Week 18 - Friday: Day 88

Not counting Thursday as a full day as I didn't do much.
But today was a busy day! I arrived at the Emmex center at 7 am, but couldn't start until 8.
I borrowed steel toed shoes as you are not allowed to work without only they were quite big which wasn't convenient.
A lot of people stood outside waiting for instructions. Six trucks would come in for the concert and we had to stand in line in order to push the boxes. I was quite relieved to see so many people. For a moment I thought it wouldn't be a big group.
The trucks came in and it was time to push. We got instructions on where to push the box (sometimes there was something on top so we had to be careful we didn't push off the top box) and we got instructions on where to push the boxes to. I did learn from my supervisor stage left, stage right stage down and up and the house, but when pushing there was a guy on the front telling me to go right and another guy on the right would tell me exactly where to place the box.
It was a bit strange pushing those boxes. Some were tall, some were small so I had no idea how heavy they would be or how to push it 'the right way'

The last trucks contained heavy things like speakers so we had to work with multiple people in order to push it. I did get annoyed by one lady who was a know-it-all. One load we had to push with 4 people and it nearly went off the ramp. I luckily pushed it up in time, but I did get complaints from a guy watching. I could have killed someone. Well, I'm sorry, but I wasn't the only one pushing the thing. The others pushed the front too far too the left! And to top it off that annoying lady gave EVERYONE advice to watch the back as our cart nearly went off the ramp! ... Geez. You're not that great.

During the wait after unloading the truck we spotted Selena Gomez walking back and forth. So that was pretty cool! Also saw the musicians from Emblem 3 and spotted Christina Ricci (though I didn't know at that time it was her xD)

Sadly I had to wait 2 hours with the whole crew before we got the word to go home. In that time we only brough the drumset to the stage, but that was it. When everyone went home I still had to wait an hour for my supervisor.
I couldn't go home right away, but we had to check the magazine and pick up a jacket I got as a present from my supervisor. At 4 I was home and barely had free time. I had to shower and eat and at 5:30 I got picked up again. I luckily had a great spot to sit. All the way on top where the supervisor had to work as well. At 7 the show started and I filmed a little bit of Christina. I skipped Emblem 3 as I wasn;'t a big fan of it and then Selena Gomez showed up. Man, the fangirl screams were loud! It hurt my ears XD
The show was amazing. Even though you're not a fan, it was fun. She had a few songs I liekd though.
After the show I had to hurry back down as we had to work again. I was too late and I didn't get a t-shirt, but I was part of the blue team: The pushers. There were other teams, but I have no idea what their jobs were.
I didn't like this part as much as in the morning. Now we had to push up the boxes on the ramp on the truck and that requires some strength. I did this too, only people stood in the way so I didn't have to push it all the way up. Other than that it was picking up boxes that could go back and putting it in line for the fork or for pushers. Oh yeah, I also had to lower big screens. The first one was easy as a guy helped me, but the second one was hard as I had to be in the middle by myself. Having not a lot of space and big shoes with loose laces didn't help either. I nearly fell with the screen as it pulled me forward again.
We were done at 1 am and of course everyone was sweaty and tired. One guy told me I shouldn't look that tired. Well, excuse me, but try doing that. I think he was joking a little though as he looked like someone I talked to in the morning. Or he said it to the girl I walked next to who also didn';t have much energy left.

I didn't expect it, but I actually got paid, and quite a lot too. I actually got some more money than the other pushers. Maybe because my supervisor arranged it and wanted me to have a fun vacation in Lacombe.
Thanks a lot =D
I got home around 2 and fell asleep within 5 minutes after I went to bed. That never happens.
But man, this day was awesome. It was great to experience this!

Week 18 - Wednesday: Day 87

Another day of Magazine work! Focusing on creating new ads.
I should write down what I have done because I start to forget xD
More sponsors jumped in and we had to make sure we got them all, so we went through a list.
I got to make an ad for a sponsor that just got added. Luckily they knew what they wanted and added a picture and their business card. I had to look up their logo on the website instead of using the business card and had to make the background transparent.
That was quite a lot of work to do as the vehicle had a lot of openings to the background which I had to get rid off too. It took me a while, but I did it. Thanks to the shift tool (if you hold in shift and make a dot and make a dot somewhere else that line connects) I could cut of the background nicely at the tricky triangle shapes.
After I made the ad for the company. We wanted to post the picture of the store first, but it didn;t work.
In the end I did add it again on the background with a transparency on it.

Later on I had to type out info for the linked companies and also had to finish designing one of them.

As we thought we had it all we went through all the sponsors and I had to write them down in a document so we could add them to the Thank you list. But I also had to write down the sponsor money for a different document.
In the end I had to fix the thank you list.

This day was awesome because:
* The magazine is nearly done and I had quite a lot of tasks in this one
* I got scouted for a big skyrim mod
* My dad can get a piano for free!
* Will work at the concert from Selena Gomez on Friday!

I'm quite tired so my post might not be so exciting xD

Week 18 - Tuesday: Day 86

More magazine work. I picked up the work from yesterday and continued with creating ads.
We finished the main sponsor ad and changed the picture to the Taber one instead of the random one from internet. We both got used to the previous picture size so working with the new one was hard. I also had to add blue to the yellow background.

Some companies didn't have websites which was quite annoying, but luckily they had a facebook page with pictures or enough information. I received more business cards to add in which made room for more ad work.
The graphic design for magazines is quite a lot work. I understand why it took so long for the earlier events.
Now I do have a huge role in this one. In the previous ones I only made one simple ad and was actually unsure what to do, but now I worked on full page, half page and quarter page ads!
I finished some quarter page and half page ads and also one full page which was the trickiest one.
I didn't know what to do with it, but later it all came together. I wasn't done yet, but the supervisor was happy with it so I left it.
Some ads had to be rearranged. I didn't realize three companies were from one guy so we set those up before I left at 5.

At home I had to get the food ready for the goodbye party! Turned out more people would drop by than expected: 8 people to be precise. I started wondering if we had enough food xD
The first people came in at 6 immediately and the rest came later so they started a game: Dutch Blitz.
Oddly enough I didn't know the game which shocked my roommates. "It's Dutch!" They yelled.
Yeah sorry, I don't know it =P So they played it and I watched. In the meantime more people joined and also started playing. I still didn't play and another person also chose not to play so we started talking and went to the food. More people followed at 7 and started trying the Dutch snacks.
Most people LOVED the Stroopwafels and those were the ones to be finished completely as well as the Hamkas and Nibbit's chips. The black licorice wasn't really touched by most of them, but one person kept saying how good it was xD
Most people left and the last people left at 10:30.  It was a good party, everyone got along perfectly. Only at the end I was getting tired so I had a hard time jumping in a conversation.
But i'm grateful for the people to show up  to be there for my goodbye party (or to try the snacks =P)

Well, one roommate is addicted to the snacks and she will bring a lot for her family who they will visit on Thursday.

Week 18 - Monday: Day 85

Worked on the magazine for Mud bogs as that event is coming up soon.

I showed the articles I found earlier and had to put it in the magazine. Only pasted it, didn't do anything fancy with it yet.
The supervisor also had a list of sponsors that I had to put in the magazine. First on the side and later I had to find a place to put all the names in. These had to be a quarter page, half page or a full page.
The supervisor left and I had the opportunity to start creating the ads so the workload would be less for the supervisor.
I had to put in the business cards on the right place and other pictures if they were there.
Sadly most companies didn't have anything else posted so I had to go online to their official website to find some information.
* Pictures
* Phone numbers
* Address
* Opening hours
* Slogan's
* Information on what the company is about.
I already started building the main sponsor ad in black and white, but later got a call that that one had to be in color as well as page 3 had to be empty for the index.
I changed the main sponsor ad in color and was actually happy with how it turned out. I never really focused on Graphic design, but I started liking it.
More sponsors came in so the magazine needed more pages in order to have anything else than sponsor ads.

I managed to finish a few businesscard size sponsors (which turned into a quarter page)
I made sure I had the right information and mostly I could get a picture from the websites.
I filled up the top and bottom with either a picture or a colored block to not have it all in white.
That's what the supervisor also told me earlier: Think in Black and white. Use a black background if needed.
If I wouldn't have known this then I wouldn't maybe have experimented with different shades of grey.
When the supervisor returned I was proud to show it as I actually wasn't doubting about my work. (doesn't happen often XD) He was happy I had done more than expected. He liked most of my ads, only some might have a slight change.
Before I left we had a talk about leaving. When I get home he might still contact me for projects. I then won't be seen as an intern anymore and will get paid! Never thought that would happen.

Week 17 / 18 - Saturday and Sunday: Day 84

Worked on composing.
I finished the song Hot for Teacher and send it off to the producer from the audioplay!
I at first had something extra's added as it felt so empty, but in the end I deleted it again as it didn't fit that well.
I also noticed I forgot the synth I had at the start and by adding that in it felt more lively. It didn't need anything extra.
Because i learned working with drums, I also applied it in this song... Only.. it got worse.
Yeah the drums were balanced and all, only someone it sounded like the quality was less good and the synths weren't synchronizing with the drums for some reason. The only way I was happy with the result was having it back the same way as it was at first. All volumes of the drums and synths at maximum.
(I did tweek some things to make sure it didn;t peek)
I did have to lower the cello's as they were a bit too prominent, but it finally sounded good.

