Evaluation

To evaluate my music product and myself as a whole in artistic, professional, financial, and vocational terms, I must break my performance within this process of recording, mixing, and mastering down.

To start with, have I been artistic? I believe I have, during recordings I made a point to place the microphones in positions that I think would best suit the outcome of the recording, I have talked to the band about how best they could aid the performance by standing closer when singing, or give them constructive criticism about timing. My knowledge in this area shows most when it comes to the guitar, I have a very good attention to detail when it comes to guitars, I can tell straight away if a guitar is not tuned, if the band struck a wrong note. I can do the same for drums, I can pick out if their rhythm or timing is off. For piano, and things like trumpet I can tell if something does not sound right, however, I couldn't pin point the exact note and offer an alternative approach like I can do on the guitar, so I would like to deepen my knowledge within music notation in other instruments. I need to spend more time comparing a note on the guitar that I know, and being able to convert it to know exactly where it would be on a piano, etc. I would also like to learn more detail about singing, as again, I can tell if something goes wrong, however, I wouldn't find it completely natural to offer a different suggestion of a vocal run, or other. This is because I don't have a broad experience within singing, so I should develop a broader experience.

In a professional sense I believe I have succeeded throughout this as I have been able to keep calm in stressful situations, been able to listen to the people in my team and in the band, this is because I don't tend to make a fuss, I like to keep things calm. I Kept conversation with the band on topic, as my focus is to get the recording done to a good standard. However, my note taking has been slightly inconsistent throughout the recordings, as I have often found myself needed to double check what microphones I used and for what instrument. As well as this, my communication skills are not the best, therefore, I do not find it easy communicating to the band, I will get another person to relay my message on occasion so I don't have to talk, this is not professional and is something I need to work on. To better myself, I need to step out of my comfort zone, and know that its a professional talk, factual, to the point, and therefore, should not be hard. As for the note taking, I need to make sure I take not on all the options on the before-recording-checklist, this will give me all the information I need.

In terms of finance and vocational terms, I set my hourly rate of £10.00 but I have to think if this would support me if I were to live off that money. It would all depend how many hours I would work, which depend on my popularity if I was self employed. Therefore, I think it would be the best idea to start on an internship with a well known studio to earn a steady wage to support myself, or go to university to studio sound engineering to further my knowledge. once I have a lot of experience within the studio, and the knowledge behind it I could become a sound engineer with a recording company to further my connections and popularity within a field. When bands work with you, if they like the way you work, they are likely to stay loyal to your services. Once you have enough loyal bands and enough experience you could become self employed and set your hourly rate higher to £20-£40 an hour, your experience would justify this price, and you'd have enough work coming in to be able to support yourself. Therefore, I do not think it would be a good idea to go straight into a self employed job, as I do not think I would be able to support myself, pay rent, fuel, insurance, electricity, water, etc. I would need a lot more experience, more knowledge, and a lot more connections to be able to start a self employment that meant I would earn a steady wage.

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My strengths and weaknesses

My strengths:

My strengths are my knowledge of audio engineering for the level of study I am currently at, my dedication to learn and perfect my audio engineering techniques, my honesty in that I will comment critically on a band if they did something wrong in a recording, as I want the best recording possible. I have a keen ear for musical elements, and can tell straight away if an instrument if out of tune or playing a wrong note, especially in terms of guitar, I could offer alternative ways of playing a riff or a chord to suit the music better. I don't force my ideas on people, I feel like that is a good strength to have, I shall offer ideas but ultimately its up to the band. I believe I am professional when talking to other people in my team and the band, I do this by talking direct and to the point.

My weaknesses:

My weaknesses are that I don't have the best organisational skills in terms of note taking. Setting up a studio I am good at, but writing down what microphone I used for what I seem to be a little lazy with that, this is because, I focus on the recording, note taking seems to take a back seat. I shall improve that weakness by taking better notes and keeping them together in an orderly fashion. My main weakness is my emotional intelligence, I cannot read facial expressions or tone of voice well at all, therefore, I cannot tell when a member of the band is distressed or needs a break, I will tend to continue recording until they ask for a break as I get too interested in perfecting the recording. Therefore, I need to create a time schedule when recording to know when to tell them to have a break.