University update

Ok went to College today to have a brief of my 2nd year of my Foundation Degree and although I'm not being complacent with things, its doesn't look all that bad as I maybe thought it was going to be... not that I knew what it was going to be anyways!

my main objective for this years course is to brain-storm some ideas for my final project, there is a few ideas cropping up and i'll keep you updated in later posts as I feel the main objective is get a few lessons under my belt and get into a routine again and then start laying out a solid plan of how I will approach possibilities and how to present them.

Music front wise... a couple of new songs the first being a cover of a Coldplay song off the 'Rush of Blood to the Head' Album & also myself and Mike finished our song we penned together titled 'This Moment' and so far the feedback has been fantastic.

Yeh its Friday!

ok my favourite time of the week has arrived and I'm planning on having a few glasses of red wine or similar to celebrate Keiley's (my Fiancee) week in college....again, mind I think its always good to celebrate things even if it is a mere excuse to get abit merry off the ole loopy juice ;-)

ok update with the music front is... myself and Mike have pretty much finished the track we were working on and the guy is a gem he came up with some wonderful touches in the song which included getting ideas from the demo's I sent to him were he played them in sync together and found some interesting crossover harmonies and guitar work which just seemed to work and he also added some subtle harmonies which sit nicely within the mix.

University side of things hasn't changed much.... still waiting to start, and I really should get my butt in gear and write some logs and journals of my 'Work Based Learning' outcomes when I spent some time in the recording studio over the summer.

The basic Idea of WBL is that I spend a minimum of 30hrs of the 2 years im studying experiencing practical hands on work to put towards a module/unit of my degree and also to give me an insight of what it is like to work within a professional environment and also within that I will be able to build up a portfolio as evidence of my WBL, I've just been extremely lazy over the summer spending time with Keils and the kids and basically taking things easy, but its kind of crucial that I start getting my head in gear and focus on the year ahead as I feel it will be quite a tough one and as with my first year the coursework load isn't very forgiving if you slack abit.

also updates with the concert recording I'm going to be testing out the Alesis mixer/interface over the weekend to make sure its fully functional and will cover the requirements for us on the 9th October, checklist would include making sure the macbook has the required drivers to run the interface and it is full compatible with either Pro Tools or Logic 9.

ok so theres my little text crit to you guys for this sunny friday, again apologies if what you read is pure blabber and makes no sense, I tend to write as I think and feel its possibly one of the best ways to express myself.

have a good weekend people :)

-Clint

Microphones, Mixers, Confusion and personal ongoings :)

The venue as I think I mentioned before is a Village hall located in lovely Stoke Gabriel and up to 100 people may possibly be attending, and our goal is to capture the live performance of the gig in its entirety and take it off for mixing and submit it as part of our coursework for our degree.

Ok went into college today to sort out equipment for the recording session with fellow students Michael and Matthew we established what microphones we had available at our disposal and what recording equipment we could use on the night that seemed to go all very smoothly.

The confusion comes with the method of recording.... we have 3 maybe four options in which to record the Orchestra and only 1 hr to setup on the night! oh the joy of it all, this is why im very glad we showed the initiative to attend early to sort equipment out as oppose to the 7th October which was our starting date which would have left us no time at all to sort things out.

Microphones are sorted and we have them pre-booked and ready at hand for when we need them the next is the interface to use for recording, we either have the option of taking a Digidesign 002 rack which will accept up to 4 microphones directly into the interface, but the problem we face is we may possibly need 5 microphones which in that case we may need to book a mixer out of college for that (grrr more stuff to throw around so much for a simple setup eh) which in that case I will be trying out a mini Alesis mixer which will accept 8 XLR inputs directly I just need to test the sound quality out and the ability to use it as an interface, which if the case would allow us to remove the Digidesign 002 rack out of the equation.

and all of this will be run off my little Macbook laptop (god bless technology in small devices) running directly from the mixer into Logic 9 via Firewire cable.

That aside im really looking forward to getting back into my 2nd Year of the course although being very grateful for the time off, things are abit too laid back for my liking and its time to squeeze the agenda and pressure on ;)

on the home front Mike (Doctor Castille) and myself are making advances on the song writing front and the current song were working on temp title of 'Edge of Time' is making good steady progress, were at the stage of putting the production together and making tweaks as we go along, still yet to devise a 2nd verse put were banging our heads together and im sure that is just a minor issue :)

right Blog 2 done and more from me very soon take care all and have a good day :)

-Clint

My first Blog!

Ok not really sure with these things how to go about them but after seeing fellow youtuber 'Scribbletunes' creating her blog page I thought it would be a fun thing to do and would also give a few people an insight that would like to know abit more about me.

I promise to try keep this updated as regularly as possible plus with starting my second year in University I have to keep some form of diary/blog/log of my thoughts throughout the year, so for those interested there may well be a handful of boring stuff being thrown on here hehe.

current situation at the moment is I have just finished a Coldplay Cover 'Politik' which I aim to upload in the very near future and also I'm in the middle of writing an original song (yes I know it only takes me every 6months to write lol) with Mike aka 'Doctor Castille'.

Its a very weird scenario for me to be writing songs as half the time I really feel as I'm totally useless that creating a idea for a song and I end up drifting off into either a Beatles, Oasis or Coldplay tune ( I know bad habit eh?) so in this case im grateful I have Mike to lean towards as were at the point now we can throw ideas at each other without that feeling of insecurity as such.

besides that im currently also still waiting to start Uni which resumes on 7th October but I have to have a brief of the year ahead on the 29th September of which I already have found out we have to record a Orchestra in a village hall on the 9th October..... Yikes!

so in preparation I will aim to find my way into college to find out the nitty gritty details so im better prepped for the event.

well first Blog...... I really didn't know how I should present this and I really hope that this didn't come across as blabber and hope you all have a good day :)

Clint