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And more Unit E footage:

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More UNIT E gig footage:

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UNIT E gig footage:

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UNIT E Planning:

Here is the set list for the gig that was decided after plenty of planning. We decided to try and focus on college bands and limit the number of outside bands, with only Visceract and Plastic Gold being outside bands. We decided against using the Marbles form Year 1.

In the prep for the gig I was asked to write questions for the interviews. Here are the questions that I wrote: QUESTIONS:

What is your role in the Unit E project? What does that job include? Why did you decide to do this job? (Make sure the answer is full of detail)

What do you specialise in? What have you done to improve your skills in that sector?

Tell me about the progress of the preparations for the gig?

How helpful do you feel your personal prep for Unit E has been and will be in your musical journey beyond college? Do you feel it’s valuable experience?

How are you going to solve any potential problems with the event?

Who do you imagine the audience of this event to be?

What is your overall feeling about this upcoming gig? If yes, what’s making you feel positive about it? (GO INTO DETAIL)

How did your band decide on what songs to perform? (POP)

I know you’ve been doing quite a few rehearsals for the Unit E gig. How are they going? (POP)

What’s your band name? How did you come up with it? Who decided on them and how? (POP)

Do you think that bands have leaders? If yes, who? If no, how do you make important decisions within the band democratically? (Links to question above) (POP)

Why do you prefer working behind the scenes? Do you feel you have the same amount of pressure as the performers? (TECH)

I wrote the questions to go with the assignment brief.

Here are snapshots of the two meetings. The main thing decided in these meetings was which bands were going to perform when, and which were going to perform at all (like the Marbles).

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UNIT E:

During the set up I was put in charge of making sure true cables were safe, as shown in the pictures. During the gig I was in charge of the camera on the right of the room. I moved it around and zoomed in where I felt appropriate to get the most diverse and intriguing camera work. I was a lot less animated with the smaller acts, like the DJ sets, but with high energy bands I wanted to get every member captured and I wanted the camera work to match the energy of the performance.

Here are pictures of me recording the performances with the camera:

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UNIT E:

7/6/23: The Saga of the table:

Me and Charles pulled out a long black table from backstage. We lifted it up on to the stage and messed around with putting it in a few positions next to the drum kit. It was decided that the big black table was too much of an obstruction so we tried to put the antique looking table there, and then we deliberated over using a smaller table, but Aleks from North Road needed a bigger and higher table. We decided on the one in the picture. Codi and Aidan worked on the input list. David has his own videos that he is projecting on the wall behind him during his preformance, but with the rest of the bands they just have the BPC logo in the background, all of that information was sent on a memory stick to Lewis. The final stage was completed at 14:52, and we then packed made it look neat. There were some spare wires on the stage leading up to the drum kit, which were promptly removed due to the fact that they were a hazard. They were noticed when the big black table was moved down the stairs again. Also, there was a query put to TJ about whether the orange amp would be drowned out due to how close it was to the drum kit, but TJ believed that it would be fine as it is loud enough anyway, and it will be mikes up as well. We are using a CAT 5 cable (which replaces the cable drum) to send the signal to the lighting booth and using the Ethernet socket in the booth, dropping it down to the desk. This avoids running the cable drum all the way across the room. Lewis said that the issues with the CAT 5 would be resolved if it was analogue in (or out) but data/digital in (or out). I was then sent to the cave to get a cymbal stand (for North Road) and Aidan went to get the cable drum because it was decided that the CAT 5 wasn’t going to work (contingency!!)

8/6/23: We shouldn’t coil near the multi core, only coil below the equipment the cable is connected to. Lewis suggested a new microphone technique for the piano, and we decided to test the current one and then see if the other one may be better or not. Aidan was writing down the set list and figuring out which side the second vocal mic had to be (10:08).

Codi be checking the patches. 10:10

Charles is sorting out an issue with the audio for his original track that he will play later in his DJ set (10:10).

Charles suggested going around the stage and checking the cables.

Ben, Ben and Aidan were discussing what needs to be plugged in when according to the set list (10:19)

Charles suggested putting the carpet on the cables to lessen the risk of a trip hazard.

Have the cables flat, not one on the other, because it does more damage as there is small surface area. (10:34)

Me and Stacky worked on the seating plan at the request and suggestions of Charles

Me and Codi walked around the college putting posters up advertising the gig (11:50)

Sound Check with North Road (12:00)

I was put in charge of the camera, had to stop recording when bands weren’t playing (intermissions)

There was no signal from guitar right, so the 57 was changed to see if that was the issue.

