| 140 EP focusing heavily on sound design | |
| Section 1: Context (approx. 300 words) | |
| My final project for this year is to create a 2-5 song EP where the focus is on producing the music and learning about sound design to a higher degree than what I am currently at, ultimately furthering my musical interests and potential career. Sound design has always been something I have been fascinating, however I have never had the greatest ability when doing sound design. I want this project to be an opportunity for me to improve my abilities and to further my overall knowledge of the topic. Additionally I want a final product at the end of this project so I am going to produce some tracks in my own style of 140 music (grime, dubstep, and bassline.) This college course that I have been on has vastly improved me as a musician. I have learnt a wide variety of skills and overcome plenty of challenges to reach a point where I feel prepared to go further into the world of music. I have helped organize an event, jazz and played in a care home, learnt about mixing and mastering, furthered my own musical ambitions and ventures, and helped a community musical group. College has also developed my collaboration skills and I have greatly improved my communicative ability. Throughout college my major interests have been in music production and technology, with producing bass music being my main musical outlet. This ultimately links into my final project for this year where I have decided to make an EP of bass music. These past few years, especially my time at college, have really made me dive deep into this area of music production and it is most definitely my sound as far as I am concerned. | |
| Section 2: Research (approx. 50 words) | |
| For this project I am going to use a wide variety of sources to conduct my research with. I will be talking to people I know in the industry to help me acquire knowledge about production and sound design techniques, as well as reading online articles discussing the matter. Additionally I will be going to written sources as I possess a few books on the subjects, as well as YouTube videos to further my knowledge of these skills. | |
| Section 3: Problem solving (approx. 100 words) | |
| When it comes to amending issues, the best way to resolve the matter is to sit down and lay out the problems that have occurred and what can be done to solve the matter. I intend to take this approach when I face adversity during the completion of my project. This may come in several forms such as, issues with hardware, losing work or forgetting to document things, lacking inspiration to produce music, plugins on my DAW not working, and many more. In the past I have dealt and resolved such issues by thinking about the matter and doing research into what can be done to help. | |
| Section 4: Planning and production (approx. 50 words) | |
To complete my project successfully and to a high level, I need to know what facilities and other various things I will need access to, as well as have a detailed week by week understanding of the tasks i will need to complete. The main facilities I will need are my own studio and colleges studios. Computer access is also important to my project, both from the production side and also the documentation side. I have detailed week by week what facilities I will need access to and what will be undertook during that time frame. | |
| Section 5: Practical skills (approx. 100 words) | |
Practical skills are important and my project requires a variety of them. The major skills I will need to exercise, are competently using synths and using my DAW fl studio. To complete this project, I will have to highly develop my skill set in synthesis and expand my knowledge of the various vst and hardware synths that the music world has to offer. Additionally I will also need to develop my usage of effects and other plugins to assist me in the production of my music and sound design. Another skill set I would like to further is self directed research and study of the topics I set out to study in this project, through taking time to carefully document the research work that I have completed and documenting it in the appropriate format. | |
| Section 6: Evaluation and reflection (approx. 100 words) | |
Reflecting on and evaluating your work is an extremely important progress if you want to successfully complete a task or improve as a musician. In this project I am going to be doing 2 forms of evaluation, video and written, to help me get a contextual understanding of everything that has happened so far and what I could do to improve myself. This will come in the form of a written evaluation every 2-3 weeks as well as a long and detailed video evaluation where I just talk to the camera and look back at everything that has occurred. Evaluation is an important step which I haven’t focused too heavily on in previous projects and it is something that I really need to step up with. | |
| Section 7: Presentation (approx. 100 words) | |
Throughout this project, I will be uploading my work onto digital space and documenting everything I can onto this website. This includes documenting research, production, and practice with synths as well as several evaluations throughout the project looking back on what I have achieved and what needs to be done. Once the project is finished I will be doing a general evaluation where I look at everything that I have done these 10 weeks and reflect on how it all has been and what improvements in myself as a musician I have made. | |
| Proposed Research Sources and Bibliography (Harvard Format) | |
| Reid, G. (2002) Practical bass drum synthesis, Practical Bass Drum Synthesis. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/practical-bass-drum-synthesis?amp (Accessed: 04 March 2024). Dill, S. (1998) Percussion Synthesis, Percussion synthesis. Available at: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~sdill/220A-project/drums.html (Accessed: 04 March 2024). Instruments, N. (2022) What is FM synthesis?, Native Instruments Blog. Available at: https://blog.native-instruments.com/what-is-fm-synthesis/ (Accessed: 04 March 2024). Bilbao, S. (2006) AM and FM Synthesis, AM and FM synthesis. Available at: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~bilbao/booktop/node10.html (Accessed: 04 March 2024). Wolfe, N. (2021) Serum VST / xfer serum – A complete guide, Gravitas Create. Available at: https://gravitascreate.com/serum-vst/ (Accessed: 04 March 2024). |
Action Plan
Week | Date Week Beginning | Activity / What you are intending to do – including independent study | Resources / What you will need to do it – including access to workshops |
| 1 | 26/2/24 | I intend to first complete my project proposal, action plan, and collect research sources. I also will start making music. | I will need a computer to write up my proposal, action plan, and to collect my sources. I already have my own studio for making music so I will use that for the practical side of things. |
| 2 | 4/3/24 | By now I should have my project proposal and action plan finished so it should now just be onto researching sound design, mixing, and practicing producing songs. | I will need access to my studio and laptop as well as the computer facilities at college to complete research while I am at college. |
| 3 | 11/3/24 | I will be continuing with researching sound design as well as mixing and other production elements. I will also have a documentation session at the end of the week. | I will need access to a computer to complete research and documentation. |
| 4 | 18/3/24 | I want to reach a point at the end of the week where I have a page with documented research that shows several different forms of researching and I also want to have 1 song completely completed. I am also going to do a general evaluation at this point. | I will need access to my studio and laptop as well as the college computers to complete this work. |
| 5 | 8/4/24 | Over easter I want to have more documentation done of both my practical and written work as well as another song completed. I am going to continue with researching and experimenting with sound design as well as starting to document the experiments I do. | I will need access to my studio and laptop, as well as the college studios and computers. I will also need access to mine and colleges synths. |
| 6 | 15/4/24 | I will continue on with my sound design research, collecting my final sources and experimenting with different synths and techniques. I will also carry on with producing music and practicing my mixing and mastering. | I will need access to my studio, laptop, synths, and colleges synths and studios. |
| 7 | 22/4/24 | I will continue experimenting with sound design and producing music. I will also do another general evaluation to track my progress so far in the project. I also need to start thinking about the artwork I am going to use for the EP. | I will need access to my studio, laptop, synths, and colleges synths and studios. |
| 8 | 29/4/24 | I will continue experimenting with sound design and producing music. At some point during this week I will also go through my digital space and organize everything. | I will need access to my studio, laptop, synths, and colleges synths and studios. |
| 9 | 6/5/24 | I am going to finish researching and experimenting with sound design. I am going to also decide on which songs I would like to release as well as the accompanying artwork. | I will need access to my studio, laptop, synths, and colleges synths and studios. |
| 10 | 13/5/24 | Showcase week where I will release my music on SoundCloud and Bandcamp. I will also do a final evaluation this week of all of my project and get my project ready to submit | I will need access to my laptop and college computers. |
| 11 | 20/5/24 | Final submission of work | I will need access to a computer. |