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This is my project timeline. I've been updating this with entries since the very beginning of my honours project! Each day is written as a diary entry so you can read through my thought process during the decision making, writing, recording and releasing of Seasons as it was happening. You can also find monthly overviews with photos, videos and audio files taken throughout the project.
Note: All photos, videos and audio files have been created by the author.
August
Tuesday 30th -
I have decided to write, record and release four EPs over the next nine months. I'm planning on a total of 12 songs, each being one month of the year. My EPs will be based around Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer, united into one final compilation album called Seasons .
I have begun writing some songs for my EPs. I was inspired to begin with the Autumn EP after watching Autumn de Wilde's 2020 adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma. The story follows the year of 1813-1814, beginning in Autumn. I love the definitive title cards that come on screen during season changes and have already decided on a similar font for my cover art.
I have spent some time deciding how I want the songs on Seasons to flow. I want each song and EP to have a different personality and theme, just as the months and seasons do. Autumn will be sombre but cosy while Winter is dark but with a warm glow. Spring will be colourful and earthy while Summer is bright and fun. I want to research ways to achieve these sounds and feelings for each EP. I'll be doing this by creating playlists of current songs for each season for inspiration.
Monthly Overview - August​
This has really just a few days of contemplating what to do for my project and thinking of realistic goals to set myself. I am interested in the different ways I can imitate the seasons and their months both lyrically and sonically. I will start researching more into genres and styles that I can use as inspiration for each season in the next few weeks. I already have my own interpretations of the seasons which is what I'll be using to create this album. I think that my own personal interpretation will be more enjoyable to create and, therefore, will produce the best music from me as an artist.
August 2022
September
Thursday 1st -
I'm planning rough release dates and setting myself deadlines today. I am also taking a look at new distribution websites I can use since Spinnup, the company I used to use with my old band Cucharas, doesn't exist anymore.
Thursday 8th -
I have signed up for a Breakout Artist account with TuneCore. I did some research and they were the best option when it came to the features I needed in a distribution company. I have also sent in an application to BMI to register as a songwriter. I will be releasing my old EP, Elevator Fromage, to test the new distributor out. This will hopefully prevent any nasty surprises during the albums release and will get me more used to the website and submission process.
Monday 12th-
I've been working more on writing this past week. I have four full songs written and one that's half finished. Some songs I have started writing with a certain season in mind but then decided that it fits in with a different vibe. For example, I recently finished a song for the Summer EP which I originally started with Autumn in mind. The guitar part felt like it fit in with more of a beach scene rather than falling leaves, so I decided to switch it. I think I will find myself doing this quite a lot during the writing process. Most of my songs are Autumn and Summer right now so I'd like to get started on more Winter songs ASAP.
To help me in separating the sound of each season, I've created four playlists of songs I associate with each one. I'm sure that I'll be adding more to them throughout the project but here they are:
Wednesday 14th -
I now have two full songs (all with melody lines but only a handful with lyrics) for each season apart from Spring. The rest of this week I'll be focussing on writing a final Autumn song before beginning on Spring.
I have completed the lyrics for Smiling Not Blue (September) and When I Look at You (November). I have also begun writing lyrics for Bitter Chocolate (December).
Friday 16th -
I have started looking at album covers and labels to create in time for the exposition. I was recently inspired by the design of Gorillaz Demon Days CD which I've included a picture of below. It is a 10 panel Digipak which I thought would work well with my four individual EP covers. Every printer in the UK that makes them is really aimed towards labels, meaning I would have to buy a minimum of 100 for around £2000... which is a lot of money for just one album cover. I'm pretty set on the idea of a 10 panel cover now, and so, I will be doing a DIY instead. It won't look as professional as a properly made one but it substantially decreases the price. If everything goes to plan, all I will need is my printer, a few sheets of card, an adhesive CD center, some superglue and scissors. I also plan on creating smaller CD sleeves for my individual EPs and some CD labels using adhesive printer paper.
Friday 23rd -
I have finished writing three songs for my Autumn EP. They are Smiling Not Blue (September), Pumpkin Patch (October) and When I Look At You (November). My next steps are to work more on the Winter EP and complete full demos of the Autumn songs. I hope to start recording Autumn and Winter next month.
Sunday 25th -
Today I recorded some kalimba in Pumpkin Patch (October). This is the main melody instrument featured in the instrumental sections and also features in the background of the verses and pre-choruses.
Wednesday 28th -
I have recorded the demo acoustic guitar on the song Pumpkin Patch (October). I'll be re-visiting this while recording the Autumn EP next month.
Monthly Overview - September
This month was mainly spent planning and searching for inspiration. I had a lot of fun looking for different songs that I associate with each season, however this was harder to do with some than others. For example, I already make a lot of summer playlists anyway, so it was easy to find songs that I associate with it on my Spotify already, however, Winter was a much harder season to associate songs with. Therefore, some inspiration playlists are shorter than others. I have been inspired by more acoustic singer-songwriter styles such as Taylor Swift, Noah Kahan and Phoebe Bridgers for Autumn, however I also want to incorporate some other styles that I associate with the season. These include songs such as Celeste's Strange and more upbeat tunes such as Young Folks by Peter Bjorn and John or Campus by Vampire Weekend. I've also looked into Winter, with inspirations from Ricky Montgomery and Ed Sheeran being the most frequently found in my playlists, and Spring with more bedroom/ synth pop indie artists starting to creep in. I haven't looked at Summer much yet, however I have a vague idea of what I want it to sound like, more electronic and upbeat. You can read more about my inspirations for each EP here. I also spent time working on recording demos and coming up with short musical ideas. A few of these songs are set in stone like Pumpkin Patch and Bitter Chocolate but others are just demos at the moment. I've been pretty productive this month in my songwriting, finding ideas for songs such as Smiling Not Blue, Pumpkin Patch, When I look At You, Never The Bride, Bitter Chocolate and others, which stems from all of the inspirational content I have been consuming and the drive I have to make this project the best it can be. I've really been enjoying the creative process so far which always helps boost my productivity in this area.
September 2022
October 2022
Saturday 1st -
I have completed lyrics for Bitter Chocolate (December) and also started and completed the song Starting Up Again (January). I’m contacting some vocalists that I have in mind for different songs. Right now I’m thinking about Robbie Horn for Smiling Not Blue (September), Toyah Sean for Pumpkin Patch (October) and Chloe Hawkins for When I Look At You (November) and Starting Up Again (January). I’m still working on the sound that I want for Bitter Chocolate (December) but I’m considering Robbie or Toyah.