I also worked on a new song I promised working on. In my last week at work I will work on an instrumental project with my co-worker. So that meant I had to come up with a beat and melody.
I came up with a piano melody randomly and it shaped a sad violin melody automatically.
I wanted to add a lot more, but then we can't go through the creative process together. I also like to hear what she has to say. The plan is to build up the song during the chorus, but the way it's now it sounds really sad xD

So yeah I have the rhytm of the piano and the melody for the verse and chorus. 

Week 17 - Friday: Day 83

Didn't go to work today due to the supervisor getting sponsors, but I did have some tasks to do.
I had to change the magazine pages and add at least 5 more. At first I counted wrong and I didn't understand.
Instead of having the 15 on the left and 16 on the right, it was the other way around! Turned out I didn't count the calender page and had to restart and add 2 extra. Then it was fine xD

I also had to add a colored sponsor logo to the poster and had to make sure it didn't have a background.
It looks a bit pixely, but not too bad.

In the afternoon I left with my roommate to the wooden shoe.  Iwas so excited when I walked in!
So many products I missed XD And they even had the Frisian flag for sale.
There were so many types of licorice and cookies and there was even Smiths chips. We walked around for half an hour and had a hard time choosing what to get. We wanted applepie or puddings, but it was either expensive, or we rather didn't want to make it.
In the end we bought quite a lot and it cost me 50,- but worth it.

We bought:
* Mixed black licorice
* Crayons
* Monkeys (black licorice and banana, strawberry or chocolate flavor)
* Stroopwafels
* Krakelingen
* Rusks (Beschuiten)
* Mice, no not living ones (aniseed sprinkles for on the rusks)
* Chips: Nibbits and Hamkas
* Tijgernootjes
* Wilhelmina mint

It will be hard to stay away from the snacks though. So tempted to open the bag of chips or eat some licorice.

Afterwards we went to the MacDonalds and to Tim Hortons. Hmm French Vanilla.

It's strange, but there's only one more week left in Lethbridge. Can't stop thinking about it =(

In the evening I continued working on Hot for teacher and finished it! Only still wanted to experiment a bit more, but thats for tomorrow. Working on it for hours has been enough for today. 

Week 17 - Thursday: Day 82

Oh man, what a horrible night I had.
I went to bed somewhat before 1 and I couldn't sleep at all. I have seen every hour and opened up my eyes too many times. I seriously stayed awake until 9 am which was the time I had to get up =.=
Did dream a few times, but that was barely any sleep obviously.

I got picked up in the morning, but when I explained I was tired and didn't sleep at all, the supervisor turned around and told me to sleep some more. And so I did. I slept for 3 hours and luckily felt better when I got back.
I did have to be awake as I had the violin lesson today!

but first I had to work on the magazine. I had to add in the sponsor names which needed a full page ad, a half page ad, a business card ad or name gets mentioned. And I had to retype a script.
I also needed to search for a sponsor logo and had to make the background transparant, but that didn't look too good.

When that all was done I got the violin lesson.
It started with explanations on what everything was and how to hold it..
I got to hold the bow and it's awkward at first, but later on I held it automatically that way.
Your thumb supports it and your pinky and index finger makes sure you hold it steady. The other two fingers just rest.
The part that goes on the violin is actually made of horse hair, so we cannot touch it. We can make it greasy by touching and you can't get rid of it.

Holding the violin is strange. It rests on your shoulder and your chin rests on the chin support.
I had to hold the violin at first without worrying about notes and just move the bow over it.
Sometimes the sound was quite squeeky, but it didn't sound too bad =P

As that went well I learned the song: Twinkle twinkle little star.
First the first few notes and that involved into closing one note and that has to happen with your index finger.
As that went well I could play the second part which added two other fingers and I had to hold the strings.
First, second and third finger.

My co-worker was actually complimenting me for starting out so well. It wasn't bad at all for a first lesson, especially in 10 minutes. Well, I enjoyed it and will for sure continue in lessons.
She also gave me advise on composing. When composing have the real instrument slightly louder than the synth instruments so it gives a more realistic orchestra feel! =) So I can apply this when I know how to play violin.

After the lesson I had to work on the magazine again. As the magazine had too many pages I had to move all the sponsors to earlier pages and had to make sure there were 20 in total. This meant I also had to change the page numbering. I did it wrong at first as I didn't count the background, but now it's right.
Both page numbers have to equal 21.

Week 17 - Wednesday: Day 81

This won't be a long post.

I sent my preview of Hot for teacher and I don't have to change anything ^^ I can just keep going. That's a good sign.

Also finished up Nayru's song which is now on Soundcloud and Youtube.

And instrumental

I also searched for articles on Mudbog trucks and posted the links in a document as well as writing on my blog.

I'd like to continue hot for teacher now, but fatigue is kicking in. Hope I can still do something in an hour or so.

Week 17 - Tuesday: Day 80

The first thing that happened today was the supervisor checking the phone tracks I edited.
He only changed only a few pauses, so I apparentely did good xD
He did still have to work on the songs as I didn't do much with it, so he cut off pieces and pyt fade ins and outs on the songs He mixed and mastered the voice as something was still wrong and duplicated those for a fuller and better sound.

During the listen he did groan a little at some reads. As a producer directing the voice actress I had to do a slightly better job, though he thought I put in some good effort. Apparantely this voice actress was better in the hard read instead of the warm ones. As a producer I have to listen to the voice actor's strength and change the reads, but as it was her first time it's hard to direct someome also when your new yourself.

So excited. Will get violin lessons thursday! I'm so happy this is possible so I at least can see if this is something I really want to learn or not. I'm grateful for this opportunity.

After the music thing I had to open up Coreldraw and it was time to work on another magazine.
This time it's one for Mudbog Outlaw in Taber which I will sadly miss as I will be flying home that day.

I had to take the Motocross magazine and delete all pictures except for the borders as those would be important for the advertisements. I also had to make sure not to delete the page numbers (which I accidentally did anyways) But I now at least understand the paging order.

I received the poster for the event and had to take out the Car logo.
He asked if I could make the background transparent and so I did, but would have to switch to photoshop.
He was very impressed with how fast it went and also said he needed to learn this program xD
I took out some parts, but would have to go around the tires carefully as the lining didn't go till there, but the supervisor said it was fine this way.

With the logo we build a cover for the magazine! We had the logo and the picture and now we needed to add more which was my job.
He gave me a hint that the cover should contain the words: Magazine and the year.

I added the year, magazine and also included the date of the event and where.
I picked a font and that was that. When the supervisor checked it he said the words had to pop a little more.
It was already yellow on black, but he was right. It didn't even pop that much.

I had to duplicate the word, make the word thicker with the outlines and put it underneath the word that has to pop. Voila. I had to do that with all words, but that was not all.  On the bottom we added a slogan or some sort, but as that font had to match the title font some more we had three different fonts so all words had to be changed into that font.
The cover was almost done, only the graphic I had moved from the bottom underneath the logo slightly had to be changed.

At home I started working on composing! I recorded vocals for Nayru's song and also finally started the Van Halen song.  I'm planning on composing at least an hour every day otherwise I don't start. Once I start I enjoy it so much that I work hours on a song and dont stop till its finished or when it's too late.

Which happened again. I quit composing at 2:30 and made it quite far in the Van Halen song. Something I wouldn't expect. I was struggling with the drums and the guitar solo's, but briefly o.O
Because the song is already meant to be different I didn't have to match up all the sounds precisely.

The drums sound pretty cool actually. Glad I learned dealing with drums now!

Week 17 - Sunday and Monday: Day 79

Throwing these two together.
Worked on composing!Fixed some parts in the ambient song and I was suddenly all inspired to redo an 8 bit theme from a Gameboy Color game!
Yes, I felt like covering: Nayru's song which was so beautiful to me when I played the game The Legend of Zelda Oracle of Ages.
Well, listen to it now and you'll get a headache xD Still the melody is beautiful .

I decided to remake it and have more and more instruments come in. Halfway I just had to add the Ocarina as it's so iconic to the games. I plan on doing vocals for it, but if I can't do it I'll cast someone on a forum. I don't want the shitty synth vocals on it xD

I'll post the song soon!

Week 16 - Friday: Day 78

I showed the video with the graphics, but I had to change it. I used music at the event and that's copyrighted so that couldn't happen. Instead I used the tune that has been used a lot for the commercials and it fit well.
The day 1 video underneath the graphics had to go and I had to slide stuff around.
The graphics had to fade out more as well as the song.
I didn't like how the song came in so I moved it further away and then it was good.
* One thing I should remember for next time is to fade in the graphics some longer. As those don't require action.

