For my evaluation, I will be looking into my project proposal, research and project progress, and be drawing my own conclusion on my project. This conclusion will include my thoughts on what went well with the project, what didn't, and what I could possibly do to improve my skills for future projects.
I believe that I stuck to my project proposal well, however the biggest issue that I didn't really expect was my lack of time. I had assumed that this project wouldn't take a long time to accomplish, given how small it is, which I found out was wrong of me to do so. Realistically, I should I have given myself much more time to compose and produce the tracks, as I found that I didn't know anything about mastering my tracks, and during the mixing process I struggled with concepts like compression. I knew that something like this would happen, but didn't plan enough time to properly look into mixing and mastering concepts. With that being said, I do believe that I still managed to achieve what I set out to do, at least having 2 composed track to present. I would say that next time I would give myself at least 3 - 4 months, with at least 6 weeks planned for the production stage alone. Other constraints was lack of resources to complete my compositions. I'm not complaining that I didn't have the right equipment or software, but if I had taken advantage of college studios, I could have possibly added more production value to the mix and even found someone to collaborate with when mastering and learned more about mastering tracks.
I feel like I presented a wealth of research into hip hop style and history, and into the role of being a label producer. The one thing I would do next time would be to use more primary research. I gave a lot of good sources, but there were all internet articles, containing information researched by someone else, which isn't always 100% reliable. If I had taken the time to properly plan my research, I could have used social media surveys to reach my target audience and get some credible, first hand research. I do believe however that my research did support my projects success, as I feel like I achieved the boom bap hip hop style I was looking into in my material research.
I feel that the project's actual progress, or the production stage, didn't go as well as I had hope it would. The compositions of the tracks I actually do like, the key and scales all sound in key, no odd notes or off beat drums. and the arrangement of both tracks fit the old school beat tape style I was going for, with a looping feel to it. What I felt I didn't do well was the mixing. Some of the instruments in the tracks never even got mixed in the final cuts, which was done to the constraints of not having enough time to do them. What I did manage to mix, I feel I did well, all the audio filtering was done well, no unnatural sounding frequencies in the songs. I also manage to achieve the correct kind of reverb on the drums and piano synths, and on one of the samples (from track 1). I showed a little use of automation on one of my tracks, but again didn't really fully understand the concept. In the future, before I start a project, I will make sure that I have a full understanding of all the concepts I will be using such as compression and automation, and then using them on top of my skills already, add a more profession feel to my compositions. Unfortunately because both tracks were unfinished, I didn't want to release the project half done so instead I uploaded the album to soundcloud on private and released it sooner
I believe that I stuck to my project proposal well, however the biggest issue that I didn't really expect was my lack of time. I had assumed that this project wouldn't take a long time to accomplish, given how small it is, which I found out was wrong of me to do so. Realistically, I should I have given myself much more time to compose and produce the tracks, as I found that I didn't know anything about mastering my tracks, and during the mixing process I struggled with concepts like compression. I knew that something like this would happen, but didn't plan enough time to properly look into mixing and mastering concepts. With that being said, I do believe that I still managed to achieve what I set out to do, at least having 2 composed track to present. I would say that next time I would give myself at least 3 - 4 months, with at least 6 weeks planned for the production stage alone. Other constraints was lack of resources to complete my compositions. I'm not complaining that I didn't have the right equipment or software, but if I had taken advantage of college studios, I could have possibly added more production value to the mix and even found someone to collaborate with when mastering and learned more about mastering tracks.
I feel like I presented a wealth of research into hip hop style and history, and into the role of being a label producer. The one thing I would do next time would be to use more primary research. I gave a lot of good sources, but there were all internet articles, containing information researched by someone else, which isn't always 100% reliable. If I had taken the time to properly plan my research, I could have used social media surveys to reach my target audience and get some credible, first hand research. I do believe however that my research did support my projects success, as I feel like I achieved the boom bap hip hop style I was looking into in my material research.
I feel that the project's actual progress, or the production stage, didn't go as well as I had hope it would. The compositions of the tracks I actually do like, the key and scales all sound in key, no odd notes or off beat drums. and the arrangement of both tracks fit the old school beat tape style I was going for, with a looping feel to it. What I felt I didn't do well was the mixing. Some of the instruments in the tracks never even got mixed in the final cuts, which was done to the constraints of not having enough time to do them. What I did manage to mix, I feel I did well, all the audio filtering was done well, no unnatural sounding frequencies in the songs. I also manage to achieve the correct kind of reverb on the drums and piano synths, and on one of the samples (from track 1). I showed a little use of automation on one of my tracks, but again didn't really fully understand the concept. In the future, before I start a project, I will make sure that I have a full understanding of all the concepts I will be using such as compression and automation, and then using them on top of my skills already, add a more profession feel to my compositions. Unfortunately because both tracks were unfinished, I didn't want to release the project half done so instead I uploaded the album to soundcloud on private and released it sooner
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel like completing this project has given me a small look into what it is like to release an album, and not just from the perspective of a beat maker. It has shown me that being a record producer means basically being the manager of the project. I learned about research into what style and look you're going for, how to find your target audience and what works when looking for art and promotion for your project. I learnt that projects like these take a lot longer to plan, create and release, and that next time, if I want my project to be bigger with more collaborations with other artists, I will need to 100% focus on my planning, on my research into mixing and mastering techniques and concepts. Next time, I may also use some of my own personal finances to pay for a mix engineer I can sit with, someone who can help add value to my track, or a mastering engineer to make my track sound good on any system. Other than the obvious issues of time constraints, overall, I think this project was a success in a sense, and it was definitely a learning experience for future projects.