Nearing the End

*It's sort of sad that this will likely be my final blog post.*

Tomorrow marks the day that I will be presenting on what I have learned throughout these past 16 weeks. I will also be attending and evaluating Joon Park's presentation, only a few hours before mine. I didn't really think about how tough that was going to be, due to the fact that I have a fair amount of equipment to set up for mine. Oh well, we shall see how that all goes.

Today, Adam Chafee came over to practice at my house, because I am most likely going to be performing in his WISE presentation on Wednesday. He just taught me a song that he wrote, and some of the other members of my band are going to help him as well. They have to learn it on their own, though. It's going to be a little rough, I'm guessing. The style is a lot different than what we're used to playing, so it may prove difficult for them to learn on independently. Luckily, I had him to guide me.

I'm working on the finishing touches of my presentation, and am getting rather nervous for tomorrow in the process. I'm worried that I may end up talking too much, or not enough about any given aspect of my project. I just want to keep calm and stick to the structure that I laid out for myself, though.

One week from today, I will be evaluating Ameena Farley's presentation, and then I can finally say that I am done with WISE. Yikes!!

Today's Session

First of all, I have less than one week until my presentation! Last night, I electronically delivered all of my materials to my evaluators. That was a stressful moment, but I feel so free now, having done so. Even though I'm nearing the end of the process, I don't consider myself "done" learning at all. In fact, today was a very successful day in the way of tracking. Parker Callister came over and we recorded two songs! One was an acoustic track, à la Andy McKee, and the other was a banjo track that was sort of a Lumineers style song, stomping and all. They have been tracked completely, and my only contribution was in stomping, and suggesting leads, etc. They are being mixed, as I type up this blog post. The two songs are fairly short, but really catchy. Parker is just such a good musician, it's hard not to enjoy his stuff. When he's home from college, he plays in his band Kaboosh!. My band and his have played several shows together over the past few years, and I've learned to love his unique music. If I get his permission, I may put one or both of them up on SoundCloud. If not, they will definitely appear in part of presentation, one way or another.

Equipment Rundown 2

This is my effects pedal.

It's a DigiTech RP55. Don't ask me what that means, because I don't know. I use it for pretty much all guitar/bass instrumental tracking. How it works is that you plug your guitar into it, and it outputs into the interface, which goes into the computer. This pedal is how I add effects like distortion, chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, reverb, or what have you. There are originally 99 pre-set effects. Some of them are crazy and I would never use them, and some of them are really cool. The other neat thing about this pedal is that you can edit and save any effect that you want. There are pretty much unlimited options within, and my bandmates and I have spent a lot of time making really good guitar sounds that we are able to use time and again. There are far too many displays and buttons to explain it all, but the two main buttons control the pre-set effect being used (right goes up the number line, left goes down). The arrow buttons control individual effects within a pre-set, which you can make louder or softer, or change the sound of entirely. The screen is a display that shows all of everything you are doing, and all of the little displays are some kinds of effects. It's complicated.

This is my guitar rack.

It's also not actually mine. In fact, none of the instruments pictured belong to me, either. They belong to my bandmates, but we're pretty much like family anyways. Plus we definitely don't have anything against sharing. They stay at my house, so I make good use of them when they aren't being used by their true owners at rehearsals. The instruments pictured (From L to R) include: a red gibson SG (in gig bag), a black Epiphone SG, a plum Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster, a red Epiphone Firebird, and a black Jay Turser Jazz Bass. All of these guitars have been used during my process, and each is used for something different. They each produce a different sound, and some musicians prefer one over another. It all depends. The bass is the only bass we own, however, and gets used for everything. Other guitars that we own and are not pictured are a Takamine Electric-Acoustic, a black Squier Fender Starcaster, a black Squier Fender Bullet Telecaster, and a red Gibson Les Paul custom. We haven't used all of those for recording, but the Electric-Acoustic is definitely a frequenter.

Ithaca Festival

Here's a shot of my band playing Ithaca Festival on Saturday. We played at the Lot 10 stage from 5 to 5:45 pm. There was a very large crowd, chock-full of Ithaca High Schoolers. Officials at the festival told us after our set that we drew the biggest crowd for a musical act yet, so that's exciting. That's without including the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday at Stewart Park, though. As you can probably tell, it was a very sweaty time. I don't want to gross anyone out here, but I lost a lot of fluid. Like a LOT. Either way, I had a blast performing! I helped the live sound engineer set up and tear down for my band, as well as help set up for the next band. He seemed pretty happy to have someone who knew what they were doing assist him, as I'm sure he had had a very stressful time with previous acts. He was a really nice guy.

Equipment Rundown 1

So I thought that I should talk about what I actually do during a session a bit before I demonstrate during my presentation. The following is a list of some of my pieces of recording equipment and what all they do.

This is my amp. 

Well is actually not mine. It's my Mom's old JVC amp/radio/phono that she used when she had a turntable. What's that? What are records? Ew. But it works well, and I can use it to power my newer speakers using some newer technology! I run the L/R (red and white) audio cables from a tri-color cord I took from an old dvd player, and stick the other ends right into my audio interface, so I can do direct playback from my computer. The controls that you see (from L to R) are: the Power button, and underneath, a headphone port. The vertical sliders are mixers that control bass, middle, and treble. The two little buttons control the speakers. The orange light is on when the amp is on. The horizontal slider controls the output volume. The buttons to the right control the setting of the amp. Choices are: AM, FM, AUX, Phono, Tape, etc. I have it on AUX because I have an auxiliary cable plugged in for my speaker output from my computer. The screen shows AM/FM radio frequencies, and the tuner on the right controls the radio. Not pictured is the back of the amp, where all of the cords are. The speakers, audio cables, power cable, and radio antena are the only things attached to the back - not important. 