Wednesday 5th -
I have planned to record Ben's drums for the Autumn EP on the 9th this month. I have also contacted Camilo Nicolas about the bass in Autumn. I've written out some bass sections for him already but he's much better at using chords and improvising so I'm trusting his skills with this one.
Sunday 9th -
I was supposed to record drums using Ben's drum mic today however he has moved house recently and the setup isn't currently suitable for recording. Therefore, I will be recording my drums in the college studio next week with Ben and, fourth year audio engineering student, Shane Serrano. I've sent Robbie Horn the demos for Smiling Not Blue (September) and Bitter Chocolate (December) along with the lyrics. I have also almost completed When Love Kicks In (February) which just needs some more chorus lyrics and then it's complete.
Monday 10th -
Today I got access to my Spotify Artists account through my old instrumental EP Elevator Fromage. I've had some mapping issues with Apple Music, linking me to another Kirsty Taylor's artist page. I'm in the midst of sorting this out through TuneCore and I've been told that it'll take up to 2 weeks for my profile to be made separate. I've also emailed Robbie a demo of When I Look At You (November). Robbie is the pianist in a function band with me and when we record our covers he usually records his piano at home. He will be recording piano at home for this album too as we already have a pretty good system in place for getting those recordings done. It's convenient but they also sound polished by the end of mixing. The rest of the instruments I will be recording myself, in college.
Wednesday 12th -
Chloe Peacock will be singing on Love Kicks In (February). She's living in Aberdeen right now and has a very busy schedule, however she has access to a family recording studio so will be recording the vocals for it when it's convenient to her there. She used to be the singer in our function band and that was how she recorded on covers so I'm confident it'll turn out well. I'm giving the other vocalists who have a DAW the same option to record at home if it's more convenient to them than travelling to campus. I'm confident in the rest of them as well as they all use the same software and hardware as me anyway so there shouldn't be any issues with quality. If I believe that there are problems with recordings I will arrange a time for me to record them instead.
I updated my Spotify Artists profile today with a new bio and gallery. I'll be taking photos this week to use as a header and profile picture for my profile. I also created draft announcement posts for my social media.
Monday 17th -
I have emailed Chloe Peacock the demo for Love Kicks In (February) so she can record any time that's convenient to her. The recording deadline for Autumn is the end of October and the recording deadline for Winter is the end of November.
Friday 21st -
Today we got Bens drums recorded for the Autumn EP. I had help from audio engineering student Shane Serrano who set up the drum mics in the Eastlake studio and recorded them for me. He's emailed the recordings to me and I've added them to the Logic Pro X files. I've already added EQ and quantized them. The mix is sounding much better already with real drums rather than the Logic programme drums.
Toyah and I will be recording her vocals for Pumpkin Patch next Friday. I've sent the tracks with drums to Robbie and Chloe to add piano and vocals this week. I'm also hoping to record Camilo next week for bass.
Monday 24th -
I still don't have a separate Apple Music artists platform so I have emailed TuneCore directly asking them to sort it out. It can take up to 2 weeks again which is a bit of a pain as it has already pushed back my announcement of Elevator Fromage so that I can get on with announcing the details of my project. I think I will be announcing the Elevator Fromage release sooner than two weeks time, even with the current mapping issues. Now that I know someone is getting it sorted with Apple directly I'm more confident in announcing the Seasons project and then the Autumn EP knowing that it will be fixed soon. I have also decided against physical copies of the EPs or album.
There seems to have been a miscommunication between me and Camilo about recording bass for this EP. Therefore, Shane Serrano will be my backup for bass on the Autumn EP.
Wednesday 26th -
The Apple Artists profile is now all set up and ready to release music on. I have also updated my Spotify profile to include some images and a bio.
Thursday 27th -
Today I recorded Chloe Hawkins for When I Look At You. I'll now be recording all of the vocalists in college apart from Chloe Peacock.
Monthly Overview - October
This month was mainly spent pairing up vocalists to the songs I need recorded first. This was actually one of the easiest decisions in the whole process because I have a choice of such a wide range of vocalists, each with a unique voice and style. I've heard them all sing loads of times before so I know their tone pretty well and am familiar with the styles that they are drawn to. When listening back to some of my songs I could pretty easily imagine one of them singing it and went straight with my gut feeling of who would be best fit for each song. I also spent this month beginning the official recording process for the Autumn EP, with Smiling Not Blue, Pumpkin Patch and When I Look At You all making the final cut for the EP. This meant that I had to scrap Never The Bride, however I hope to come back to the idea someday and maybe work on it with Toyah. Two of the biggest recording achievements have been drums for the Autumn EP and vocals for When I Look At You. I have allowed my collaborators to have quite a bit of creative freedom when recording their sections. I am giving Ben a rough outline of the drums I want by using programme drums in Logic to give him an idea of style and dynamics. My collaborators have already been amazing with this aspect of the project, giving me a style of playing that works well for them and showcases their skills while also adding to the song and following the framework that I have set out for the song. It's really important to me that songs aren't totally changed by my collaborators during this process. This is because I have a very specific creative vision for the themes and feelings of each song to have them fit with their respective month and season.
October
November 2022
Friday 4th -
I've been unable to record any other vocalists or bass the past couple weeks due to illness. We all seem to have the same cold so I'm hoping that we'll all be feeling better by next week so I can finish recording for the first EP. I'm now only recording Camilo for When I Look At You and Shane will be doing the rest of the EP.
Sunday 6th -
Today I wrote one song for Spring and another for Summer. This means I only have two songs left to write and then the album will be completely written. The goal is the have these done by the end of the month to give myself plenty of time to record for the December - April releases.
Thursday 10th -
Robbie came on campus today and we recorded his vocals for Smiling Not Blue. We only had time for a few takes but I've let him know that we can record at a later date as I have decided to push my release dates just slightly forward this time to early January - April. I'll just be releasing the EPs at the beginning of each month rather than at the end. My only issue with this is that my Winter EP features a Christmassy song which would've been ideal for a December release which I'd initially planned. However I'd rather gain feedback at the expo on the 16th and have the time to actually implement it in my work rather than release something I'm not 100% happy with.
Friday 18th -
Unfortunately, I've had to push forward recording Toyah for Pumpkin Patch again as she's had an allergic reaction which has affected her singing. I trust that once I actually get Toyah in the studio we'll get it done pretty efficiently as she's always been great when recording with me before. Therefore, I'm not too worried about the recording for this song, especially since the song only really needs the vocals and then some more work on the guitar track. It's a pretty acoustic track and I'm not expecting to need too much bass on it, if any.
I'm still waiting for Robbie's piano part for Smiling Not Blue and Camilo's bass for When I Look At You. I still have Shane on standby for any last minute bass emergencies if necessary and I can beef up the mix myself if piano falls through as well.
