Compression. Expansion. Watch your dynamics.

Use a metronome.  It'll save having to do a lot of faffing about with time stretching.  Who knew how much a performance could speed up - and also slow down in the middle of a particular speed up.  I knew it would speed up, but honestly...

Never mind all that eq, and stuff (well, do, but make sure you've sorted your dynamic range before you start).  And on that gnomic pronouncement.

So this project then...

...what’s that all about?
Ok my inquisitive friend here’s my rambling explanation.
I aim to get to grips with some bits of software, hardware and other tech I have had kicking around for a while and have only tentatively played with.  I have an old version of Cubase, an old version of Adobe Premiere Elements, a helmet camera, a sheet, some lights, and various bits and bobs of music making kit such as guitars, microphone, midi keyboard and a drum machine.

There is also the aim of gaining a clearer understanding of how to present subject matter to a wider audience.  I say ‘subject matter’ because this could be any area, music, film, a presentation on how to make the perfect cup of tea, etc.  The quality of this will inevitably be variable, the benefits may very often be hidden as they will be me gaining greater technical understanding of the aforementioned areas.  Some of the technical knowledge will be explained, as this will give me further experience of getting to grips with the technology.  So initially any ‘content’ produced may be sub-par but with luck it will improve.

How will I determine the success of the project?
Well, there is no time limit or deadline by which to make a judgement, but there should be an improvement in understanding of the technologies and an improvement in the quality of the output.

Why do this in public?
Yes it goes against the philosophy of not practising in public and only demonstrating complete, finished and well crafted performances, but it provides a motivation that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
The problems encountered may provide useful information for others, as indeed other people’s blogs, and explanations in forums will and have helped me.

Here’s my first follow up to creating some dodgy content, itself being rudimentary in style - dig the groovy graphics.



My first recording was off the cuff and sounded much more natural, even after removing hesitations, ums and ers.  This is the second recording and was completely scripted, having headings and key words would be a better way to do this in future as this version sounds much more stilted, even when I laugh due to interjection by CatB.



P.S.
Unlike in other projects changing the specification or requirements here won’t increase risk or cause project failure.
As a human I reserve the right to hold contradictory opinions, and to continue with this project in whatever form, change it, or stop at any time without warning or further comment.

Sound & Vision

My first attempt at music & video combined.

I originally thought "hey, why not do one of those project things, once a week record a music video..." as a way of getting to know various bits of software and to keep me focussed on playing regularly.  I reckon that might be tricky, I'll give it a go but suspect output may not be as frequent as once a week!

Here it is:



Top tips:
Always iron your green screen.
Try not to gurn too much.