After I learned setting up and interface and mixer to a laptop! This will be important in future studio's/
I was a bit slow in understanding and quite lost at first, but the supervisor explained it very clear which I won't forget anymore.
Always look at the connections. Look and think! What connection goes into what? That already eliminates possibilities.
I also have to remember this path when working with a mixer, microphone and interface/ soundcard.

* Talking into the microphone is input. 
* The voice from microphone to mixer is output
* The Mic output goes into the mixer as input, always look at the ends if it's a male or female.
* Mixer output goes into the interface as input , this is with two quarter inch cables: Left and right, (so red and annother colored cable)
* Interface output goes into the computer as input with a usb cord.
I* nterface output goes into the speaker with a special cable for the speaker as input. Plugging it into the red color makes it the right speaker, any other color is left.

Red cable is always used for right because of the name starting with an R.

The interface has a few volume nobs:
* The main - this controls everything
* The input gain 1 - This controls the microphone input. If it peaks you gotta work together with the mixer. Turn down the input of the interface and turn up the gain on the mixer.
* Headphones - speaks for itself
* Mix - This controls the balance between the music you hear on your laptop or if you hear the mic. The 12 o clock position is equaling both sounds. If you have it on input you only hear the mic, but if you have it on Daw (which stands for the interface)  then you only have the music and barely vocals.

Because I wondered earlier about the two inputs below the XLR line- in and insert I also had to hook up the keyboard.
* The line -in is for instruments.
* The insert is for boxes that controls effects.

For an instrument the path counts.
* You play the keyboard, that's input
* The sound that's coming out has to gets transferred to the mixer which is output
* The output goes into the mixer as input with a quarter inch cable. .
* So output goes into the mixer in a new channel on the line in.

Why do we hook stuff up to the mixer and not only an interface?
The mixer is important so we can work with EQ (bass, mid and high notes) and effects.
You can shape the sound immediately before a show or session without changing it in your computer.
Make sure to brighten the instruments or vocals. This can happen with giving it more high end or increase the bass.
When getting more high end don't suck out bass, most of the time you need to add bass.
In my case I had to add high ends and a little bit of bass because my voice is not really bass =P
But when working with a bass guitar you might remove it a bit.

All this preparing is called a soundcheck and is very important when being a producer.
It's actually the same pattern as when you have to mix a track. You start by shaping the sound of drums.
* Kick, snare, toms, hi-hat, cymbals
And then ask in the bass because it carries the rhytm.

After I worked on cutting up phone tracks, deleting the pauses to make it flow better. Was done quickly actually so I tried playing the tunes I learned on our organ years ago which were Davy Jones, Green sleeves and the Turkish March. Couldn't really do it anymore =(
I mentioned earlier today wanting to have lessons in piano and the supervisor though that's a good idea. I also mentioned wanting to learn the violin and he said that I could maybe get a few lessons here. O.O For real? That's so awesome! Would be so cool to try out and if I enjoy it Iwant to continue at home.
Though is it free or do I have to pay xD That I don't know.

This weekend I will work on composing ... still didn't do much on it while it's in the planning for such a long time. >.>

Week 16 - Thursday: Day 77

When I got at work the other intern showed up as well. Haven't seen her in a while.
As she was learning stuff from the supervisor I worked on my blog again as i don't want to be behind.
I do have a better method now though, everyday I post keywords in the draft so I can just expand those short lines into a story.
I also re-rendered the video because I forgot to fade out the audio. I had no clue what task would come my way, but when I heard I had to guide the intern through voice acting I was nervous, but also excited.
She had to do the phone tracks I practiced earlier, but couldn't do due to my accent.

I had to sit at the desk witth a headset on so I could hear her read, in front of me was a mic so I could communicate with her. I had to operare the recordings, so pressing record, stopping it, deleting it etc.
My job was to listen to her read and correct her if she didn't
* Enunciate well enough
* Hesitatet
* Stumbled on words
* said a word wrong
* Too fast, too slow or no pauses.

It was quite a long process and at first I was uncomfortable correcting someone, but later on it went better and more natural. I just said what needed to happen, only sometimes I was uncertain what to do with a take so I kept it and aimed for a second take xD Most of the time the second time blew away the first take so that turned out good. A few lines took a few redo's, but in the end we got it.

She left, but I had to choose music for her recordings. Something that would flow with it, so I got faster beats for her faster paced reads and relaxing if I felt the mood suited that.
When the supervisor returned I showed hin the video and he was happy about it.
He also mentioned I should continue in video and said he was happy I took on some projects as they were only lying around. Also another intern will be coming in soon who will take over for a couple of months!
I think he saw benefits of having an intern around =P
But from what I understand I wont be done with this internship. It could be I will have to do some tasks when I get back home.

Before I left I added logo's from the event to the video as an intro and outro.
I only still needed to add credits at the end of who made it, whose footage and who it's made for as well as the logo of Studio Productions.

So I added credits at home with footage from day 1 under the graphics. It's ready to go now!

Week 16 - Wednesday: Day 76

Short day at work today. We worked on the facebook posts for Productions, but instead of mentioning past projects we decided to focus on recent projects like the Motorcross and Streetwheelers event.
Something was wrong with the website though so the supervisor had to work on fixing that so I worked on my blog.
We set up two posts and had a poster to go with it. The supervisor got me a song for the streetwheelers compilation, but instead of staying at the studio for 3 hours I decided to work at home as I'm more productive there when it comes to video editing xD

At home I found other songs as I was looking for a more rocky song. Freeplay music had a few options and I downloaded 8 songs for free! as long as you only use it on Youtube and that's what happens.
I chose the Bad Road track and opened all sony vegas projects per day.
Did have to finish selecting the videos for day 1, but that didn't take too long.

I posted in the track in a new project and dropped a lot of videos from day 1, but that wasnt a handy method as my project track got full. Instead of doing that (sony vegas crashed once)  I just watched the videos and if something was good I copied it.
I only had a vision for the first part: The lights and the burnout close up. Other than that I didn't know what to do and it just happened naturally.
Very happy with the video! I had so many shots to choose from due to close ups and multiple angles.
It's made by an amateur, but based on the amount of angles and close ups it does look more professional than what I normally would make. If I had a tripod it would be even better.
The close ups are obviously shaky as I zoomed it in so much (otherwise it would be boring, seeing a small car driving around) but I did capture the action moments a lot better and it's more interesting to watch it ^^
Also because the video is quick you don't have time to watch the shakyness =P

Week 16 - Tuesday: Day 75

I started working at 10 and the first thing I worked on was the music video I had to make earlier when the supervisor was away. I thought I would have to change anything as it was a test version, but the supervisor thought it was good. Even the transitions I didn't add yet wasn;t necessary to add because it fit the song.
The only thing I really had to do was adding the logo at the end, re-render and upload it to Youtube.

Since we posted that video we also posted the live videos from Mike on the Records page, still have to add the one from the other singer. 

The supervsior had to leave so I got a research task.
I had to make a list of Talent Agencies, Publicists and search the AMIA for possible links.
It actually took quite long, I had to search for the publishing tag and checked those pages, read it through and checked the website to see in which categorie it fit.

The supervisor got back and we checked the L.A Studio page as that one is still pretty much empty.
We checked the youtube page and decided to post something about the airshow. We set up the post, but didn't post it yet so I kept it in the document. By the time that was done I worked on my blog and Mike also showed up to redo the guitar part for his album. When he was done we listened to the mixed songs and he had some things he wanted to change. He was also looking at me to hear my opinion. Was he the only one or did I hear it too =P Some times I couldn't even hear the mistakes until he mentioned it and I paid attention to it, but with others he had a point. A guitar part got even deleted because it was out of sync, but it made the song more interesting with a build up.
At 7 I got back home and was sadly too late for a paid project which had been open the whole day! You would think Dutch people sleep at night, but apparantely she was still up to record the lines. (or she lives in America xD) I was a bit annoyed because she accepted it freaking last minute. If she would have accepted the project during the day I was at work I wouldn't mind, but by the time I left at 7 it was still open.
Bye bye chance on 24 dollars. I need the money because I want to get music lessons!

Getting ambitious here xD I want a job and with that get piano and violin lessons and buy new VSTs for composing. My mom was a bit silly / mean though, she said no to everything and when I mentioned I wanted a job she said: Oh good, then you can pay rent  o.O

Week 16 - Saturday and Sunday: Day 73

On Saturday we celebrated Canada day, 6 people dropped by to celebrate it with us ^^
We had some nie snacks, some Canadian bars were made, cheesecake and fudge.
We played some games, but when the group got larger we went outside and walked for two hours to find a confusing playground. Around 10:30 we stopped at a fun playground with big swings and dizzy making objects. At 11:30 we got back.

On Sunday I arrived at the studio around 4:30. I worked on my blog until the singing lessons started.
I got invited in so that was really nice. There was one student having vocal lessons so I could see how that went.
They started with three vocal warm up excersises.
*  The famous: la, la, la.
* Then one that improves your breathing: ma may mee moo muuuuuuu
* and a fall of tone to practiceh aving a long breath.

