Final Blog - Recap

We've done it! Trimester 4 all finished! it's been an intense 3 months of work, but everything came out great, was a heap of fun, and i learnt a lot! In this final blog i'm going to recap and reflect on the process!

The first intensive i had this trimester, was the music production in the Neve, which is something i've been looking forward too for quite a while. I enjoyed using the new desk and getting my head around the half analog half digital nature. The rec room is definitely the best sounding room for drums in SAE, and going over the top with the best microphones available was a ton of fun. We did a cover of DIstant Friend, in a pop punk vein, using Violent Soho and other similar bands as our Reference. I am happy with the end product of the track, however some of the challenges we faced was one of our group members, who took the reins of writing the track, only came to the first session. We were left to complete his vision for the song, even though it wasn't our chosen musical genre. As studying audio professionals, we did our best to finish the song off strong, however i'm sure with a bit more time and knowledge we could of gotten it even better.

My next intensive was Post Production, which was our first dive into the film side of audio at University. I think for the most part it was heaps of fun, learning the process that professional post production engineers do. It also gave us the opportunity to get a bit silly with voice overs, and foley. One of the main take aways i learnt from post production, was that there really is no limit to what you can do when manipulating audio, you can record yourself hitting a bin and make it sound like a giant explosion, its incredible. I've definitely started incorporating that kind of thing into my music production, and just having so much fun with it. My group gave a whirl doing the Kung Fu Panda trailer. Again, i'm happy with the end result, given a bit more time and organisation we could of gotten more of the video filled up with sound. You're almost never done with this sort of thing, however the end product was sufficient!

Finally, we did Live sound, which was learning about the AVID S3 Desk, and just the standards that are expected of people working in the live industry. I've actually worked for an events company as part of the Productions crew, which was AV, for a year. Truth be told, i've made live sound a bit of a back up plan. I gave it a whole year, and really decided it wasn't for me. However i did learn even more about methods of tuning wedges/a room and other things that never really got taught to me properly on the job, stuff i would just wing. It's definitely an incredibly important factor of being an Audio Professional, and if i could say anything, it would be that 1 month to learn all that stuff and put on a gig, isn't really enough. With that said, our gig went without a hiccup. We put on a band called Monkey Bunz, who were playing a heavy sort of Alt rock, which sounded great. Before them, SAE's very own Aldie went on and smashed out a set, half acoustic and half electronic. All in all the gig went well and i was happy with the turnout.

In my previous blog, i go over my podcast assignment so i won't really do it in this blog, but i am probably most proud of the work we did on on that assignment for this Trimester.

As for freelance projects, i've done a few recordings over this trimester, for friends, randoms, whatever. Which i will load onto Soundcloud and post on here, when i'm at my computer at home. Most of them are half finished, some songs fully finished. Obviously i did my own EP which i posted about a few blogs ago, that has been a lot of work building up too.

Where i think i land in the rubric? I would say Credit. I think the work i've done this Trimester has been good. I did a lot of work on the Podcast, and i've been actively seeking outside freelance work. Not paid as such yet, but i'm not quite confident in my abilities or my gear to charge yet. But i think i've displayed a passion for audio, and i'm constantly improving and learning more and more, i haven't been late on any assignments. However i haven't really gone above and beyond for my particular Intensives this Trimester, in a way, focusing on what was going on outside, trying to juggle recording sessions, uni work, my own band, and working enough to pay the bills has been quite a balancing act, with a slight slip away from a psychotic breakdown. But in actual fact, i learnt that i love it, it doesn't feel like work half the time, and having gathered that knowledge, i've become confident in the fact that this is 100% what i want to do, with that confidence comes a certain serenity, knowing someway, somehow i'll make it happen.

Thanks Tim, Tristan, and Clarkey, as usual it's been fun, i've learnt alot, and enjoy your respective time off (if you get any). \m/