Here are images of the set up on the day:

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Unit D9 & 10:

In my plan, I wanted had it written that I would have a video varying what I was going to play and what I was going to talk about. I kept mainly to that apart from as before stated. I was going to play a video recorded of me working with Andrew, to showcase myself as a musician who can write for other people as well, but I lost the video, so instead I adapted and just played what I wrote for his song and explained the chord progression and how I figured out how to write the individual notes of the piano solo in conjunction with the chords that were being played.

UNIT D9 and 10: I recorded the videos in a bulk, all in one night after careful and meticulous planning. I decided against doing an improvisation part in the video as outlined in my plan as I tried it and ironically, nothing happened that caught my ear, so instead I decided to focus more on the pieces that I have written and talk about them. I also decided to show myself playing the entire pieces, so as to make up for the fact that I was unable to do a showcase on the day of. The videos of me talking were recorded before the day, but at the last minute I filmed myself playing the pieces for the already stated reasons.  I recorded a lot of videos separately and put them all together on CapCut, an app for video editing. The entire video came out at about 13 minutes long. This was too long to upload to the assignment so I edited the video AGAIN, making every clip around 3-4 minutes long, having to get it just right so a particular clip ends as the video cuts.

TIMELINE: I worked on the videos of me talking first, and I decided to further lean into that and record the videos of me talking whilst showcasing on the piano what I do next, and it was around that time that I filmed the video of me showcasing what I wrote for Andrew's song because I lost the videos of me actually with Andrew. I then put in the videos of me playing the pieces the whole way through and put all of them into CapCut. I decided to open with me playing a piece first, and then to keep cutting backwards and forwards between me talking and me in action on the piano, attempting to mimic the style of professional interviews with musicians detailing how they write music, like John Williams talking about the Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (https://youtu.be/4FkJLKZwNrU). This video was the greatest inspiration for me in terms of how I wanted the video to be.

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UNIT D:

D8 INTRODUCTORY BLOG: In terms of career aspirations, there are many opportunities for someone in my line of work. From freelance to becoming a studio manager, starting your own recording studio or you could become a producer. I would most likely want to be freelance, as I would enjoy working with many different people, listening to their music and challenging myself to get the sound that they want, especially when it would be different to the kind of music that I have listened to before. To achieve anyone of these, the before stated skills including competence and knowledge of mixing and confidence would obviously be vital. If I wanted to start my own studio, I would have to be even more so because I would potentially be working alone, so there would be barely any technical assistance, and the performers would be depending on me, a scenario that I must improve in. I would also need great work ethic to keep up with the workload of doing multiple jobs. UNIT D8 INTRO: Going into Year 2 at the College there were a number of things that I would like to improve upon. Mainly I wanted to improve my confidence on the mixing desk, improve my abilities with Pro Tools ,to improve my confidence especially in recording sessions or mixing sessions where I am the only presiding technician,  improve my work ethic (especially practically) and to be involved more with the gigs/ live sound scenarios. These all stem from shortcomings that I had last year. I would often find myself falling short in aspects where performers and other technicians were relying on me to set things up and/or record. I would be hindered by my lack of knowledge on what to do, my lack of motivation (especially with the physical tasks like setting up microphones) and being worried about making mistakes due to a lack of confidence. The convenient thing about setting goals to improve upon these areas is that they link together very well; improving abilities and knowledge on the mixing desk and Pro Tools are so intrinsically linked that you will struggle to learn one without the other. Improving the aforementioned will also help my work ethic because I would be more motivated to do work if I was more comfortable with what to do. Also, being improving all of the other areas will help with my contribution at the gigs because I would be more knowledgeable and able at mixing during said gigs, I would be more inclined to do physical tasks and keep it up if I improved my work ethic, and my confidence would be easier to manage and thus there would be less self inflicted pressure. An ideal way to improve many of these was to be taken out of my comfort zone and record someone in Pro Tools individually. This would kill a lot of birds with one stone because I would have to become more adept at Pro Tools and mixing desks to get a decent recording and pass the assignment, I would have to stay professional and not let fear of mistakes get to my head if I wanted to gain a reputation as a pleasant technician to work with and for the same reasons, I would have to improve my work ethic and motivation. The experience gained from this session would not only give me more experience in any future recording sessions, but also it would give me some semblance of working in a live gig, because a lot of the tasks are similar to those of a recording session, namely setting up microphones, getting good signals and being proficient at recording tracks into Pro Tools. I would also like to study Music Technology at Bournemouth University, which would be very demanding, so getting my motivation and work ethic up to scratch is obviously important for me to keep up. With the added workload of a University course, knowledge and confidence will also be vital, as I have done a tour there and the recording studios are bigger and much more complex. For me to progress to the level where I can be able and ready in that area, this Year's potential must be fulfilled to the maximum.

