During this project I learned a lot about mixing and recording. At the beginning I had limited knowledge of mixing and definitely knew nothing about the recording industry and the process of recording itself. I was excited to learn new things and finally find out how recording happened.
Outside of lesson time I helped some of he degree students with their recording projects, performing in a band and gaining experience in a studio environment. This went quite well although there was one session where I got quite stressed out. However when it came to our studio sessions, these experiences helped me to know what to expect and even deal with a few of the problems that I faced.
I am now able to successfully mix a track, despite the fact that the raw recording was not very good. Of course that does not mean that there were not problems during the mixing process either. It required a lot of tweaking. I think that if I ever need to again, I will be able to mix something and make it sound really good.
The things that I would change about this process is the kick drum micing because for the first 7 takes of the recording it was not being picked up at all and on the final one it sounded poor, despite all of the changes James and I made. This makes me think that we should have spent more time setting up.
Carrying out this project has provided me with a new set of skills and I am fairly proud of the outcome, even though it seemed as though I would never make it sound professional.
As for my research, I think that this project has been the best for it. I have spent hours searching for good sources to not only help me learn but to back up my opinions and points. As well as that, I used Harvard referencing for the first time and I learned the importance of doing so. This is definitely going to help me in future projects and in further life, for example at university.
My targets from the beginning of this project were; to complete a successful recording session as the engineer, using problem solving skills in order to fix any possible difficulties; to perform well when being recorded and respect the recording engineer as well as the other members of the band and to mix the recording and create a good sounding song. First of all, I have managed to successfully record a full song as the recording engineer, even if it did not sound as perfect as I would have liked it to, I managed to solve the problems that occurred eventually. Second of all, I performed in a studio environment to a good standard, respecting the wishes of the recording engineer and other band members. Finally, I mixed the recording to a fairly high standard and I am proud of it.