Then the singer performed a song he had practiced on guitar and got advice in the process.
It's really important to open up the back of your throat otherwise it will sound nasally and that's also something I struggle with.
Two hours later we joined a meeting with a band who was interested in help. They got a lot of information about the quality differences and what happens in the studio as well as advice on how to handle the missing drummer. The guys left enthusiastic so that's good.

Before leaving I mentioned loving to have lessons only it's expensive at home. I got an offer to get vocal lessons in the time I'm still here! But instead of real vocal lessons it will be practicing the backing vocals for a singer.

Week 16 - Monday: Day 74

Today I worked at home and finished the album booklet from the metal band.
I had to move the background over to other pages, but I also wanted to fix the symbols as they weren't really perfect. I used the middle line and posted the symbols exactly in the middle otherwise one page would be missing the symbol and the other one would have it awkwardly on the side.
I used the same line and flipped it horizontal so I could allign the symbols on the horizontal row.
The huge symbols in the middle I placed more in the middle and made sure both sides were sort of equal.
Then I moved it all to other pages so that was done.

Later I worked on a song. It was supposed to be the menu song, but it started to sound more ambient.
Around 50 seconds in I didn;t like it anymore. The piano and violin weren't really mysterious and felt misplaced. I did keep the synth sounds as it sounded quite creepy and I changed the piano to a repeating melody. I did add strings, but this time it was a contrabass which had a nice low sound to it.
I'm always lost at the end, but I did managed to get it around 3 minutes.

Week 15 - Friday: Day 72

I arrived at 10:30 and we continued working on mixing and mastering the music (well okay I watched and learned)
The supervisor had to apply reverb, but as I wondered how much should be added he started explaining more about it. He pulled up the trueverb program which allowed you to pull the yellow line (room size) and the blue line (amount of reverb in that room)
He explained that no reverb is dry and with effects is wet. You want your vocals to be as DRY as possible because that's easier to mess with. You'd want to add a room effect later on to make it sound more natural, but if there is already a reverb on there it's really hard to get rid of it. It will make the vocals sound really bad.

So the first step in recording is having a tight room/ getting rid of the reverb.
* You first got to check what kind of room you have and how much reverb you have when recording.
Then you can tighten the sound by using panels or wood to trap the sound, for example if you have a piano stationed.
* Rooms with low ceilings you dont have to work on the ceiling. If it's high you need panels.
* Rooms in the basement sound tighter than attics as they are stationed in ground.
* Rooms with a triangle ceilings are hard to work with, you either have to use big panels on the ceiling or you have to know how the sound bounces depending on where you are.
* You can also use a triangle behind the microphone so it gets trapped in the corner. This can be made out of wood and it has to surround the microphone.

I have small panels randomized on the ceiling so I will have to take a look at what to change. Or my dad can build the wooden box around the new microphone.

A new microphone is fun and all, but the connection between the microphone and laptop is even more important. It's good that I invest in an interface too so it will improve the volume and hopefully will bring less noise than the one I have now! If I want to be professional I have to get a Neumann microphone, but that one will cost 1300 dollars.

For any tips on recording, sound and stuff I can check the Mix magazine.
When we had a break the supervisor explained things about expanding business to other countries. I don't have to stick around in the Netherlands, but can make deals with different countries like the supervisor does now. Sometimes depending on the currency you can make twice the amount of money so you have to choose countries carefully.

After the break the mastering phase happened and the supervisor showed me the EQ.
Never ever create a happy face in the EQ, this will never sound right. Always stay close to the main line and tweek it by a little. Numbers don't matter in EQ as every song requires something else. The only time when numbers matter is when you re-apply it to the same song.

The music stuff was done and I moved onto graphic design. Namely changing the album booklet for a band I had been working on before. I had to add in the bandmembers, but some lyrics got too long for the page.
The supervisor told meto change the font from 9 till 7, only I worried that would be too small.
We'll have to look into it. Also the title had to stand out so it could be around size 12, 13.
Later I had to work on the background. The supervisor wanted me to look for a symbol andwe chose a star, but it looked like crap and didn't fit. I had the task to find a new symbol and find a sort of cross looking thing. I put it in the middle, but also changed the background from black to havng a water pattern.
The supervisor told me to duplicate the symbols so I made them go around the page, but smaller.
The only thing that was missing were the initials of the band. I tried putting it 3/4 but it didn't look right so I moved it on the right bottom corner of the middle symbol.

Week 15 - Thursday: Day 71

Wow, still +/- 16 days to go at the studio and then I'm off to Lacombe. Speaking of Lacombe, I need to get my Greyhound bus ticket! Otherwise it will be $10 more expensive if I order it too late.
I started at 11 today and we were planning on advertising some stuff for Mike because he needs musicians for touring. We were first looking into where we could advertise and had some options, but later on decided to go for Kijiji as it's a very popular. We made an account and started setting up a message. There was already an example message from last time so we only had to change it up a bit to make it fit.
We first were focusing too much on the message that we forgot to add information about the singer xD
We also had in the word please so it looked like we were begging. The message got changed to something more confident.
When it got posted we realized we forgot to add that we are looking for serious people and that people need to be willing to travel. The post was all good to go and got posted on the L.A Records page.
Also a bandmember dropped by and took a look at the booklet I had to paste the lyrics in. As some didn't fit he shortened the lyrics, but we need to see how we will continue with this.

Later on I looked at the mixing process from more songs. 

Week 15 / Wednesday: Day 70

Today the focus was on Music! I was looking forward to this.
I started a lot later, but at home I already had to work on the volumes on the test song I started earlier.
When I had to show it it turned out I didn't do it well. I did remember him saying the drums being -25, but in this case I should have started over.

I had to start with the kick and it needed to be a lot louder.
Kick: average of - 8
Kick out has to be lower than kick in - if the mix peaks then always start lowering the aux.

Snare: Can be as loud as the kick, if not louder or softer. It depends on the peaking.
In this mix the Top 1 and 2 are highest at around -10 and snare bottom and snare aux are slightly lower on volume.

Toms: Are louder than both the kick and snare with an average of -4.5
Aux is also lower on volume than the other two.

Hi-hat: Is on the level of the toms.

Cymbals: Are the loudest, they are on an average of -3

Then the bass comes and that one is louder than the drums. Watch out with the mix as when you do the bass louder than 0, the whole mix can peak. There needs to be a nice balance.

We didn't get much further as I couldn't listen to the EQ preview. I might get Nuendo for this type of mixing.
But the bass need less bass and more high ends.
The guitar also still needed EQ.

We moved on to the other studio where I got to watch the whole mixing process.

Always start with the drums as that sets the whole thing!
Some things got EQ-ed (guitars) and it had the same setting as the vocal.

The most important things I learned while watching is:
* Put an instrument on another track when you find it has to be louder. DON"T Mess around with the volume of individual parts. Keep the tracks together on one volume so that makes it easier.
* Move the lead instruments to a louder track, for example guitar solo's. This makes them stand out more.
* When there are no vocals the lead instrument has to take over.
* Watch the reverb in vocals as you will have the final mixdown to do. You don't want the notes to drag on too long.
* It's important to have all the levels balanced properly. Try to avoid peaking. Mess around with the volumes of the instruments that are too loud by lowering it slightly or by fading a part in if it occurs there.
* Reverbs, levels and EQ-ing should be done in the early stage.
* Don't have the music too loud on the background
* If needed set master volume to -2 before exporting

* In the final mixdown start by maximizer. Have the treshold on -2 as well as the other one. I forgot the term, but that one means to how far it will stretch, you don't want it to peak so -2 is good. This goes for songs with vocals. Instrumentals will have other settings.
* EQ depending on what the song needs. Only use higher tones like the human voice or also add a little bass or get rid of it.
* Add a reverb. Have it around -31 - -37 with it being a small or medium room, not larger than that.
* Add dynamics if needed with the graphic dynamics, this balances it some more. Though this does not always work.

I also learned that this process takes quite long. You have30 instruments to work with and all of them need EQ and balanced in levels.

I was home at 7:30

Week 15 - Tuesday: Day 69

I started later as I wasn't feeling too well, but I couldn't really start on anything either.
The first thing we did was checking the banner of L.A Studios on Youtube. We had to change that, but on my laptop it looked fine as well as on a friend's screen. So we left it.
The supervisor had to arrange something else so I started working on another script because a commercial came on tv about multiple games. The supervisor already mentioned I could write a script about a gaming platform or companies that sell multiple games so it's not just about one.

I started writing about playstation plus and it was quite hard to get a catchy intro. The mainbody was easy as on multiple sites they had the features explained well. Eventually I saw a nice phrase on the Dutch one and moved the intro I had first to the extro.

The supervisor started working on Mike's website again and I watched on the background on how it worked. He explained a certain schedule you have to think about when making a website.
It starts with the main page, with secundary pages and then sub pages again.

So for example you start with your home page and devide it into:
Photo's, about me, music, video.

