Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #17

Date: 12th July 2008
Venue: Bugis
Time: 12pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- printing packaging
- work on final mixdowns individually

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #16

Date: 11th July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 6pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- re-recording vocals for Saifuddin's track
- laying down singing talent, Ching vocals

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #15

Date: 9th July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 6pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- recording vocals for Saifuddin's track
- laying down singing talent, Ching vocals

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #14

Date: 8th July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 12pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- recording vocals for Sharime's track
- laying down both rapping talents Supreme One and Kwizyne vocals

In Progress: Recording Rap Vocals

Venue: Vista C Whisper Room
Time: 5pm-8pm

Sharime will be recording rap vocals for his song.

EDIT: Pictures are up.

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #13

Date: 7th July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 12pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- re-recording vocals for Hasif's track
- laying down singing talent, Syazana vocals

In Progress: Koto + Vocal Recording

Venue: Vista C whisper room
Time: 9am

We are in the process of re-recording the Koto. Later at 6pm, we will be doing a re-recording vocals for Hasif's track.


EDIT: Pictures are up.

In Progress: Cover Designs + CD Prints

The following are the Final Design drafts for both the song compilation and sample library. Printing will be done due Saturday latest.


Song compilation

Sample library

Monday: Recording

Tomorrow will be the next biggest approach. Re-recording koto instrument.

Things to note:
- Get Tascam recorder
- Blue bottle microphone
- Microphone stand
- XLR cable
- Headphone x 2
- Koto - Paper & Pen
- Miscellaneous items such as extension cables and adapters

Re-recording female vocals for Hasif's R&B track also.

In other FYP related news, I have done up packaging graphics. One for sample library and the other for songs.

Here's a peek at the draft.

In the works

I'm currently working on the cover design. This is not the final one. Just for fun.

Review of Recording Session for Hasif's track

I have reviewed the recordings for yesterday's recording session. Initial problems occured when opening the Garageband software. It says that it cannot open some of the recordings in the software.

However, I did managed to salvage some of the vocal recordings through my thumbdrive.

After reviewing it, I realized that I have to re-record certain parts of the recording where the words are not pronounces properly. I'll contact the singer again on Monday to re-record parts of it.

In the meantime, I'm preparing layouts for the packaging and also making do with the vocals that I have and try mixing is in the instrumental track and making presets for it.

For you information, I am working with Garageband and Adobe Audition for EQ-ing and mixing. I will be using Reason's Mastering Suite together with my other team mates to do a final mixdown of our tracks, hopefully by next Friday. I have made a default template for that purpose.

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #12

Date: 4th July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 12pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- recording vocals for Hasif's track
- laying down singing talent, Syazana vocals

Recording Vocals for Hasif's track

A recording session was initiated by Hasif for his R&B track. Updates soon.

Venue: Vista C (whisper room)
Time: 5pm

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #11

Date: 3rd July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 5pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- recording vocals for Sharime's track
- laying down 2nd rapping talent, Supreme One, vocals

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #10

Date: 2nd July 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 5pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- recording vocals for Sharime's track
- laying down 1st rapping talent, Kwizyne, vocals

In Progress: Paper Hearts

I'm currently working on my mix. "Paper Hearts" is the working title of my track. Initially, it was called , Koto R&B. I'm using Adobe Audition for mixing and multi-tracking my session.

In Progress: Paper Hearts

This is the lyrics I've written for my song entitled, Paper Hearts. And I've found my singer.


Chorus//
I'm feeling like a butterfly up in the sky
You gave me hope and make me high
(pause) I'm loving your melody and you never make me cry
And baby some day you'll see, you're the apple of my eye


Verse 1//
I run my fingers through your hair
I wonder if you'll take me there
Why don't you wanna let me stay
Cause I don't want you to go away

Pre-Chorus//
I'm hearing all the voices in my head
I'm thinking about the words you used to say
We make and tear all these paper hearts
We break and wear all these paper hearts

(Chorus)

Verse 2//
And so we're back to where we are
The hugs and kisses, and the caviar
How did we ever...end up this far?
What would it takes for us..to live amongst the stars?

(Bridge)


(Chorus til end)

In Progress: kotorock

Here is the lyrics for my song that (for now), is called kotorock. The song is about a depressed person who has broken up with his girlfriend a long time ago but is still madly in love with her.

Verse 1//
Random thoughts race through my mind
Yet grief is my sole emotion
I’m well aware you’re no longer mine,
Yet I have an unhealthy devotion

Donning my wrist with little lines
Escaping my snags with narcotic sedation
Breaking the laws of nature and science
With pills that boost the imagination

Chorus//
Ah Ah Ah Ahh...

Verse 2//
Picturing you in a satin dress
You’re still the star of my coital fantasy
Your body, perfect; I used to caress
And now I feel like losing my sanity

Knowing you made my life a mess
Or maybe I’m just being silly
I don’t know, can’t make a clever guess
Looks like I’ll be guessing perpetually

(Chorus)

(Solo)

(Chorus) x 2

In Progress: kotorock

Here's the arrangement view of my track (working name: kotorock). It will be an experimental track influenced by rock, trip hop and of course the Japanese Koto. The main arranging tool I am for this track is Ableton Live 7.

