Speech Evaluation

Well, considering that I have now completed my presentation for this project, the last thing that I have left to do is to complete my evaluation for my presentation. Might as well run through what I was graded on. Considering that there are five categories to be graded on, I will grade each category 6 out of 30 points. 

The first category is that is must be four to five minutes. I have done practice runs several times, and that are all between 4:40 and 5:00. Though I don't know how long I talked for, considering there didn't seem to be any big delays during the presentation to drag it on, I am pretty sure that my speech was around 5 minutes long. I'm going to give myself a full 6/6 for this one. 

The next category was visual component. This seems to be split into "Presentation" and weather it drove the presentation or not. Well, I did have a presentation, so that's a couple of points there. However, I also felt like my presentation wasn't as good as it could have been. This was partly because the presentation that I used was not my first: I had completed a presentation on prezi that I couldn’t use because I realized that you cannot import audio files into prezi. Aside form that, though, I think I did well and I don't think the presentation drove the presentation. I give myself a 5.5/6

The category after that is “content,” which is split into several different subcategories. The first category “inspire through your passion,” was pretty difficult for me to do, one can only record a song if they play an instrument, which I’m pretty sure not most of the audience could do. However, I did get some applause after I finished recording my song, and I could see a person bobbing their head to the song, so that’s one person. Ultimatley, though, I feel like I wasn’t abe to inspire that many people. However, I did have a very clear product (My song, or the 30-second clip used), I felt like I showed a pretty clear process, and I felt like my purpose was really clear. As such, I give myself a 5/6 for this category.

I felt as though my organization was pretty solid. The fact that I started clearly and managed to show my purpose at the beginning and the end I felt helped really get the message across. I also feel like I did a good job transitioning form slide to slide. Overall, 6/6

For my delivery, I felt like it could have used some work. For one, unlike some other people, I used notecards when presenting. I decided to use notecards because I didn’t want to just stand there, doing nothing because I forgot what I was going to say. However, I feel like I might have used these notecards a little too much when presenting. In addition, I also felt like I made lots of speaking mistakes, and said things such as “um” and stuttered a lot. I felt like this detrected from my presentation a lot. As such, I give myself a 4.5/6 here.

Overall, though, I think I did a pretty good job. As such, I give myself a 27/30 

It's Finished!

Sorry for the delay for this post, but at long last, my song is completed.

                                                                                Bam

This seven weeks or so paid off, in that now I have a completed song to my name. Pretty good, if you ask me.

The final stuff I had to do, once I finished, was to mix everything and take all of the raw recorded stuff and make it sound good. Most of it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be: it was mostly adjusting the volume for individual parts to make everything even, as well as adding other things such as adjusting the pan setting and double tracking some stuff. There was also some things that I wanted to be EQ’ed, which I would then export that part, open it in audacity, and adjut the EQ using it. There were some parts where, if I didn’t like the take that I did, or found an easy way to adjust the sound using my amp or effects, I might just rerecord that part. Pretty effective, if you ask me.

As such, I can, and have now started to work on my presentation. My presentation will mostly be focused on how you should not back down from something just because it looks intimidating. Instead, you should keep pushing forward. That intimidation is why I didn’t start recording for a while. However, I eventually decided to try to record a song, and I managed to succeed in learning how to record and produce a song.

For my demonstration, I will feature a 30-second excerpt from my song (I can’t show the whole thing, as it’s over six minutes long) that will play at a certain point during my presentation. I’m not going to be actually bringing in a guitar because the point of my project was not to learn a song on guitar, but to record a song. Considering this is probably my last blog post before my presentation, I might as well give you guys a recap of all of the stuff that I used.