Then you can devide these into:
Photo's into family photo's, professional.
About me into - resume and bio
Music into - hobby and professional
Video into - Live events, music videos etc.

Setting up this schedule helps a lot when creating one so you can draw out a layout / template easily. I don't think I will make a website. The free one from Wix works XD

Later I had to edit the fonts on all pages from Mike's website because it wasn't consistent. The program we're working with is stupid. You can't edit anything on a page and it randomly changes things without editing anything, but only viewing a page! So yeah, you have to do twice the work.

The supervisor left so I talked with my parents and also received a composing list for an audioplay.
What have I gotten myself into. I have to recreate 5 very difficult songs! (Van Halen)
I never worked with a song of that speed before and they want me to make it more techno and orchestra instead of the rock. That's fine, I think I can work with that, but a lot of time will go in this.
Hopefully I can score extra credits for this project as I will spend weeks on recreating the songs.Luckily theres not a deadline, but I know I have to start as soon as possible.

At 5 Mike dropped by to take a look at his website. I was more talkative today as mostly I am just watching, but now I made some comments and also gave some quick advice when the site wasn't cooperating. It was quite hilarious to watch the supervisor get frustrated and we both saw it coming which made it even more funnier. But the website looks better now and is updated! Tomorrow we will listen to the mastered songs. At the end of the 'day' the supervisor wanted me to show Mike my cover.
I didn't mind.. I'm not nervous anymore whenever my cover gets played for someone as it happened quite often now XD But it's quite cool to hear a good singer compliment me. Gives you a little confidence boost. ^-^

Week 15 - Monday: Day 68

The day started with music. I promised to show how I made my Assassins Creed song, but because my power wasn't plugged in the program was so darn slow and made weird sounds.
Later on it did work when I plugged in my power. The supervisor now knew how I did it and liked what he saw. He was happy to see that I knew what I was doing.  He also wanted to see some instruments separate like the drums.
He called me to the other studio and wanted to change some drums in a song from mike as he heard the drums I used were heavier.
I tried to remake it, but it was too complicated. The drums also didn't sound nice.
He started explaining he used Reason for it and after gave me the program! Yay! I got to learn a new program. It's an old version, but it does have a lot of opportunities: Namely new awesome samples and loops.
I learned the basics of the program: I understand the layout a little and I can add instruments by going to the create menu. The first few options are samples and the options below are effects.
When I press on the folder I can select samples I want to use corresponding with the library I use.
Loops could be imported by pressing add to track and the length will be determined by the sliders.
Other sounds had to be drawn on a piano roll. Thanks to Cubase I'm familair with this.
I know how to switch back and forth between piano roll now.

I'm really impressed with the instruments and it looks like an easy program to use (only don't like the lay-out)
I will be using this program more often especially if I need techno or hip hop music. I can even start making a song in Cubase, export it and add the loops to the song. It's so easy! Just have the right beats per minute and it fits.
Here is a short simple test song I made with this program. It was basically testing some samples.

https://app.box.com/s/nwuzkrohr5wb33dzh8rn

Afterwards I had to show the supervisor the script I wrote over the weekend. It could be about anything so I wrote one about Kingdom hearts 1.5
I had to read it out loud, but yeah my read was terrible as no one ever reads a commercial that way. I was hasty and it sounded like I wanted to get it over with. On top of that my commercial was 33 seconds in that speed so it was too long and it wasn't really understandable.
The supervisor wanted me to record the read and yeah when recording it I understood what he meant.
Attention to details, Christine. I should have known better.

He changed the script as I mentioned the characters names in the short synopsis: Sora, Riku and Kairi.
The supervisor said no one will care about these names as no one knows who they are! So he rewrote my line and made it shorter and just called them three friends. The intro was good, only the mainbody had to be shorter.
My extro was alright too, only I missed the release date. People will have to know if it's out now or not.

Because the commercial was shorter I could take my time with it, but still I rushed through it and made my read too bouncy. I had to slooooow down and take a pause after certain key lines. Why don't I do that xD

The supervisor remade the lay-out and orderered the lines the way we will have to say it.
Instead of my commercial:

One stormy night, a terrible darkness invades the Destiny islands and separates the friends Sora, Riku and Kairi. etc.

The line was rewrtiten like this and this is very important:

"On a stormy night....

3 friends are seperated into different worlds...

where the heartless rule."

You have to break up the lines to make it easier to read.

I read it again and slowed down. I also had to make my read more dramatic, but because I was so tired I couldn't get energy in it. He edited my commercial and also added music to it and said I had to change my way of speech sometimes.
Especially at the end I had to pick up the pace because the music was getting upbeat.
It's very important to know the flow of the script. When writing it you already have to know on what kind of music it will be so everything syncs well together.

A delivery in a commercial is the most important thing. If that fails, the whole commercial gets bland and you don't stand out. People won't listen to the message anymore. You need to know what kind of voice to use and understand the message and  have the right delivery to embrace the message.
We listened to multiple commercials for the same company and there was one woman who stood out because of her read. It flowed naturally and sounded real. It kept you listening as well.

Compared to hers my read was weak, but it did help me understand how it all works. I know I have a lot to practice in commercials, but as well with characters. AS LONG AS I SLOW DOOOWN.. which I do in character lines, but not in commercials yet.
I did get feedback on what I did right: I give multiple takes with a different delivery (going up with my tone in one take and down in the other) That;s what I shouldn't loose he said as that is what producers want to see.

Because it was already 4:30 and I was exhausted I got brought home where I added some more instruments to the short sample song which is the one in this post.

Week 14 - Friday: Day 67

Today we listened to the takes I recorded, but once again they weren't good. My speech was still too much up and down on the last line for example. He does know how to make it clear what I did wrong as he gives a very clear example.
I redid the lines, but he figured I wasn't ready for it yet. I needed more practice as my pronunciation and the way of saying thingsweren't good enough. It was clear I didn't practice it long enough, but to be fair my speech can't change in one day. I also had to slow down and think of more pauses than the script really says in order to let it flow natural.

My confidence level also had to be higher in order to tackle these commercials. A read without confidence is bland and he showed me a few examples of what was good and what wasn't.
 I forgot what he all said about that as he went on about it for a long time xD but the main point was that I should be stronger and just do things without hesitation. I understand how I came across at certain moments and I understand it's frustrating to hear someone say: I will try, but I don't want to bring up hopes about something while I can't do it. For example with the commercials. I am more confident about stuff I know about!
I have to stand more confident and my speech has to be more confident. I know I am not the most confident person but I have come a long way from years ago, so I am already happy I am stronger.
Honestly I never realized how I stood, but most of the time I stand in a certain pose because I can't stand in a pose for a long time because my muscles start to hurt. But shifting my pose to an insecure one when talking about something I don't know about I didn't know.
I also have to open my mouth more which will also show I am more confident and that I can project myself. But as a Frisian I have always talked without opening my mouth a lot, that's just how our speech is, so I don't know if that has to do something about confidence.

I had to go back in the booth and read the script in 3 different ways: Happy, confident and angry.
This was all to loosen up and get me out of the comfort zone.
I just did it, I wanted to proof I could do it and I think the supervisor was surprised I did it.


Our conversation changed to script writing and I said I didn't know how to start a commercial.
The supervisor pulled up the Skyrim website and started writing a commercial in 5 / 10 minutes and explained some things about it.

The commercial needs to include an:
Intro - Getting people excited about the product you are trying to sell.
Main body - Explaining what features the product has or what it contains
Extro - Wrapping up the commercial by saying where you can get it for example.

In case of this example the intro should apply to all ages as parents will probably buy the game for their kids.
Hardcore gamers should be intrigued, why is this new?
So by saying: Take your gaming to the next level it will intrigue a lot of people as everyone will wonder: What is this next level?
When I had to think of a different intro I came up with: The Elder Scrolls is back with their 5th game.
Nope, that was wrong as most people don't know about Elder Scrolls at all and they won't care. This message will only apply to people who know the Elder Scrolls or people who have interest in gaming and want to try out something new.

We looked at another advertisement from Kustom autobody and the intro was so easy but I didn't know where to look xD But once I got the hang of it I wrote a commercial with the information that was being provided. In case of a company you should name the company's name many times.
I will voice that commercial later and will mix the full thing too.

The rest of the day we looked at the booklet and the supervisor had to look into it further before I have to change something. He also wanted to hear the music I made on my day off and he was impressed.
He didn't even believe I made it so he was really curious to how I made it in cubase. That's what I will have to show on Monday.

Week 14 - Thursday: Day 66

Hmm, my phone is acting strange. I texted back, but the supervisor didn't show up and responded later with a hello? I resent my message and quickly went to the bathroom and when I got back I noticed he called.
I normally don't call as my credit goes down quickly, but in this case I had to as he started to get worried x)

In the morning I could start working on voice acting right away. I finished three lines for skyrim and after I had to record one test message for the on hold message. I had to redo it because I mispronounced specialization, but I was aware of that one and I said one line too fast. I should have added a comma. But luckily my th sounds weren't too bad.
I did 3 more takes, but I had to redo again because one line didn;t sound too happy and my tone was bouncing up and down.
3 more takes, but had to redo again because I raised the tone too much ánd didn't lower it at a period and a comma. This will make it sound more professional.
I had to redo it more often because I said Southern Alberta and with quotations wrong. I could repeat the word, but in a sentence it was hard to do. Sadly I got frustrated with my read as I felt I didn't improve.
But we will take a look the next day to see how I did.