These are my audio interfaces. 

The top one is an M-Audio Fast Track, and I use it for tracking vocals, guitars/bass, and also for playback. It connects to my computer using a USB cord, which also powers the interface. An instrument is plugged into the interface, and then can be inputted directly into my computer. The controls that you see (from L to R) are: Mic Input, which controls the levels of the mic that is plugged in. The next knob controls the amount of playback volume verses the amount of input volume. This is for when recording, so that you can find a balance where you hear enough of what's already there, (including the metronome, or, "click") as well as what you are currently trying to record. The button in the middle controls mono versus stereo output, which basically means that you are either listening to a balance of everything in both ears, or specific things in specific ears, depending on where they are placed. The next feature is a headphone port, where you can see that I have headphones plugged in. The last knob controls the output volume, which could either be headphone volume, speaker volume, or both, depending on how I want to do playback at any given time. Not pictured is the back, which features the inputs. There is one mic input, one 1/4" input (used for guitar/bass or "line in" inputs, which are auxiliary inputs like pedals and keyboards), a button that lets you switch between guitar and line functions, the audio cables, and the USB cable. 

The bottom one is a Tascam US-800, and I use it purely for tracking drums. The reason why I do this is because it has 6 mic inputs, making it so that I can mic up my drum kit much more effectively than with a 1 mic input. This makes it so that I can do all of the drums in one take, rather than having to only do a portion of the kit in one take, and another portion in another take, and so on. It also connects to my computer using USB, but has a separate power cord. The sticker is from a clothing company that I like called Glamour Kills, whose logo is a flying pig. I don't know. The controls that you see (from L to R) are: 2 different headphone ports for different types/sizes of headphones. The next two knobs control volume of playback. One is labeled Phones, and is purely for headphones. The other is labeled Monitor, and is for output only. The next six knobs are labeled 1-6, and control the mic input of the respective input. The two things on the right are the first two inputs. Not pictured is the back, which features the rest of the inputs. There are 4 more inputs like those on the front, and then two MIDI inputs, used for a special kind of keyboard/synthesizer. There are also audio cable outputs, the USB cable, and the power cable. 

Presentation Participation

Adam Chafee, who is doing a WISE project similar to mine, has asked me to participate in his presentation on June 12th. He was a part of Luke's presentation last night, where he played guitar. He has asked me and a few members of my band to play a song that he wrote with him. I will be playing the drums, and hopefully Max and Joel, or Kristian will be able to play guitar/bass with him. The song that he wrote is up on SoundCloud, so I should be able to learn it in about one practice session, and the other guys too. I think it's really cool that he wants to do something like this for his presentation, and I'm more than willing to help out.

Sample Presentation

Last night was the sample WISE presentation. Luke Mendola gave his presentation to everyone taking WISE, as well as the teachers, some parents, and some others from the community. All in all, I was thoroughly impressed by his presentation. His use of his notes/narrative, live performances/demonstrations, and useful slideshow provided the audience with great insight into the harmonica. You could really tell how into it he was, and it made me more into it. I'm sure that's what WISE is all about, and I hope I get the same experience from the two presentations that I have to evaluate. Some things that Luke did that I definitely want to incorporate into mine are the use of a simple slide show that you just talk in front of, live demonstrations, and referring to your narrative in terms of background, quotes, etc. My presentation is actually likely to be much like Luke's, what with all of the background info and live demonstrations. I left feeling very confident. Luke was definitely ballsy to go out there in front of everyone and do the first one, but his went very very well. Jamming with Adam was definitely a plus, and I'm planning on tracking a live musician as well, so hopefully it will turn out alright.

Heartbreak, For Art's Sake

I was up in Binghamton at On Point Productions for 4 and a half hours this evening, finishing what is going to be the single for my band's upcoming album. It is sounding great! When I left, Damien was just starting to bring the track into Reason (an alternative recording software) to be mastered. The final mix already sounds so good, I can't wait to hear what the real master track sounds like. In case anyone out there cares at all, the song is called "Heartbreak, For Art's Sake" and the graphic for the single looks like this: 

Working

I've been getting a lot more recording done recently. Here is a screenshot of me working on a new song with Joel Beckwith:

This shows what the software actually looks like while recording. You can see all of the tracks and their faders along the bottom, as well as on the left-hand side. The names may not make sense, as most of them are abbreviated, but they just indicate what is being played on each individual track. I'll go into a lot more detail on this in my final presentation.

I had Kristian come in to record vocals on another song as well. Looking forward to finishing the several works in progress that I have sitting around on my computer.

Upload of Rough Mix

I finally got it to work. If you want, you can take a listen to a very rough mix of and instrumental version of the song that I've been working on as of late. A lot of the stuff you hear will be changed, re-recorded, etc. by the end, but I wanted to put something up. The song's working title is "Argyle," and was written by Max Gaeta and myself. It will most likely end up being a song for my band, as is meant to have vocals. I have to get Kristian Wood-Gaiger in to do them some time soon. Guitars: Max Gaeta. Bass: Joel Beckwith. Drums: St. John Faulkner. It's super rough

https://soundcloud.com/stjohnfaulkner/argyle-instrumental-rough-mix

MM

Today's mentor meeting went well. It was shorter than most, but we just got right down to business. He told me stories of his previous mentees' successes and failures, and made sure that I was where I needed to be, only having one month left. More talk went into my plans for the presentation, and just finding a good balance. I'm happy with everything, and he seems to be too. Wahoo!

