02/04
The progress within this week has been successful in many ways due to having a rough final copy of all of my songs written. This means that I will be more prepared for going into the recording studio and writing my songs on Logic Pro. I have practiced and revised the structure of City of Street Lights so therefore it fits with the theme of the EP. As beforehand my first version of City of Street Lights was more ideal for an acoustic arrangement/performance, however now I have changed it to be more pop/electronic based so that it fits with my theme. I think this will make my EP more successful due to it making my EP more cohesive and better arranged. I have also worked out a budget for my EP and therefore I have looked into the cost of creating promotional aspects of the EP and how much I would be willing to spend to get more of an audience for my EP.
In some ways this week has also been unsuccessful as I haven’t completed much research. This means that I will need to do more in the upcoming week to ensure that it is completed. This could also suggest that I need to keep to my schedule and ensure that I document my process to ensure that I’m staying on track throughout making the EP. To do this I could ensure that I keep up with my weekly evaluations as well as checking my schedule and ticking off the things I have completed that week.
09/04
This week I started my research, I firstly went to Leeds Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institution to look at various artwork to inspire my EP. I could then use this research to influence the visuals of my cover art and promotion to ensure that people are engaged and interacting with my promotion. I believe that this week has been successful in some ways due to evaluating the artwork that I had recorded and taking inspiration from the artwork. This means that I am mostly on track as I have also taken photos of for promotion on City of Street Lights as I went outside to take pictures of street lights. This was successful as I was then able to use these photos for promotion later on.
In some ways I could have improved this week by also finishing off my research to put me more on track with my schedule. If I had completed this then it would have saved me time later to check when I was also recording my EP at the same time. For next week I will ensure that all my research is completed to ensure that I am on track, for example I will research into successful artists/artists that I enjoy listening to and how this could influence my EP.
16/04
This week I have started the recording process for City of Street Lights. This means that I will be able to complete this song by next week. It took me a while to get inspired by the instrumentation and sound of the piece at first, which meant that this song did take a longer time than the other songs to record. However I do believe that this week was successful as I have completed a lot of work already on this song which means that I am making a steady progress throughout.
However since it took me a while to process the song and get into the flow of recording, this meant that I will have to record my vocals next week to ensure that City of Street Lights is completed. This means that it may push behind the next song that I will be working on, but for now I will attempt to keep track of where I am with each song.
23/04
This week I started to input the vocals on the track, City of Street Lights on Logic Pro. This means that I can now create a rough mix ready for my mixing engineer to mix this properly. I have now started to move onto Into the Blue and I have added all the instrumentation on the track and chords too. This means that the progress on this song is ahead of my schedule, which means that I have made up for the time I took to record, City of Street Lights. On the 25/04 I also recorded vocals on Into the Blue.
I do not have any improvements on time keeping and my schedule this week, as I am ahead of my schedule.
30/04
This week I started the recording process of, idon’tseemtoloveyoursmileanymore. I added all the instrumentation and chords within this week. This means that I am on track with my schedule. This song didn’t take long to record on Logic Pro as I had an exact idea of what I wanted it to be. Therefore it was simple for me to add the notes and instrumentation that I wanted due to having a vision for the song. During this week I also recorded the vocals for this track. This means that I am exactly on track and where I want to be with the project. I also created a rough mix whilst adding the vocals.
An improvement for this week is to ensure that my online portfolio is up to date with all my work and to ensure that my research is refined. This will mean that I will be able to use my research more efficiently when looking for inspiration.
7/05
I have started the recording process for Underwater using Logic Pro. I have inputted all the ambient instrumentation and chords from my songwriting process. This has meant that I can create the vision of the song that I originally had to ensure that this song is exactly as I want it to be. For this week, I am on track with my schedule as I also inputted the vocals for Underwater. However whilst listening through my songs to double check my mixing I encountered a problem. I needed to adjust the instrumentation of idon’tseemtoloveyoursmileanymore due to it not being as clear and precise as I wanted it to be, I found that the synth sounds in the piece meant that it sounded fairly muddy as the sounds blended together as they were all in a similar range. I also did the photoshoot for my EP on the 9/05. I can now begin to edit them for my promotion. I also set up a practice room for my Acoustic session for my EP. On the 11/05 I recorded the Acoustic section for my EP, this went successfully as I completed it within a couple of hours and I recorded 2 versions of each song so that I could chose the best one to include for my EP.
14/05
This week was the week of mixing and editing the final edits, it was basically a week to adjust anything I needed to on the songs, but also have them ready for the EP by the end of the week. On the 17/05 I received my final mixes from the mixing engineer. Most of the mixes brought the pieces to life.
However 2 of the mixes needed adjusting as the splash sound at the end of Into the Blue wasn’t loud enough and one of the vocal lines in City of Street Lights came in too loud. Once this was adjusted then my EP would be completed, I also received the final mixes for my Acoustic versions too, these were exactly how I wanted them to sound.
During this week I also prepared for my first Mock Performance at the Mill Hey Brewhouse. This meant that I was on track with my schedule.
21/05
I performed at the Mill Hey Brewhouse on the 2o/05, and it was successful! I also created 2 promotional videos to be included on my Facebook page to promote my EP. I added my EP music on top to include previews of the EP.
On the 24/05 it was my second Mock Performance in the Art Gallery in college as well as my Final Performance in the evening. This went successfully. As well as this I am also still on track with my schedule and up to date with most things, including my notepad portfolio.
On the 26/05 I also released my single, City of Street Lights. This went extremely successfully and lots of people enjoyed the song.
28/05
This week was successful as I was preparing to release my EP. This meant uploading my tracks onto Spinnup and Bandcamp and creating the artwork for the cover and also creating promotional material for my EP so that when it went live I could post a video presenting the launch. On the 1/06 I released my EP on Bandcamp.
I believe that this week was successful as I released my EP and I also creating lots of paid advertisements to present my EP to more people. However I also believe that it was unsuccessful in some ways due to the release of my EP being later in the week than expected as Spinnup, the distribution company, kept needing me to readjust the titles of my songs, this however meant that my EP would have to be released on Spotify and ITunes much later, therefore I released my EP on Bandcamp on the 1/06 to ensure that it was still released on that date, and just announce the release on the other platforms when they are released.