INITIAL STAGES OF STUDIO 1
- Jordan Aston
- Feb 21, 2019
- 4 min read
It’s taken me a little while to settle into Trimester three of this course. Probably due to how incredibly different the layout and work schedule is compared to the last trimesters. However, I’ve actually taken to it quite a lot. The new studio 1 website is far easier to navigate than any other way it’s been done in the past. We’re currently half way through week three and I am writing my first blog post... this isn’t due to any reason other than the fact I have been incredibly busy over the last two weeks with the two bands I play in having many shows to play (which means a lot of rehearsing) and the fact that I am moving house! Absolutely amazing timing, I must say. For all of this to be happening while trying to log 18 hours of school work outside of class time…sheeesh. Any way enough whining about my chaotic life I’m just rambling off the top of my head which is what I think this entire blog is probably going to be like since this is my first post and I’m really just getting into it.
For this initial post, I’ll just be reflecting on how the first 2 weeks have gone so far, what I’ve been doing for Project 1 and how me and my group have been operating/ planning what’s down the track for our EMP single. I have spent the last couple of days figuring out how to use Wix properly. It’s taken many hours but I have finally developed a professional website that is very easy to navigate and the pressure of doing so is now off my mind. I feel like I can freely jump onto my site and post blogs & track tear-downs and make site edits easily. It’s actually a wonderful feeling having this site now up and running and I can’t wait to upload my music and projects that I have already done to get the site looking healthy, interesting and colorful.
In the very first week of studio 1 we were introduced to how this trimester will look in terms of our projects and what learning outcomes are and how we as individuals will achieve them through engaging in a number of different practices. I am particularly excited for this entire trimester because I have a very clear idea of what project 1 and project 2 are going to be for me and which learning outcomes I will achieve by completing both of them. My first project is creating an electronic track in Ableton which is what I have recently been sinking into in my spare time. Project 2 is a pipe dream but I have pitched the idea to Pete T, who seems to think it will be a great endeavor. I have a trio consisting of a number of members from amazing local Brisbane bands such as First Beige and Pink Matter who I am planning to record live in rooms such as the Void or the Neve. I want the recording to have the same feeling as NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’ or KEXP in Seattle or even Triple J’s ‘Like A Version’. Acquiring film and animation students for this is something that really excites me as it’s what I’ve wanted to do for a long time now.
So, I guess I’ve been a little more focused on the project ideas so far and getting a realistic understanding of what I can actually do for studio 1. In my group for project 1 are two talented individuals Robin and Ethan. I wanted to work with these two because we are similar minded and enjoy similar types of music, which I think is essential for project 1. We started by throwing around some ideas of what types of tracks we’d like to make and ended up on an electronic instrumental track incorporating a lot of synths and reverberated guitars. None of us are singers so it was a no brainer to make an instrumental track… We brought up some artists we all like and landed on an idea of a sort of sound that had common ground amongst the music we’d showed each other. Eager to get in the studio to start writing and tracking we booked a MIDI session and just went for it. Realizing that we were going to need a lot more preparation and planning we all took a step back and started working on our production plans (still while chipping away at our scratch tracks). We have worked really well as a team so far and have organized weekly meetings in the MIDI studio to talk about where we are at with the project and work more on our tracks. We are now at the stage where we have everything planned out and a few scratch tracks are well under way. It’s now just a matter of employing what we are learning in our research to create a single that’s going to be well worth a listen.
Comments