a song called Closer, by Mike Stud, and is probably the simplest beat, but truthfully my favorite. With much of the these being closer to finalized as a result of this work, my confidence is growing as the closure of this class approaches. I am invested in the creation of this EP and the results, thus far, of this project. I know that this journey has helped me into my later years of production.

Ethic

     As I reflect on my efforts in this class, I realize that my ways of working have possibly hindered me. I am what some consider a night owl, in the sense that I tend the thrive and work my best in the late hours when others are usually asleep. What I have noticed is my body has become some what amune to being sleep deprived, so I end up functioning in some sort of half awake, zombie like state. With this in mind, I feel that some changes in my ways are in need to help me get more sleep, and be more awake and productive.

     1) I will set a three hour period a night where I will turn my phone on do not disturb and work very diligently with a few short breaks.

     2) I will make sure I get back to my old frequency of entries in my journal, because I have been falling behind in both the online entries, and written ones too.

   

3)I make sure to do a prior and post entry every time I sit down in my home made studio, to ensure I can keep up with these entries.

War paint

     We all are probably familiar with the song Elephants, by Warpaint. Now the guitar in the beginning of the song caught my ear when I was in urban outfitters with a friend, and I used Shazam to find the song (at the time I wasn't sure who it was). As soon as I got home, mid afternoon, (on Saturday) I immediately grabbed the song from the Internet, and worked on the beat. I slowed down the tempo of the guitar sample to right around 100 bpm and then built on from there. I added percussion and a nice baseline, with some 808 sonics as well. I'm still in the works with it being finalized, but I'm happy to say that it sounds great thus far.

     Here are the ladies in the sampled band:

The first beat I've made for this project. I can't wait for all of you to hear the final products!

Listen here:
CLICK ME

(The musical master hard at work)

     Okay, the breaks from my blog posts are officially over. I have also been moving forward in research and specifically more into the history of music and the masterminds behind it. It is quite amazing how little most of the early engineers and producers had to work with. Even the most high tech equipment in the early days of production was greatly limited in comparison to the access that producers and engineers have today. The ease of access to create beats is something that has drastically changed, with the focus predominately on wide range of electronic instruments and sounds that many past producers never had access to due the the rarity of these instruments. Long story short, my abilities are greatly increased due to these modern day technology's and this has shown in my work. I am happily progressing through the stages of finalization with some instrumentals, and with others I am still deep into the creation process with. I am very excited to show all of you some of my finalized work in the near future!

Red Flag Entry,

     This week, I have put in 2 hours of sit down production time, which has been spent tweaking the tracks that are in the works. Each has been adjusted to help balance out each sound, and to adjust the range and depth of sounds. Range and depth are the things that make the music sound like its in front of you or behind you, or makes you feel like your in a large room, or a small one.

(Sound Waves)

These adjustments can increase the final product significantly and to the average listener are unnoticeable, but to the producer they can improve the track significantly. I researched into the background of former producers and the stems of their inspiration, so I can look to where they looked to come up with new ideas.

(Another productive meeting)

My mentor, Mr. Miller, and I met and had conversations about where to look to for samples, and other acoustic music that I should listen too.

(This is the face of a musical genius.)

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Gleaning from the past:

- This student was very proficient in journal entry's and recording the things he learned. He listed steps on how to improve his writing and recording process as well.

- He struggled with problem solving when it comes to meeting mentors and how to fix these situations. He also wasn't very descriptive in some cases about aspects of recording, which people who are less knowledgable of the subject wouldn't know or understand.

- I like how this student lists he's faults, and problem solves with lists of ways to work at becoming better.

- I wonder if he did any research, because there was no evidence of research or sourced reading on his topic. His entry's consisted solely of his progress and his efforts to solve problems.