I Haven’t done anything arrangement wise with the song this week as a lot of my focus has been on the first single, so the song hasn’t changed since the last draft and I don’t have any ‘improvements’ to make because of this. Most of the week for this song, therefore, has been admin tasks like finding collaborations. However, I think this song is almost finished structure and instrument wise, other than the fact I need to add the flute tracks that I received at the end of this week, but didn’t have time to include. After adding this instrument and depending on how finding a rapper works out, I want to move onto the mixing and mastering process and learn more about this responsibility with the help of Lewis.
Progressions And Strengths
Before Lex sent these final takes of the flute, I was given a draft just to make sure it sounded right before he did the final take. You can find this draft here which also contains a sub-bass track that he did for me: https://bradfordcollegeac-my.sharepoint.com/personal/10487269_bradfordcollege_ac_uk/Documents/Microsoft%20Teams%20Chat%20Files/Chill%20breakbeats%20(Quick%20take).mp3. I will add the final take of the tracks next week, but I’m glad I finally have the stems for the flute parts as this is like the final touch and what I have been waiting for. Then, I can move to mixing the song and learning about mixing/mastering techniques as I have never done this professionally before. Here are all of the stems for the flute tracks: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/up0gaxhunoc7z5f/AADee_eFSsINVWPHvdGurbOea?dl=0. The link contains the draft stems, the final take stems (left and right) and a sub-bass track that Lex (the flutist) showed me for an experiment but I happened to really like it. Both the draft and real stems also contain an extra track which is solely for a delay pedal that he used. He gave me these separately so I can change the delay effect or even remove it where and when I want. I’m glad I got both the draft and real takes as some of the things he did in the draft recording would still sound great in the song along with the real recording.
As well as receiving the flute parts, I have also been doing some work on looking for a rapper who would be willing to rap over this single as I and Lewis have been talking about doing this for a while. I recently joined a Discord server for musicians and it allows you to promote yourself, collaborate with other musicians and request collaborations. There are also groups you can join within the server to find tips from other users about your instrument, producing, music theory, songwriting etc. which is really helpful when you have any questions. They put on classes run by professional musicians and run events like collaboration challenges and open mic nights. I put up an advert on there a couple of days ago requesting a collaboration with a rapper and linked the song they would be working on. I haven’t had any replies as of yet but a lot of people have viewed the message and opened the file I linked.
I also plan to put up a Facebook Advert as I have found a lot of groups specifically for finding musicians and wanting to collaborate. I want to make the advert look professional so I will make a poster on Canva which has all the information the viewer would need if they were wanting to work with me. I obviously need to state that this work is for educational purposes so this will not be a paid collaboration like how I mentioned in the advert above.
Targets For Next Week
-Implement the flute tracks into the song.
-Carry on working on advertising for a rapper to feature on the song.
-Talk to Lewis about beginning to mix and master the song ready for the online showcase.