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