iskandar1397

[iskandar1397]

End of Internship @gudproductions

My internship with gudproductions officially ended on 1st August 2022. I am grateful to be given the opportunity to intern at a company that allows its interns to actually plan and execute projects that deal with real clients. I have learned so much from this experience and would cherish all the memories and experiences, good and bad, as it has made me a better individual. All the skills that i have acquired not only relating to audio but other skills like communicating with clients, organization of events, and administrative responsibilities like production schedules, tech riders and input lists.

I have decided to continue to work at gudproductions as a freelancer as they trust me to be one of their audio engineers. I am looking forward to working with them on bigger projects and continue my learning experience, becoming better at what I do as I intend to make this into a sustainable career for myself.

[iskandar1397]

The next project that I was involved in was my first live sound project for the company where I took on the role of A1. It took place at 'The Spot' a restaurant located at Marina One East Tower and it was closed off for a private event that was happening that day. It was a rather simple setup consisting of 2 FOH speakers, 1 mixer, 2 mics and 1 DI box for acoustic guitar. However, to mix in the restaurant was a challenge as I had to mindful of the levels on the FOH speakers - it shouldn't be too loud as the customers wouldn't be able to hear themselves converse.

It was a 2 piece setup consisting of 1 Vocalist and 1 guitarist, they were playing 3 sets that were 45 minutes long each, so in between those sets, I had to play background music to fill up the empty gaps in between.

It was a very interesting and fruitful experience for me as I had the opportunity to mix a live 2-piece band for a small venue. This boosted my confidence as an audio engineer, preparing me with the necessary set of skills to tackle bigger bands at bigger venues.

[iskandar1397]

The next project that I was involved in was another drum and bass recording for a different artist who goes by the stage name of Don Aaron. For this recording session, we had to simultaneously record the drums and bass, a slightly different setup from my last drum recording. We also had to provide monitoring for both the bassist and drummer, to allow them to monitor themselves as well as the backing and click tracks. For the drum recording, we used slightly different mic techniques considering we had lesser inputs and lesser mics for this recording session, for the bass we used a DI box connected directly to the audio interface. Here is the input list:

Kick In

Kick Out

Snare Top

Hi-Hat

Tom 1

Tom 2

Floor Tom

OH L

OH R

Bass

Signal chain for this session is from drum and bass, recorded into a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 connected by optical cable to RME Fireface which is the master device. On RME Totalmix Window, the application to control the parameters of the RME audio interface, we can set the gain, levels, pan, effects that can be sent to the musicians in-ear mixes for them to monitor. Then on Logic Pro X, The tracks will be set up to record all the mics and bass inputs, we will also be able to send click and backing track from logic to the musicians by routing the outputs into the RME headphone outputs.

For this session, one of the biggest challenges for me was to familiarize myself with a new recoding interface which is the RME Fireface. I had help from the previous recording but this time, I was alone and had to figure it out by myself. There were some tracks that weren't recording, so i had to be fast and figure out a solution as the whole session was dependant on me rectifying the problem. However, through this experience, I was even more confident to operate a recording session by myself, interacting with clients and understanding their needs.

[iskandar1397]

The next project that I was involved in was a gig that I suggested to the company to do. This gig is called "Schools Out" where it featured some of my classmates' recital sets which they did for school. As not all were free to do the show, we managed to get local indie band "Inky Vibe" and local artist Ridz Razali to fill up the remaining slots. My classmates that played were Charissa, Jazima and myself. The main idea behind this is to give exposure to my classmates and give them the experience of performing to the public. It was a successful gig as the tickets were sold out and everyone had a good time playing good music.

My role during this gig was to do live sound as well as recording for all the bands that were performing that day. Since I was involved in 3 of the performances that day, a team member from the company took over the role of A1. It was a stressful yet fruitful experience for me as I had to conduct line check, soundcheck as well as settle monitoring for the bands. I also had to monitor the levels for recording on the DAW in my laptop.

For post-production, I was tasked to mix and master 1 track from each set that will be posted on Youtube for everyone to see. It took me about a week to get everything done. After it was released on the company's youtube channel, the videos had good traction where one video had the highest view count on the channel. The link to the videos will be attached to this post.

I learned a lot from doing this project as it tested my technical knowledge and skills as an audio engineer but it gave me experience and confidence to do another show like this in the future. I'm also thankful for this opportunity and trust given to me by the company to carry out this project.

[iskandar1397]

Here are some pictures from a recording I did with guproductions for a local band called "Purnamas". My responsibility was to record live drums for their new EP. With the help of other crew members, we set up the microphones and and ran the cables to 2 audio interfaces connected by an optical cable. This expands our inputs and outputs to accommodate more mics that were needed to do a studio recording of a drum kit.

This was the input list for reference:

Kick In

Kick Out

Snare

Tom 1

Floor Tom

OH L

OH R

Room L

Room R

Some of the challenges faced during the recording process was trying to dial in the right sounds from the drum kit. This is important as it would be easier for us in the post-production process. Another challenge would be mainly for the drummer as he had to record 4-5 songs in 1 session and it may be tiring for him. So we decided to plan for rests in between each take so it would not be so tiring for the drummer.

From this session, I learned that being prepared before the actual recording is important. For example, planning what mics to use for which instrument as well as the input list for the session. Having an input list that everyone in the team can refer to will be beneficial for everyone as it would mean lesser time would be spent on setting up the mics and cables.

[iskandar1397]

Internship with gudproductions pte.ltd.

My internship with gudproductions officially started on 1st Jun 2022. However, I was already working with the company before that, freelancing for live events as well as recording for bands and ensembles.

gudproductions is an audio and visual company that focuses on live events as well as events that require audio recording, video recording and lighting. During my time at the company, my main role was to assist in audio production, mixing and mastering. However, I have also assisted in project management for small audio recording projects. I've also assisted the main audio engineer at live events, taking on the role of A2, and for some, A1.

The reason why I chose to intern at gudproductions is because I wanted to work on my skills as an audio engineer, which is one of the career paths that I am interested in pursuing after I graduate. I believe working with a company that is currently in the industry, gives me real world experience that I would not have been able to acquire on my own.