Learning a second instrument: drums

At the moment I'm trying to learn to play drums, I'm currently collaborating on a coupke of tracks with my very good friend Tom who is a extremely talented drummer.

One of my favourite things to do when producing a track is to programm the drums, not just accoustic and/or electronic but also epic cinematic percussion. My hands and feet are usually tapping on something in a rhythmic way (I'm very bad at sitting still) and because of all this I figured: why not just try playing drums?

Three days ago I was in the studio jamming with Tom and he taught me some basic drumbeats which I picked up pretty quickly, I really enjoyed it....
So yesterday I went to the drum pods and booked one for 1:30 hours and just jammed along to tracks that I liked and it was so fun! So today I bought some used drumsticks from Max and I'm going to try to practise at least 3 days a week to hopefully be mediocre by the time of christmas. Atleast that is my goal.

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Project 4, Session diary 7: Mick Gordon's DOOM soundtrack

Week 3, Monday 15th of May Goals: Optimize workflow, continue working on the instrumental, practice sound design in serum and with the Korg Volca Bass, write notation for instruments to record Resources: DAW (FL Studio, Logic), instruments (guitar, piano, etc.), leads, mics, Diary: I completed 3 of the 4 goals I set myself this week, I practiced sound design and wrote a blog post about how I jammed with the Korg Volca Bass. I continued working on the instrumental and have nearly completed it now. I tested the mix in MIT 3 through the Genelec speakers and wrote down some things I need to focus on and change to make it cleaner. I also restructured my room to create a more comfortable working environment, I moved my bed to the window to create more space to sit at the desk and removed equipment I don’t use to have more desk space. This really helped me optimize my workflow because I didn’t have things lying around and distracting me and additionally I could easily get t...

Project 4, Session Diary 11: More feedback and track changes

In my last entry I stated that I would re-record the vocal but after long and careful consideration and some more feedback from friends and tutors, I decided to keep the take we had already recorded. My reasoning behind choosing not to re-record the vocal is that I really like the take, I think that we captured the emotions of the song. There are a couple of intricacies of her performance which I think could not be replicated. I tested the Rode NT1A with Lauren and in my opinion, it does sound better than the TLM 103 by Neumann. Her voice sounds fuller and more natural but I think for this specific song the TLM 103 was the right choice because the vocal is a bit more breathy and almost heavenly. It’s quite hard to describe but the sound of it melds well with the instrumental. On Monday in sequencing skills, I presented my track to the class and my lecturer Shea and received very positive feedback. He said that I should sit down and mix the vocal again but not re-record it. W...

Project 4, Session Diary 10: Feedback from friends and tutors

Current version of song which I showed the people giving me feedback: https://clyp.it/dvawbtpy Today in Professional Industry Practice I approached a couple of my friends and my tutor Colin Doran to give me feedback on my song. I received very positive feedback overall and the main improvement points from my friends, Callum, Chloe, Alex, and Christie were to record some harmonies with the vocal, add some toms to the buildup before the chorus for extra tension and to make the vocal a bit louder in the parts where Lauren is singing quite low. Colin was very critical about the track but he said it is a very good song and has incredible potential. He suggested to rethink some parts of the arrangement because I the piano melody is very strong and needs to show a bit more sometimes, this could be achieved by some volume automation. The vocal sounded a bit muddy to him and he told me to experiment with different microphones and possibly record some counter melodies and harm...

Greg Lester

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