The Halfway Point

How do you think you are doing?

Well enough, the song is fully composed. I've also researched what mics I'm going to use for the first recording session, so I will start recording soon.

What problems have you encountered?

I haven't really encountered any problems, apart from a chord which should have been changed, but I've done that now. I will probably encounter some problems during recording.

How have you overcome these?

Listened to the song, noticed that the chord didn't fit. Found a new one.

Are you on target according to your proposal form?

No, I am behind on recording, but will start soon.

The rest of the instruments.

The rest of the instruments in this track are going to be played by me. I am currently undecided on whether I want to add more instruments, such as violin. The instruments I am playing are:

Guitars: There are a ton of guitars in this track. This is my main instrument and I composed some of the song on the guitar - it is well within my skill level but the main part will test my concentration and stamina with constant barre chords.

Bass: The bass is an instrument I've been playing for a while, the bass line is simple and should be easy to play. I will use my fingers to play it to achieve a warmer tone with less attack.

Keyboards: There are a few chord backings. I will play these on the keyboard which I have been playing for 4 years; I am a litle rusty but the part is not too complicated and will help me to get back into it.

Overall this song is not too challenging but is different from what I am used to. It gives me an opportunity to use the techniques which I excel at; vibrato and bends, and work on increasing my stamina using barre chords. It will also help me get back up to speed on the keyboards.

Microphones for recording the drums.

For this recording I am aiming for a mellow jazzy feel, these are the microphones I want to use:

Overheads: I will be using a Cascade Fat Head pair in the Blumlein technique.
Kick: SM 58
Snare: SM 57
Hi-hat: Pencil condenser
Cymbals: C1000s

I am not miking the toms up as they are not used in the song. I want a really warm, vintage sound for my drums, with a lot of emphasis on the cymbals, hence why I am miking them up.

This will be challenging to record as the genre and techniques are different from what we [me and the drummer] normally use. Usually, we record rock and are proficient at doing so. Using different mics and miking techniques will help extend our range of techniques and help us to become better at recording overall.

This song also poses a challenge for the drummer. This song is written to be sad and mellow; the drums are soft and the snare is on the off-beat. The drummer I am using is a rock/metal drummer and usually does not play with a metronome or guide track, which he will be doing in this recording. This will help him to become a better drummer.

Week 2 - Progress so far

Rock song? Well I guess you really couldn't call what I've got so far a rock song. I'm changing the title, it's now just a song, since I can't really explain the genre of what I've decided to create.

The program I'm composing on is a nifty little tool called "Guitar Pro 5". I like it a lot, and use it for most of my composing. One of the reasons I like it so much is that it allows me to view both the score and tab of a piece at the same time:

It's all MIDI but you type it in using either the tab or the score. It's my preferred way of writing as I can come up with a riff on the guitar and write in the tab. It allows you to use techniques such as bends and slides too.

In this project I'm doing 3 things:

1. Writing a song
2. Recording the song
3. Mixing the song

Why no mastering? Well, I only have around 2 months to do this. It's challenging enough. Whilst I aim high, I feel mastering it on top of everything else I need to do is a bit much.

The first thing I've decided to do is work on one of the many ideas that I jot down on GP5 (Guitar Pro 5). They aren't full songs, and there's a lot of room to work with on them, but they are solid melodic ideas. I take a leisurely scroll through my little folder:

As we can see, I'm innovative with my titles. Those letters in parentheses are a guideline for how complete the songs are. (A) stands for idea, (B) stands for developed idea and (C) stands for a complete song. As of yet, there are no Cs. That's something that will be changing soon.

I had a quick listen to all of these, which took a while. Most of them are decent at best, although you can pretty much tell how good they are by the dates. I had just finished listening to "heavy rock song" when I open the next piece up, the eloquently named "jg". I have a listen and it strikes me as very nice. At this point it was little more then a mellow instrumental based on a simple Emaj7 riff.

In just a day's work, I've sat down and created a piece which I am extremely happy with. This song is, at least to me, very relaxing. I find it hard to point out things that I don't like - a rare occurrence. It still needs work, definitely, but the major ideas are there. I need to change the chord before the key change, but that will take about 5 minutes to find a nice sounding chord to fit in there.

Here's a link to the song:

http://soundcloud.com/ampburner/individualprojectpiece1

I'm enjoying this project.

Week 2 - Choosing a project title and outlining what I aim to achieve.

This week I've decided to go with my initial idea of composing an original song. I've fleshed it out a little bit to include recording and mixing, I have also outlined what I aim to achieve. Project title?

The Writng, Recording and Mixing of an Original Rock Song.

Week 1 - Initial Ideas.

The idea which I am considering using is rather simple. Basically, I research aspects of composition within a specific genre (i.e classic rock) to create an original piece. This will demonstrate research skills and creativity as well as recording and mixing techniques.