Advancements

I still haven't found out why the uploading wasn't working the other day, but it's alright. I have scheduled a session with a musician that I haven't yet worked with - Parker Callister. He goes to SUNY New Paltz and studies Jazz Guitar. He applied for transfer to Ithaca College for Composition, but I'm not sure what became of that. Either way, he's done with school on May 11th, so I'm going to have him come in any day now. He plays cool stuff like the banjo and ukelele, and is constantly writing music. I've always wanted to collaborate with this dude, so I'm excited. Otherwise, I have plans to schedule a session with the indie-acoustic duo, Allie Young and Vanessa Anderson. They play some sweet stuff, and I've never recorded an all-acoustic anything, so that should be fun. Either way, my project is starting to really come together.

Trouble Uploading Mixes

Today I spent about an hour trying to get a track uploaded, so that I could share it on here. I was all ready to post it, but nothing worked. I tried uploading it to SoundCloud, but it couldn't process. So I tried uploading it the old fashioned way by putting it on YouTube. It couldn't process. So I tried something obscure - uploading it straight to blogger in a blog, but to no avail. It was a frustrating little while, to say the least. I'm still not sure why nothing is working, but it's definitely a problem. I have about 4 rough mixes now, that I'd like to be able to share ASAP. This is definitely something I'm going to work on. I'm just very perplexed. I'm usually relatively tech-savvy, but I just couldn't figure this one out. More on this to come, I'm not giving up just yet.

Happiness Revisited

1) I feel most happy when I'm busy. The more things I have to do, the more ways I will be able to expend my energy, and the more effort I will be able to put into everything I do. Especially when I really care about the things that I am involved in.

2) This was an interesting read. Some of it was ver informative, and made good historical connections. However, I felt that it was very repetitive in most areas, and its point was made on like the 2nd page. The rest of the article was different quotes about happiness from random people. It also felt pretty pretentious to me, telling people that they could never be truly happy if they ever questioned themselves. I don't know. It just rubbed me the wrong way for the most part.

3) Just about the middle. I have relative skill set and am moderately challenged now.

4) This has changed because when I started, my skill set was much smaller and I had many more challenges. As I grew in my understanding of what I was doing, I began to feel much more comfortable and confident, without ever feeling bored.

5) One can achieve flow by putting themselves in the right mindset for the task at hand, then staying busy enough with what are doing as to not get distracted. After this, make sure that the work they are doing is interesting enough to keep them engaged. Set goals, and complete them, but always with a next step in mind. Just get into it.

Latest Mentor Meeting

On Wednesday I got the chance to meet up with Parker again. He had read my blog, and we talked about the usefulness of the "blog" tool. He also told me the good things that I was doing, as well as the things that I still needed to do. He gave me some very useful pointers about what to do/say in my presentation, and how to make it as effective as possible. Today in class, I scheduled my final presentation for Tuesday, June 11th, from 3:30 - 4:30 pm. He told me he could make it, so it looks like we're good to go with that. Yikes!

Tracking Drums

I spent a solid hour today tracking drums for a new demo. I did it the old fashioned way (1 overhead mic, one kick mic), because it's just a demo and I'm not sure I'm 100% in love with all of the parts. After I share and talk about it with Max, who wrote the song, I will most likely re-track the drums with an 8-channel interface, so that I can really mix it well. This has been my shortest blog post. Off

A Couple New Things

On Saturday, April 27th, I attended the best concert of my life. I went with two of my friends and my Sister and her friend to go see You Me At Six, Mayday Parade, Pierce the Veil, and All Time Low at Monmouth University in NJ. Oh my god. Incredible show. So many people. So many lights. So many emotions. So many bruises. So many sweat. I had an absolute blast. The only bummer was that I lost my iPod crowd surfing. Oh well. After the concert I got a chance to talk to the live audio engineer whom I have already met before, seeing as that show marked my 6th time seeing All Time Low. His mix was amazing, and I just chatted with him for a while, relatively casually too.

I was hoping to show the class one of my mixes through the SmartBoard, but there was no computer or Ms. Lord present, thus I was forced to take a rain check. Some of the other things that people brought in were super cool though, and it was great to see how peoples' projects are panning out. 

I have a mentor meeting on Wednesday (the first in a while) that I am excited about. We'll read through my blog and talk about where stuff is going, and how I can start preparing for my final presentation.

On Sunday I will be traveling up to On Point Productions, in order to create a final mix for what will be the single off of my band's album. I am so very excited about this, and will be sure to include it in this blog.

I have band practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week in preparation for a large benefit show that we are participating in on Saturday evening in Stewart Park for the "1 in 15,000 Mission." Even though I'm swamped this week, I have some drum tracking to take care of on a new song, so that will also get done.

Only a few weeks left! Kicking it into high gear now

Comfort Zone

Today, our task is to go home and write about a way that we are staying within our comfort zone that is detrimental to our learning in terms of our projects. This is a tough one for me. I really did, with my project outline/setup/goals, try to stray from my comfort zone, but also do something that I wanted to do and had previous experience with. I'm using all new software and hardware, exploring new genres, and working with people I haven't worked with before. I think that maybe the thing that I am doing the most of that could possibly be detrimental is working alone. I've always been the perfectionist/control freak when it came to the stuff that I really cared about, and I have yet to really get outside opinions on most aspects of my project. While I have been working with other musicians in ways that I have not done in the past, I still have been in pretty much complete control of everything. This is the way the project was set up though, so I'm not sure if it's a bad thing. It's tricky.

