Personal Employability Strategy Portfolio
This portfolio explores the work undertaken for the Personal Employability Strategy module of my BA(hons) year at UHI Perth.
The points from the brief which will be included in this particular section of my site will be -
• Evidence of sourcing a work based placement
• Evidence gathered from undertaking a work based placement
• Critical reflection
I believe that the rest of my site visits the other points detailed in the assessment brief for Portfolio part 2.
The points from the brief which will be included in this particular section of my site will be -
• Evidence of sourcing a work based placement
• Evidence gathered from undertaking a work based placement
• Critical reflection
I believe that the rest of my site visits the other points detailed in the assessment brief for Portfolio part 2.
Sourcing a Work Based Placement / Conceptualisation
At the start of this module, I saw an opportunity to expand and develop my skills out with my instrumental playing practices and to push myself out of my comfort zone. With my experiences and employment status as a full time musician, it seemed that it would not be right to use one of my current projects as a focus for this employment strategy portfolio. Through my work in the industry, I have realised how important it is that session musicians have the skill to be able to record and produce to a high standard, be that for anything from pre-production demos to be sent to producers ahead of a session, or purely for marketing yourself online or on social media. There seems to also be a growing market for 'remote' session players who have the equipment and ability to be sent a demo track, be able to record parts to a very high studio quality and send this on to a mixer or producer - eliminating the need for high studio costs.
With this in mind, I looked to source a placement working under an established producer in a studio for a minimum of one full week to meet the 40 hour criteria of the brief.
When conceptualising the project, I was breaking it down as -
What
• Further develop my skills as a studio engineer and producer
How
• Do this by seeking work with a professional producer who I have established a strong working relationship with through past session playing.
Why
• Developing these skills would open another gateway to potential future employment within these areas of the industry.
With this in mind, I looked to source a placement working under an established producer in a studio for a minimum of one full week to meet the 40 hour criteria of the brief.
When conceptualising the project, I was breaking it down as -
What
• Further develop my skills as a studio engineer and producer
How
• Do this by seeking work with a professional producer who I have established a strong working relationship with through past session playing.
Why
• Developing these skills would open another gateway to potential future employment within these areas of the industry.
Sourcing Research
In relation to my work experiences in the past, I have always made a point of retaining working relationships with people. Whether this is someone I have met at an open mic night or the crew I worked beside at the Royal Albert Hall on an Idlewild show, every connection is important.
Through past experiences working with producers, I have narrowed down three potential work placements which could work for this module. Due to how I worked when I was involved with these producers during the sessions in the past, showing my keen interest in production when I was working with them, they were aware that I had a passion for this side of the industry and therefore were very open to me coming back to shadow them for a work placement.
Through past experiences working with producers, I have narrowed down three potential work placements which could work for this module. Due to how I worked when I was involved with these producers during the sessions in the past, showing my keen interest in production when I was working with them, they were aware that I had a passion for this side of the industry and therefore were very open to me coming back to shadow them for a work placement.
- Mark Morrow - The Depot, Edinburgh
Mostly local/Scottish bands. Independent producer.
Very busy studio, short stay/day sessions for bands. - Rod Jones - Post Electric, Edinburgh
Bigger bands - Idlewild’s home studio. Has assistant engineers and mixers, as well as interns in house. Slightly quieter studio, longer sessions, a few days/ week sessions. - Matt Terry - Vada Studios, Alcester
Big name bands, You Me at Six, The Darkness, Bullet for my Valentine, Ocean Colour Scene, Don Broco, The Enemy. Onsite assistant engineer. External hire to other producers, Long stay residential studio. Anywhere up to 5 weeks or more.
