Graded Unit Plan
1: Portfolio Proposal
My goal in this assignment is to build a portfolio to showcase my skills and abilities as a Studio Engineer. I will do this by presenting projects and assignments that I will create and finish that are relevant to my chosen role. The first artefact I have chosen will be a DAW track recreation of Daft Punks around the world I will use samples, sequence using MIDI, I will also recreate the synths in the track using the Synth Patches I created within the DAW & Synthesis Unit. I will mix and master the track using my DAW specified following the assignment's requirements, I am presenting this artefact to show that I have the skills and abilities required to use and manage use Ableton workflow.
The second project that I'll be utilise within my graded unit will be is my Audio for Multimedia Assignment, I will make use of the college’s sound library and I have chosen a scene from the HBO show ‘The Sopranos’ as I believed the scene showcased a lot of potential for creativity and sound design opportunities displaying my skills in post-production, where I will overlay and mix sound effects correlating to the scene I have chosen and ensure that the dialogue and other sound effects are balanced correctly.
The planning stage of this assignment will include explanations of how these artefacts I have chosen are relevant to my chosen role of Studio Engineer. I will use a work breakdown sheet to explain the process and steps required to compete these projects, including timescales and explanations of the tasks. I will also use a GANTT chart to work out the estimated overall timescale for these 3 projects.
The development stage will consist of making a website for my portfolio, explaining what will be in the portfolio and a brief recap of the units I have covered this year. I will write an introduction to explain the purpose of the portfolio and why each artefact are relevant to my chosen job role. I will include my CV which shows the relevant skills and abilities I have from college as well as from my previous work experience. I will also include supporting documents for the artefacts used, including pictures taken during the process, videos of my workflow, samples used and a journal.
Job Role:
Studio engineers play a vital role in the production of songs and recording, Studio engineers within a recording room such as setting up microphones to record a drumkit, having the ability to listen to crucial acoustic information when mixing and working in adjunction to the artist they are recording.
Studio engineers need to be capable of collaborating and working in a team, starting off studying to be a studio engineer starts off with having Music Technology or Music as a L6 qualification or any other relevant course as a perquisite for higher education, understanding music theory can improve your co-efficiency with whoever you are collaborating with allowing you to be an effective studio engineer; you should also be a creative individual via utilising various recording techniques and experimenting with their projects. To gain some real-world experience during the duration of their studies students can contact local studios for work experience working in-turn with qualified engineers, in terms of a promotions in their career seasoned engineers can become senior studio engineers; salaries change progressively with each year they are qualified, with senior engineers making upwards of £50,000 pounds annually with newly qualified engineers making salaries of £27,000 and top engineers over the pond in America exceeding $140,000.
Notable studio engineers in the music industry include the likes of Tom Dowd founder of Universal Audio, his works include refining the multitrack recording technique and over the span of his career he worked with influential artists such as Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, and blues artist Muddy Waters; other prominent Studio Engineers includes the likes of Alan Parsons who was the lead engineer on The Dark Side Of the Moon album by Pink Floyd other works by include his very own double act The Alan Parsons Project consisting of himself and composer Eric Wilson with the duo selling over 55 albums globally.
Finally, the father of modern recording Bill Putnam a man who innovated the music industry as we know it today without Bill Putnam, we wouldn’t have modern mixing desks, He was also well known for being one of the first studio engineers for using artificial reverberation via recording inside of the Universal Recording Corporation’s (the company he founded) bathroom as an echo chamber to capture room acoustics.
Artefacts for inclusion
Artefact 1 – DAW Track – Around The World
I will use my recreation of the Daft Punk track Around the World from the DAW and Sampling unit as an artefact for the graded unit. This artefact showcases that I have the capabilities of and being confident enough using the Ableton workflow meeting deadlines and shows that I can create music as well as use and effects using a DAW, For the assessment I deliberately went out my way in instrument within the track for the drums, I used midi input to sequence the track and I also utilised synthesiser patches as a part of the DAW and synthesis unit, For the bass synth I used abletons operator which is a Frequency modulator and this was a learning curve for me as I wasn't used to using digital syntheisers. Due to how each oscillator is impacted by each other oscillator originally I found it difficult to recreate the song accurately so I then had to process the synth further using distortion.
I was inspired to recreate a Daft Punk due to an assignment within the DAW unit.
Artefact 2 – Audio For Multimedia (The Sopranos)
For the second artefact of my graded unit's, I will submit my AFM sound design project. Project, a rework of The Bakery Scene In the Sopranos. In this project I will attempt to replicate the overall sound design using with parametric EQ for the city ambience in the background of the store and I dulled the mid to high frequencies to emulate the sound of being outside, I applied reverb onto the gunshot sound effects and I also boosted the low end frequencies for impact and a sense of realism, If I had used plate reverb it would wrong for the environment - I used room reverb as the scene is indoors. I also used the college's sound library to splice various sound effects, creating entirely new noises, this required me to think about layering and sound selection which I learned within the AFM unit. This project demonstrates my ability to meet deadlines and work within specified parameters, I am typically used to working with music so using Ableton for an entirely different purpose was new to me and it allowed me to develop my skills for wider applications to make me a better producer. The artefact showcases skills acquired throughout the course, including using DAWs such as Ableton, Pro Tools and utilizing automation, dynamic processing, balancing, panning, levelling, and mixing techniques. For research I watched a variety of different applications of multimedia, For example, the mixing of a Film would be different than a television program as large budget films are designed for cinema spaces meaning they may be more compressed to sound louder. I used SoundQ which hosts royalty free sound effects for all the sound effects within the project. In a real world scenario I would have to consider licensing and copyright issues with using to avoid potential legal issues or paying royalties, which I have learned within the skills for business unit.
Artefact 3 – Recording and Mixing (The Cranberries – Zombie)
For my third artefact for the graded unit, I will use the skills such as micing techniques, for recording drums and to consider the acoustics of the Studio I will record in to achieve what the producer desires in the mix. learned within the Recording and mixing unit as I will help co-produce the track via utilising microphones provided by the college to record Guitar, amplifiers and I will create my mix using Pro Tools. This will hopefully showcase my proficiency using audio workstations and my capabilities for creating a sonically balanced song.
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