May 8 - Tasks list

Task	What I’m at	What I need
Record the various parts for the song	Recorded just about everything except the melody. Want to experiment with additional parts if I have the time.	-transcribe the melody (almost done!) -record it (using this http://www.caseyrule.com/projects/piano/)
Mix all the parts	I just have all the parts slapped on the track right now	To have all the parts recorded so I can put them together properly
Adjust each part’s volume, stereo balance, etc.	I have some parts adjusted just for experimentation	All the parts mixed so I can mess around with each track’s volume :’)
Add sound effects	Nothing	Watch some tutorials on various sound effects in Audition
Time coordinate the tracks to make sure they line up properly	All the tracks are just mashed atop eachother – they play at the same time, but it’s not at the level of variation I want	Once I have all my tracks recorded, I’ll play around with the timing
Adjust pitch	I haven’t adjusted anything yet	Again I need all my parts recorded first! I will just experiment with pitches myself, since I’ve already learned how to do it (see previous genius hour post about the “Gorgeous” mix)
Create a visual demonstration (with audio bars) for my final presentation	Nothing	Search up tutorials on how to create audio bars
Make and upload the video	Nothing	The audio bars
Start writing and recording a new song (that’s actually my own) if I have the time	--	--
Mix that new song and also prepare it for presentation	--	--

 I'm working alone. The benefits of working alone, especially for a creative project like this, is that I get to control what the song sounds like-- maybe I wouldn't have liked the other person's ideas for how the song should sound, or the quality of their recordings. But I think it would have been nice to have been working with someone else on this who is maybe more knowledgeable in music than I am, since it's difficult for me to do much if my comfort zone is so small. If someone else could experiment alongside me, they might come up with something much better than mine sounds, and I could learn something from that. Working with someone else on creative projects can be great since you can feed ideas off each other. 

May 1st - problems I foresee and whether or not I still like genius hour?

What problems do I foresee and how can I solve them?

Right now I'm almost done recording all the parts for my song and I'm running into a couple of problems:

1. I can't record well using the MIDI program - the rhythm is slight off because it's hard to play quickly on the keyboard. I can get around this by recording small sections at a time and putting them together in Audition. 
2. I'm not good with putting together different types of instruments D: I just have violin right now, but I'm trying to incorporate some other sounds so it doesn't sound so stringy. I'll just have to keep experimenting. 

Do I still like genius hour?

YES! I really wish I had more time to do genius hour! To be honest whenever I finish my programming assignment I hop onto Audition to keep working on my song. I've never really done anything like this, with mixing my own music, and I'm having so much fun with it. I think it just opened up a completely new hobby potential for me. I'm still pretty bad at it, but I enjoy doing it nevertheless. 

April 24 - progress on my work!

April 24

For the past couple of weeks I have been working on creating a mix using recordings I'm making using virtual instruments.

I decided to do the song Canon in D Minor by Pachelbel because it's a pretty simple song, and there's a version of it online broken into multiple parts, which I can copy and then put together in Audition. The goal is to record all the parts by myself using that website and then make my version of the song.

I started by doing the simple harmonies. Through listening to the song, I picked out the notes:

	Pt 1
1	A#
2
3	G#
4
1	F#
2
3	F
4
1	D#
2
3	C#
4
1	D#
2
3	F
4

Then I mapped those notes to the virtual online keyboard:

	Pt 1	Pt 2
1	A#	7
2
3	G#	6
4
1	F#	5
2
3	F	R
4
1	D#	3
2
3	C#	2
4
1	D#	3
2
3	F	R
4

And recorded it using the violin on the online keyboard. It sounds like this:

...

Then I did the same thing for the second harmony on the cello, and it sounds like this:

...

Then more violin notes:

...

And all together it sounds like this: 

...

So far, my backing tracks put together with the melody and drums sound like this:

...

:) :) :)

I'm going to keep working on recording my own parts (although that keyboard is pretty hard to use for faster parts :(... maybe I'll use my piano at home, but it's pretty out of tune.. but hey maybe I can learn pitch correction in Audition!), to hopefully make a full on song with this.

THINGS I LEARNED, THOUGH:

-cutting audio precisely so they play in sync
-playback looping
-adjusting left/right audio balance
-this is really fun


:')

April 9

April 9th

What I learned:

Today I learned how to set up a multitrack session and the basic functions (change volume of right and left side, mute/solo tracks), and I learned how to change the pitch and speed of audio. (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pJaDFxdXEp16XX3P4r5fZb28f0RQ14w6/view?usp=sharing)

Then I started looking for some online MIDI apps and found one with a bunch of instruments and started recording some music to put together later in Audition.

What problems do I foresee happening? How can I solve them now?

What problems do I foresee happening? How can I solve them now?

I foresee that I will run out of audio to edit because I don't actually make any music to record. So far I have only been able to edit other peoples' songs. I don't actually need to learn how to edit my own recording, since I don't think I'll ever be recording anything in the future, but I would like to learn how to edit recorded voiceovers to use for my documentary in Digital Media. Once I learn that, I can always move on to learn something else.

I think I might try to find a program with a MIDI so that I can create music like I'd originally wanted to try, after I finish learning everything I want to in Audition.

I can solve this now by thinking about other things I might want to learn after Audition, if I don't happen to find a free program with a MIDI.

KWL

KWL

What I want to learn: how to mix audio, and how to make recorded audio better
Know:

• Adobe Audition can be used
• Audacity can be used

What do I want to find out

• Learn about audio editing (any effects I can do, or anything I can do to make the sound clearer, etc.)
• How to remix music

What did I learn

• How to create a multitrack session in Audition
• How to add effects to tracks
• How to adjust volume and left/right balance of individual tracks
• How to change the pitch and speed of tracks
• How to mixdown