I've just sent the updated lyrics to Love Kicks In to Chloe and she'll be recording this in her studio this month, ideally in time for the expo.
Thursday 24th -
I'll be recording Toyah next week as this week she's busy rehearsing with her band for her creative ensemble gig next week. This is actually perfect for me because I also have a gig coming up with Dysfunctional so I needed some time for practising too.
I got the piano part for Smiling Not Blue earlier this week and I've decided that the track actually sounds best without drums. I think it works really well as a more acoustic track and eases us into the Autumn EP and entire album.
I'm planning on asking a few more vocalists if they would be up for working on a few different songs with me. I've not totally decided who would be singing on which one yet though and I may switch Robbie on Bitter Chocolate and feature him more in the Spring EP as I think that style of music would suit him more. This is something I can think more about next month.
Wednesday 30th -
Today I contacted Ceara Campbell and Lola O'Dorel to ask them if they would be happy to sing on a song or two for my album. Both of them were happy to be involved and I'll be deciding which songs I want them on in the coming months. I'm thinking of having them both on the Spring and Summer EPs, especially since they're coming into the project slightly later than others.
Monthly Overview - November
This was another month of writing new ideas and recording tracks on the Autumn songs. I worked on getting a folder of 12 demos ready to show my progress so far. Since I'm writing most of the album using Logic, this is a great way to show my writing process. You may have noticed a lot of voice memos of me humming along to some chord progressions that I've made in Logic, coming up with melody lines. This is how I have been writing the majority of the EP as I find it easiest to write songs when looking at a keyboard rather than while playing guitar. I think this is probably quite strange, considering my first instrument is guitar, but I feel like I can map out more interesting chords and think outside of the box while using the MIDI keyboard. However, I tend to make the best melodies by just singing along to the track and seeing what rhythms and intervals fit well. The same with guitar, I will happily sit and pick out a riff or harmony part while playing along to the chord progression I have created for the song. Personally, the chord progression is the strongest foundation I have to build a song on. Every now and again I will find a melody first though, like with Mushroom in a Meadow, and then build the harmony around it.
November
December
Thursday 1st -
My VistaPrint package came for the exposition! I ordered the stuff on Black Friday and bought 30 stickers (which I'm planning on handing out at the expo and using the leftovers for promotion), a tote bag with my logo and album cover on it (this had a small printing issue so I've emailed them to see if I can get another one sent before the expo) and a small banner for my table that just shows all my social media handles and my logo.
Tomorrow I'm going to try to get to the printer on campus to print out some draft posters and my cover art. My printer at home isn't working very well so this is the best way for me to get good quality resources for the exposition. I have a presentation in the works which will be playing on a loop on my laptop and I'll have some QR codes laid out for this online portfolio and some demos on SoundCloud. I'm not doing any live performances for this assessment since I'm not planning on any gigs. This is because my album features a lot of different artists and it's just not really possible logistically.
Wednesday 7th -
I'm not happy with the quality of my tracks and I don't think I'll be able to reach the quality I'm looking for myself. I've asked Shane to have a look over my Logic files to make the tracks sound better. He has a lot of the plugins that I can't get and he is much more experienced in mixing and mastering tracks. The vocal tracks, especially, could sound a lot more professional.
I'll be recording Toyah on Friday and then I'll spend next week working towards getting all of the resources for my exposition ready. I have already printed off my poster drafts and the cover art for my project but I still need to print the handouts and QR codes. I'll probably do this on the 15th so I can get the best version of my demos uploaded on SoundCloud.
Ben has also recorded drums for Bitter Chocolate and Love Kicks In. He is helping me with the programme drums for Starting Up Again because I decided against using a kit and instead keeping the electronic drums. Chloe P has let me know that she'll be recording the vocals for Love Kicks In.
I have started looking at various contacts for magazines and radio stations, preparing for the output stage of my project. I still have a while until I contact them but it's good to have an idea of who to reach out to and how. I'll be working on this list over the winter holidays.
Friday 9th -
Today I recorded Toyah on Pumpkin Patch. Overall, I'm happy with how the recording went but Toyah sang one lyric wrong and I didn't notice during recording. It doesn't seem that Toyah will be able to come into college to record that line again for me before its release date so I'll either have to leave it as it is with the new lyric, add some backing vocals to correct the lyric as well as possible, or turn it into a duet and have someone else sing that chorus. It's just a bit of an annoyance. I think the most likely course of action will just be leaving it as it is. The lyric was supposed to be "at the pumpkin patch where the owls sing, at the pumpkin patch out hearts still sting" but instead of "sting" she sings "sing" again. I would have rather had my original lyrics but because she can't come in to record again it will have to stay like that.
Saturday 10th -
I recorded some backing vocals for Pumpkin Patch. Ben has also helped me with mixing the Autumn tracks so they are closer to being ready for release in January.
Friday 16th -
Unfortunately, due to bad weather, our exposition had to be moved to the 27th of January. This is a bit annoying for me because that's the planned release date for my Autumn EP and I was hoping to get some more feedback on it before release. I'm going to have a think about it, but I think this means I'll just have to release my first EP on the day of the exposition. If anything it might be a good thing for marketing on the same day as I'm presenting what I've been working on. I should also still have time with my supervisor before the new date for the exposition anyway, so hopefully that will give me all the feedback I need going forward.
The Beat Porters released their EP Home Time today, which I co-wrote two songs on. I helped by writing some of the lyrics for Neon and Turn Down The Lights.
Monday 26th -
I'm still considering moving my release dates but I still need to speak to my supervisor about this. I think it's more likely that I will move them as it would give me more time to work on feedback and January isn't a great month to release music anyway. My Social Media Campaign Management module will also have properly started by then, which I think would really help me with the promotion side of the releases. The only issue I have with this is that one of my EPs and my compilation album wouldn't be publicly released by the submission date of this Creative Honours Project assignment. I should have enough of the promotion to show, but it would have been nice to have all of the music out publicly and available to view on Spotify rather than a private SoundCloud link. I'm more than happy to keep the project going on for longer than intended though, especially if it means I'm putting out work that I'm 100% happy with.
Camilo was working on the day that we initially planned to record his bass part for When I Look At You and I don't think either of us are going to be available at the same time next month to record. Therefore, I will have Ben play the bass part on this song. Although Ben isn't really a bassist, he has started playing bass on some of his own music this year. I also don't think that the song actually needs as much bass as I had originally intended, with the song recording process coming to an end it really only needs the bass riff and a basic bass line throughout.