Right Back At It Again

Hello again internet! And just as if the show never happened, I spent about 6 hours in front of a screen in my room today working on music. Sigh.

I honestly got so much amazing work done today! 5 songs are pretty much ready for their mixdown, they just need a few finishing touches in the tracking department. I still have to write some lyrics and stuff for some of them too, but instrumentally they are almost completed and are sounding great! I'm hoping to meet with my mentor Mr. Parker sometime this week to talk about all of this too (not that I haven't seen him pretty much every day for the past few months anyways...). Excited about where this is going to go!

I have some plans for my final presentation, and am hoping that it will all work out as planned, and can be done in a quick and convenient way.

I'm planning on posting something soon!

Blogging Again

It's the weekend of my show, thus I am about to finally be able to focus on my WISE project again. Thanks to the rehearsal process, I have been kept very busy with the performance. Today, however, I am going to be recording and mixing. I've gotten the opportunity to talk with Adam Chaffee (another WISE student from another class), who is doing a project similar to mine. He has just posted his first project - a 2 guitar and programmed drums alternative rock instrumental track. I'm hoping to make more headway on mine so that I can post it and have him give me feedback, like I did for him. It's cool to have someone to talk to that really understands all aspects of everything you're doing. Well that's all for now, but much more soon. xoxo

This I Believe

Today in class we listened to a story on "All Things Considered" about the other life of a famous Hollywood producer. His newfound love was for surfing. He just up and decided that he wanted to learn how, and so he did. This is really cool because it relates to WISE. Obviously he had so many other things to be worrying about, like us students, but he put time aside to learn how to do something that he was really interested in. This is what we should learn how to do: mix our two lives and make time for the thing that we want to learn. If someone as busy an important as him can do it, so can we.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

I am in Ithaca High School's spring musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, which runs April 19th-21st (If you're reading this, come see it!!). Because the show is NEXT WEEKEND and there are many many rehearsals in not a lot of time, I will not be able to devote as much of my time to my WISE project as I would like to. I will still make an effort to blog about anything I can, but I won't really have any time to bring musicians in for sessions. Last night I stayed up real late editing the voice-overs for the musical, which you'll be able to hear if you come see the show! (and...shameless promotion #2.) I still only have some instruments tracked on 1 song so far, but that will all change soon, especially when I'm not doing the musical anymore, and I don't have to worry about college junk, and I just have more free time overall. Can't wait for that. To wrap this post up - I know I'm behind at this point, but I have faith in myself that I will be able to get a lot of work done in the near future. For now I have to focus on the show. If you're curious, here's the link to a promotional video for the production: http://videos.sorensonmedia.com/k12multimedia/Musical+Promo+live/8959e88bqcdc6Q4d9dJab08A2920fa8608c1 (I had no hand in making this). #3.

On Point - Photos

This is me working on editing/mixing vocals. To my right is Paul, the intern, helping me out. To my left is Nicky, my band's manager, listening in on what I'm doing and adding his own two cents

Another picture of me working with Paul

A "screen shot" of Pro Tools, and what I was working on

I tried adding a video of me working on pitch correction, but there was an error in Blogger when trying to upload it, so that didn't work. I'll keep on it though. It would be good to see what it's like, and also just how tedious it is. This was such a cool day/experience and I'm so glad I got to blog about it

On Point

I spent basically the entire weekend in the studio. It was awesome. Tiring, but awesome. On Saturday I worked alongside Damien. We made guitar sounds, chose samples for the drum triggers, corrected bass errors, fixed alignment issues, and started editing/mixing vocals. It was great because it was the first real day of editing. It was about a 4 hour session, and I learned a lot. At the end of the day, he invited us back to the studio on Sunday for another mixing session. Only this time, he would not be present, and I would be the one doing the work. I was so excited and honored and nervous and a whole lot of other things all at once. Damien wanted us to work while he went to church, and that way we would pretty much double our outcome because I could do the editing, and he could do the mixing. The part that I, as the producer, really needed to be there for was the editing of the vocals, and so I just did it myself. I spent from 11am - 3:30 pm in the studio on Sunday, just editing/correcting and mixing vocals. All of that time, and I only was able to finish 2 songs on my own. I guess 2 songs in 4 hours isn't bad though. It was an amazing experience. Super tedious, and I was very tired by the end of the session, but it was way cool. I'll post pictures and hopefully a video that my Dad took in my next entry. It was just me manning the software, Paul the intern watching over my shoulder to make sure I didn't blow up the room or to answer any questions and to be another set of ears, Nicky to be a second set of ears, and my Dad to take pictures and be another set of ears. I'm so glad I had the experience, but I cannot imagine doing that all day every day. Maybe getting paid has something to do with it. Off to school now. xoxo

Spring Break

Yikes. First blog post in a while. That's bad. I've done a lot though, and have quite a bit to write about. 

Today was my first real day of tracking. Joel came over and did some guitar work. Pro Tools is pesky. Not as easy to use as Reaper. A problem I ran into right off the bat is not being able to manipulate the click (metronome) and therefore not being able to change the tempo of the project. This means that I don't have any grid to align tracks to, which makes things a little more difficult. My temporary solution was to literally sit there with a mic and record my metronome at the desired tempo for about a minute and a half, and then repeat it in the project. "Ghetto Click Track." 

We recorded two guitar parts for a song on which I will soon be tracking drums. Then at another point bass will be added, and then vocals, and then effecting, and mixing, and mastering, and then I will have my first song! That should be soon. 

