Busy week, Crazy workload, but still getting things done

Last week was a really busy week for me. I had two final exams for my AP finals and two unit tests to study for. With all of that work, I haven't had a chance to blog for a while. Although I haven't blog anything, I continued producing music. Each day after school, I went to library with my labtop, and studied for the finals until midnight. I was studying two hours straight, than took a thirty minute break and kept repeated that. I was working on my music piece during my break. The presentation date is getting closer, so I have to invest more time doing my project. Getting the finals done will allow me to spend more time in my project from now on.

Presentation Date in Scheduled!!

WISE presentation is coming up!!! It is on May 22th, 7pm-8:30pm at IHS York Lecture Hall at K building. It is a presentation that WISE students present to their teacher, mentor, and other friends what they have done over the last semester. I ams so excited but worried at the same time!!!!

Do I need a Fancy Stage Name?

Do I need a Fancy Stage Name? A lot of musicians, maybe all musicians use stage name that express their music style and identity instead of their real name. Even my friend Jon, who's doing a similar project to mine has his own DJ name called Wishbone. I think stage name is a great way to give listeners initial impression. If I decide using one, I want a name that tells about me and my style. Looks like lots of brainstorming work is coming up~

Design & print your own CD Label & Cover

Since my last step of my WISE project is to make an actual CD that has my songs in it, I will have to burn CDs and design the label and cover eventually. I am not that far to consider that yet, but I just found this You Tube clip while web searching in my spare time. This video demonstrates how to design CD cover using Photoshop and actually print it on a burned CD.

Step Up 4

This is THE MOVIE to watch if you like dance and music. People who are looking for good plot or moral lessons, this isn't the best movie. People who want visual and audio entertainment, like AMAZING visual and audio entertainment, HERE IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER. This movie is releasing July 27th, 2012 apparently my 18th birthday. This is going to make my birthday much more amazing. Can't wait!!

Summer school!!

Link: http://www.ithaca.edu/gps/summer_college/threeweek/protoolsDecription/

Guess I don't have to wait until next September for music classes in IC!!!
After realizing how I can take music classes in Ithaca College recently, I have looked through their website and research the possible courses I can take next year and found this summer course open for high school students.
This 3 week session teaches students how to record and produce digital music using Pro tools. I am definitely going to take this course this summer learning music production in more advance. 

Music Courses in IC next year!!

As a senior, I am getting ready for college next year. I am planning to spend my first year in Ithaca College then Transfer to Cornell University the next year. Today, I visited Ithaca College to figure out more about the school that I will spend in my first year of college life.
Ithaca College is nationally well known for its music programs. I am not majoring any music related majors in IC but in today's college visit, I figured out that non-music students can also take music courses for elective credits. I am excited for next year's music courses that I will take in Ithaca College because I am willing to continue music making as a hobby even after this WISE project is done.
 

Dubstep made using Music Maker 17!!!

I wanted to share this video because I am currently having hard time making a dubstep piece using my software. I blamed that my software is not a good source to make dubstep music with but I guess not!!
This video shows how Music Maker can produce a great dubstep song. I guess I will have to work more use videos like this as inference.

Need Decent Headphone!!

I have been using my 30 dollars worth earphone for my project so far and I thought that was good enough until I borrowed my friends headphone when I forgot mine. I was surprised how different my music sounded with his headphone and that made me seriously consider buying a decent headphone. However, good headphones are generally over 100 dollars so I will have figure a way to make money quickly to buy one.....Stressed

Detailed tutorial I found in Youtube

This video is one of the tutorial video I found in Youtube. I like this one better than any other videos because this one actually goes step by step from the beginning to end actually making the song instead of explaining the functions. I felt this will be a very good source to share to other people like me who have little or no experience in music producing.
This is also a good source for inspiration. I personally like the music he made while explaining the functions. I am also making a rock music for my project so this is a good example for me to compare and improve my piece.    

2012 Cornell University Korean Culture Night Performance

My time and effort on hard practices finally paid off!!
2012 Cornell University Korean Culture Night April 14th, 7:30pm at Duffield Hall, Cornell University

One of the dance crew I am in (E.Motion) and I performed tonight at Cornell for approximately 7 minutes front of Korean American Students in Cornell University. The one in the far right on top and the sixth one from the left on the bottom is me.
As I already mentioned the connection of this to my WISE project in earlier posts, I am very excited to successfully complete the performance.
Now that I am done with one of my major time consuming activities, I can focus more in my WISE project.

What I have done so far...

My WISE project can so far break up into two parts: learning about the functions and applying those  features making short music pieces. Once I was done exploring the functions, I moved on to the next part, actually making short music pieces. So far I have three music projects approximately one minute each. One rock piece where I have the drum, guitar and bass thinking how to blend in the keyboard, once electro/R&B style that I am working to make a repeating hook that would stick in people's ear and one dubstep piece that I only have few beats only.
The progression is great, I talk to my mentor once a week, sharing suggestions and improving each pieces together, but the pace of the work have to fasten up to meet my final goals, making an album amount of music pieces.    

Minor Injury during Tennis...