I have downloaded a better pitch correction tool to my Logic Pro X, Graillon 2. I did this because the pitch correction plugin on Logic isn't great and tends to sound quite robotic even when only a small amount is being added. Although this new software also isn't the greatest, it does sound a lot more natural.
Monthly Overview - December​
This was the month that I really started collecting more full demos. I've linked these below. Although I had a full 12 songs, I was starting to dislike a few of them in terms of mixing. I had Ben have a listen to them and he did a bit of extra mixing to them himself (as my co-producer) and made me feel much better about their sound. Sometimes you just need another pair of ears to tell you how a track is getting on, especially since I've been listening to these Autumn tracks since September now! One of my flaws is that I can't seem to stop working on a track. It never sounds finished enough to me and so I keep doing more work on it until I've done too much and it starts to sound much worse than it did in the first place! I want to work on this, especially going into the next few months of releases. I think that the very short period between release dates will force me to do this more than anything, but either way it's much healthier for me as a songwriter to accept when a song is finished. Unfortunately, the Exposition had to be moved due to bad weather which means I will have to move release dates back by a month to allow for feedback. I will also have to work on editing some of the resources I was going to use at the Expo, as it will be out of date by the time it takes place.
December 2022
January
Tuesday 10th -
I have arranged a recording date with Chloe Hawkins for Starting Up Again which will be the 3rd of February. This is a difficult month to schedule for as everyone is busy with recording their own projects and I also have my placement for PD2 on most days that I'm not in uni. Chloe Peacock has let me know that she will be recording vocals for Love Kicks In on Wednesday and Thursday this week. I'm going to message Ceara soon to ask her to sing on the song Bitter Chocolate as that one still needed a vocalist and from working with her in the Beat Porters I can see how well her voice would suit the song. I had pictured her in more of my Summer songs, as they are the most similar to the Beat Porters style, however she's really versatile and would be great to have on a more emotional Winter tune too.
Wednesday 11th -
I'm thinking about scrapping the song I have for August right now and replacing it with a new one. As much as I like the riff, I think it is too similar to Bloom in terms of rhythm and tempo. This isn't a huge issue, as it is the final song on the album and in the final EP so it doesn't have to be complete for a while yet. I've started getting some ideas down for it today.
Friday 13th -
Chloe Peacock sent me her vocals for Love Kicks In last night and I'm really happy with them. I've started mixing the song now and it's actually already starting to sound close to completion. I also messaged Ceara about Bitter Chocolate yesterday and I'll send her the mix once Robbie sends me his piano.
Sunday 22nd -
The Autumn EP is very close to being finished now. The only thing I have to really add is the bass for When I Look At You which Camilo couldn't record last month. This is quite last minute and I don't want to be in this position again, so I'll need to set more strict recording times for the other EPs. However, there actually won't be bass in as many tracks as I had initially set out. This is because a lot of them feature a lot of synth bass lines and actually don't need any direct input bass guitar. Winter won't need any at all, but Spring and Summer should have a bass guitar line.
Tuesday 24th -
Today I recorded Ben playing bass on When I Look At You. This is the final part of the recording process for the Autumn EP which means I can finish mixing it and submit it to Tunecore for distribution. I am beginning the mastering process too, using this video as a reference.
Friday 27th -
The exposition was today and I got some really great feedback from David. He suggested that I download the BBC Orchestra Discover plug-in from Spitfire Audio to make my MIDI string parts more realistic. I did this as soon as I got back home and the results have been incredible. It sounds so much fuller and way less automated, making the entire track as a whole sound more professional. I'll definitely be using this for some more of my songs, especially in the Winter EP. I'm glad that I waited until after the exposition to release my music, as this has made all of the difference.
Monthly Overview - January
Last month I spoke about how I starting disliking some of my songs. This isn't true for the ones that are closest to release, now that I've changed my mindset, however there is still one song that I wrote recently that wasn't working for me. I wrote Leave For More for the Summer EP but it sounded far too similar to Bloom in my opinion, and I had more upbeat tunes to explore in this EP. I decided to scrap it and start again, opting for a brighter and, in my opinion, much catchier and fun tune. I feel way more motivated to work on this song now and it shares so many of the characteristics that I associate with Summer. This was the end of a couple of stressful months for me in terms of Creative Honours Project and Research Paper. This is due to the Exposition being moved back by a month which has, in turn, moved my release dates back a month as well, leaving me less time to promote before the final deadline. Our last meeting with out supervisor before the Expo was the 14th of December, meaning we have gone over a month without any major feedback to work on. Now that I have gotten some feedback from David, I'm excited to move forward with the project. I downloaded the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover plugin from Spitfire Audio which has completely transformed the way my MIDI strings sound in Smiling Not Blue. I'm glad that I moved my release dates forward for this reason, as I now have valuable tools to finish the final edits of these Autumn songs before release so that I am totally happy with them. The plug-in makes it sound a lot more lively and full. This feedback has given me validation that I'm heading in the right direction with the work I have done so far and has given me pointers on how to accomplish my creative vision with some of the best, yet most affordable tools in the industry. It has also given me valuable insight on how best to work on my portfolio as a whole in the coming months. I have also started researching more into mastering and I'm using a YouTube video tutorial to get myself started with this. I'll be altering the effects that I'm adding from the video depending on what my mix needs in the final master, however I hope that having a similar mastering routine will make my songs sound more cohesive on the album.
January 2023
February
Friday 3rd -
Today I submitted my Autumn EP to Tunecore and announced the release on my two main social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook. I also recorded Chloe Hawkins for Starting Up Again which ran really smoothly. I will be recording Ceara next week for Bitter Chocolate and then I can work more on the mixing of Winter and the Recording of Spring. My project is running on time for my deadlines now.
Thursday 9th -
Everything is running smoothly in terms of the Autumn release. Tunecore has accepted my release, meaning it will be ready on streaming platforms on the 24th. This was a concern of mine as I wasn't sure if the blurry background image in my cover art would pass Tunecore's rules and I had also submitted it 3 weeks prior to release rather than the 4 that they suggest. Today was spent emailing various contacts for reviews and radio plays of Autumn. You can find all of the contacts and emails I sent here. I also updated my social media schedule.