Ever since he left basically I've been playing guitar (jeez...has it really been 4 hours?!). I'm teaching myself, and definitely getting better. My fingers hurt though.

Later this week I'm going to have some ladies over to track an acoustic song, which will be cool. I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to mic an acoustic guitar or plug it in. Whichever is a better tone I guess. My mics aren't super amazing so it might just be better to do a direct input to the interface. 

On Monday night I went to go see Green Day with my family in Rochester. Weird, I know, but we all love them. They were the first band I ever really got into, thanks to their 2004 album American Idiot. 4th grade, those were the days. I got kind of obsessed. I have all of their music ever released, own both of their live DVDs (and have seen them probably 20 times), saw their broadway show twice (once with Billie Joe Armstrong, the front-man), and had lots of merch and memorabilia all over my walls for a few years. I finally saw them in concert, and it was unreal. They're in their mid-40s, but they rock like they're in their mid-20s. True professionals, and they're just in so much control of everything that they're doing and everything that's going on around them. It was super nostalgic at some points. So needless to say, I had a mean post-concert hangover on Tuesday. 

This Saturday, my band's manager and I are going up to On Point Productions in Binghamton to work on mixing my band's album. That should be sweet for this project, because the studio runs Pro Tools, and I'll have a real engineer showing me the ropes before I do my own stuff. 

That's all for now, but I'll for sure try to blog more regularly. Oops. Peace

Tomorrow!

I start tracking tomorrow! I get to finally test Pro Tools out, and I'm super stoked on it. Joel Beckwith is coming over to track some guitars and possibly bass on a "hardcore" track. The 'doing it' part of my project is about to begin and I am ecstatic! More updates on that to come--

Opportunities

Dear Diary,

Today I got to do something really cool. I was asked to record the Superintendant, Dr. Brown, for the school musical, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Dr. Brown was reading for the "Book Voice." In the story, the main character leads his life off of a self-help book with the same title as the show. We thought it would be neat and funny to have the Superintendant read the part, and so today from 1-2:30 I sat in a practice room in Kulp with my recording gear, Mr. Winans (the director), and Dr. Brown, engineering the "session". There were a total of nine sections where there is narration, and we did about three takes for each monologue. After Dr. Brown left, Mr. Winans and I chose which take was the best for each one, and then proceeded in splicing and editing from there, if we didn't like the sound of a word or phrase. Tonight I am hoping to review those takes once again and do any final editing, before I "mix" them. My mixing will probably just consist of me boosting the low end, adding a bit of compression, and some reaverb in order to make it sound more God-like. After that, I will have to convert each .wav file into a high-quality .mp3 file, leave it uncompressed, and export them to an audio CD for the technicians to deal with during the show. I'm glad to be more than just an actor in this production, and it's cool that I got to use my skill set in this capacity. All for now.

<3 xoxo <3

St. John

Lapse

I haven't had much time to blog or work recently, because I've been very busy. Here's a little bit of reflection/updates in terms of my WISE project.

My band had two shows this weekend, which was cool. I liked that a lot, and it was nice to be able to compare one to the other. We have been writing so much music, and I can't wait to start recording the stuff for my project.

This week is going to be all about learning the ins and outs of PT 8 LE, so I can get moving ASAP. It's about time that I started working on something tangible, and there's no better time than the present.

I think I have some really cool ideas for my final presentation as well, so hopefully those work out. Much more to come, including real work, mentor meetings, and an increase in blog posts. Sorry Ms. Lord.

- St. John

Addicted.

I found this tutorial for Pro Tools LE 8 on YouTube and it is amazing to say the least. The guy knows what he's talking about for sure, and the good news is that my M-Powered version of Pro Tools is 8.0.3 which is really close to PT LE 8, which was the version that I had before that didn't work. Good news is, I already know some about it! I'm loving the format and the way everything is set up, it's no wonder this is the most famous and used recording software available. I know this will be meaningless to many viewers, but if you are at all interested, here is the link to part 1 of the tutorial that I plan on spending lots of time with on the upcoming days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU4rhBNlnHw More to come!

Software/Hardware Updates

Just a few days ago, I had made the decision to give up on Pro Tools and Reaper in order to learn Cubase. I was planning on doing my project with that format, but I wasn't exactly happy about it. The great news is that I just found the installation DVD for the M-Powered version of Pro Tools. It came with my Fastrack interface that I bought a couple of years ago, but I never got around to installing it and just used Reaper. It's weird that I just found it, but I'm stoked to go ahead with my project the way that it should be! After school activities were cancelled today which means no rehearsal for me. This will give me time to, after band practice, work on messing with the new software. I'm hoping to dive right in though, because it's high time that I started working with some musicians other than myself and really start getting some tracking done, so that I'll have a finished product to present! Super excited though

Gleaning From the Past

2-3 Gems of the project:
• The time spent doing self-reflections and personal improvements.
• The description of the mixing process.
• The honesty and self-reflection about halfway through.

2-3 Oops moments:
• Most of it was definitely the "Diary of a Cat" for a lot of the time.
• He was very opinionated and a lot of the stuff he talked about with singing was frustrating to hear for someone who knows a little bit about the subject, but it's all part of the learning process I suppose.
• He never put his name on anything! He signed his first entry, and Ms. Gergely referred to him as "Tae," so I am assuming that that is his first name.

2-3 Things to borrow:
• I'm going to borrow his honesty. He knew when he procrastinated and when he was being lazy. His early posts remind me of myself. I'm going to start blogging a lot more for sure.
• How much he met with other people. In a project such as this, it is great to go out into the field and meet with professionals and people who know about your topic. There is nothing more helpful, and I am now planning on doing a whole lot more of that.