Software:

• Presonus Studio One 2 (A DAW with a very easy-to-use interface. It costs 100 dollars, however, it comes bundled for free with the audiobox seen below) http://studioone.presonus.com/

• Hydrogen Drum Machine (A drum machine software designed for linux with betas in mac and windows. It requires you to manually place where each note is play in a pattern, so while this makes it harder to get the drum beat right early, it pays off in the end, with it being 100% prescise. It’s also free)  http://www.hydrogen-music.org/hcms/

• Audacity (A free Audio Editing program that I used to EQ some parts. Pretty optional) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Hardware and stuff like that:

• Presonus USB Audiobox (A device that converts your microphone or guitar input so that it can be recorded onto your computer without it sounded awful. Also comes with Studio One 2, as mentioned above. Costs around $150) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AudioBoxUSB?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=none&device=c&network=g&matchtype=&gclid=CNXLmI6xqrYCFVGf4Aodxy0A5g

• Audio-Technica ATH-m50s (I probably forgot to mention this: Good-quality headphones are pretty essential, as they can help determine wether your song sounds good or crap. I also use these specific headphones for more than just recording, but I was fortunatley able to get them for under 120) http://www.amazon.com/Audio-Technica-ATH-M50S-Professional-Monitor-Headphones/dp/B004ZG9TMA

• 1/4” – 1/8” Audio cable and/or Microphone (The ¼’-> 1/8’ Audio cable is what I used so I could capture my amp’s output directly to the audiobox, using the headphones input on the amp. This is probably  not a good idea if you’re not using a guitar amp, so you should probably get a microphone to use instead)

And there you have it: a way to record your own stuff. While I’m at it, I might as well post my song itself:

Blog post four or somewhere around that

Right now, I'm still working on recording stuff, though I have made significant progress.  I have all of the backing parts recorded, which leaves me to have to just record the guitar solos and then mix everything. And considering that what I have to do next all requires a DAW, I might as well explain what that is.

Basically, a Digital Audio Workstation (Also known as a DAW) is an electronic system used solely or primarily for recording, editing, and playing back digital audio. It's what you usually think of when you think of a recording software, including garage band. When it comes to picking a DAW, there are several things that you should consider:

• ·      Price: How much are you willing to spend? Are you going to try to aim for an economical choice, or are you willing to go all out for something like pro tools?
• ·      Functionality: How much do you want to be able to do with your DAW?
• ·      Ease of use: Are you fine with your DAW being harder to use when compared to other DAWs?
• ·      Recording Audio: Though many DAWs give you this feature, there are some that don’t. Do you need to record instruments, or are you just making electronic music or something like that?

And more. With that in mind, here are some DAWs to consider:

Reaper: A very recent release (The stable release date was July 15^th, 2013), reaper offers high-level recording and editing for a pretty cheap price

Pros

•   Cheap (60$)
•  Customizable

Cons:

•  Hard to use at first

Studio One 2: A relatively new DAW that also comes bundled with all presonus recording devices (such as the audiobox that I’m using)

Pros:

• ·      Easy to use
• ·      Comes with all presonus recording devices (which you’ll probably need something like if you’re going to directly record your amp output)

Cons:

• ·      Not as many instruments and deep features as some other DAWs

Pro Tools: The industry standard for DAWs.

Pros:

• ·      One of the best DAWs out there

Cons:

• ·      Expensive
• ·      Need a pro tools approved audio interface
• ·      Hard to use for beginners

Sonar X2: A pretty powerful DAW with loads of plugins and a user-friendly interface

Pros:

• ·      Easy to use

Cons:

• ·      Files can get really big, resulting in them taking up loads of space

Of course, there are many, many more DAWs that I didn’t cover (Ableton, Cubase, Logic, etc etc.) Hopefully you could find one that works for you. After you figure out which DAW you’re using, probably the best step is to read the instruction manual that hopefully comes along with it, as each DAW has some differences that makes teaching you how to use all of them near impossible. However, there are some general tips that I can give you.

• ·      When mixing, don’t try and make your mix unevenly. If you put the vocals as louder than everything else of something like that, it will not end well. No one wants to hear your attempts at signing in the first place, having them being the loudest instrument is a major turn-off
• ·      Make sure that everything is timed perfectly, if your drum track is off it will just sound sloppy.
• ·      Don’t try and overdo effects, as this will just result in your recording becoming very cluttered
• ·      Don’t try to have too many instruments competing on the same audio spectrum.