Monday 13th -
I emailed a few more contacts and have been sent a few replies now about radio plays for Pumpkin Patch which is great. I also put up a few posters around the college about my upcoming release. I had hoped to Vistaprint these to a more professional standard but just because I was unsure whether Tunecore would immediately take my music I decided against doing this. It's something I'll look more into for the next EPs and definitely for the album release. I had tried to record acoustic guitar on my Spring tracks yesterday but I ended up getting frustrated with my playing so I decided it was best for the music if I took a break and got back to it later. I'm going to have another go at this tomorrow, this time using my own Seagull guitar rather than Ben's Fender. I think that the difference in equipment was really what was bugging me, so hopefully I'll feel better with a familiar guitar instead. I've recorded a few ideas for lead guitar on Flooded Fantasy just to add an extra layer to counter the melody line which I'm pretty happy with. You can find the videos in my monthly overview. I have had to move Ceara's recording date to next Friday as she had a sore throat so couldn't record for me last week. I'm totally fine with this because mixing of each song is well underway and I'll still have a few weeks to get them polished up before release. I've sent all of my Spring songs to their vocalists and Ben recorded drums for Mushroom in a Meadow, Bloom and Dreaming of. These are the only songs that needed a drum kit recorded, as the rest will all be MIDI drums.
Tuesday 14th -
I recorded the acoustic guitar for Mushroom in a Meadow today. I felt much better after taking a break and using my own guitar to record. I also started recording Bloom but decided to do the same thing and just record ideas rather than the actual finished guitar. I'll be recording it properly next week instead. Once the recording process is done for Spring, I won't have an awful lot of live instruments to record. I've been planning some of the instrumentation for my Summer songs more recently. I want there to be guitar in Hello Girl and Dreaming Of but the songs will really be supported by the electronic instruments. My main stress at the moment is just trying to get vocalists into the studio. It can be difficult to find a day that suits both them and me and when I know room 445E will be available for my use. I'm still happy with Chloe Peacock recording her vocals at her studio because they came out really professionally for Love Kicks In and I had a lot to work with in the mix.
Monday 20th -
Today Ben recorded guitar on Starting Up Again, helping to make the song sound fuller. He was going to re-record the drums for Bloom because he'd missed out the quieter sound I wanted in one of the choruses and he just wasn't happy with Dreaming of so he was going to do that again too. Unfortunately, his audio box isn't working so I'll be giving him mine to use instead next week. I also added the canvas feature to my Autumn songs on Spotify. This allows me to play a video in the background of the songs on the app. I chose three stock free videos from Canva that I had used on my social media to promote the EP release and it's upcoming songs.
Friday 24th -
My Autumn EP released today so I'm currently running some promotion for that. I'm using Facebook and Instagram ads to reach more of a local audience at the moment. I was also recording Ceara today for Bitter Chocolate but unfortunately it had to be cut short because some other students needed in the production room and we were already eating into the Beat Porters rehearsal time. Ceara has kindly offered to record her vocals at home this week and, if this isn't possible, to record them next Friday after her class instead. This is fine with me as I'm in on Friday anyway. The only thing is that I'll now need to move my submission date forward for Tunecore. This shouldn't be a huge issue. Tunecore says to give them 4 weeks in advance so that the stores can process the music in time for release, however I've set a few dates only 3 weeks in advance now and have spoken to Shane about distribution too. He has sometimes given only a few days in advance and it has still always worked well for him so I'm not really worried about this at all, especially if it gives me the extra time to mix Ceara's vocals and have the EP sounding the best it can before release. I haven't been able to dedicate a day to mixing for a while now so I'm hoping to work on Winter and Spring for the majority of tomorrow.
Tuesday 28th -
Ben re-recorded the Bloom drums a couple of days ago and sent them to me today. I'm much happier with the way that they are sounding. I have also sent Mushroom in a Meadow to Toyah to record at home. This is because she has been given more shifts at work recently meaning she couldn't come into college to record today. She let me know about this a few days ago so I had plenty of notice. She said that this is going to be the best and easiest way for her to get it done and I totally agree. Similarly to Chloe Peacock, I've worked with vocal tracks that Toyah has recorded at home on her DAW before so I'm confident that it will be good quality and professional. A recycling centre went up in flames in the early hours of this morning which made it impossible to get to Perth from Dundee so even if I had been recording Toyah in college today I would have had to cancel. I'm hoping that the closure of the bridge won't be too much of an issue for me this and next week as I do have some recording that needs done. I will be checking up on Ceara tomorrow to see if she would rather record at home or in college, especially since it will be harder for her to get from Glasgow to Perth with the closures.
Monthly Overview - February
February was mainly spent releasing Autumn, recording and mixing my Winter EP, and getting through as much of Spring as possible. I have to say, now that I'm starting to release and reach the final stages of recording some of these EPs, the way the release dates have fallen have been really disappointing. Luckily I spent September - January trying my best to get Autumn/ Winter content for social media when the time came to release but it would have been so much better if my release dates could have landed during each respective season. Unfortunately, this was just the way my academic year ran and there isn't much that could be done about that, especially since I wanted to show my promotion via this portfolio. I have gotten myself into a pretty decent recording and releasing schedule now that the first EP has been released. I think the chaos of the Autumn recordings, with so many reschedules and musician changes, was necessary to find a good solid schedule and structure to my recording system. I am unsure if Camilo will have the time to make a bass appearance on my project at all now, as he isn't regularly available to come into college. I was pretty happy with how Ben sounded playing bass on When I Look At You and the majority of my songs really only need basic bass parts to support the music. I caught myself getting stressed when recording acoustic guitar for the Spring tracks and so I decided I should take a break and come back to it. I think this was an important step for me during the entire process, being able to step back and take a break if I wasn't happy with how things were sounding. I also spent a few days just adding rough guitar parts to demos, figuring out what I wanted in each track. Some of these guitar parts won't make it into the songs and some of the songs possibly won't even need guitar at all. I'll need to keep recording and trying new things to figure out what a track needs and what is too much. Truthfully, Spring is my least favourite of the four EPs I'm working on. I'm not totally sure what it is about the songs yet but I think it could be because these demos are sounding the most bland out of all 12 songs. I've been pretty happy with how Winter is coming along, my main concern has been getting vocalists on the tracks. I had a few delays with recording Ceara because of the campus being shut, necessary vocal rest and with students needing in the production room which has added a bit more stress than I wanted. However, Ceara has been another brilliant vocalist to work with, giving me remote alternatives as a last resort. Toyah is also starting to use this remote recording process for me because of how busy she is with work. The ability to have some of my collaborators recording remotely for me has been an immense help, speeding the project along and allowing them to work on the song when they know they are at their very best. My Summer songs are actually already coming along quite well which I think adds to the fact that these Spring songs are lacking. I also want to touch on my mixing techniques in this monthly overview now that I'm getting into more of a routine when it comes to producing. I'm still working closely with Ben to make the songs sound the best they can, and it's always good to have a second pair of ears, but I'm also developing my own techniques. I've started quantizing a lot more. This really started a couple of months ago with my Autumn EP but I've gotten more confident in my ability to mix more this month so I decided to include it here. I'm quantizing instruments such as the drums (which I am most confident with as I find this the easiest to quantize), piano and guitar. Robbie is a brilliant pianist and he plays on the beat, however to get the piano and the drums to sound more in sync, I've been quantizing the piano tracks. I'm always never happy with the guitar tracks that I put down so it's no surprise that I would want to quantize them. Other people have told me that my rhythm is on-beat but when you can hear where you're slightly off you can't help but obsess over it. Quantizing has been a great tool for me and I think it creates a more professional sounding track.