(not so) Lazy Saturday

Today seems like a great day to stay home and write some songs. Just me, my notebooks, metronome, acoustic, and computer!

Decision Making

After messing around with both softwares for quite some time, I've decided to continue my project using Cubase LE 5. I found a very informative 6 part tutorial on YouTube that I have watched 2 parts of, and have already learned so much. I could easily have used Reaper, which I am already very comfortable with, but I wanted to challenge myself and get more out of my project. It's a busy time, but now that I'm all set up with my software and hardware, I think I can finally start getting musicians in to work! As far as different songs/genres/ideas, these are what I have so far:

• A 'hardcore' song that I co-wrote with the bassist from my band, Joel Beckwith. We'll get in another guitarist (Max Gaeta) and a singer (Zachary Dennis) for this track.
• An 'indie' acoustic song that is yet to be written, hopefully I'll have something to do with that, and performed by Allie Young and Vanessa Anderson 
• A 'folk-rock' or some kind of out there alternative progressive track to be written and recorded by myself and a good friend and excellent musician by the name of Parker Callister
• A 'pop dance jam' that I'm hoping to create with the singer of my band, Kristian Wood-Gaiger. This will most likely include some MIDI mapping, which I've never tried before, so that's cool.

I would also really like to try producing/engineering some Country, but I don't know anyone who plays it or could write a believable country tune. I'll be on the lookout though. I might try to track some other instruments that I'm not used to dealing with like banjo, ukelele, horns, piano, etc.

Finally getting actually moving on this thing!

Software/Hardware Issues

So I have run into some problems regarding my recording software/hardware situation. Pro Tools is owned by a company called Avid, which has very strict policies, etc. in terms of their products, and making sure that one "stays in the family" when using any given product. This means that Pro Tools only accepts interfaces that are made by Avid or Digidesign, a subset of Avid. There are versions of Pro Tools that come with interfaces, and starting at Pro Tools 9, many more types and brands of interfaces are accepted by the software. The two interfaces that I own are an M-Audio Fastrack, and a Tascam U-800. Unfortunately for me, PT LE 8 will not accept either of these. More unfortunate than that, PT LE 8 will not even run without having compatible hardware installed and hooked up. This means that I will not be able to use PT LE 8, because I really don't want to have to pay like $200 for a new interface. So this leaves me with a couple of other options:

1) Explore the possibility of getting PT 9 or higher, from another studio like On Point Productions. The only problem with that is that I don't really know their policies on it, and they may not go for it. I also don't really know how the licensing and stuff works, so it may not even be possible for me to install an already installed DVD of PT 9. I'm not sure how they did it at REP.

2) Use Cubase LE 5. When I purchased my Tascam interface, it came with the Cubase LE 5 software, and I have not really tried using that since I installed it and tried messing with it one day like a year ago. This is a viable and more easy solution, although I have heard rumors that Cubase is much better for MIDI rather than live tracking. I think it's still worth a shot though, especially since I'm sure everything will work with that one. If I choose this path, I'll just be learning the ropes of the software from YouTube most likely.

3) Continue using Reaper. The only problem with that, is that I would have had liked to, by the end of the project, not just be better and more knowledgable in terms of producing/engineering/recording as a whole, but I would also like to have something more tangible as evidence of work and effort over the next 3 months. This would best come in the way of the learning of a new recording software. Another problem is that with my new Reaper update, it's been acting kind of funky and didn't even run the other day (which scared me because ALL of my band's demos are on there). Luckily it started up yesterday after I joined the Cockos (the company that owns Reaper) forum to see what the problem was. I'm still being very cautious, and haven't even closed the program for a couple of days now.

Right now my thinking is that I will learn Cubase LE 5, because I already have the software and compatible hardware, and I would like to learn how to use a new software in general. If it's really not working out, I will probably have to resort to using Reaper, which wouldn't be the end of the world, but would be much more disappointing.

Pro Tools LE 8

Thanks to the help of Joon Park, and Nate at REP Studios, I am the proud new owner of some new recording software! After school today, I accompanied Joon to the studio to get Pro Tools installed on my computer. Nate ended up being in a meeting for most of the time, and so I didn't really get a chance to talk to him much. Nevertheless, the installation seemed to be successful. I haven't had a chance to properly test it out, as we had to leave the studio by 5, and then I had rehearsal at 7. Tomorrow will be the test run! Pro Tools requires hardware (a recording interface - in my case an M-Audio 2-channel USB powered interface that will hopefully be compatible with the software) to run, and so I'm hoping that that next step will go smoothly as well. If it doesn't turn out to work, then I have a few options. If the hardware is the problem, then I can simply buy a new interface that will be compatible. If the software is the problem, then I can either return to REP Studios to try again, or try to continue on with my project using a different software. Regardless of what happens on that front, I am meeting with one of my band's guitarists tomorrow to work on some new music and hopefully write, and possibly demo, for some songs that will be used for my project. Updates on all of this soon to come

Barnsong

Today in WISE class, we watched a film that incorporated two students' WISE projects in one. One boy's project was to erect a barn all on his own, and the other's was to document the process, creating a short documentary about what it was like building a barn from scratch. The following post is the assignment we were given in class following the viewing of the movie.

After viewing, what do you:

Better understand about a WISE project?
   That sometimes, they don't get finished. The barn was not finished in time for the WISE class to end.

Question or wonder about a WISE project?
   Is it too late to join forces with someone? Does it happen often that one does not achieve their intended goal?

