Friday, May 29, 2015

6MU017 "Career Prep" - Site work Day 3

Thursday 29/5/2015
Site: Studio 21:05
Supervisor: JD Wong
Working hours: 12pm - 7pm (7 hours)

Foreword: Session editing mayhem!

Timeline:

12pm - Reported to work, briefing on quantising drum audio on Cubase

12:30pm - Quantise drum audio for mix session(Metal Song)

6pm - Consultation with supervisor on the state of the current music industry

7pm - Dismiss

Reflection:

Finally began working on mixing-related editing work, spending the good majority of the day editing drums on a metal band recording session. Given that the drums aren't as tight as desired, my supervisor wanted me to tidy up the drum tracks while he went on to run errands throughout.

By the time he came back, I was only halfway done, which goes to show the scope of the job, not easy at all despite my best efforts towards efficiency.

Ended the day with my supervisor giving me some insights on the current market for music and his past experience, before leaving for the day.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

6MU017 "Career Prep" - Site work Day 2

Thursday 22/5/2015
Site: Studio 21:05
Supervisor: JD Wong
Working hours: 2pm - 7:30pm (5.5 hours)

Foreword: 2nd day into work, much to learn.

Timeline:

2pm - Reported to work

2:30pm - Introduction to mix session prep work on Cubase DAW

3pm - Mix session prep work practice

3:30pm - Observation on vocal tracking session, talent is local artist, Aina

5:45pm - End of tracking session, continued mix session prep work

7:30pm - Dismiss.

Reflection:

Second day into the job and currently familiarising myself with the Cubase DAW, working mainly on mix session prep work. For today, I was taught to insert all the minor edits for a mix session such as trimming the tracks, inserting fade-ins and outs for all the tracks, to which I was tasked to complete for the remainder of the session.

For the rest of the day observing a vocal tracking session for local talent "Aina" for her upcoming single, further observing my supervisor's work flow on Cubase.

Wrapped up the day by finishing my mix session prep, with feedback from JD to work on more details during the prep edits. Further learnt how to add relevant plugins specific to JD template before being dismissed for the day.

Friday, May 22, 2015

6MU017 "Career Prep" - Site work Day 1

Thursday 21/5/2015
Site: Studio 21:05
Supervisor: JD Wong
Working hours: 1pm - 6pm (5 hours)

Foreword: Apart from class related paper work, I will also be documenting my daily (or at least almost daily) experiences on-site during my interning period.

Timeline:

1pm - Reported to work

2pm - Studio signal chain briefing

3pm - Observation on vocal tracking session, artist is local talent, Yubi.

6pm - Dismiss.

Reflection:

As briefed by JD prior to starting out my work in the studio, I will be spending the bulk of my 1st week just observing.

Signal chain in the studio was quite a stunner, apparently (although not surprisingly) my college's signal chain is quite vastly different from the one JD has set-up for his studio, as his is quite specific towards his work flow habits.

Spent remaining time observing Cubase work flow, which is a new DAW for me.

Work soon ended after vocal tracking, last minute cancellation of tonight's session meant I could leave early. Was advised by JD to try out Cubase trial version when I can before dismissing me for the day.

Friday, May 15, 2015

6MU017 "Career Prep" Week 2 Homework

Foreword: In the case that you, my followers, having not seen me post in almost year and are wondering why I've reappeared, I've decided to re-purpose my blog site as a means to supplement my my final-year academic endeavours, in part due to the fact that my college's own sorry excuse of a student site journal web-app is hopelessly unintuitive. If you've read thus far through my ramblings, I appreciate that you'd still hear me out, and invite you to read my mundane journal entries that I expect won't be much of an excitement for you to be honest, but feel free to make sense of it.


15th of May 2015

Work 1 - Career goals:
After using the method given in class, I have managed to reflect deeper into my own career goals using refining questions such as the following:

1. Write down your goals:
  • To be a record producer / studio sound engineer.
  • Part time drum session player for small live events
  • Be in a local band for the long term
2. From the above, choose one most important to you.
To be a record producer / studio sound engineer.

3. Now imagine you have attained that goal, what does that give you that you did not have before?
Opportunity to actively work in new projects and work stability.

4. So now that you have that, what will that give you that you did not have before?
Having time to experiment with mixing techniques

5. So now that you have that, what will that give you that you did not have before? (Keep asking till no answers)
Develop own unique sound

6. Ditto
Become on-demand for that sound.

Conclusion: Based on this exercise, my true goals are to find my own unique sound in the industry as a producer / engineer so I have my own identity in the industry.


Work 2 - Reflect on career goals

Based on the exercise above, I have come to the conclusion that as an aspiring producer / engineer, my long term goal is to develop a unique sound for myself as a way to stand out from the saturated market of the local recording establishments. Famous and inspiring record producers have highly developed tonality to their mixes and records that people would opt to go for when they are looking for a definitive sound in their records. Quincy Jones, Rick Rubin & Ryan Tedder all are known for highly distinct sounding records, and after reflecting on my own goals, have realised that in order to realistically set-up my own career, have need to work towards my own unique sound.

Work 3 - Mapping my personality (based on the Jung Typology Test) to my career goals

After taking the typology test, I came out with a result of ISFP (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Perceptive). After reading through the implications of having an ISFP personality, there are many positive traits suited for the my potential career in the studio, such as the introverted trait which indicates my tendency to be less affected by influences around people in my workplace, allowing for more focused decisions. Traits that may work against me are my sensing trait, as I will tend to be less inclined to think of the bigger picture nor process abstract concepts, preferring to be a doer instead of going by-the-book approaches, which may hinder my progress in areas more academic in nature. My perceptive trait may be somewhat of a double edged sword, as this trait implies that I allow myself to be spontaneous and laid-back, preferring to go with the moment, implying a strong creative output. But this also implies my lacking towards management in regards to time and scheduling, possibly bad judgements as well, indicating a possible unprofessional attitude in my future working ethic.

Work 4 - Reflecting on necessary steps towards planning my career

Reflecting on my personality in relation to my goals, I have realised several things that I must start doing in order to overcome some of my potential shortcomings. For starters, I will need to start making it a habit to keep a schedule, be in control of the way I spend my times for the benefit of myself and my future employers. I also have to start approaching certain concepts with a more critical interpretation, allowing myself a capacity to take in abstract ideas so that I may see the bigger picture towards a problem, supplementing my tendencies toward creative spontaneity. Doing all these would potentially shape me towards being an overall more professional worker, thus allowing myself to attain my goals much more efficiently.