While today's tennis practice, I slightly sprained my right wrist. It is not that big of a deal, and it will heal in few days, but I won't be able to practice for my upcoming dance performance. On the other hand, i will be resting dance practice and tennis practice for several days, giving me extra spare time that I can work on my WISE project. I am in a ambivalent state, happy that I have extra time for my WISE project as well as worried for my absence in dance and tennis practice.  

Frustrated...

I am very frustrated for the massive amount of work that I have to do...

To be honest, my WISE project is far behind compare to my expectations because it took much more time for me to learn about the software features that what I have expected. However, I can't invest all of my time in WISE project to catch up because I have lots of other works to do.
Currently, I am practicing for the upcoming dance performance at Cornell, as well as daily tennis practice after school for Varsity Tennis team. I even work during weekends in a restaurant to pay for my expenses. On top of that, I am taking 3 AP courses, that I have to study to prepare for the upcoming AP exams in May. With all of these works to do, I am having hard time investing time and effort into my WISE project. I am very frustrated right now and I need a plan!!!

Dance Practice

Practicing for the upcoming dance performance.

Practicing for the Dance Performance at Cornell

I have been part of the Cornell University dance crew call "E.Motion" since last year. E.Motion is a K-Pop/Hip-hop dance crew in Cornell that performs annually for several Cornell events. As a member of E.Motion, I have performed several times before, and we are now practicing for our next performance, 2012 Cornell University Korean Culture Night at April 14th.
This dance performance is very related to my project because music and dance is a very related field in general.  In addition, my interest in music and music production came from my dance experiences because I have always wanted to dance on my own song.
Practicing for the performance takes up most of my free time, not allowing me invest more time for music production, but its experience is a huge part of the WISE project as well. This can be a macro-research of my project where connect my project to other related fields.

Breaking the Comfort Zone

Link of Brain Grazer's NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5508283


Brian Grazer, a TV and film producer talked about breaking out of his comfort zone, trying and challenging new fields in NPR.
He emphasizes the point how life is endless and restless challenge. He paraphrased one of the biologist's quote: "if you are not growing, you are dying." saying challenging and staying out of the comfort zone is the best way to know to keep growing.


I think the reason why we heard this NPR in WISE class was to explain the core purpose of the WISE project. WISE project is meant to encourage students to disrupt their comfort zone, making students challenge in a field that they are interested, but haven't yet tried.
I also agree with B. Grazer on the importance of disrupting the comfort zone. Life is all about interacting with new things: new people, new ideas and new environments. If people are afraid of trying interacting with new things, there won't be any improvements and life would be meaningless.


My WISE project also follows his idea of disrupting the comfort zone. I am trying to produce music, which is what I have been interested for a long time, but haven't had a chance to explore. There are obstacles that I face as I explore, but even those processes all build up as a part of my experience, enriching my ability and shaping my identity. 

Methods for Researching

Among micro and macro research, I have mainly focused on micro research so far. I have worked on getting my goals fulfilled, working on learning the software and experimenting by making short music clips. My WISE project was mostly concentrated on information and interest  aspects but not in insight and inspiration. My desire for new information, including learning the software features and song structures were very successful. My interest of the project was successful too. I had reserached many styles of songs and actually experimenting different trials in my software. However, I don't think I was very successful in inspiration and insight. I will have to keep on track on what I have learned so far and what I will have to learn. For the inspiration aspect, I didn't get that much inspired by other works or people. Instead, I was trying many different styles of songs and gerne to inspire myself. I hope my inspiration and insight aspect improves as I continue my project.  

New Approach

After talking with my mentor, who had told me to approach music making more emotionally instead of approaching technically, I have questioning myself, ''so, what is it that made me decided to make music for WISE project?'' I realized that I was amazed by the great songs every time I heard them. I was wondering how these songs are made and I also wanted to try making them.
I have thought for a while, what made me end up making music for my WISE project.
I always liked music, listening everywhere, in the car while driving, while walking the streets, and sometimes even while studying. Not just music, but broadly sounds are a big part of people's life.
How amazing would it be to make my own music which is what I like to do and is a big part of my life?
 

Fading

I didnt know how fading in and out the loops makes a significant difference on the over all music.
I have learn how to properly fade in and out by my mentor and it expanded my ability to play with the music loops.

Lessons from the previously done WISE project

All WISE students were given a similar project of theirs done by previous WISE students to use as an example and a reference for our own project. I have read Claire Powell's WISE project about learning how to hip hop dance. Although her project wasn't that similar to mine, her work and effort she put on to her project was very inspiring. Plus I was very sympathized by her work since I have experiences of break dancing.

There were several lessons I have gotten from her project. First is the ability to deal and overcome the obstacles that are in the way. Claire did not know anything about hip hop dance. She asked her friends to help her out but her friends weren't taking it seriously. So she had to learn by herself. Claire was also very good at finding resources and researching for her project. Soon she figured out her friends aren't going to be that helpful, she contacted with a local hip hop dance crew at Cornell University called "Absolute Zero." I was surprise because that is the club that I used to go to practice my moves. She also watched several hip hop dance movies such as Step Up 1&2, "You got Served" and etc. Another thing she was good at was keeping her journals in track. She was updating her journals regularly and frequently and her journals wasn't all about 'today I did this and tomorrow I will do that.' There were many journals about how she felt when she was stuck, how she was amazed when she first saw the live performance etc.