Week 14 - Wednesday: Day 65

We brought back the PA system. I was supposed to set up my stuff, but forgot my power so we had to drive by my house again XD I continued working on editing the videos from streetwheelers, only video 1 has to be finished. Then I can drag all pieces into a new project and time on the music.
Next to that I took a look at how webdesign worked. He showed me how to log in onto a singer's website with cpanel, going into the folder (second option) and how you open a webpage to edit.
You have to click on the htm icon page and go to the top menu to click on edit page.

Somehow we couldn;t edit anything. We couldn't edit the sizes or fonts so we had to cut to wordpad and back into the webpage. A picture was interfering so when we pasted the size was way too big.
Eventually I had to cut away the tour dates so I got the feel of how the website stuff worked. We added a video from youtube on the page, but that wouldn't work a first, but luckily the supervisor figured it out.

I was home early so I could practice my script. I was supposed to record on hold messages for a company!
I didn't expect this to happen so it's cool I can try. I practiced the name of the company with the supervisor so I had that right at least.

At home I tried to do the right th sound, only some word combinations are quite hard to say like a lot of th- and t and words ending on an -s in one line, but I do feel some words are being pronounced better now. I also sang a cover for a contest. Not really entering the contest, only for fun. The video will contain my Canada flight which is going backwards. (Backwards is title of the song)
I tried a vocal warm up and thought it wouldn;t work, but actually did. My voice felt different when I sang and it felt like it was going easier. I made some supper: potatoes, chicken and different veggies and hurried to the store because my bread had gross stuff on it. Also my duo penotti was due date so I bought new bread and strawberry jam.

Week 14 - Tuesday: Day 64

Was at work again and the first thing we did was changing the youtube cover again. I thought: what, again?
The background was green and he wanted it red, so I switched it over to photoshop and changed the color.
Also the microphone and headphones I added didn't look good so I had to delete those. Well the render was nice and it was a good quality, but it didn't really fit.
I changed the color to red and the supervisor was happy to see how fast that happened, but when I uploaded it he wasn't satisfied at all as the colors didn't match. I already noticed how the colors changed on Youtube with every banner I uploaded so this happened again, but because I used a color layer I couldn't darken the red color. He suddenly wasn't happy with the background anymore and found it amateurish looking because of the music notes. .. Okay, well he took over so I didn't have to work on it anymore.
He also made one, but also the colors sucked on Youtube and we didn't understand why. Eventually he just chose a complete different picture without the logo. I had to change it to red and uploaded it and finally the colors looked fine. I cropped it a bit, but this time the banner looked good.

Other thing I worked on was selecting videos from streetwheelers. I got rid of the bad stuff and kept the 'good' shots. Also kept the same angles together so it's easier to find. I did do day 3 completely, only have to get rid of the still shots before the 100 foot dash on day 2 and check if all shots are clean on day 1. Can't have someone flipping the finger on video =P

At 6:30 I left with Erica to get some food at Subway and after we went to the Emmax center for the Pat Banitar concert. I didn't know what to expect, but I enjoyed every song and she sang so powerful and those high notes easy. Her husband was also really good at the piano and the electric and acoustic guitar.
My favorite song was We belong and the last song: Heartbreaker with Ring of Fire mixed.

Here's a video of a song they played. This is not in Lethbridge but somewhere else, but it's basically the same talk and of course song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deQEj6lS0C0

Week 14 - Monday: Day 63

Stayed home as I was fatigued, muscles very sore (especially my neck) and still a headache.
I worked on some stuff so far as catching up with my blog. It looks quickly, but I actually spend 30 minutes a page sometimes. I also uploaded all footage and will select some shots I can use already.

Some nice news:
* Tuesday I have the chance to go to a concert from Pat Benitar thanks to receiving free tickets. Thanks again for that. Don't know yet who is coming with me, but it will either be Renze or Erica. Quite excited for this. Never been to a big concert.
* My read got accepted for the Dutch commercial I wrote earlier about. This means the commercials will be aired online. Don't know where, on an itunes thing and some other bible radio maybe. Also get paid for this in August. First professional real job, so happy to have accomplished this ^^
* In two weeks my roommates and I will celebrate Canada Day with a group of friends! That means Canadian food and decorations.
* At the end of my stay in Lethbridhe we will have our birthday parties celebrated as well as a goodbye party at the same time.  This time we will do a Dutch / European party with Dutch snacks. We will check the Wooden Shoe store for that and we will try to make some sate saus. :P

Week 14 - Sunday: Day 62

Final day of streetmachine weekend. We had to be at the autoslalom this time and at 7:30 in the morning.
I was looking forward to this day as I do like watching slaloms and cars up for display.
We had to set up the PA system again, but this time I had to do it nearly by myself, but because I was tired I was somewhere else with my mind and didn't think. At first I had to set up the speaker tripod which I got the hang of it soon. After I had to go in the trailer and got cables handed (mic plug with a quarter inch) and he asked me to plug it in. I just stood there and got nervous somehow.
The supervisor stayed calm and asked me to look around, but I still didn't know *sigh*
He then asked me what kind of device needs to be plugged in there because the microphone wouldn't work.
I finally realized we needed the commercial and music.. oh my gosh.  When I knew that I also knew what to do next. He asked me where to plug in both quarter inch, but I was wrong. It shouldn't go in insert, but on the other row above (forgot name of it)
Getting the microphone ready was an easy task, but I did have to rearrange it a bit.
The microphone had to be on the first channel, music was on second and the commercials on 3rd and 4th, which means both channels have to be on and the sliders have to be up to hear the commercials.

I had to turn on the music and so I put up the slider. I didn't hear anything but found out the mute button was on. I didnt think for a moment and pressed mute which had the music playing really loud XD
Oops! But really, making all those mistakes is not fun as it's not even that hard.

The transition between the commercials and music failed at first as the mp3 player didn't get paused and the second time the music device didn't respond and so I clicked one time too many and  accidentally paused it, but I did feel I did learn and could work with it better. I know now what is needed to set it up and will look around and think it through some more.
The race was fun to watch. I filmed a lot. At first I only filmed with a wide shot and didn't zoom in, but the cars were so far away that I started experimenting. I filmed with medium shots and also close ups which were hard to keep still so I hope those turned out okay. The sun was quite hot though so with non interesting cars I tried to sit in the shadow close to the trailer. Every now and then I got called in through the microphone because I had to play commercials.
At 12:30 we could pack. The supervisor asked me what I could pack and I looked around and knew it.
The music was unplugged so it was obvious to roll up those cables.
Packing went smoothly, I rolled up the cables and unplugged the whole pa system and got everything in place.
As show and shine started we left to the park so I could quickly grab some shots from the vehicles. I walked around and wished I could stay longer, but as the supervisor was waiting for me I made a quick round.
The video is not that great for this because there were a lot of people and I walked around so its shaky.

Sadly I didn't feel well when I got home and felt a migraine coming up because my sight got weird and my hand , lips and tongue got numb o.O. Slight headache luckily so I left to the University to pay my last rent and got a tour in the process. Nice view it had up there and it looked like a great school.
Sadly it had been so hot (29 degrees) the whole day that I freaking burned my nose! Of course the place where I had my sunglasses is really white. My glasses covers that part, but still it looks stupid. Also my forehead is partially sunburned thanks to my bangs and also my arms partially because of my sweater xD Don't like this, but my arms are a bit more tanned if you compare it to my shoulders.

Week 13 - Saturday: Day 61

Up early for the next day of Streetwheelers. Today would be the 100 foot dash.
I was quite tired so the first thing I did was not really with a lot of focus. I had to set up the speakers and also plug in the microphone but when I opened the case the supervisor asked me;
What are you doing?
I didn't even know myself, I didn't know the thing had to stay in the case, but I was looking for a way to get it out. The only thing I actually had to do was to plug it in for power. He said I had to think more and be focused, because with this job you can't make mistakes. A lot of people watch you.

I was blundering through the day though. I had to operate the music this time but didn't even know how to operare the mp3 player. Thebutton in the middle was just weird and I misclicked because a normal mp3 player has a normal forward button and not a weird one in the middle to press around.
So he had to show me a couple times how to click it. Ugh, embarrassing moment.
But the rest of the day went alright. Had to play the anthem and a couple of commercials.
Sometimes had to lower the volume because of a loud song, or because the announcer had to talk.
I had to learn to sloooow down when moving the sliders and had to press them harder to make them move better. When not being at the music I tried to film, but this was really hard to do because there were people everywhere blocking the right shots, so I do havesome shots, but not the best. Still can use it for a compilation vid though. The day took long and ended at 6, I was so happy I had earplugs otherwise I would have been deaf now. And I smelled bad due to the smoke XD

I was exhausted when I got home and sadly the house was full with hyper people, but I did play a game with my roommate on the N64 which I had never done before. The rest of the evening wasn't eventful because I had to go to bed early. Had to get up at 5:30.

