FMP Write-Up

Now that the project is completed I can evaluate the songs and the project as a whole so as
to learn from any organisational or production mistakes. As a whole this project has been a lot of
fun. I have enjoyed my time working with Olivia Ferrara in making the album and I hope that she
likes the finished product as much as I do.
Organisation
My particular project was uite simple! I wanted to create an album for an acoustic artist that
I knew called Olivia Ferrara. "he original aim of the project was to have # songs$ % of which would
be covers and & of which would be originals. "he first thing that comes to mind is that I finished the
project with only ' songs$ % covers and ( originals. "he reason behind this was simply time. I had
underestimated how long it would take me to record and complete each track and so by the end of
the project I had ) less song than I wanted. *aving said this$ the album is an easy listen and I have
received many compliments already for the work I+ve done$ especially from Olivia herself who liked
my techniues as a producer and how I managed the recording sessions.
One of the main problems we needed to deal with was that Olivia was still at school studying
for her A,levels. "his severely restricted the amount of time we had with regards recordings. -ut
gave me a lot more alone time with each song which I think made a lot of difference in the tracks.
.o pros and cons to that$ obviously it wasn+t a major problem because we finished the album/
At the beginning of the project I didn+t have much to work on. I needed to wait for a time at
which Olivia could come in to record and we hadn+t planned our time properly in that respect0
although having said that the more the project went on$ the more organised and productive we were
in the recording sessions. 1erhaps this was due to the looming deadlines or maybe we just got
used to how each other worked and developed a method that was most productive in the studios.
"he main week of recordings was a half term week$ in which we recorded half of the album
and I finished editing and producing the first ( songs. After this$ the main bulk of the work fell on the
last week before the deadline0 never a good idea. -ut the work is done$ so I managed to work
through the pressure and come out with an end result I am proud of.
Post Production
-ecause Olivia and I had never worked together before in a musical sense$ it was uite
difficult for me to understand what she wanted in the songs 2instrumentally and stylistically3. "o
overcome this$ we arranged sessions every now and again$ whereby we would meet up and play
around with the chosen songs and decide what we wanted to have in them and how we wanted
them styled. "hese sessions were probably the most useful part of the project! it allowed us to
properly plan each song and it gave me a clearer picture of Olivia+s general style and how she
wanted the songs to sound 2after all$ it is her album/3.
One of the problems I had with working on Olivia+s voice is that she often varied the distance
at which she stood from the microphone during recordings. "his caused uite a noticeable
difference in sounds between one take and the ne4t. I overcame this through the use of 56$ which
allowed me to edit the freuencies that changed whenever she moved around.
"here were a few glitches in some of the songs that I spent uite a long time trying to fi4.
For e4ample$ in I 7anna 8ance with .omebody$ there was a moment when the microphone cable
hit into the body of the guitar at a uiet moment in the song. "he way I sorted this out was by cutting
out the sound of the hit and replacing it with a slice slightly early. "hen$ after some volume
automation$ it was practically unnoticeable in the track.
One thing I have definitely learnt through recordings is to make sure that when the track is
coming to an end and the last strum of a guitar chord is being held$ turn off the metronome setting/
Otherwise$ if the headphones are too loud$ you could end up with the clicking being recorded in the
actual song! which is an absolute nightmare to remove.
"he original songs were a bit of a farce. I was given to understand that Olivia had written or
was in the process of writing a selection of original songs some of which we could use in the album.
-ut when it came down to it$ she hadn+t made any progress with lyrics or music. -ut we managed to
sort ( original songs out! one of which was written in a field 2*appy in the .ummertime3 and the
other was written while we were talking about where Olivia wanted to go after her time at school
2*urricane3. *aving said that$ I love both of these songs now and if she did have other songs prior
to this e4ercise$ we probably wouldn+t have written either of these songs/ .o I+m kind of glad that we
had the opportunity to write them.
The Release!
As this project began to draw to an end I began planning how I would promote the album. I
spoke to my videographer friend and he agreed to shoot two music videos for me during the
summer and also a photoshoot for the album cover. 9nfortunately$ he has had e4ams the whole
time this project has been going on for and so has been a bit of a hermit. "he photoshoot will still
happen this summer$ but until then I will have to use a temporary album cover.
"here was also talk of making some lyric videos$ inspired by the videos by a band called .et
It Off. *aving any form of video attached to these songs would add a lot for people who are
listening to the track$ instead of it just being an audio stimulus it because visual as well/