UNIT D8 DEVELOPMENT PLAN: An ideal way to improve many of these was to be taken out of my comfort zone and record someone in Pro Tools individually. This would kill a lot of birds with one stone because I would have to become more adept at Pro Tools and mixing desks to get a decent recording and pass the assignment, I would have to stay professional and not let fear of mistakes get to my head if I wanted to gain a reputation as a pleasant technician to work with and for the same reasons, I would have to improve my work ethic and motivation. The experience gained from this session would not only give me more experience in any future recording sessions, but also it would give me some semblance of working in a live gig, because a lot of the tasks are similar to those of a recording session, namely setting up microphones, getting good signals and being proficient at recording tracks into Pro Tools. Short Term Goals - To participate actively and usefully in the Unit E project as aforementioned. To achieve this I will constantly be suggesting ideas for what we could do, constantly asking for jobs to do and will be looking for the next job once I have finished the one I was doing. By continuously keeping busy, I will not fall victim to the idleness that constantly happened last year (namely at the Jellicoe gig). Another Short Term Goal is to complete D8, D9 and D10 to the best of my ability and to hand them in on time. I will achieve this simply by not wasting time. I will work on it whenever I have the opportunity at the college, I will make sure to use up my time at home to work on this too. I will carefully plan what I want to achieve so as not to make any mistakes and I will try and get the tasks completed with time to spare so if I want to tweak anything with the work, both practical and written. Medium Term Goals - To complete The Unit E project as aforementioned. Long Term Goals - My Long Term Goal is to graduate the course with good grades. I will be doing the best that I can to achieve the best grades possible and I will be doing everything in my Short Term and Medium Term Goals to help me due to the fact that all of the projects outlined are summative. Doing everything I can to do well in these goals is vital to getting good grades and passing the course. My Short Term Goals in relation to Unit D9 and D10 are to review what works well for composition and to create a script as to what I'm going to say and how I am going to walk the audience through the process of composing that I use. I will come up with a few examples of scales to use (and how I use them) and a few songs that I have written to put in the video, to really sell myself as a competent artist and composer. My Medium Term Goals in relation to Unit D9 and D10 are to complete the assignments to the best of my ability. This includes filming the videos for the showcase. My Long Term goals in relation to Unit D are to get the best grades possible by following the criteria. Here are some blog entries from me recording Uzi, in which you can see me reaching my goal of getting more adept at Pro Tools and recording someone by myself on a mixing desk. There was definite improvement in both confidence and ability during these sessions:

2/12/22: 9:00 - 10:30: I recorded Uzi’s piece for him. He wanted two harmonies for the first section, and a double track for it as well. I am much more confident in Pro Tools (for instance I remembered how to put the inputs in) I also am getting better at talking to the performers. We recorded a multi track for what we recorded yesterday, 2 harmonies for what we recorded yesterday, section 2 and a multi track11:00 - 12:30 Glenn switched inputs, put the mics in the others position, switched Cables (note to self, the room was a mess) and he put them side by side. 9/12/22: 9:00 - 10:30: I’ve become so good with the desk in Studio 5. I know how to make it so Uzi doesn’t hear any playback from Pro Tools. I understand the gain. I understand Pro Tools so much more now as well. I understand inputs and outputs. I understand record enabled. Everything is falling into place now. Lol Uzi explained to me that because it’s in 4/4 and he’s playing to a click, cutting the piece is easy because you have to cut to a precise number. There was a loud thud in Section 2, and Uzi realised that it was a part in the next section where I had pressed record too early and caught a thud. Uzi also wanted to record a solo in section 2 so I played it on a loop so that he could practise.

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PRODUCTION STYLES:

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PRODUCTION STYLES:

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25/11/22:

9:00 - 10:30: Glenn introduced David to a Theremin, David decided that he wanted to use the Theremin on his piece that was recorded yesterday. Two Shure mics were put in front of the speaker for the Theremin and a DI Box will be miked up as well.

11:00 - 12:30: In Studio 5, we Miked up the DI box, and Played David’s piece through his headphones so that he could improvise what he wanted to add with the Theremin. In Studio 4, Kangaroo recorded many subsections of the harmonies (eg. like low left). In Studio 5, a couple of recordings were made of David playing the Theremin whilst listening to his piece. I think the Theremin should be a bit lower, but David seemed to like it higher. We decided to have the Theremin where the piece grew in intensity, and then remove it when the piece goes back to a solo piano. Kangaroo wanted to go higher on the bridge of her song. Glenn and Harry helped David Keep in key, and once he could do that, Glenn suggested Loop recording, so David could improvise over his piece and could pick from the recordings. This was at the end of the song. There would also be a Theremin in the middle, as aforementioned.