Think about your project goals?
   I think that while its not as ambitious as building a barn, my project should still turn out well, and be fun. I'm also looking forward to and hoping that the presentation will be cool.

Red Flag Journal 3

How much time did you spend on your project?
This week I did not spend quite as much time as last week, but I did do more stuff that was more oriented towards the my actual project. I'd estimate about 8 hours since Sunday.

What did you do that was hands-on?
I started demoing two new songs that are for my band, but that I may end up making a part of this project, I still have to decide about that. Otherwise, I made plans to meet with Nate at REP Studios on Wednesday, March 6th to update my Pro Tools on my laptop and chat about all things recording and engineering.


What research did you do?
I actually didn't do a whole lot of research this week. Most of the work that I did was preparation and hands-on activities.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
I have a meeting set up for tomorrow. This will be our first real-deal meeting, because our last two were not able to be full sessions, and we didn't get the chance to sit down and really start talking/planning. I'm very excited.


Do you have at least 3 journal entries? 
Yes. After this journal entry and one more, I will have 4 this week, and 10 total. Once more starts actually happening with my project in terms of tracking musicians/working on songs, I will have a lot more to journal about and update on.


Were you in class this week? Did you have/use your journal?
Yes I was in class on both Monday and today, Thursday. I have this blog available to me at pretty much all times.

Fulfillment of WISE requirements?
Working on it. Things are about to start picking up real soon, but I think I'm at a good place considering how much time is left.

What are your plans for next week?
1) Getting Pro Tools updated and then getting comfortable with it on my own
2) Meet with my mentor a lot more
3) Get musicians in to plan/work/record

Updates

I have successfully finished writing two new songs. One is called "Choices" and the other, "Homestretch." They've both been sitting around for a while, but tonight after band practice I was in the writing mood, and so I finished them off. They are both for my band, but I might end up using one or both of the demos in my project. That still remains to be seen. 

I am also planning on accompanying Joon Park, a WISE classmate of mine who is also very interested in music (link to his blog here), to REP Studios in Ithaca next Wednesday. He does his "community service" hours there for Government class, and I am planning on joining him to meet with the in-house engineer there, Nate. There, I plan to chat with Nate about his experiences, and also hopefully get my Pro Tools updated and on to my laptop, which they have the capability of doing. 

I'm also planning on meeting with two sets of musicians for two sets of genres that I hope to record soon. One is going to be a mellow, acoustic, idie vibe, while the other is going to be a loud, upbeat, hardcore track. I'm probably going to drum on that one. I'm equally stoked about both though! 

More soon -- 

WISE Projects

Like many other people have already pointed out - WISE is just plain cool. It lets people explore the opportunities of doing something that they would have never otherwise had the opportunity to take part in, and in addition have the support of the Ithaca High School teachers. My classmates and other WISE colleagues are doing some pretty sweet things. Notable projects include but are not limited to: Learning magic tricks, training to be a firefighter, rebuilding an old motorcycle, and making a baseball bat from scratch. Looking at other peoples' blogs is getting me pumped for the work that is about to start going into my own project, and I can't wait to attend as many final presentations as possible, to see how everything turned out for everybody.

Acoustifest 2013

My band, Starts on Friday, playing our set for this years Acoustifest.
From L to R: Joel Beckwith, St. John Faulkner, Kristian Wood-Gaiger, Max Gaeta

Over the weekend, I took part in Acoustifest 2013. Acoustifest is the Winter event put on by the Rock The Arts club at Ithaca High School, which I am a large part of. The event took place on The Commons at The Brigadune (aka the "Vintage Poster Store") on Friday the 22nd, from 6-9:30 pm, where many local musicians came together to showcase their talent in an acoustic setting for a crowd of about 200. I participated not only as a musician and audience member, but I was also in charge of live sound. I brought all of my equipment and spent a good hour setting up prior to the event, and then stood behind my sound board all night, making sure everyone sounded beautiful. Then after the set, I tore everything down (I really really hate that part). The only time that there were any technical difficulties was during my band's set (of course). We didn't perform quite as well as I would have hoped, but we were relatively unprepared and we aren't used to playing acoustically at all. I was very satisfied with the rest of the night, however. Everyone sounded great and the crowd was really into it.

Learning By Doing

One half of the mixing board in the engine room at On Point Productions.

In this field, that's really what it's all about. Lucky for me, I get to experience this kind of hands-on learning all the time, due to my frequent visits to On Point Productions in Binghamton, New York. There, I work alongside Damien Cornwell, the resident engineer and owner of the studio. He and I are recording and producing my band's debut full-length album together, and so we have become relatively close. I've learned a lot from him already, just by being around him. Another reason why I feel I learn so much is that I ask a lot of questions. Probably far too many in his opinion. I can't help it though, I'm just far too curious about these things. I find it all to be so interesting. Last Sunday, we had an 8 hour day in the studio, where we finished up the recording process and were able to start preparing for the mixing process. We came to the conclusion that we would spend 60 hours mixing the album. It's tough to get up to the studio as often as everyone would like, because we're all busy, etc. This being the case, we're trying to aim for a May release for the album. This is really cool because it seems that my project will be wrapping up at around the same time, and for them to coincide seems really neat to me. Anyways, all of the time that I am about to start spending in the studio mixing and editing and really bringing our music to life will be the best kind of research I feel that I could really ever get. I will try to post a blog about each visit, but that may become too routine and/or redundant. I'm excited to really get things going with BOTH of these projects, and there will be much more info to come!

