FMP 2021 - Evaluation (24/5/21)

Overall, despite my concerns, the project was a success. Many things went well. As promised on my proposal, I did compose my own piece, as well as did do some production. The piece I composed was very successful, being arguably one of the best pieces I have composed, so far, due to how well I have structured it, meaning that my sequencing, arrangement and composition skills have improved. I have also mixed both my piece, as well as three other pieces by other bands, and I feel like my mixing is improving, which is a good thing, as it means that I can compose more professional sounding and clearer tracks in the future (I would like to be a composer, so mixing is necessary to make my music sound the best it can be).

On the other hand, my practical skills when in comes to setting up are still useless, and I have very poor teamwork and communication skills, which meant that in sessions, I often would stand by the mixing desk, or stand around “doing nothing”, because I was overloaded or otherwise struggling to figure out how to do something, and having people take over for me. I feel that mostly in these situations I am too reliant on people, and useless. My downfall is definitely my lack of confidence and my overall awkwardness and chaoticness. I also faced barriers with composition; my guitar required new strings and still needed setting up, meaning that I had to rely on sample instruments to play my part, with my lack of social skills and communication skills preventing me from asking anyone else for help in time. My initial goal of moving away from “fake musicianship”/relying on midi, needed to be postponed, meaning that on this piece, I had to carry on with fake instruments. The worst part was that I faced many technical problems, for example, Logic x crashed and refused to load my project, essentially crashing every time I loaded the project. That forced me to start from scratch, and meant that I had little time to finish the piece. Due to the aforementioned lack of time, I also had not managed to record vocals for the piece, but I did write lyrics, which went well, due to my creativity. Another thing that surprised me and went well, is that I have managed to quickly catch up and finish the piece, despite having to start anew. .

Overall, the project went decently well for me, despite my problems. I have definitely improved significantly with my sequencing, composition, arrangement, as well as mixing. However in order to fully improve, I need to be more confident and calmer. I need to solve problems without getting stressed out and remain calm, and also work faster, when composing, and take definitive decisions, as opposed to changing everything. I also need to try and improve how well i recover from mistakes, and technical problems and how fast I move to the proverbial “plan B”.

I was decently successful in applying my research to my project, for example I knew, from having researched mixing metal, how I could mix Blunt Force Trauma’s drums, on the mixing desk, during their performances. I do however need to develop general competency and physical skills, such as communication, working as a team and being able to help out. I learned new skills on the mixing desk, for example, I found out about sending outputs to buses and operating the monitors, as well as sending them to effects, as well as found out about certain details and their importance, for example, why Bass Guitar is recorded through a DI, as it allows more control over the low end. I also learned more about feedback, and how we can remove it, and about ringing out the system, which will help when recording vocals, for my compositions. My next steps would be to try to put some of those skills into practice, by recording some vocals. What went well is how I understood the theory behind mixing - for example why we boost/cut things on certain instruments with a EQ, and I can put them into practice on Logic Pro x, in a less stressful situation, however, What didn’t go so well is my slow learning curve and lack of understanding, when it came to the mixing desk and hardware, which caused me to get overloaded; unlike some people, who would “flap” and frantically try to guess what is right, my lack of confidence and fear of messing up, meant that I would mostly just “shut down” and stand there. My improvement points literally would be to learn to deal with stress and mistakes better, as well as gain more confidence. These are easier said than done however. To improve my competency in a live situation, I could seek extra support from Staff, such as Technicians, to better learn and understand the equipment. I am going to make notes of the instructions for my self.

Here is the final Performance of the Band that I've mixed, Blunt Force Trauma:

Here is the finished piece, That I have composed, entitled Unite To Survive. https://soundcloud.com/simon-grabowiecki/unite-to-survive.