NOTE TO SELF, DAVIDS FIRST RECORDING HAD A 2 BAR PRE-ROLL.

13:15 - 14:45: The DI Box wasn’t picking up enough signal, so the DI was changed, and it got a bit better. We then decided to do a loop recording, but for the middle. Josh recorded some electric guitar, a riff that Kangaroo sang for him, using a microphone in the studio to lead him through. Josh recommended a loose phase. Every low riff happened one beat after you would think it would come in. Josh added some muted strums in the build up/ bridge (left and right). Josh then added a bass track. There are 27 vocal tracks on Gabis song.

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11/10/22 Part 2:

EQing the Kick

There were a lot of unwanted frequencies being created by the snare so Ben used the EQ on that.

EQing on OHR

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11/10/22 - 9:00 - 12:30: I helped Ben Woodward with miking up drums and using creative techniques to get unique sounds.

Ben putting a piece of paper on the snare

It sounds better with paper, so he’s getting more. He then decided to use tape. We couldn’t find a clip for the AKG. The mic stands were all too small or too big for the Kick Drum.

Lewis taught me to use the boom extension of another microphone, you can improve the axis of articulation (the amount of elevation you can get) from the mic stand (suitable for Kick Drums).

The faders whilst recording the drums

Recording the drums.

REMEMBER TO PUT PHANTOM POWER ON CONDENSER MICS!!!!

DON’T PUT MIC CASES (LIKE THE METAL DRUM MIC PACK CASE) ON THE PIANO!!!

The snare is the green track, see how the transient is so much earlier and how there is a near 180 degree phase with the red track. However, due to the sound wave being quite small, you only need to move the Overheads a little bit. We thus moved the overheads accordingly.

I believe these are the tracks after the overheads were moved.

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7/10/22: From 9:00 to 10:30 we looked at Danger Mouse’s production trademarks. So far I have noticed that he uses a lot of ambient sounds, so there is always an ever moving background to his songs. Also, I was especially interested in his work with the Black Keys.

From 11:00 to 12:30 we were in the tech suite and I looked at UCAS again, looking for more courses that involve Music and/or History, or maybe even English.

From 13:15 to 14:45 I worked on my summary of the gig at 60 million postcards.

From 15:00 to 16:00 We met with Georgia and told when our 5 minute tutorials would be. I jammed with Codi, Stacy and Aidan to pass the time.

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4/10/22: From 9:00 to 10:30, we signed into UCAS and looked for courses. I looked for courses involving history and music.

From 11:00 to 12:30 we listened to the sounds that we were to gather to MSMI. Jules taught us about the beat calculator. He told us to match the tempo, you go to the Project DDM, go to Beat Calculator, input as many beats as you need, insert the tempo track at the tempo track start and then it matches the tempo. He also showed us videos of a Glass Armonica:

(Mozart wrote music for this instrument!)

an organ in a cave (which is the largest musical instrument)

And about Jean Michel Jarre:

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01/10/22: Here are the tech riders and the set lists for the Bands. Also attached are stage plans.

Here is a link Risk Assessment that Stacy made: https://bpcac-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/10655560_student_bpc_ac_uk/EbF0uo6IIN1ItdBiNBH0whUBhWPmYg6KwlkMxjIAfmNOHw?e=QfuuFA

Here’s an equipment list: Technical specification

2x PA (loudspeakers), 2x Monitors (foldback), 1x Sub, 23x XLR, 3x DI boxes plus a

spare DI (1x), 5x Shure mic (SM57), 6x VOCAL MIC SHURE (DYNAMIC - SM58), 2x

Condenser mic (SAMSON – cO2) 2x Bass Drum mic (AKG D112 – MKII), 3x GUITAR

Amplifier (MARSHALL Half Stack, Fender Hot Rod and BOSS -

KETANA), 2x PA stands, 1x extra cymbal stand, 1x cable with 2 ¼ inch jacks to 1

3.5mm jack, 1x Digital - MIXING DESK (SOUNDCRAFT X FOLIO),1x Laptop for

recording, 1x cable for Fire wire and laptop charger, 12x MICS STANDS, 1x BASS

AMP (Fender RUMBLE), 1x Nord PIANO (Stage X), 1x Piano seat, 12x AC Cable

(KETTLE LEAD) included of extension kettle leads,1x DRUM KIT(Full kit),1x Bass

Guitar, 1x Electric Guitar 1x 4Pc DRUM and 2x Guitar stands