Due to the fact that I had kept strong connections with these producers, I was able to get back in touch with them very easily through messenger on facebook, such to the point that Matt Terry got straight back and said that he would be delighted to have me back. This was going to be very easy to organise, due to the fact that I was on my way back to his studio for recording sessions as a session player in both November 2017 and February 2018, both sessions for 5-6 full days in the studio, meaning that I could have almost two full working weeks worth of time working and playing within the studio under Matt as the main producer. Another main reason for choosing this particular placement is the opportunity to work with a well known and established producer with gold records to his name, in a high end residential studio used by some of my favourite bands is an opportunity which may not come around very often.
http://www.vadarecordingstudios.com/
http://www.vadarecordingstudios.com/
The Placement (Pre-Production)
The solidified dates for the two sessions would be -
27th Nov - 1st Dec 2017 - Drums/bass/rhythm section part tracking for five full tracks
19th - 23rd Feb 2018 - Guitar/ Strings/ Horn section/ Vocal tracking for two of the five tracks for release
Though the placements would be physically in the studio during these dates, in a way the placement started around a month prior to actually being in the studio. Due to the nature of the studio and time constraints with costs etc, Matt is very pro-active when it comes to pre-production demos prior to the actual tracking sessions. His approach being, if everyone on the session knows what their parts are ahead of time, we can focus on the performance and getting the best out of everyone, rather than having to write parts as we go and potentially wasting valuable time on site.
27th Nov - 1st Dec 2017 - Drums/bass/rhythm section part tracking for five full tracks
19th - 23rd Feb 2018 - Guitar/ Strings/ Horn section/ Vocal tracking for two of the five tracks for release
Though the placements would be physically in the studio during these dates, in a way the placement started around a month prior to actually being in the studio. Due to the nature of the studio and time constraints with costs etc, Matt is very pro-active when it comes to pre-production demos prior to the actual tracking sessions. His approach being, if everyone on the session knows what their parts are ahead of time, we can focus on the performance and getting the best out of everyone, rather than having to write parts as we go and potentially wasting valuable time on site.
Throughout November Matt, Henry (the songwriter and band leader) and myself were in contact through messaging and Dropbox to send the demo tracks back and forth. Henry being based in London, Matt at his studio in Alcester and myself being in Edinburgh, rehearsals were not really feasible.
I spent some time in my studio recording pre-production parts based on the feedback and demo tracks that Henry had sent, which would then get sent to Matt for further feedback and altered accordingly, until we were all happy with the parts that would be getting tracked at Vada.
Some great feedback that I had received from Matt was that I could produce these pre-production demos to a very good standard, he liked my drum tone and production style and also reiterated how it is almost a bit of a game changer that a young session musician has the ability to do this as it makes his job all the easier pre-session.
I spent some time in my studio recording pre-production parts based on the feedback and demo tracks that Henry had sent, which would then get sent to Matt for further feedback and altered accordingly, until we were all happy with the parts that would be getting tracked at Vada.
Some great feedback that I had received from Matt was that I could produce these pre-production demos to a very good standard, he liked my drum tone and production style and also reiterated how it is almost a bit of a game changer that a young session musician has the ability to do this as it makes his job all the easier pre-session.
The Placement (on-site)
Set up - Drums
The first morning was spent getting the live room set up with the kit and working on getting a drum sound, with so many microphones from close mics to two sets of stereo room mics, getting this right early is very important. The overall drum sound very much depends on the time spend during set up making sure there is no unwanted phase between microphones and the kit tuning, snare and cymbal tones are correct. Even to the point of changing the drum heads to make the tone lie in a certain way is all done during this initial set up, before any recording even starts. Again, due to the pre-production process, we had a good idea of the sort of tones we were looking for as we had already investigated these avenues through demoing prior to the sessions. It was very interesting to see where Matt and his engineer Liam place mics in this respect, the Vada live room is a shaped like a small cathedral space, so there is scope to capture a huge drum sound in a relatively small but very lively space.
