Greg Lester

Grade I'm working towards - Distinction I have received very positive feedback with which I'm incredibly pleased with, this motivates me to keep going on the path that I'm already on and putting more hard work into the tasks in order to get a distinction for my final grade. Chalie did not give me any points on which I can improve so I will try to list a few things on which I can focus on: Including more evidence such as audio, video, and pictures in my session diary blog posts and my research tasks Sticking to my deadlines, I have done quite a good job of this so far but there is still room for improvement. I will attempt to analyse why I wasn't able to hold in the deadline for a task I set myself and write about it in my session diary to reflect upon it so that it won't happen anymore in the future I should proof read my blog posts and research tasks and check for grammar, spelling and content mistakes

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...

Week 3, Monday 8th of May Goals: Write a lyric inspiration sheet which states what the lyrics will be about, what the anticipated emotional response of the audience is, what the message of the song is and the story of the song. Send the lyric inspiration sheet to Lauren and talk to her about the concept. Jam with Jonny. Start the Research Task A. Resources: DAW (FL Studio), midi keyboard, No Art Poems, Helmet For My Pillow, Notebook Diary: This week I successfully completed writing the lyric inspiration sheet which will be the guidelines and inspiration for Lauren to start writing the actual lyrics. I poured all my emotions into it and thus don’t want to share a screenshot because it’s a description of the pain I felt when a tragic accident happened in my family. Because of the incredibly powerful emotions, I had during this time I thought it would be a good opportunity to further process these feelings through music and write a gripping and authentic song. I sent the ...

Today I experimented with my Volca Bass from Korg because synthesis will play a part in my composition as I'm using synthesizer VST's and possibly even the Korg Volca Bass in my track. Since it's monophonic I tried tuning the three oscillators differently with VCO 1: being tuned up 12 semitones, VCO 2: at 0 and VCO 3: tuned up 7 semitones to create a chord like note. Then I set the LFO to control the amplitude and the cutoff of the sound. I turned up the peak a little bit so I'd get an edge on the sound and messed around with the LFO rate and the cutoff while feeding the synth midi from FL Studio through the USB-to-midi adapter. I plugged my headphones into the audio output of the synth usually I would run it through my audio interface so I could actually record the synth through my DAW. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough space in my backpack to bring my audio interface to class. I will continue trying to create interesting sounds which I can record and incorpo...

Tasks: Task 2: Research and development       Part A: Recording examples research       Part B: Production tools research Task 3: Audio submission Task 4: Reflective evaluation Classes: Project group:  this class basically supports every task because we get the information on how to best approach each challenge. We can also ask questions and get feedback from Steve on our work. Audio Principles: this lecture particularly helps us in our recording examples research and our production tools research class as we learn the theory behind a lot what goes on in the synth world and the physics behind the music, as well as file formats and a lot of other ver useful things. Additionally, the class will provide us with knowledge to get the best sound quality for our audio submission Critical listening: is incredibly helpful for our recording research task because we analyse different genres of music and talk about what elements make it a...

Week 2, Monday 1st of May Goals: Work on the instrumental backing track, find out which instruments I want to record live and jam with Jonny who is a very talented guitarist to possibly create an additional a top line or backing melody Resources: Electric guitar, Kemper, Guitar pedals, Midi keyboard, DAW (FL Studio, Logic), YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Microsoft Word Diary: This week I’ve almost completely finished the instrumental backing track, I am very happy with it and I’ve shown it to Lauren and Callum who gave me really positive feedback. I still need to change some minor things, for example, I’m not quite happy yet with the breakdown after the first chorus and additionally, I want to slightly alter the second chorus to make it a little bit more different from the first one. I’ll probably do this by adding a live recorded guitar to it and possibly another synth layer. Even though I’m well on schedule, I unfortunately, did not complete one of my weekly g...

Today I started with my Research Task A, I chose the songs that I will analyse and wrote down the main focus points of my research for example: Performance accuracy Audio quality Recording techniques Mixing techniques Arrangement Production techniques I started analysing the first of the three tracks “True Friends by Bring Me The Horizon”. I listened to the track multiple times and wrote down some key aspects of the track and how it differs from the typical metal song. I analysed the music video and tried to figure out what gear Jordan Fish (the keyboard player and programmer uses) in the studio and for his live performances. I found an interview where he shines some light on this topic and I will probably use some quotes from it. In the lesson Industry Related Project I learned how to cite correctly using the Harvard format and Colin Duran our lecturer showed us a very useful website called “Cite This For Me” which automatically creates citations for your ...

In Task 1 we have to fill out a proposal form and state the following: - What I've learned till now - What I want to do for my Project 4 Assessment - What resources I will need to facilitate the project - What research I will conduct - Set myself deadlines and create an action plan The deadline for this task is: 08/05/2017 Task 2 is a Research and Development task where we have to research recording examples in Part A, analyse them and write a 500-word blog post about it. Part B is a research exercise about production tools, which ones are good and bad and which ones I will utilise myself and we will have to write another 500-word blog post. The deadline for Part A&B is 05/06/2017 Part C is a ongoing session diary where we update our progress via blog posts. The deadline for this is 19/06/2017 Task 3 is an audio submission of our composition which needs to be handed in by 26/06/2017 And the final task 4 is a written blog post of 500 words where we evaluate how...

Week 1, Monday 24th of April Goals: Have a clear idea and end goal of what kind of song I want to write. Create a cohesive plan on how to approach the writing process, the recording process, the mixing and finally the mastering process Write chord progression on the piano, write down the inspiration for the lyric writing process Resources: Piano, Midi keyboard, DAW (FL Studio), YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, Microsoft Word Diary: During this first week, I wrote my Project 4 proposal and part of the task was to complete a “Project action plan and timetable” this really helped me to set deadlines for myself and get a clearer overview of when I needed to start working on a certain task. Till now I’ve held in all the self-set deadlines and I’m on the right path to completing my work and handing it in on time. Having a timetable like this will also be very crucial to securing enough studio time because I can book it ahead of time to ensure that I am able to use it during t...