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #9

Date: 25th June 2008
Venue: Kaffe Esplanade
Time: 5pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- first contact with talents
- discuss song idea to talent
- pass instrumental track and/or lyrics for reference

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #8

Date: 16th June 2008
Venue: Kaffe Esplanade
Time: 5pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- discuss about finding talents for individual tracks
- recording spray can samples for Sharime's track
- recording bass and turntable scratching for Sharime's track
- reviewing team's original compositions and giving feedbacks

Recording Samples

Sharime records samples for his track.

Recording spray can samples.



Recording DJ scratches on the turntables.



Recording live bass.

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #7

Date: 10th June 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 1pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- re-recording Koto instrument
- recording guitar, bass and Kaoss pad for Sai's track
- discuss current progress of team's individual song composition

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #6

Date: 5th June 2008
Venue: EMP Club Room,
Time: 12pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- reviewing Koto sample recording
- post production of Koto sample recording

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #5

Date: 4th June 2008
Venue: Vista B
Time: 2pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- re-recording Koto instrument
- discuss about song composition of individual tracks

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #4

Date: 3rd June 2008
Venue: Synth Lab
Time: 3pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin and our advisor, Damien

Agenda:
- discuss current FYP progress
- review of trial recording of Koto instrument

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #3

Date: 2nd June 2088
Venue: Vista B
Time: 2pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- trial recording of Koto instrument
- taking down notes for future reference such as musical notation and tuning system

Recording Koto at Vista

Today, we are doing a trial recording of the Koto instrument. This is to notate down some of the possible problems and for us to ensure that we can get a 'clean' sound during future recordings.

Some of the key issues we will be dealing with today is:

- Mic placement: getting the best possible sound for koto instrument

- Proper mic gain: ensuring that levels are not clipping

- Ensure a high signal-to-noise ratio: high signal output

- Tuning the koto instrument

- Playing to a metronome: playing on time so that we can used samples for our song compositions

Playing the Koto

This is how you should play the koto. Cheers!

Koto Tunings

We found the different tunings for the Japanese Koto from the website http://www.kotonokoto.org/tuning.html. This information will be useful in tuning the Koto for our recording tomorrow. We will be using the Hira Joshi first as it is the basic tuning and then move on to the other tunings later.

Change of Plans

We have decided to scrap the idea of recording samples from Chinese Orchestra. We, as a team, felt that it would take us too much time and effort to record a whole orchestra. We believe that as a result, we would not be able to have enough time to do our own individual songs based on the mentioned sampling.

Thus, we have decided to record the Koto instrument from STA Labs instead. We chose this as a team because we felt that we can have more access to this instrument rather than the Chinese orchestra instruments. Also, this will lessen the manpower needed to record as we, as a team, can benefit by learning the Koto tuning and how to play it.

At the same time, we can learn more about Japanese musical instrument and its cultural influences. We believe that from here onwards, we can create original compositions as our final product based on the Koto instrument.

YES from Chinese Orchestra

Great news. RP's Chinese Orchestra have agreed to let us record them during the first week of our June holidays.

The recording shedule will take about 3 days. The first day will consist of preparation and a dry run so we don't cock up on the actual recording days and waste everyone's time and energy.

The next two days will consist of recording the different instruments found in the Chinese Ensemble such as Guzheng, Erhu, Yangqin and Dizi.

Hopefully, all goes well but the Chinese Orchestra are not used to improvising so we have to give

them some string or similar sounding Western instruments sound samples that can give them an idea of what we want them to play.

If this doesn't go too well however, we still have our back up plan of recording the Japanese and Indian instruments found in the STA lab.

Miking Up the Koto

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #2

Date: 7th May 2008
Venue: Kaffe Esplanade
Time: 5pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- discuss about what instruments to record from Chinese Orchestra
- discuss research findings about Chinese Orchestra instruments
- send email to President of Chinese Orchestra IG

Minutes of Meeting: Meeting #1

Date: 1st May 2008
Venue: Starbucks @ Bugis
Time: 2pm
Present: Hasif, Sharime, Saifuddin

Agenda:
- assign roles to team members
- assign tasks to team members for the upcoming week
- plan out a recording schedule for sampling instrument(s)
- research on recording techniques such as microphone placements
- research on Chinese Orchestra instruments

Project Objective

Our Final Year Project will consist of 2 parts. For Phase I, we intend to create a sample library of Chinese orchestra instruments the Japanese Koto. And after we are done with Phase I, we will proceed to Phase II which is to create a series of original compositions using the sample library.

Research and discussion on recording tools and setups.









Some brainstorming ideas that come and go.

Equipments

This is our main production tool: The Apple Mac G5. This is where we will do most of the editing.


Our main MIDI controller: The Midiman Radium 61


M-Audio Trigger Finger


Mackie Onyx mixer


Tapco studio monitors


Ultrasone monitor headphones


Mics

These will be some of the mics we probably will be using to record the Chinese Orchestra.


Blue Baby Bottle


Rode NTK


Shure SM58


Shure SM57


Sennheiser e504 & e604