February 2023
March
Friday 3rd -
Ceara will be sending me the recordings she has for Bitter Chocolate this weekend. This will give me enough time to get a good mix of it done in time to release on Tunecore at the end of the month. I've worked a little bit more on my Spring EP but I'm still not totally happy with it yet. I'm hoping that I'll get some more recording done for it in the next couple of weeks and that I'll then be at a stage where I'm happier with the sound.
Sunday 5th -
I'm starting to prepare dates for recording vocalists on the Spring and Summer EPs. I'm wanting the Spring vocalists to be finished this month and I will be getting a head start on the Summer vocals by starting recording on them this month too. Tomorrow I want to record some of the ideas I have for the Spring guitar tracks.
Monday 6th -
I recorded the final guitar tracks for Bloom today. This means that all of the instrumental audio files for Spring have been recorded. I want to work more on the MIDI instruments on the tracks now and get the vocals on them. I've messaged Lola about recording Bloom later this month and I'll be catching up with Toyah today too. Ceara has sent me the vocals for Bitter Chocolate and I added it to the song today. I had a few clipping issues at a certain part of the verse which wasn't Ceara's fault. The same thing happened to a few of my audio tracks in Smiling Not Blue and I think it's because of the amount of audio tracks that are on these songs. I did try to fix the clipping by changing the buffering size and other settings but nothing was really working. Luckily I had a few audio recordings saved from recording Ceara a couple of weeks ago so I've cut them into the small sections that were clipping. These were really tiny sections and, after I do more mixing on it, I don't think you'll even be able to tell they're cut in. The mixes for this EP is almost finished, I'm just going to get Ben to have a look over them on Wednesday and then they should be ready to submit to Tunecore on Friday.
Tuesday 7th -
I worked on Bitter Chocolate a bit more today and I'm a lot happier with how the cut and paste sections sound. I also caught up with Toyah who should be sending me the Mushroom in a Meadow vocals by the 17th. I let Chloe Peacock know that I'd be sending her Dreaming of soon and she let me know that she would have it done by the end of the month. I haven't heard back from Lola about recording on the 17th yet but I know she'll be busy preparing for her tour. If I don't hear anything from her by the 17th I think I'll message her to let her know that I'm going to record Chloe Hawkins for the rest of the songs. Chloe H has always let me know that she'd be there just in case I was having scheduling issues such as this. I want to try and get these vocal tracks done as quickly as possible this month so I can focus more on mixing Spring and Summer. I've also asked Chloe to record Hello Girl on the 24th (alongside Bloom if I hear nothing back before the 17th). I'm also looking to record Camilo's rap on Hello Girl soon too. I'm contemplating asking Ceara to record at home for Mirrorball because I was really happy with the vocals that she sent me.
Friday 10th -
I uploaded Winter to Tunecore today. Ceara and I both decided that Bitter Chocolate didn't need backing vocals on it and it sounded good as is. I also recorded Chloe Hawkins on Flooded Fantasy today. I'll really be focusing on getting the Spring tracks done for the rest of the month. They're definitely my top priority at the moment because I'd say the Summer songs are still closer to being finished than them. I've let Lola know that I'll be recording Chloe Hawkins for Bloom. I've decided to give Chloe these last few songs that I need recorded in person because I need to get ahead with my vocal recordings from the delays of last month. Toyah and Chloe Peacock are recording at home so I only have to worry about getting recordings from them rather than scheduling a time to record myself. Ceara also let me know that she can record at home again if it came to it. This is a great help to me. I'm recording Camilo's rap for Hello Girl on the 22nd. This past week has really been spent just trying to get everything organised for this last leg of my project to give me enough time to get it all mixed.
Wednesday 15th -
These past couple of days I've been reaching out to the industry contacts that covered my Autumn EP to see if they would be interested in covering Winter as well. I've also reached out to a couple of new contacts. However, I didn't reach out to any of the contacts that didn't get back to me before as there isn't any point in sending out another EP if they didn't reply to my previous message. I will be printing off my Winter posters this week as well.
Monday 20th -
I printed off my Winter posters last week and also updated my Autumn ones. The printers on campus don't have the option to change the page size so I thought it couldn't print A3 but if you print an A4 version and then photocopy it to A3 it works that way. Unfortunately, this means I'm spending extra on printer credits since I have to print the A4 sheet first. I also got a reply from Belter Radio today who will be adding Love Kicks In to their playlist.
Thursday 23rd -
I recorded Camilo's rap yesterday in the production room and I think it went pretty well. I haven't ever mixed a rap before so this will probably be more of a challenge for me. I want it to start out sounding like a telephone call and then go into a smoother track. I have also had another idea for my posters. I want to include a QR code on the posters to my LinkTree. I think this will make it more likely for people who see the poster actually going and listening to my music. I've changed the colour of each QR code to fit the colour palette of each season. I printed these out as A3 today and switched my previous posters with them. I'll be using these QR code posters for the Spring, Summer and Seasons releases.
Friday 24th -
That's all of Chloe Hawkins' songs wrapped up now! I recorded her on Bloom and Hello Girl, both of which I'm really happy with. There are a few extra added 's' sounds on the end of words but I'm automating them out so that's all fine. I also spoke to Ceara today and we have decided to record both of her final songs next Friday too. I'll have a few days to mix the vocals for Mushroom in a Meadow before submitting to TuneCore. This month has been a bit chaotic for getting Spring ready but I've also been working on Summer simultaneously so next month definitely won't be as insane. Chloe Peacock is really busy with her postgraduate right now but she's told me that she can get her part for Dreaming Of recorded during her Easter holidays which I'm fine with. I had given her extra time in advance for this reason anyway because I knew that she would be pre-occupied with her teaching placement and other work. I trust her when she says she'll get it done and that should be one of the last tracks I get for the project. Ben will be re-recording the drums for that track tomorrow at home. In all honesty, Spring has been my least favourite EP to work on, probably because of how much more stressful the process has been than with other EPs, so I'm looking forward to finishing it up and getting Summer ready for release.