One thing that Matt has done in the past is to capture the drums and cymbals separately if the player had trouble levelling their overall sound in the room as it is quite a difficult room for a drummer. Though Matt had said that he was very impressed with my cymbal control and overall levelling of my playing that he would not need to do that. He also complimented my technique and how I can consistently control my snare drum tone. I prefer a higher pitched snare which does not allow much compensation for sloppy playing when in a studio setting, he said it was very refreshing to record a drummer who has clearly put the hours and practice in to recording himself and listening back to his own playing so critically.
The first morning was spent getting the live room set up with the kit and working on getting a drum sound, with so many microphones from close mics to two sets of stereo room mics, getting this right early is very important. The overall drum sound very much depends on the time spend during set up making sure there is no unwanted phase between microphones and the kit tuning, snare and cymbal tones are correct. Even to the point of changing the drum heads to make the tone lie in a certain way is all done during this initial set up, before any recording even starts. Again, due to the pre-production process, we had a good idea of the sort of tones we were looking for as we had already investigated these avenues through demoing prior to the sessions. It was very interesting to see where Matt and his engineer Liam place mics in this respect, the Vada live room is a shaped like a small cathedral space, so there is scope to capture a huge drum sound in a relatively small but very lively space.
One thing that Matt has done in the past is to capture the drums and cymbals separately if the player had trouble levelling their overall sound in the room as it is quite a difficult room for a drummer. Though Matt had said that he was very impressed with my cymbal control and overall levelling of my playing that he would not need to do that. He also complimented my technique and how I can consistently control my snare drum tone. I prefer a higher pitched snare which does not allow much compensation for sloppy playing when in a studio setting, he said it was very refreshing to record a drummer who has clearly put the hours and practice in to recording himself and listening back to his own playing so critically.
Process and Tracking
The first week of being at Vada was quite intensely focussed on getting as much of the drum and bass parts recorded as possible, therefore I spent much more time in the live room playing than in the control room, though I was still asking Matt for feedback and listening critically to each of the tracks as they were getting recorded. We could record a few drum takes each time and go back through each section of each track, comping together a final drum edit for each of the songs.
The really interesting and particularly useful part to my development as a producer in this sense was getting to sit beside Matt as he was listening to each take, being able to hear what he was hearing and see how he works with audio to get the best edit put together. One thing I definitely learned a lot about in the sessions was phase lock editing within a DAW, editing together between 16-20 drum tracks and making it sound seamless was an art to watch in itself.
Matt would take the best parts of the performance, comp these together and send his engineer off to another mix room with each track to really go over it beat by beat and make sure everything is right where it should be on the grid. One thing I found very surprising was that Liam does not use an automation tool within pro-tools to nudge certain parts onto the grid, instead uses an approach slightly veered toward 'tape editing' of the past and splices up the audio to keep it's natural feel, rather than the occasionally robotic sound you may get after processing with a plug-in such as beat detective.
The really interesting and particularly useful part to my development as a producer in this sense was getting to sit beside Matt as he was listening to each take, being able to hear what he was hearing and see how he works with audio to get the best edit put together. One thing I definitely learned a lot about in the sessions was phase lock editing within a DAW, editing together between 16-20 drum tracks and making it sound seamless was an art to watch in itself.
Matt would take the best parts of the performance, comp these together and send his engineer off to another mix room with each track to really go over it beat by beat and make sure everything is right where it should be on the grid. One thing I found very surprising was that Liam does not use an automation tool within pro-tools to nudge certain parts onto the grid, instead uses an approach slightly veered toward 'tape editing' of the past and splices up the audio to keep it's natural feel, rather than the occasionally robotic sound you may get after processing with a plug-in such as beat detective.
Second Week of Sessions
The second week of sessions were very hectic, with a load of tracking to be done including strings, horn sections, electric and acoustic guitar tracks, sampling and loops and all vocals, including Lead, layered backing and layered choir parts. Though once again due to meticulous planning and pre-production as well as full scores for each session player and a full score for the control room, this was made relatively easy to handle.
With me not being needed quite as much as a player this time round, I was able to spend much more time in the control room watching Matt and Liam work as well as being able to go away with Liam into his mixing room to watch his process with the editing.