Week 13 - Friday: Day 60

The start of streetmachine weekend. I started at 9:15 I believe as we had to pick up the pa system for the event/ After we went to the emmax center to fix some stuff that happened at the KISS concert.
I had to go up the catwalk (quite up high) and pick up bottles with another man. We came back with quite a heavy bag full of water bottles and other trash. My supervisor walked around elsewhere at the time.
90 minutes later we went back to the studio. The supervisor continued working on his recordings for the commercials. Sadly because of the lack of time and problems that occured I couldn't voice the commercials nor edit it. Maybe I can do something like this in the future though!
In the meantime I worked on the banner for youtube once again as it was still not good. He liked it better than the previous one, but rather wanted to scratch the album thing.
So instead I had to look online for a new background and mix up somethings. I found a background that would work well in the middle and added a microphone and headset next to it  to make it less empty and to show that that is what the company represents. That was the most important thing to the supervisor, showing what the channel was about by only looking at the banner.
You can fnd the new banner now on our youtube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/LARecordsandMedia

At around 3 we had to go to the emmax center again to fix the boards up on the catwalk. I couldn't do anythin this time, but watching. It was funny though that one guy went down upside down on cables just for fun.
I got brought home for an hour because it was too early and got picked up again at 6 to set up the PA system at the parade. I helped carrying the stuff and plugged in some powerplugs and the plugs for the speakers.
The supervisor handled the announcing and music and I grabbed the magazines and walked passed people to hand them out. It's weird as I remember handing out surveys at college two years ago. I was so nervous looking at the people who looked back at you bored. But this time I just walked out, stoof in front of the people and asked if they wanted a magazine. No nervousness showing up, but I showed my smile and people seemed to be happy and interested too.
This shows how much confidence I gained over time.

When I was done I started filming the parade and tried to have as many angles as possible. There were 900 cars to film so it was quite a big parade too. But after a while the parade started to take a bit long. At 10 we could pack the stuff and the next day would start at 7:45.

Week 13 - Tuesday and Thursday:

Spent time on voice acting. I was hoping to practice scripts, but didn't receive them sadly, so I think I won't  voice commercials anymore =( I did get an email from voicebunny that there was a Dutch project available.

So I decided to try to audition for it. The project got taken and I was ready to be disappointed, but I heard a notification that the project was back on! I accepted it and had two hours to record 10 commercials in Dutch about a bible site. You could hear my Frisian accent in my Dutch (seriously, why do I have so many accents XD) and some scripts weren't narrated greatly, but the website accepted the quality and therefore my audition can be reviewed by the client. Because it got accepted by the website I get paid $36! First paid project in voice acting so I'm really happy, also because it is quite a professional project and I never expected a project to open up. I won't be sad if my audition gets rejected by the client as this is a huge step already.

I also voice acted for other (amateur) projects and edited some songs so I basically spent time on that the whole day.  Tomorrow is KISS but I don't think I will be able to go. 

Thursday I should start working again and have to edit commercials. Hopefully I can still record some commercials too,

On Thursday I didn't go to work due to the supervisor feeling ill. But I did get a response from voicebunny that the client requested for revisions because I had to say some things differently. I could ask for more money because of this, but because I felt it was partially my fault I didn't request more money.

Week 13 - Sunday and Monday: Day 59

On Sunday I was mostly away and my lack of sleep liked to haunt me right after xD
I went with my dad's friends to Costco to get something to eat and right after we went to Henderson lake.
I haven't seen them after the first week of May so it was nice to meet up again.
We walked and Erica rollersbladed. It was hot out, but the shade was so nice.
We walked for an hour until I got brought home at 6. My plan was to send an email and make hamburgers, but instead I went downstairs to do the laundry and stayed downstairs as my roommates invited me to play a card game: 31. They showed me how the game goes and we played a test round. I understood it after the test round and even won a few times.
When one roommate lost he put on some fitting music about Canada while we still battled it out for first place. But when the game was done we started talking about politics, how messed up they can be.
Then suddenly the wanted to play basketball so I of course also tagged along. Sadly there were so many musqueto's and they started biting us everywhere so we gave up quickly. They also had to go to bed early.
It was after 8:30 so instead of cooking I grabbed a small pizza and tomato soup from Knorr.

Yup, this was a good day but sadly I couldn't sleep even though I was exhausted after shooting hoops.

Monday didn't start to good either. Because I slept lightly the majority of my sleep I couldn't get out of bed and stepped out at 1. Ugh, my pattern is all messed up. I wanted to get up at 11, but even that I couldn;t do.
I stayed tired for the whole afternoon so I wasn't fun to talk to on skype.
But I did do my basic chores like cleaning the toilet and some laundry.

Around 5 we went grocery shopping and our first stop was Mac Donalds which was my turn to pay. I spent quite some money today so I should slow down with shopping (had to pay rent) but next month's rent is only 25$ because I only stay for half a month and I get my damage deposit back. But I bought so much food last week and today that I should be good for at least two weeks on food and drinks. (10 small pizza's left, 3 frozen spaghetti's, 3 banana's,  Fresh spaghetti plus sauce, rice plus sauce, Hamburgers plus buns,  5 pieces of chicken, turkey meatloaf, three peppers, iceberg lettuce, frozen vegetables, bread, cheese, 4 liters of chocolate milk, cereal and 24 cans of Dr Pepper xD)

Luckily I got more energy during shopping so I could do some homework. I finished the booklet for a band, but I'm not sure I did it right as I didn't know if there was a certain order for the booklet or not. I also wasn;t sure about the page numbers so I have the last two pages with a song in the middle. But we'll see when I get back to work.
I also finished the banner for the L.A records youtube channel. Hope it's fixed well enough.

I also got an extra assignment: Composing for a former group mate's portfolio. Pretty cool he asks me and it's some  nice practice too. 

Week 12 - Saturday: Day 58

Finished the music video from the other artist. I only have to work on smoothing out the transitions and then it's done. Might have to change some clips when the supervisor reviews it, but that will probably be the only thing.

I also went for a walk with my roommates and it was so hot out! Musqueeto's were bothering us too, but my roommates more than me XD It was an hour walk in total and we grabbed a slurpie halfway.
On our way home a thunderstorm came and we arrived just in time as it started hailing pretty bad.
The rest of the night I spent time looking for a ticket for the greyhound bus when I go to my cousin's again and played Bingo on skype which was pretty funny. 

Week 12 - Friday: Day 57

Yeah didn't do much yesterday as I just can't sleep well, plus it was hot so I didn't feel like doing anything but being lazy. I did sent in my documentations.

Today I worked on another music video. I had to choose a song and will have to do the same as I did with Mike's videos. I chose a song based on the options I had. I wanted to do the drum song, but there were only 3 shots to work with, while the other one I was interested in had 3 shots, but had close ups in it as well so more variety. The problem is that Sony Vegas can't handle much and crashes when I move around clips. *sighs* 

Week 12 - Wednesday: Day 56

I seriously spent hours on finishing up the song. I kept on changing the drums, changing my vocals, the volumes and when I was done I had to re-render the video a couple of times due to cutting off the end =.=

But it's done now and here it is!

Week 12 - Monday and Tuesday: Day 55

Monday I worked on the video for the Assassins creed remix and I worked on my vocals. I decided on adding them =D
Next to that I went to the fireworks with my roommate. It was funny though as when we just arrived in the park, the fireworks ended, lmao. But we did see a lot though! And boy it was so loud o.O
I also messed up my heels thanks to my lousy shoes. I only walked 10 minutes on them and my shoes just cut in my skin. Great, walking around with blisters and lose skinnow xD Luckily I don't need to go anywhere this week so it can heal.

On tuesday I worked on my documentations as the supervisor had sent me his results. It turns out I'm doing pretty well, I only have to be a little more aggressive (I think he means taking charge at things?) and need to pay attention to details when working on graphic design. I think that's fair.
I finished my document about what I think of the evaluation, but still have to review it and send it off.
Also received a to do list for this week as the supervisor is gone. I will have to work on graphic design, practicing on voicing commercials (yay!) and work on another music video, but he did text me later I don't have to finish it all... well guess what, of course I'll finish it. xD But I just won't start on it right away because I need to have my remix song done!
Next week is the KISS concert and there's a tiny chance I can come watch too. The day after I will be in charge of mixing the commercials (looking forward to that) and the weekend after is Streetmachine weekend so I will be in a tower dj-ing and obviously filming the cars, Haha. Not sure what to expect with that. Hope I don't have to talk to the crowd >.> Though my commercials will be aired there. XD

I just added the drums in the Assassins creed song and finished my vocals. It's officially done! I will upload it tomorrow. I'm so happy with this one. The drums could have been better, but boy I'm proud of this one. =D It opens a lot of doors now. Aaand that results in me wanting more music software. I really want a job now when I get home. I also want a new tv and awesome games are coming upXD

I'm rambling because I'm tired, so my sentences might not make sense now.

