Popstar Party at the Music Mill

Reflective Learning Diary

Introduction

The aim of this Reflective Learning Diary is for the following:

· Keep a record of the work I undertake on my placements

· Note any existing skills I develop, or new skills I learn

· Identify areas that I would like to improve upon

Work Placement: Popstars Party at Music Mill, Newton Abbott

Date:	10th October 2009
Hours worked:	4 hrs
Tasks completed:	· Setting up of a session within a commercial studio · successfully troubleshooting problems within the session and resolving them · producing 4 tracks mixed and mastered onto a CD for the customer
Reflection:	The placement was to record 4 tracks within a commercial studio for a child's birthday party and record, mix, master a CD for the customer to take home with them. Myself and Michael Walton had been approached by Rick Edwards (co-owner of the music mill) who offered us the opportunity to run a session for a Pop-stars party for a group of 10 children, this is an event which is done on a weekend and gives children the opportunity to emulate their idols within a studio environment. Mine and Michaels role was to run the session and provide the customer with a CD of the songs that the children had sung which we did successfully and with very little problems except problems that did pass our way would be resolved with better understanding of the mixer console and routing at the Music Mill

End of placement evaluation

The achievement of which I am proudest is:	Being able to setup a session and route the signal for a microphone from the live room patch bay to the mixing desk correctly first time with no issues.
The thing I found most surprising was:	How surprisingly easy it was to record 10 children in the live room without any issues and being surprised how well behaved they were!
The area I found most challenging was:	Trying my best to understand the logic behind the routing system on the mixer at the music mill is very challenging.
The area I would like to improve is:	As above the area I think I would improve most would be to gain a better knowledge of the recording console, to achieve this I feel I need to invest more time learning the mixing desk.
An example of when I worked in a team was:	Setting up the microphones and communicating back to Michael to ensure we had a signal going from the live room to the control room.
An example of when I used my knowledge was:	Having children myself I felt I could implement the experience with kids to good effect to get the best possible results out of them regarding their singing and to make sure that they have a good time.
An example of when I solved a problem was:	There was issues when a microphone was clipping and causing distortion which I identified as one of the children kicking the bottom of the microphone stand, this was rectified by moving the stand further away from the child in question
An example of when I was given responsibility was:	Operation of ensuring the mixed files from the mixer was recorded onto CD I had to ensure that none of the mixed recordings was overloading the audio within the computer which would have resulted in distortion being present on the CD.
Other comments:	I really didn't know how I was going to react to this kind of placement but my first initial thoughts was that the party was going to be an absolute nightmare from start to finish, but instead the whole session was quite a pleasant experience which ran quite smoothly and I would welcome the opportunity to repeat such a session.