EVALUATION

In task 1 I presented to the class what I would be doing for my FMP. In this task, I completed my goal of communicating and showing in-depth my ideas. I gave a detailed report on what would be doing for my FMP step by step. I gave 2 presentations because I misunderstood the brief for the presentation by saying what I will be doing for my FMP not how I am going to do this. In past presentations, I haven't communicated what I will be doing to the best standard. comparing this to past tasks I have improved a lot.

I mentioned that I will be composing a 3 - 4 song EP and how I would go about doing that. I received some feedback from my tutor showing how I miss communicated some things in my presentation. Although while comparing my performance in this presentation to past ones my communication has improved a lot. With the feedback I received, I corrected my mistakes in my evaluation in task one by correcting any inaccuracies towards what I will be doing for my FMP.

Before my presentation, I completed my project proposal form. In this form, I discussed my goals and what I would like to achieve. I also gave a detailed schedule of what I was going to complete in the coming weeks while doing my FMP. I took into account the time we would be in college and the time of the easter break. I then planned to record over easter and do a lot of research.

During task two I started out with my research. I began with my primary research. I gathered information on melodies, harmonies and other techniques for writing music. I used websites, books, and youtube videos to gather all of my information. I then used some experimental research by taking what I had learnt from my primary research and trying it myself. I have examples of this in task 2 for writing melodies using scales and creating drones and other examples. My resources have all come from experienced and popular websites and artists such as GEMTRACK, MUSICGATEWAY, and Charlie Puth. I used these resources because they were helpful in describing how to write my genre of music. The websites spoke about simple music theory which was helpful for pop music and Charlie Puth is a successful why full pop artist himself, this is just one reason why these sources are reliable. I looked at a few artists for inspiration such as; Mumford and Sons, Ed Shearen, Vance Joy and of monsters and men.

This research has developed my work by showing different techniques i can use while recording and producing. One example of this is Charlie Puths technique of recording close and far away from the microphone. This technique has developed my work extremely helping me with harmonies and my lead vocals.

The elements of my project that have been most effective have been my overall song writing, lyric writing and melody writing. I have succeeded in writing very good catchy melodies and hooks for my songs using my research.

While I was songwriting I explained how I changed some sections of the songs and changed the way I recorded the drums. I first used midi drums but they sounded fake and were ruining the song. To solve this I live recorded the drum on an electric kit. I feel like I succeeded in getting a realistic sound out of the drums although an acoustic kit would have been better for the future. Using EQ editing and a small amount of reverb I successfully created a warm snare a punchy kick and clean-sounding toms and cymbals. I did this because It made my tracks sound more live and like my project brief.

From the beginning of this project, I had no experience in live recording or producing. I had gained some knowledge from past projects showing how to mix and master briefly which was a big help but other than those experiences the only thing I knew how to do was write midi instruments and add effects. From this project I have learned how to live record vocals, write melodies, mix music appropriate to the pop genre, master tracks, and pitch edit vocals to be 'Spotify ready' and clean, I have developed my skills in time management by keeping to a tight schedule. I have gained experience through trial and error by mixing my tracks and changing the levels of the instruments and listening to them on different speakers learning how to control the bass, the mids and the highs to be equal. I have improved my communication and collaboration skills, by writing with my dad I have also improved my teamwork skills by separating the roles of this project.

The studio being booked by others has affected the progress of my project because I struggled to find time to go in there and master my tracks this caused me to slightly rush my mastering but I was still able to complete my tracks to a good standard.

After writing my songs over half term I began mixing. I mixed my track on logic because I would be able to spend more time on my track by working on them at home. After mixing my tracks using all of my research I then came into the studio with my bounced WAV files of all of the songs and mastered my tracks. I then used the distribution service, Route Note. In my presentation, I explained that I was going to use tune core but after some further inspection, I used route note because it's free and I get to keep 85% of my royalties.

For my art work, my initial plan was to collaborate with an art student who was going to create an album cover for me similar to the one I already have. The brief for the artwork was floating in the clouds, due to the lack of time and the art student I was going to collaborate with being un available I used a photograph on my phone that met the brief. The photograph is a photo of me sitting on a cliff edge with loads of clouds around me. This shows the free-floating aspect of my sitting on the ledge with a big free space below and the clouds are shown by the real clouds.

I then used this album cover to release my music on multiple streaming services such as, Spotify, youtube, apple music and many more. These were the streaming services that my target audience use the most. this was shown in my research at the beginning on my project 2.

To conclude;

I carried out my project brief to write and produce a 3 song EP to a good standard. While mixing mastering, and collaborating with my dad I was able to write 3 songs that were appropriate to my target audience and met the expectations of the artists I took inspiration from. Over all I would say the project was a success, despite the slight hurdles I had to get over during the process. If I was to do this project again I would firstly live record my instruments and take my time more while recording, mixing and mastering to avoid rushing and getting the best possible outcome.