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.