Keeping this stuff in mind, you will probably be able to do good using any DAW, as long as you know what you’re doing.

Sources:

"Choosing a DAW." Music Radar. N.p., 27 July 2010. Web. 19 Mar. 2013.

"Avid Pro Tools 10 Review." PCMAG. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2013.

"What Is A DAW?" Thedawstudio.com. The DAW Studio, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2013.

vlog

Gifted vlog from John O'Farrell on Vimeo.

Good News!

You know how I wasn’t exactly the best of times last week? Well, that’s completely changed. I’ve managed to get new, better recording software, alond with other incredibly useful stuff (that’s what having a birthday during this project does for you) In fact, I actually managed to start recording stuff. And now that I have a decent DAW and recording stuff, I should probably go into explanation about what a DAW means and how to actually record stuff.

The first and most important thing is getting whatever instrument you are going to record, well, recorded. Contrary to what I told you, do not go straight from amp output to computer. This will screw your signal up royally, and unless you’re going for an “lolsolofi” feel, that’s pretty bad. To counter this, recommended that you use some sort of recording device, to “translate” to signal so it doesn’t sound bad. For this recording, I’m using the Presonus Audiobox, which allows convert my amp output into a signal transferrable to boot.  

                              
                                   

             Guess what this thing is

As for recording software, I am using two things: Studio One, a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation: Recording and editing songs, basically what you think of when you think of recording software) and a Hydrogen drum machine program (As I have had my drumming compared to the 7^th grade marching band drummers).  Really good quality headphones are also essential if you’re going to expect to be able to hear what your music sounds like while mixing. Aside from that, the other things that I’m using is basically my standard guitar rig with an extra cable.

While you’re configuring stuff, there are certain things to keep in mind. First, do not try and play to loud. If you do, this will just result in audio clipping, which is the distortion of the signal and will result in your audio quality being horrible.  Therefore, try to keep your playing under control.

When it comes to recording stuff, there are two possible ways to record. You can either try to record using a microphone, or what I’m doing, which is recording the amp output directly. If you are recording the amp output directly, you have are going to get a slightly poorer sound quality than a good mic setting. However, if you are using a microphone, then good mic setup is important if you don’t what your setup to sound like crap.  As such, there is stuff that you should keep in mind.

1.     Don’t try to have background noise. Unless you’re ripping off Set Fire to Flames, background noise will just harm your recording.

2.     Do not try and have the microphone too far away or too close. This can result in your audio being either too quiet or loud enough to the part where it starts to clip.

If you can keep that stuff in mind, as well as other stuff, it is possible to get a good recording using a microphone. However, I’m using a cable to capture the audio directly into the Audiobox, which completely eliminates extra noise all together.

Now once you have a decent recording system set up, you can start recording and editing your songs in the DAW. For an explanation of that, stay tuned for next week.

                                

                             

                                                                                        DUN DUUUUUUN

                                   

Sources:

"Simple Tips for Recording High-Quality Audio” The Rapid ELearning Blog.

N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.                                                                   

" Sound Track Basics: Correcting Clipping Problems." :, UWEC. University of

Wisconsin Eau-Claire, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.

Blog Post Part II: No, I'm not making an electric boogaloo joke

Well, time for a progress report. Unfortunately, some stuff happened, so I’m using garage band. Fortunately, I still have everything I need for recording this song: Guitar, Amp, Amp Output-Computer cable, and recording software, as well as a whammy pedal to get a bass sound out of my guitar, and an audio editor for mixing.  As such, I should be able to get started recording.

                                 

                                                                       Yep

Of course, I’ll have to start the recording with one the hardest part of this: the drums, considering that I have no drum experience and my drumming has been compared to 7^th grade marching band. However, the drums are also probably what I’ll have to lay down first, since I don’t plan on having to sell my recording as No Wave or “Soft Machine II: This Time It’s Personal.” In addition, I don’t actually have a good method for recording drums. As such, I’m going to end up recording the drums parts on a drum machine.  But if I’m going to make these drum machine parts sound good, I can't just open it up and hit record. If I do that, it then sounds like something out of a “Top 50 Latin Club Hits” compilations. This leads to me having to adjust the eq on the drums, in order to get a good sound.  