Both Matt and Liam were very open to questioning and would let me take the reigns with certain aspects, allowing me to use the equipment and guide me through their process with exactly what edits to make and where, which settings to use and showing me around some of the high end plug ins that they use for post-production.
On a side note, the next band who were coming in to the studio on our last day were a band called Black Peaks, their producer had arrived and come to say hello to Matt as we were finishing off, this producer was Adrian Bushby who has credits for working with such as Muse, Foo Fighters, Elton John, Young Guns and Jamiroquai to name a few. We had a good chance to have a chat and it was truly great to meet him, have a coffee and just hang out for a little while.
Another reason why I feel that this placement was definitely worthwhile to my progression, making a personal connection with such figures of the industry is invaluable.
With me not being needed quite as much as a player this time round, I was able to spend much more time in the control room watching Matt and Liam work as well as being able to go away with Liam into his mixing room to watch his process with the editing.
Both Matt and Liam were very open to questioning and would let me take the reigns with certain aspects, allowing me to use the equipment and guide me through their process with exactly what edits to make and where, which settings to use and showing me around some of the high end plug ins that they use for post-production.
On a side note, the next band who were coming in to the studio on our last day were a band called Black Peaks, their producer had arrived and come to say hello to Matt as we were finishing off, this producer was Adrian Bushby who has credits for working with such as Muse, Foo Fighters, Elton John, Young Guns and Jamiroquai to name a few. We had a good chance to have a chat and it was truly great to meet him, have a coffee and just hang out for a little while.
Another reason why I feel that this placement was definitely worthwhile to my progression, making a personal connection with such figures of the industry is invaluable.
Critical Reflection |
Within the critical reflection, I will cover four main points -
• A brief description of the organisation & A description of work undertaken on placement
• Critical analysis of researching and securing the placement
• Key areas of skills development
• A brief description of the organisation & A description of work undertaken on placement
• Critical analysis of researching and securing the placement
• Key areas of skills development
A Brief Description/ Work Carried Out on Placement
Vada Studios is a residential recording studio in Alcester, England. Owned and operated by producer Matt Terry, with credits including gold records with the Enemy and bands like Ocean Colour Scene & The Wonder Stuff. Vada studios also gets hired out to external producers for longer sessions as well as having an external mixing room which can also be hired out. Clients of the studio include bands such as The Darkness, Bullet for My Valentine, Ronan Keating, BBC, Mallory Knox and Don Broco to name a small portion.
The work I carried out on the placement was partially as a session player, though the main development I was looking to get from the "placement" aspect was to learn more about the production process, including tracking/editing/mixing/mic placement and post production. With this in mind, I was involved with these aspects and shadowing Matt and Liam during the extended process after I had recorded my parts. Learning about the high end production process in a studio such as Vada has taught me valuable skills that I can relate back to my own work in my studio. Being able to sit in the control room and see exactly what is happening during the process, hear what Matt is hearing and see exactly what he does to process the audio has been extremely interesting and beneficial. He has also been very accepting of me asking what seem like silly questions, allowing me to get hands on with the equipment and being solidly involved in the creative process of the record.
The work I carried out on the placement was partially as a session player, though the main development I was looking to get from the "placement" aspect was to learn more about the production process, including tracking/editing/mixing/mic placement and post production. With this in mind, I was involved with these aspects and shadowing Matt and Liam during the extended process after I had recorded my parts. Learning about the high end production process in a studio such as Vada has taught me valuable skills that I can relate back to my own work in my studio. Being able to sit in the control room and see exactly what is happening during the process, hear what Matt is hearing and see exactly what he does to process the audio has been extremely interesting and beneficial. He has also been very accepting of me asking what seem like silly questions, allowing me to get hands on with the equipment and being solidly involved in the creative process of the record.