Reading her WISE journal and looking at her WISE project, I have realized my WISE project had to step up. Her project had gave me great lessons for my future project and journals.

Basic Song Structure

I felt like I don't know anything about music at all. In order to make my own music, I thought having basic music knowledge will help my project.
I researched about the song structure (pop song) and learned that the overall structure has several elements.

The basic structure of a song is
Intro > Verse 1 > Chorus > Verse 2 > Chorus > Bridge > (Verse 3) > Chorus > Outro

It helps to know this because now I construct the songs instead of making random pieces of music clips.

Transition from the Technical Aspect to the Creativity Aspect

I have been dealing with selecting the software, getting to know its functions and learning about how music is made from these software, but now I am moving on to the next part: actually making the music. From now on, I will be making several music files and getting reviewed from both my mentor and my friends.

Importing Loops from Garageband!!

Imported loops from Garageband. 

I needed more loops for my project since I am 100% relying on the loops without using any instruments.

I felt like what I already had wasn't enough, so I decided to import some additional loops from other places. 

Garageband has so many high quality loops that I was looking for. I copied the loop files and converted to my software's extension than imported them.

Music Maker MX & Music Studio MX Review

In the last post, I have introduced my new software that I will use for now on to make music.

It is a bundle of Music Maker MX, Music Studio MX and Soundpool 17 only exclusive in Bestbuy. 

Music Maker MX is the software for making music using the built in loop files and sound effects and Music Studio MX is a software for music recording such as rocording instrumental music and multi-track recording. 

Soundpool 17 is a CD with additional loops for the Music Maker MX.  I think a package of all three together only for 60 dollars is a good deal comparing to Music Maker MX sold at 55 dollars on its official website. 

Anyway, I will talk a little bit more about the Music Maker MX. I found this software being really helpful for my project. It has a really simple User Interface that I don't think anyone will be confused with and its loops were also fascinating. However, the one thing that excited me the most was the loop maker. Loop maker is a program that is built-in the Music Maker MX. It allows users to make their own loop very easily. In addition to loop maker, there are several other programs that helps the user to make music. Of course there are various other software out in the market and their are some that are better than Music Maker MX, but I think Music Maker MX is a great software for its price.

I haven't really used Music Studio MX that much since my project is to make music using the loops.

Here is a picture of the Music Maker MX

Music Maker Mx

yesterday I brought a music making software called Music Maker MX. It was 60 dollars for music making software, music recording software and 6000 additional loops. I thought this was a really good deal. I don't know yet if this software would satisfy me or not, but I am really excited so try it.

Great Books to Learn about Music Production Software

Two books that provides knowledge and techniques of how to use music recording software that are recommended by Mr. Heurich  

The First Mentor Meeting

Yesterday I had my first meeting with my mentor. We have met and talked few times before, but this was our first "official" meeting.
We first decided to structure and plan our future meeting

Structuring future meetings


We decided to discuss about....

• What do I want to get accomplished?
• Questions
• Short term goals
• Long term goals
• Progress and sharing

Today's meeting 

• discuss and learn about the basic functions of the software
• showing what I worked on so far and getting feedback

I have showed him what I worked on so far, which is just random beats i have made not fully knowing the functions of mixcraft. Mr. Heurich told me to play with the tempo and volume and structure the music with begin, middle and end. He also told me to search free loops online for extra contents to use. For the long term goal, I will work on making my own loops using both real instruments and virtual instruments.  

Introducing My Mentor A. Heurich

Today I will introduce my mentor who will work with me for the rest of my project. 

My mentor is Armin Heurich who is my school's librarian. He have been recording his own music using Garage Band for several years. Mr. Heurich have actually made several albums and performs in a local band. 

He will give me suggestions and feedback for my project as well as making sure I stay in track of everything. 

I believe Mr. Heurich's mentoring will be critical for my project's success. I will have an official meeting with him once every week but he said he is willing to answer my questions anytime if I needs him. 

I appreciate his eagerness and passion for mentoring.  

   

Software for Music Recording

I have researched several kinds of software for music recording.

Here are the list of the software that I narrowed down among various available out in the market

• Garage Band
• Logic 
• FL Studio
• Mix Craft

Garage Band is a great software that is both free and accessible. It has lots of built in loops and simple user interface. However, it is only available for Mac.

Logic is basically an advanced version of Garage Band. It adds additional functions and features to Garage Band, making it more suitable for advanced users. It is quite harder to use than Garage Band. Also only available for Mac. Price: $199.99

FL Studio is known as "Garage Band for Windows." Very similar to Garage Band with similar functions. Also has built in loops in use. Price vary: $49.99 ~ $299.99

Mix Craft. Another great alternative of Garage Band for Window users. Very similar to FL studio. Easy user interface and many built in loops. Price vary starting from $74.95 to $149.99  

I decided to use either Mix Craft or FL Studio. I will try the free trials/demo of both types and finally choose one product for the rest of my project.