Now I know some of you might now be asking “So what does eq mean?”, among other things. Equalization (or eq) is important to understand because they’ll probably pop up in future blog posts, as they are critical when it comes to mixing. Well, to understand eq, you’ll have to understand frequency. Frequency is usually measured in hert (Hz). It refers to the sound that any object makes. Yes, you heard that right: Every sound that you hear has a frequency. It plays a heavy role in recording: The frequency of all of your instruments will determine what the song will sound like.

When recording, Audio Frequencies can be split into three different categories: Highs, Mids, and Lows. If you haven’t guessed yet, high frequencies refer to the highs, low frequencies refer to the lows, and mids refer to the middle frequencies. It is important to have a mix of frequencies.  If the frequencies for different instruments overlap, the song will sound very muddy. If there are no low frequencies, then it will sound like the practice right after you fired your bass player. If there are too many lows, then congratulations! You’ve discovered how to sound like your average Georgian sludge metal band. If that’s not what you’re looking for, then you screwed up.

Equalization is boosting or reducing the frequencies of a signal, such as a guitar or drums. If you’ve ever used a speaker with knobs like “Bass” and “Treble” and used those to adjust how the song sounds, then congratulations: you’ve just messed with the equalization (If you’re curious, the “Bass” knob refers to all of the lower frequencies, while “treble” refers to the higher frequencies).  

Eqing is usually controlled using different “ bands”, which are volume controls for certain frequencies. Equalizaers can have many different amounts of bands, from two to 32. However there are 7 bands that are usually considered to be the most important:

50-60 Hz

•    Thump in a kick drum

•    Boom in a bassline

•    Too much and you’ll have flapping speakers and a flabby mix

•    Too little, and the mix will never have enough weight or depth

100-200 Hz

•    This EQ band adds punch in a snare

•    Gives richness or “bloom” to almost anything

•    Too much makes things boomy or woolly

•    Too little sounds thin and cold

200-500 Hz

•    Crucial for warmth and weight in guitars, piano and vocals

•    Too much makes things sound muddy or congested

•    Too little makes them thin and weak

500-1000 Hz

•    One of the trickiest areas

•    Gives body and tone to many instruments

•    Too much sounds hollow, nasal or honky

•    Too little sounds thin and harsh

2 kHz

•    Gives edge and bite to guitars and vocals

•    Adds aggression and clarity

•    Too much is painful

•    Too little will sound soft or muted

5-10 kHz

•    Adds clarity, open-ness and life

•    Important for the top end of drums, especially snare

•    Too much sounds gritty or scratchy

•    Too little will lack presence and energy

16 kHz

•    Can add air, space or sparkle

•    Almost too high to hear

•    Too much will sound artificial, hyped or fizzy

•    Too little will sound dull and stifled

And there you have it: a crash course on frequencies and equalization. Now, you’re probably be asking, “So how are you going to change all of these frequencies things?” That requires another program: the audio editor Audacity, which will also probably what I’ll use for the mixing process. This handy app allows me control over things such as equalization, which I will definitely use wisely.

                                

                                                                 There is absolutely not way this can go wrong 

That was probably a really long tangent. To sum up my current progress, I now have every thing I need to record. I have my Recording software (as well as an audio editor), a guitar, an amp, and an amp out-computer cable. Now I know there’s been some questions about how I’m going to record the bass parts. The answer? I’m going to use a whammy pedal (a guitar device that allows you to change the frequency of the guitar sound) to make the guitar sound much lower to the point where it sounds like a bass. With this and the drum machine stuff that was previously mentioned, I now have everything I need to start recording

Resources:

"Using EQ When Mixing." Production Advice RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.

"What Is Frequency?" "Communication Systems" Northwestern University, n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013.