Week 12 - Saturday and Sunday: Day 53 and 54

Mixing these two days as I basically worked on the same song. On Saturday I added 2 more minutes on the song which means the song is 4:20 now!
As it was warm my roommate and I left to get a slurpy and we watched a movie together: Immortal.
Which wasn't quite a success. We both kept complaining xD Well okay, I did it more.

On sunday I tried adding another melody at the end, but the melody was off, so instead I decided to add it during the song. Is quite subtle, but if I add my vocals you won't probably hear it.
I tried singing the vocals but I could barely hit the notes flawlessly so I don't think I'll add them. Maybe at some parts, but that's it.
I'm so happy with this song. It's the best thing I made so far!Plus it's not a 3 minute song like always, but a longer one ^-^ I even managed to have the guitars sound right which was a concern.
The only thing that's left to do is adding the drums and maybe the vocals.

I hope to finish the song tomorrow so I can make an AMV with it and upload it to youtube. A friend on skype said I had to add quotes from the Assassins so will do that too ^^

The rest of the day I worked on voice acting for the acting competition and I practiced some commercials, but I'm not confident I can pull it off due to my pronunciations.

Week 11 - Friday: Day 52

I'm so excited... which is why I'm still up.  (2 am now) and it's hot so I can't sleep anyways!
I wanted to do an Assassins Creed remix for so long and started it today. The song is so challenging because it has unusual sounds like synths and quick drums. I already had a song in mind to start which is from Assassins creed 3 and moved quickly to 4, to 2 and continues with the main theme from 3.
I luckily found a synth that sounded like the one I was looking for, and the BPM were still 120.
I listened to all the synth sounds and can actually use a lot from it which I didn't realize before. The drums were hard to find so instead I used a bass synth (altered it) and for the cymbal sounds I just used hi-hats.
I experimented some more though; I used a reverb and messed with the delay, but nothing happened. So instead I added the MIDI echo and that did the trick! It didn't sound like hi-hats anymore, but blended in.

I'm up to the main theme now and the quick drums are the biggest challenge. We'll see how it goes.
I also need to use the AC 1 theme somewhere in order to execute an idea for an AMV.

Week 11 - Wednesday: Day 51

Could go to the studio again. Man, I forgot what I did so easily, especially since my tasks switch so fast. So I don't know the order anymore, but the supervisor did look at my documents and will fill it in this week.
He showed me what work he would do at the KISS concert. I assume I won't be participating in it as his boss won't let me. Aw well..
We looked at the scripts for Streetmachine weekend and changed one or two more.
The majority of the time we worked on commercials. The 60 second commercial had to change to a 30 second commercial so he had to figure out what to leave out. Also the sponsors took over the majority of the commercial so we had to make multiple in order to name them all. He shortened the beginning of my voice as he made it sound like a-a-a-aare you ready? Now it's just: Are you ready which shortened it with 2 seconds.
He rewrote part of it until the sponsors got announced and stepped in the vocal booth. So much energy and he opens his mouth wide when talking. I understand now how important it is as it makes you help having better pronunciation. But gosh the speed of those commercials. I will get a hard time with that.
After he showed me again how he cleaned up his voice. He used the noise remover and had a certain setting ready (which I will learn later when I have the program!) He did have to delete a breath and after that maximizer was used and he had the treshold around - 18. I asked if it had to be a certain setting, but anything between -12 and -24 would do with the output to -2 otherwise it could peak. The treshold mainly depends on what knd of voice you have.  I don't remember the other slide anymore.
A reverb got added, A small hall or something? He added an amount and asked if it was fine this way, or if it should be lower or higher. I said that I didn't know what the right setting was because I found it too much reverb already. He understood my point of view as I don't need this in voice acting, but in commercials the reverb helps it stand out so quite an amount is needed (-38 I believe)
After that was done he imported it in adobe audition and duplicated the voices. The duplicated voice got a - 10 on output so it wouldn't be too loud. Now it was time to cut out the silences and make everything slow nicely. It was time for me to do something too. He showed me first how to do it, but honestly I didn't need the explanation because I had seen him do it a couple of times. I had to add in the sponsors at the end so that meant duplicating it and moving it so that it flows nicely. When saving the thing I did have to cut out the muted part at the end.
After exporting all of them we had to clean the complete commercial. It started with the maximizer again only the treshold was a lot higher now. Cant remember exactly, but something around -5?
Also an EQ got added to give it some better higher tones.

At the end of the day I tried to install that program, but it didn't work. It kept on erroring so I have to find a solution soon. In the meantime I showed the supervisor my commercials which I recorded for that acting competiton. He said it was too bad I had the accent, which apprantely meant I did good =D
But I agree, I wished I could get rid of it too. He said I had some different pronunciations so we analyzed a few words. For example: What. I just say: Wut, but I have to add an h.
I had to look more at the words and see what letters they contain. Also the word powerful was too mumbled . I didn't open my mouth enough!
Well soon I will receive scripts hopefully to practice with as sunday we will have to record the commercials for Streetmachine. Exciting, but I'm afraid it will be a letdown.

Week 11 - Monday and Tuesday: Day 49 and 50

I worked home on both days and as I wanted to pick up composing again I decided on working on that and improve my skills. I wanted to start a remix, but I couldn't figure out the right beat so I started randomly with a few drums. This set the base immediately for a song and I started expanding it.
I worked 6 hours on it on monday. It couldn't be much longer because I had biblestudy and because it was the last time we stayed quite long.
Thanks to having a break I came up with an idea on Tuesday. I wanted to try to add a piece that would sound a bit like Vergil's battle. I at least wanted to try to add those drums and similar cellos and work with the choir. How the rest would go I would see at that moment.
On tuesday I spent 9 hours on the song and finished it o.o I did have one long break. We did have to do grocery shopping at 5 and we were home at 7:30. So that could clear my mind a bit.
Because of what I have seen at the studio I could also apply this to my work. How the drums were set up helped a lot  already. I used to work with only bass drums which sounded crappy in the end; I left the snare and gongs and cymbals completely out.
I do use bass, snares, toms and cymbals now and that shapes a song a lot better. It was also easier for me to change the drums which I struggled with a lot at the beginning.
I also applied the maximizer in the mixing process. Could be I used it wrong, but I never used it before.
It gives the song a much better sound and is a lot louder overall. So I do still have to learn working with settings when mixing.

A lot more music will come. I have many days off these two upcoming weeks and I also got asked to compose music for an audioplay!

Here is the song:

https://soundcloud.com/finalcrystine/we-wont-give-up

Week 11 - Sunday: Day 48

This day I practiced voice acting. It was a submission for an acting competition, but at the same time I also practiced for the studio. We had to turn song lyrics into a monologue. Man, it was already hard to select a song because everything was in the male perspective, or it rhymed too much or it was too cute etc.
Eventually I chose a song from Sonata arcticaas I could show my creepy side. The end of this chapter was the song!
After that I worked on the commercials. We only had to select two and I had my eyes set on a few, but instead I recorded a lot more as I wasn't sure. Which resulted being torn between four commercials.
I actually didn't do that bad. My enunciation could be better, but I tried to have energy in there and avoided being monotone. Mixing wise I picked up what I have seen at the studio. Having two rows of voices so you can move around some things and get rid of breaths. On the slow commercial it wasn't really needed that much, but it was on the faster paced one. It had a better flow this way.

The immunity lyric round listen was this night and I actually got chosen for immunity together with someone else out of the 6 people who submitted. The judges said this was my best performence in the competition and that I kept improving. Now I am in the top 10 and this is the furthest I ever got in an acting competition.
So I don't need to worry about my commercials, though I am so curious about their feedback.The feedback I receive I will have to add to future commercials in the Studio. No matter I will show the supervisor my submission so he knows what I do with it.

Week 10 - Friday: Day 47

I worked in the car today as the supervisor had to drive around for an upcoming event. The supervisor wanted to hear the demo traxx and wanted to change it. While driving he gave advice and when walking to clients I fixed the parts.
He named a few songs he wanted to shorten, but when the demo still stayed quite long we cut all songs.
We only showed a verse now and part of the chorus depending on how long it is. We also deleted a few songs.
Some songs we cut out the intro with a few beats even though the vocals started soon, but this way we shortened the demo with at least 7 minutes. The supervisor wanted to cut off some more parts from a song, but I gave the advice not to do it due to second voices going on and he chose that song based on those second voices. I had to work on my fades a little. It required a good timing. Some songs had to come in faster than what I did, but by messing around with the same songs multiple times and making them blend multiple times I got the hang of it.
The end result is a lot better. It's not that long and huge chance people won't click it away that fast. Besides it's not even about the artists but about the results that can be offered in the studio.
Now only thing that is missing is my intro voice which I will record over the weekend.