- 02/2023

I have finally figured out the most efficient way for me to write music and I'll be honest it is a bit strange, but it definitely works. 

While I was messing around with a few different ideas for songs that I could potentially sing on, I found that while my lyrics weren’t the best, the melodies and harmonies that I came up with were actually significantly better than those on the songs I had written without lyrics. 

This left me In a weird position where I would think of a name for a song, write some basic lyrics, write the melody, then make a lead sheet but leave the lyrics out. This leads me to my next two songs: 'Telling You Something' and 'Here It Is' which I am pretty happy with so far. 'Telling You Something' is definitely the closest thing to a 'real book tune' on the EP so far which I like because it's straightforward and easy to get your head around. On the other hand, 'Here It Is' is not quite as simple, I have a clear idea about the song in my head however I expect that recording and mixing it will prove to be more difficult than the others.

- 03/2023

Today I had the first run-through of the music I've got so far with the band. At the moment the band consists of myself on keys, Euan my housemate on Bass, and my course-mates Rory, Charlie, Harry, and Alfie on trumpet, sax, drums, and guitar respectively. 

I was really happy with how it went today. As well as playing amazingly, they gave me some fantastic input which I'm sure will help shape the final product into something that we are all proud of. I will leave the recordings from this session with the demo tracks somewhere on the website.

- 03/2023

I have just finished writing my fourth song. 'Big Talk' is the most complicated and solo-intensive song on the EP but it will definitely work well as the midpoint of the EP if the recording goes well. 

The title for this song has also left me with the idea of speech, messages, or something along those lines for the overall theme of the EP. Following this I have decided to title the EP "Lost For Words". 

I believe this is a very fitting title as while it works well with the titles of the individual tracks and seems to fit well with the overall mood of the EP, it also is a little nod to my method of songwriting and how I chose not to use any lyrics in the final product.

The image to the left is a rough idea of what I would like the cover art of the EP to look like. Learning to use Photoshop has been more difficult than I expected however I am happy with how it is coming along and I will make changes once I have some feedback from my bandmates.

- 03/2023

On the 22nd of March, we got the opportunity to do a live performance of our music for the first time. Playing in the university's 'Rush Hour' concert series was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. 

Following the performance we received some very positive responses to our music as well as a few portrait drawings from an audience member which I thought would suit the EP's cover very well (a draft of which can be seen above).

- 03/2023

Today was due to be our first day of recording however due to some sudden overnight snowfall, we had to change our plans a bit. 

We had initially planned to get two days of recording done over the weekend however due to the studio being closed we had to change that to just the Sunday. This also meant that due to roads being closed, Euan and I had to carry my keyboard from our house to the studio so that we could record the rhythm section with the setup I wanted.

Fortunately, we did manage to get most of what we had planned to do done but this will mean we need to book some more time in the studio before I can move on to recording trumpet and sax.

- 04/2023

Due to the limited recording spaces available to us, it was impossible to get a live recording of the whole band playing together. Our solution to this was to record the rhythm section first, as to achieve the feeling of playing as a band. We would then be easily able to re-record small parts on the bass as required as well as allowing me to try and get the best possible sound out of my digital piano through the use of various VSTs. 

Unfortunately, after our first day of recording, I discovered that the takes for two of the three songs we had recorded were almost completely unusable. I believe this was due to a slight shift in the placement of one of the kick drum microphones which I did not notice until I listened to the recordings on my headphones after. Despite this, we were able to get great recordings of the last three songs a week later so overall no harm was done and I was still on track to record sax a couple of days later.

Once we had the rhythm section recorded I could move on to recording the saxophone and trumpet parts with Charlie and Rory. Having recorded everything else, we were able to take our time with their parts in order to get the best takes possible, something which would have taken much longer if we had done a live recording as a group. 

While recording everything separately would not have originally been my first choice, the control that it gave me over each part proved to be invaluable when it came to mixing.

- 05/2023

With drums, bass, sax, and trumpet recorded, and loaded into Logic, I quickly moved on to getting proper recordings of the piano parts at home. Although recording on my digital piano (Kawai MP7-SE) was not ideal, I found that with some creative use of EQ, reverb, and stereo imaging (Izotope Ozone Imager) I could get a much clearer and more natural sound from my keyboard.

After adding the piano parts I began to mix the whole recordings together. This started with the drums. I would use EQ to cut out any unwanted frequencies and then use a combination of noise gates and compression to get the dynamics of each part just right. Then I would balance the parts of the kit and add reverb to give the recordings a sense of space.

I would use a similar process with the other instruments. Using EQ to avoid clashing between the bass, kick drum, and low end of the piano took quite a while but was incredibly important to provide separation and avoid the mixes sounding too muddy. For sax and trumpet, I would spend most of my time correcting various EQs and reverbs to make sure that they sat cleanly on top of the mix without being too overbearing.

With everything mixed, I now had to master the tracks in order to make them sound as good as possible within the wider context of the EP. I did this by using a multiband compressor, match EQ, and limiter on each track. The multiband compression allowed me to add compression to the track within different frequency ranges in order to avoid any complications such as the drum overheads being brought down by a trumpet solo. The match EQ meant that I could take a reference track and make sure that mine had a similar frequency distribution. While this did not make a massive change I found that it did help me to keep a consistent top end throughout each of the songs. Finally, the limiter would act as a safety net for each of the tracks by preventing any of them from exceeding the threshold of zero decibels which could have led to issues with clipping in the final mixes.