Red Flag Journal 2

How much time did you spend on your project?
I had a very busy week this week but did get to spend time doing things involving my project, which could be considered research, or could be considered work. I spent about 8 hours in the studio (On Point Productions) in Binghamton on Sunday, working alongside the engineer, Damien. I'm always playing music and practicing with my band though too.

What did you do that was hands-on?
I have begun co-producing my band's album, which is giving me great insight as to what it's going to be like when I start producing all on my own. I've also been writing lots of material that I plan to start tracking soon. This includes me just sitting on my bed with an acoustic guitar writing riffs and licks and recording them onto my ipod in a very primitive, low-quality way.


What research did you do?
I've been looking up strange little techniques to do so that I can make the process work more quickly when I'm having a session (so basically I'm learning shortcuts in the software). This research is coming by way of YouTube and has mostly involved the inner workings of ProTools.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes. Mr. Parker and I chatted about the details of my project and the direction in which I would like to go. We're planning on meeting 8th period, on either Wednesdays or Thursdays of every week. But the good news is that I get to see him almost every night at rehearsal for the musical anyways.


Do you have at least 3 journal entries? 
Yes I do. I am also planning on writing about my experience in the studio on Sunday and about commenting on two of my peers' blogs ASAP.


Were you in class this week? Did you have/use your journal?
We just got back from a break, leaving Monday's class unattended. Today is Thursday though, which is Red Flag day, so I am in class writing this at the moment. I always have computers that are available to me here in school and at home and pretty much everywhere else I turn.

Fulfillment of WISE requirements?
I'm doing alright. I slowed down a little but by not being able to journal much, but I am planning on catching up straight away.

What are your plans for next week?
1) I will probably choose a specific software that I will use for the rest of the project, as I have a few choices at this point (Cubase, ProTools, Reaper)
2)Start recording!!!

Red Flag Journal 1

So I got red flagged. Yep. Now I'm adding another goal to my list - getting out of this Thursday class. Good news is, all I have to do is my project. Oh and answer these questions.

How much time did you spend on your project?
I spent about 6 hours since Tuesday, when I wrote my last journal entry. I rehearsed and worked on writing a song with 2 musicians that I am collaborating with. I also briefly met with my mentor, as well as going to WISE class.

What did you do that was hands-on?
I started working on a new song with 2 musicians. It's sounding great so far. I also worked on demoing another song for a different project, but the activities are alike enough that I think it should count.

What research did you do?
In the past few days I have not done much specific research per se, unless you count my usual prowling of YouTube for band videos, interviews, etc. From what I gather, this may actually count as research, so that's pretty sweet.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?
Yes, he and I did meet. We talked about scheduling our first meeting, which will happen after break, on Thursday after school. I'm ready to get going on these meetings and to start moving on with my project.


Do you have at least 3 journal entries? 
Including this Red Flag post, yes. By the weekend, I should have another post about more hands-on work, as well as information on the new recording software.


Were you in class this week? Did you have/use your journal?
Being deemed as Red Flagged, I have been in class twice this week and will continue this until it is seen fit that I can function on my own. Bleh. As far as my journal goes - I have access to it at pretty much all times of the day, due to the fact that it is an online blog and you can't spit without hitting something that has internet connectivity.

Fulfillment of WISE requirements?
 Good. I am getting started on my project and things are about to get going a whole lot more quickly and intensely soon. Just gotta keep pushing and proving myself I suppose.

What are your plans for next week?
Work with the new recording software hopefully. There are still some kinks I need to work out. But if that doesn't work out, I'll definitely still be working with musicians and my mentor. Maybe I'll even get some demoing done. My life revolves around music, so there will always be "research" everywhere I turn.

Journal 2

Outline of my first 2 weeks:

Just a quick little picture of my "work station." Everything is mostly set up how I'd like it to be now. I'll go more into depth on what everything does sometime soon. The Buzz Lightyear and Lava Lamp are necessities. I have also found my mentor, Mr. Parker, the Chorus teacher at Boynton Middle School. He and I have a great relationship, and he has also mentored several other students' WISE projects, and so I'm sure the partnership will work out great. I've already begun finding musicians to start to collaborate with. My next steps are to make the switch to the new recording software (hopefully Pro Tools, with Cubase as a back-up option). That should prove difficult, having grown used to using Reaper for about 2 years now. I'm starting to really get excited! More pictures and updates soon--

Journal 1

Dear Reader,

      This blog is created for the sole purpose of journaling and recording my experiences alongside my WISE project. I am very interested in working on the production side of music, where I hope to record and engineer. I have a moderate background in this field, being in a band. My band has recorded at several studios in the area, and we actually now have a recording contract with an independant record label, and are in the process of recording our debut album. Going into the studio and riding shotgun to the in-house engineer really got me hooked on the whole process. Producing, recording, engineering, mixing, and mastering songs all by myself would be a great project for me because it gives me a chance to learn so much more about something that I’m already very interested in, but haven’t yet had the time or opportunity to explore more thoroughly.

In a project spanning approximately 16 weeks, it will be important for me to spend my time wisely, especially considering the amount of work that will need to be put into a project of this caliber. My current plans are as follows:

1. Acquire specific recording equipment that I don’t already have
2. Create a “home studio” where I can do all of my work
3. Locate musicians who are willing to work collaboratively
4. Write/practice songs
5. Demo songs/pre-production
6. Talk about/shape/fix/add to/produce songs to make them better
7. Officially record songs
8. Edit and mix tracks
9. Learn how to and then master tracks
10. Create a finished product
(all of this while learning how to use new recording software on my own through experimentation and seeking and collecting information from various sources).

Hope you enjoy my blog posts!

--St. John Faulkner