Monday 27th -
Ben recorded the final drum track today for Dreaming of and he's currently mixing it a bit before sending it over to me. I really wanted to get guitar recorded on Flooded Fantasy and some of the Summer tracks today but I was having major issues with recording delays on Logic Pro X. It has been an issue for me throughout the project and I've tried everything to fix it so I'm not sure why it isn't going away. This has been really annoying and I had to step back from recording today because I was just getting frustrated. This really isn't ideal, especially when I'm so close to getting everything finished up now and with Spring needed submitted to TuneCore really soon.
Tuesday 28th -
Something has come up for Ceara, meaning she can't make it on campus this week. She has let me know that she'll recorded the last two songs I have for her at home by the 31st which I'm really happy with. Her last recording was brilliant so I have no issues with this. She's been great at getting these last minute tracks done for me. Today I was planning on recording guitar on Flooded Fantasy again but I think I'll give it another day before trying that again. I was also going to record backing vocals on Bloom but I'm not at my own house right now and I want to wait until I get back home first. These are two fairly easy tracks to get on there last minute so I'm not too worried about this. I am worried about the recording delay on my Logic getting worse but if it becomes really bad I'll just have to try recording the guitar in the production room rather than at home. I'm not even sure if Flooded Fantasy needs a guitar part yet or if it will make it sound too busy, but I would like to give it a try to see how it sounds before making that decision.
Wednesday 29th -
I got a new guitar track recorded for Mushroom in a Meadow today which I'm much happier with. I switched from acoustic to electric and the sound suits the song much better. I added an echo effect to make it similar to Bloom. I also added guitar to Flooded Fantasy. This wasn't very complex and I didn't use any of the ideas that I'd recorded in February. This was because the song was already pretty complex in rhythm and I didn't want to make it too busy.
Thursday 30th -
Unfortunately Ceara has accidentally deleted the Mushroom track from her laptop. She deleted a few files that she didn't mean to. I think it's safe to say I won't be getting the vocals for this tomorrow and I swear this song is just cursed. TuneCore is pretty good for submitting songs though, I've had friends submit 10 days before the release and have it be totally fine and I'm not expecting to be submitting this less than two weeks before, so I'm pretty confident that a 28th of April release will still be achievable. I've had a look at Bloom and Flooded Fantasy and I'm pretty happy with where they are right now. I'm going to really grind the mixing for the first few days of the Easter holidays so I can have all of the music ready just in case I do have to do a last minute mix to Ceara's vocals. I'm still very confident that the entire project will be ready by the end of April because I only have a couple more vocal tracks to get and that's it. I might record some bass in college after the holidays for Dreaming Of but other than that I have all of my instruments recorded. I still need to get the drums from Ben for Dreaming Of but this has already been recorded and is just going through some minor mixing on his part so he's happy with it.
Friday 31st -
I'm currently writing this at 00:21 on the 31st and I've just had to email TuneCore about my release. The songs have been fine but my collaborators haven't been credited in the artists section which I've had to get sorted. I know that I definitely put them all in there while filling out the form because I triple checked and then checked again. I feel like it has something to do with the new update that TuneCore has undertaken which allows for easier royalty splits between contributors. I'm hoping to get this sorted ASAP as there is no credit to them at all and that is really important to me, especially considering they are the lead vocalists on the tracks. TuneCore tells you not to include featured artists in the title track so that is really where the issue is for me. I emailed them as soon as I noticed but because it's the end of the month I can assume they will be pretty busy with other releases. This makes me anxious for the Spring, Summer and Seasons releases because I can't see why it won't do this again in those uploads too.
It's now much later in the day. It's too soon for TuneCore to reply to my email so I have decided to use this distribution issue to my advantage. I've let my listeners know that credits are on the way soon but that in the meantime they should listen to the tracks to guess the singer on each song. This is a nice incentive to have them listen to every song, especially if they are a fan of only one of my collaborators. I don't believe that this will be too difficult to fix but it will be a massive pain if it keeps happening with the rest of my releases.
Monthly Overview - March
I had a bit of a delay with getting Winter mixed and submitted for release but everything was still finished and ran on time. I actually think that this timeline of releases has been a great way to push myself to get 3 songs done every month before the final deadline. I was already ahead with Summer but I decided to also send away some of the tracks to get vocals put on them earlier than intended. I've really just been focusing on one EP at a time but this month I wanted to multitask a bit more to make up for the extra time spent on Winter. My Summer mix was actually probably still the closest to being done out of the last two EPs so it's made my April feel a lot easier and less stressful. This month was just spent getting that head start on Summer while working hard on the Spring tracks to get them past the demo stage. I've been putting my trust in the vocalists more now, with more of them recording on tracks remotely. I've always been a fan of remote recording sessions but my main concern here was the quality that the tracks would come out since I wasn't recording with my own equipment. Toyah let me know it would be better for her to record at home and Ceara recorded her vocals at home when we were struggling to get it done in the studio. I'd worked with Toyah's vocal tracks before but I hadn't with Ceara. Everything turned out very well though and I was sent perfectly recorded tracks from Ceara. Toyah, however ended up pulling out of the rest of the project. She couldn't find time to record so I had to switch Mushroom in a Meadow to Ceara. I also had an issue with convincing Camilo to come in on a day we had arranged to record. I was already in the production studio and had set up when he said he didn't want to come. I had to wait longer for him which delayed other work that I could have been doing on the project. I also let Lola know that I wouldn't be recording her. She hadn't replied to my previous message about a recording date and I couldn't wait any longer so decided that I would record Chloe Hawkins on Bloom instead. This has been a difficult month in terms of recording however this is just what comes with relying on collaborators, especially since they are doing it for free and as a favour. I made some last minute changes to my Spring tracks with recording improved guitar parts, adding extra little motifs and recording backing vocals. You can find some of these backing vocal ideas amongst my media pages for the month.
March 2023
April
Saturday 1st -
Last night I started thinking of some last minute extras for the album and overall project. I created a lyric video for Smiling Not Blue and I plan to make similar lyric videos for 3 other tracks, all from different EPs. This was an idea I had at the start of the project but didn't really look too much into until now. I'm pretty familiar with Final Cut Pro and making basic lyric videos is pretty simple. I'm not doing anything too complicated. For this video I have a title intro which I'm really happy with and then a veil transition, symbolising the wedding theme. I plan on uploading this pretty soon to my YouTube but I'm just mastering and checking it for spelling right now. I'll need to look into how I can promote this and which social media I'll post it to. YouTube is a given but I think it would get more traction on Facebook. I also tried to write a medley of all of the songs but quickly realised that I didn't have enough time for that and that I don't trust my abilities to write a decent medley in that amount of time. I am considering maybe writing very short instrumental sections to slot between the seasons if I have time. Perhaps Intro, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer and maybe an Outro? This is only if I have time and these tracks would only be about 30 seconds at most. I think it would be a good way to separate the seasons a bit more and give me another opportunity to recreate the seasons in music. I definitely want to try and get the seasonal ones done and the intro/ outro are more added extras. I'm trying to stay grounded with how much work I can get done in this last month but, because I'm already ahead with my Summer EP, I'm fairly confident I could write these small pieces within a few hours. I will just have to wait and see though and this is definitely on the bottom of my to do list right now. I've drafted most of my other promotional materials and press releases so it's pretty easy going on that front right now too. I think that I've made this last leg easier for myself by planning ahead and getting as much work done early on as possible. This has given me the opportunity to add new aspects such as this to the project.
