Personal Project Plan
I'm recording a 14 track album of my own original songs. I
will record all of the instruments whether MIDI or real other than the drums
which will be programmed by my dad although I will always have the final say
and direct him in the way that I want the drums to sound or how much I want
them in specific parts of songs. I will record at home using a focusrite and a
free DAW called Bandlab. I'll record ghost tracks for all the songs and then
this will be the basis for the drums, MIDI and all the recordings. I'll then
mix the tracks and add any plugins/effects that I think enhance the sound and
then I'll use the AI mastering feature offered on Bandlab for the finish. I
plan to release it at the end of October using Ditto Music and then I will use
social media (Facebook, Instagram and Youtube) for promotion. I want to create
and release an album because I want to create a career in recording and
performing my own music and I also would like to move on to university after
college and so this album will act as part of my portfolio of work. The way
that I will manage my time is by using a weekly diary where I can write in what
I plan to do on each day in order to achieve the longer term goals of the
project.
Some constraints that I need to consider include time management where, because I'm doing a lot of work towards it, I'll need to make sure I properly plan out when I'm doing everything to make sure it all gets done. I'm managing this by keeping a diary in which I plan out my weeks according to what I need to get done. Another constraint is my ability at playing the instruments - I'm not hugely experienced at playing guitar as I've only been playing since November 2023 and so this is something I'll have to be patient with as it will take me longer to record a good take than it would for someone who's much more experienced. This also goes for my voice which I think could be the most frustrating part of recording as it's the most temperamental instrument and also, if it's wrong, it's easiest to tell because it's more recognisable.
Another constraint in creating this album is how I feel.
Being mainly one person working on it most the time means I don’t have the
advantage of being in a band with people to motivate me when I don’t feel like
doing recording/writing/producing. This does mean, however, that I now have the
opportunity to learn how to do things even if I don’t want to which will lead
to an overall more productive career path as I won’t have to rely on other
people for my motivation or want to do things. I’ve already managed to start
changing this by developing an understanding of how to just force myself to do
stuff and get it done even if I feel really rubbish and don’t want to do
anything that day. This overall leads me to be pleasantly surprised by the
amount of work I get done in this mindset of “do and if you don’t want to, do
anyway”.
I live with a lot of animals which can act as a constraint.
For example, my dog barks a lot which means that I’m unable to record anything
with my microphone if he is barking as it’ll be picked up and too difficult to
remove. Another aspect is the cat meowing outside my room, I have had this
happen to me and left it in the recording as, although you notice it when
playing the singular track by itself, it is unnoticeable amongst the entirety
of the song. This has also happened with a chicken.
My target market for this album are people aged around 15 – 25 who like indie pop music. I want people to know my lyrics as they are important to me in my own songs as well as other people's songs. To help with this, I've been adding captions to videos of my performances on social media. In order to make this album, I'll need the ability to be able to play in the necessary instruments and be able to communicate with my dad about what I want and what I don't like from what he makes. However, in terms of demographic, my current audience is around 23 - 27 which is within the age bracket I'd set for my music. This can be seen in the screenshots below.
Me and my Dad are working partially together as he is
programming drum machines for all of my tracks under my decisions where I
decide whether or not they’re good enough/fit the song from my view. I’ll be
playing in the instruments with my own instruments and also borrowing an
electric guitar from college to record bits in. I can do this entirely from
home using a Scarlett Solo Focusrite with my laptop on the DAW Bandlab. I’m
also using a studio condenser microphone on a mic stand with a pop filter to record
vocals and strings. I have now also started working with Alfie to add some
guitar riffs and small melodies to my tracks and recently he also wrote the
bass line for one; we are recording at college as it’s easier than travelling
back to my house.
I found an old video from a year and a half ago of me playing a short thing on the piano that I'd made up and I kind of liked it so I taught myself how to play it and then added a slightly more developed bit on the end and then I was bored so I recorded it and added a string synth and a 'jazz' piano sound that I had on my keyboard and then mixed it and I thought it sounded quite encompassing and full and so this inspired me to use this as a similar technique on some of the tracks on my album. Below is a recording of the short piece I made. Doing this, despite being just for fun, inspired me to think about adding this type of thing to some of my tracks. See piano piece here.
I was worried about the violin that I added for Robot as I
wasn't sure if it sounded slightly wrong and my dad assured me it didn't and
that's the way strings sound and, to demonstrate this, he played Eleanor Rigby
and this inspired me to add strings onto more songs and to make it all epic
because the strings in that song are amazing, providing bass and rhythm to it
and I love the atmosphere and details and the feel it supplies the song. This
makes me want to have more use of strings within my music - it could be a
defining factor for the listener of my songs and act as a unique selling point.
I decided to use Ditto music as my distributor as I have used it for my past five singles. I put a lot of thought into which one I wanted to use and eventually settled on Ditto on account of the things it provided that others did not including but not limited to the annual subscription as appose to paying every time you send out a release. They also distribute my music to a wide range of stores and countries and are very good at collecting in royalties. What is most important about this for me is reaching the most people as I think that’s the best way to be able to grow a good audience across the world as you never know where you’ll find success.
My objective for this album is for it to set up my career as a solo artist and I will measure this by having my monthly listeners increase up to at least 300 to help increase my fanbase. Another goal with this album is for it to be a good part of my portfolio for applying to university. Ideally, I'd like to study commercial music and I think that having this album out and ready will be a good example of my work and skillset.
I plan to have all of the recording finished by the end of
October and for it to be release ready at the start of November. I will start
by making ghost tracks for all my songs and then have my dad put drums to them
while I record the guitar and bass. This would then be followed by the vocals
and then I will add anything else necessary to that song and mix it.
Plan:
Week one:
Check through everything and pick out anything wrong or that I don't like
Week two:
Final overdubs of any vocals I want to change and small fixes from last week
Week three:
Final checks and mixing
Week four:
Make promotional material and design cover art
Week five:
Release and promote
Week six:
Evaluate and write up
What to get done over November and December:
1.) Finish recording all of the tracks
2.) Finish mixing all of the tracks
3.) Be happy with the standard that they are at
This project was delayed somewhat due to me recording and releasing a single ("Wrong Number") because of my worry of my monthly listeners going down too much. Now that the single is set to release in a few days, I have gone back to focusing more on this project instead. I have gone back to planning out everything to be able to get all of the stuff done in time.
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