Greg Lester

My aims for project 4 were to write extensive and in-depth research tasks which will aid me during the project and help me acquire knowledge in the fields of sound design and compositional skills, write a song in a genre out of my comfort zone and collaborate with a vocalist. During all of this, my goal was to document all of my progress in session diaries. I was able to complete all of the tasks in time, handing them in on the deadlines, I stuck to my original action plan and proposal and which helped me complete all tasks on time and structure my free time to work on the project.  Currently, I’m working towards a distinction which I was aiming for and I am very happy with the incredibly positive feedback I have received from my marker. I have learned a lot in the last eight weeks, explored new techniques and broadened my musical horizon. A lot of this is due to the fact that I ventured into a new and unknown territory and went out of my comfort zone to write something very e...

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...

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...

On Wednesday the 13th of June 2017 I booked Pro Control to record the vocals with Lauren Walton. The session started at 16:00 but since Lauren had a tutorial since 17:20 I used the time that I had to set up the mics and prepare a logic project. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the recording session.   I used a TLM 103 by Neumann to record the lead vocal because Lauren has quite a high voice and because the TLM 103 is so bright and airy it really fits. I went for a very clear and clean sound so I used a pop shield to get rid of excess air and sibilants. Because I wanted to try something new and experiment I recorded the sound of the room with the AKG C414 by setting it up further away next to the mixing console on the left to the singer, with this mic I planned to capture a duller and darker sound to blend with the crisp and clean lead vocal. Since there was, unfortunately, a second band playing in Demo 2 I had to set up the mics so that they wouldn’t pick ...

I previously showed friends my audio submission to get some critical feedback on the instrumental and adjust it where needed. Because I am not very good at writing lyrics or singing so I'm collaborating with Lauren Walton to take on both of those tasks. I wrote up a lyric inspiration sheet and sent it to her and personally had a long talk with Lauren about the concept of the song and what it was about. She will give me the lyrics by next week and I will book a studio to record her. I recorded and produced a couple of her songs and we tested which mic suits her voice best and I decided that I liked the TLM 103 by Neumann the most.  I intend to record a guitar part which Jonny Sands will play for the second chorus and possibly the breakdown to make it more powerful. He will teach me the basics of playing guitar so I will be able to better communicate with him what exactly I am looking for and try to jam myself and experiment with melodies/chord progressions that could fit. ...

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...