Tuesday 4th -
Last night Ceara sent me the vocals for Mushroom and I couldn't be happier with them. Her recording quality is great and she knew exactly what I was going for. She somehow made my least favourite song on the project sound pretty good. This has made me less stressed about this last minute mixing process I have for these songs. I mixed them all today and it's really close to completion now. Just a couple more days of work on that and they will definitely be ready to go for an April release date. Speaking of releases, I got an email back from TuneCore about my featured artists issue. The site must have changed right before or right after I sent my release. The site now needs you to include 'featured' in the drop-down menu under the collaborators name asking for how they contributed. Before I only had to say that they were a lead vocalist and that was enough to deem them as featured. At least I now know what the problem was and TuneCore is allowing me to alter my release to include my featured artists on Winter which is brilliant.
Saturday 8th -
My Winter releases have now been updated to include all of my featured artists which is great. I also finished mixing and mastering all of the Spring songs yesterday and got the EP submitted to TuneCore. I ended up recording backing vocals on Mushroom in a Meadow and Bloom, which I think went quite well. Today I updated the press release and started sending out some emails and forms to some outputs for radio plays etc. I finished up and scheduled the Smiling Not Blue lyric video to YouTube and it will be releasing next Friday. I've also updated my profile pictures across all social media platforms today because I got some good professional photos taken at the Tiny Changes gig that I performed at on Thursday.
I'll be making a decision by the end of next week about whether or not I should write those short 30 second compositions in time for the album or not. It isn't really necessary but would still be a nice feature. I should be able to gauge the extra time I have to make a decision on it.
Wednesday 12th -
I am leaning closer to focussing on the lyric videos as my extra last minute addition to this project rather than the short compositions. I already have quite a long album going, estimating it to be over 40 minutes long so it could drag the music out more than necessary. I also think that the visual element is better for this project anyway.
Today I emailed a few more industry contacts about my Spring EP to get some radio plays and reviews. My Winter EP didn't do as well as my Autumn one in this respect so I'm going to try and contact more people again. For Winter, I only contacted those who covered my Autumn EP but this time I think I'll go through all of my contacts and try them again. It is long enough now that it won't seem as though I'm bugging them about my releases and this EP might be more popular with my outputs since we are in the season of spring during its release.
Friday 14th -
My lyric video released today and I also started working on a new one for Bitter Chocolate which is almost finished now. I also worked a bit more on the mixing for Summer. Once I put the vocals in for The Mirrorball and Dreaming Of I'll have a better idea of where I am for mixing, but Hello Girl is starting to sound good. I have two radio stations playing Mushroom in a Meadow now which is great, but I still have to contact some more outputs. I plan on doing this tomorrow.
Saturday 15th -
I contacted the final outputs for my Spring EP which I'm very happy about. These may be the last people I contact before the deadline for this project with only Summer left to promote during May.
Sunday 16th -
Today I mixed Summer a bit more, focussing on Hello Girl since it is the closest to being complete and I have all the main vocal tracks. I am close to finishing the mix for this song but I'm not quite there yet. I decided that since I'm at this stage I should send it over to Georgia for her to get a better idea of the song that she's doing her voice over on.
Tuesday 25th -
My final two vocalists will be sending their parts over to me very soon now. I'm looking to finish up the mixing of Summer completely by the 5th of May. I'm setting myself that deadline because, although I'll have all of the music done by then, I think that Georgia will be sending me her voice over part slightly later. This won't be a problem because it will be really easy to put this in the mix. It doesn't need to be high quality because I'll be making it sound like a telephone vocal anyway so this will be super quick to get done. I'm going to send out reminder messages to Ceara, Chloe and Georgia about their parts soon just to move things along as quickly as possible so I have more time to get these final songs finished.
I had printer issues last week in college with the posters too. It wasn't letting me print in colour and I currently don't have a working printer at home. I will be trying to print my Spring, Summer and Seasons posters all at the same time next week so that I can get them all up in advance in time for release. I will only be back on campus a few more times before the year ends so I want to get this done really soon.
Wednesday 26th -
Chloe sent me her final vocal track over last night. I'm super happy with this because she included a high harmony and a second harmony for the "serenity" lyric which sounds amazing! She said she really likes this song and I think it is her favourite on the project. This song is also my favourite too, I feel like out of all of the songs I've written this is the one I would be most likely to listen to myself based on my own music preferences.
Thursday 27th -
Chloe sent me her final vocal track over last night. I'm super happy with this because she included a high harmony and a second harmony for the "serenity" lyric which sounds amazing! Last night I got Ceara's vocals for The Mirrorball. She had been struggling the past week with her throat after the Beat Porters gig. She played her own set as well as the band set that night and really went for it so that was understandable. Therefore, she switched the melody and lyrics around more for this song than any of the others. I'd given her much more creative freedom over this song anyway because it was a song I was struggling to find a decent melody for. This is probably because I didn't write this song in a set key. She stuck to the general theme of the song like I'd asked her to so I was very happy with the outcome. I was going to add more of a fuzzy vocal line to this anyway through mixing, but I think this went well with the raspy tone she had. I had a lot of fun adding different levels of EQ, delay and pitch correction to these vocal lines. I used pitch correction to give it that overly auto-tuned sound but it was difficult to make this sound good without the song being in a set key.
Georgia also sent me two voice recordings to choose from for the beginning of Hello Girl. One was more angry and one was more like she had given up on the situation. I was really happy with this recording too and it fits very well with the intro of the song. This means that I finally have all of the audio files I need to finish the project!
Monthly Overview - April
This month was a lot more relaxing than March. I got all of my vocal tracks in plenty of time and even had time at the end of the project to work on lyric videos that I wasn't planning on creating. I was pretty happy with where I was at in the project this month. This is probably another reason why I prefer the Summer EP to the Spring EP. I associate Spring a lot more with the stress I was feeling last month, but from planning further ahead with Summer that stress isn't as common right now. I'm very confident with where I am considering it is less than two weeks until the deadline for this project.
April 2023
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