During my time at collage I’ve acquired many skills varying from plugin uses on logic to microphone placements in live sound and studio. I had 5 main lessons in my first year, they were, learning how to operate a studio, how to set up live sound, learning chord progressions, music business and also learning logic.
In my opinion the most effective lesson I had was definitely how to operate a studio and how to setup a live stage, this is because they both relate to each other when it comes to using equipment. The least effective lesson for me would have had to have been learning Chord progressions as I didn’t find It relevant to me at the time.
In my second year of the course I had 4 main lessons, these lessons were the same as last year apart from live sound however I found that this year the most effective lessons for me were Music business and working in a studio because I began to take an interest within the business side and started to brainstorm ideas as how I was going to take this further. My original plan was to be self employed and manage an artists and one day have my own label, but as I progressed I figured this wasn’t the right path for me.
Moving forward I think that I could potentially going becoming a studio engineer as I really enjoy working with artists in a studio setting. if I was to choose a preferred job role in a studio it would be a producer, this is because id like to work with the artist and help them improve their song if need be or just be apart of their team in producing the track.
Other paths I could explore would be becoming an agent for an artist because I’ve always wanted to be on the business side of things within the industry and also I’ve highly motivated about something I’m passionate about, this is why I would thrive in the industry.
When it came down to coming to do music at colchester the main thing that drove me to pursue this as a real world career was my school, as I had the option to take Music Technology as a option and while doing it at school and I really enjoyed it and when the year began to come to an end I asked my teacher weather I should pursue this at collage and he told me that if I enjoyed doing it at school why not try and take it further, so from there I took the option of coming here.
Other things that contributed to me to pursue a career In music was myself just listening to music constantly then kind of interested myself from my early life but I never learnt an instrument as I never wanted to play anything and go into that type of industry.
The concept of my project is to record 2 artists with at least 3 tracks each then mix and master all 6 tracks for the artists, fortunately I have worked with one of the artists therefore already feel comfortable.
With this concept a bonus will be me becoming more familiar and confident within the studio environment, I feel this is necessary to success as a studio engineer as it would build confidence with working with artists and it would also build contacts within the industry for me to then work with more people therefore gaining more revenue.
The aim of my project is to give me a better feel of what working in a studio within a professional environment so I can take this experience into the real world. For example if I went to own my own studio or I hired out one, I would have a good idea of how to take charge and run one and not only that it would give me confidence working with artists in the studio professionally. After my project I hope to achieve high within the industry and work hard be successful with my own recording studio.
My aspirations are to become a studio engineer/producer, Im achieving this by working with artists on their Ep’s by recording it for them, from there I hope to build a good relationship with the artists and make sure when they come to wanting to record another album they come to me, this would secure income and also it would generate some interest if the albums are good.
Jack Day 