Critical analysis of researching and securing the placement
I feel that my strategy for researching and securing this placement came fairly easily, in part because I have been working full time as a professional musician for around 7 years and I regularly have to approach new people for work. The main difference with this project being that I was looking more for a placement to extend my knowledge and abilities as a producer and engineer rather than actively seeking paid work as a session musician. The main approach I use which I would say has been and continues to be my most successful strategy is to make a solid first impression with any potential clients and make sure that this connection remains strong. Particularly as a session musician, if an artist or producer likes working with you on a personal level - this is almost more important than your actual playing ability, though clearly if you can also provide the skill when it is called upon, this is very important and in many ways - a bonus. Another strategy which really helped me gain this placement in such a straight forward way was to show an extended interest which is above my 'call of duty' when I have been in these studios as a session musician in the past.I always made a point of asking if anyone minds me sticking around in the sessions to have a look at what is going on, though making sure you are not over staying you're welcome and knowing when your creative input is NOT needed is a very valuable thing to know when doing this. Getting in the way can be very detrimental to the overall creative process for everyone else. Showing an interest to these professionals again helps the connection as you can spend more time talking about what their processes are and really get involved in the project, as opposed to just coming in, playing your parts and leaving when you're no longer needed. I strongly believe that putting in the extra time and effort on a personal level is one of the most valuable attributes in this industry and on speaking to Matt and Liam about this, they seemed to very much agree stating, "No one want's to spend 3 months in the studio with someone you can't have a laugh with".
On reflection, if I would have done anything differently, I would have tried to get into a session with Matt where I could have just been a fly on the wall, possibly with a bigger band that he may have coming through the studio. Though knowing what can and can't be asked in this world, I feel that this may have been asking slightly too much due to the level that Matt works at. The bigger sessions with big bands happen very much behind closed doors, for fairly obvious reasons. They do not want any potential leaks or anyone that may not necessarily have to be in the studio just hanging around for the sake of it, though it may be worth a try in the future. Even Matt himself will tend to stay out of the way if he doesn't have a direct need to be in the studio if a band have brought in an external producer to the studio - even though he lives there!
On reflection, if I would have done anything differently, I would have tried to get into a session with Matt where I could have just been a fly on the wall, possibly with a bigger band that he may have coming through the studio. Though knowing what can and can't be asked in this world, I feel that this may have been asking slightly too much due to the level that Matt works at. The bigger sessions with big bands happen very much behind closed doors, for fairly obvious reasons. They do not want any potential leaks or anyone that may not necessarily have to be in the studio just hanging around for the sake of it, though it may be worth a try in the future. Even Matt himself will tend to stay out of the way if he doesn't have a direct need to be in the studio if a band have brought in an external producer to the studio - even though he lives there!
Key areas of skills development
This placement has developed my skill set in many ways. First and foremost, I am an instrumental session player. Working in such a high end studio under a producer with such credits is experience within itself, Matt was very complimentary on my playing, particularly on my overall drum tone and control which was very nice to hear. He said that the one thing that he would say I had to work on was my double stroke kick technique, though he did also say that it was a very minor point and that the way I play is still close enough that it can be fixed with a very minimal amount of compression. The main development points I really wanted to take away from this placement are more related to recording and production. I have seen that there is a gap in the market for self-producing session musicians. The fact that I have my own studio and equipment is a very strong asset into more work possibilities for me, so learning production techniques from Matt and Liam has already been hugely beneficial. I noticed an improvement in my tracking and mixing abilities as soon as I got back into my own studio. Hearing and seeing how Matt EQ's and uses compression, down to the plugins and processing he uses, or even something as simple as layering guitar parts or splicing and reversing a tambourine for textural effect. Paying attention to all these little things that these guys do is what I feel will make the biggest difference to my abilities as a producer and engineer.
Such to the point, I have been approached by Matt to potentially head back to Vada on another, unrelated session with scope to potentially get put out on a label.
Such to the point, I have been approached by Matt to potentially head back to Vada on another, unrelated session with scope to potentially get put out on a label.
