tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35798167154956319672024-03-13T01:35:33.593+00:00MightyJordan's BlogMightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-62470690764308771892013-05-31T18:06:00.001+01:002013-05-31T18:15:56.477+01:00Personal Development Plan 3<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And now for the third and final entry of this academic year in my Personal Development Plan series. I'll be following the <a href="http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/image-files/personal-development-plan-template.jpg" target="_blank">the same template</a> as last time, so here goes...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>My current state</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Strengths</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Experience with various studio environments and control surfaces/mixing desks (Avid D-Command, Avid C24, KORG nanoKONTROL 2, Behringer Eurorack MX3242X, Behringer DDX3216, Allen & Heath ZED-R16))</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small amount of experience with analogue mixing desks (Neve Series 51)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Worked with artists across a wide range of genres (acoustic, jazz, indie rock, alternative rock, grunge, surf rock, folk, ambient, hip-hop)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Usage of different recording techniques (Glyn Johns, X-Y, Spaced Pair, Blumlein Pair, Mid-Side, Tchad Blake)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confident proficiency in playing both acoustic and electric drums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Confident proficiency in programming drums (especially through recording on electric drums).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in playing the keyboards.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in playing the bass guitar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in playing the electric guitar</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small amount of experience in live sound.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Growing number of connections with local musicians.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Weaknesses</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unemployed.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of a recording interface at home.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of monitor speakers.</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>My desired state</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Still to achieve the BA (Hons) degree in Music Production; it's been a tough first year, but I'm done, and now to look forward to September, when it all happens again. Still want to put together my own home recording studio, and a high-end acoustic drum kit is still on the mind, although not as much now, as I recently bought myself an Alesis DM10 Studio e-kit. It cost quite a bit, but it came with all the drum heads upgraded to mesh heads, so it'll hopefully withstand my antics. I've also bought myself a Sonor double bass pedal for the kit, so that I can learn to play double bass properly and then widen my musical skills. Still working on my guitar and bass skills as well; Rocksmith has done so much more for me the space of seven months than three years of online lessons and self-teaching. And still looking at the dream studio to work in. And something not really music-related; I'm hoping to get my full driving license during this summer, so I've got a little short-term goal to work towards. No plans for a car of my own yet though. I can't afford one, and even if I could buy one of my own, I wouldn't be able to afford the extortionate insurance. More importantly, I'm waiting for the prices of current electric cars to go down, as that'd be much cheaper to run than an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>How to get it</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, the first year of the degree is out of the way now. Actually, slight correction: it will be when I get my marks back from the last four assignments. For now though, I can relax until September. Apart from the driving tests, that is. Anyway, just two academic years to go now. As for everything else (drums, home studio, etc.), it all still requires <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON-7v4qnHP8" target="_blank">loadsamoney</a>. During the summer, I'll also be on the hunt for jobs. The uni assignments kept me so preoccupied that I wasn't able to continuously search, but now I can for the next few months. Obviously, to keep a potential job getting in the way of my next year in the degree, it'll have to be a part-time job, so I'll search purely for that from the get-go. Another thing I'll need to get all this is luck. Let's hope Lady Luck smiles on me this year...</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-23108560821751844652013-05-04T00:07:00.000+01:002013-05-31T18:31:01.975+01:00Encore!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Versal managed to get the missing project over to me earlier, so I spent my night working on it (and it's just gone midnight, so off to bed for me after posting this), and here is the end result...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91586002" width="100%"></iframe></span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-70899029124045820702013-05-01T16:13:00.000+01:002013-05-31T18:48:12.460+01:00The Tester<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On Monday, I received a rather peculiar Moodle message calling for test subjects for an audio quality test on Wednesday from two SMT (Sound and Music Technology) students (Kerry Smith, and Will Owen); specifically, they wanted males between 16-40. I was happy to oblige, so I texted Kerry on the number she included and said I could take part.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, in the message, it did mention test subjects would get free wine/beer and chocolate; I just shrugged that off as a joke added in by Tom Freeston, the staff member who sent the message out. But it turns out they were serious! When everything was set up, there was a table full of the aforementioned. Unfortunately for them, I was the only person who turned up, which was a shame. They waited around for hours, but nope, it was just me in the end.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The test they had me do was to listen to a short sample of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE" target="_blank">"Viva La Vida" by Coldplay</a> (specifically, 1:10 to 1:23 in that link) and tick off boxes on a questionnaire sheet, asking about certain aspect of the sample, like the clarity of the vocals, the church bells in the background, the balance of the instruments, etc. They had six versions of the sample, all in varying qualities (I wasn't told the qualities), and they had me listen in four different ways: cheap hi-fi speakers, professional monitors, monitoring headphones, and cheap in-ear headphones.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The test took about half an hour in total (after the initial set up, which took over an hour). They got everything they needed, and I walked away with several chocolate bars and a bottle of cider. It's been a good day.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-60974419076831786242013-04-28T23:37:00.000+01:002013-05-31T18:23:30.110+01:00The Hippity Hoppity Brigade<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mwF6Dd1qMI" target="_blank">Stephen Fry</a> for coining that term.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Three songs in the bag this weekend! I've been working with a future dBs Music student called Samuel Blazer, who performs under the name Versal. He kindly offered up four songs for me to work on; he didn't have one of the complete projects on him though, so I spent my weekend working on the other three. It's been quite an interesting experience working with proper hip-hop songs for the first time. Hear the results for yourself...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91585573" width="100%"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91585703" width="100%"></iframe></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91585837" width="100%"></iframe></span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-16927840135349157202013-04-20T01:15:00.000+01:002013-05-31T18:19:10.954+01:00"Let's go 420, dude!"<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy 4/20, stoners! I spent today mixing and producing a song for a fellow dBs Music student which coincidentally would probably sound better if you were stoned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The song is called "Torment", and it's by George Connett, who's also known as Jawgee. It's a kind of ambient hip-hop instrumental. Check it out...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F91585018" width="100%"></iframe></span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-38984750740381851022013-02-19T17:37:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:15:19.710+01:00Personal Development Plan 2<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Time for the second in the ongoing series that is my Personal Development Plan. The previous one I did was the first time I tried this, so it wasn't that good. I'll see if I can do a better job this time around following <a href="http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/image-files/personal-development-plan-template.jpg" target="_blank">this template</a>...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>My current state</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Strengths</b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Experience with various studio environments and control surfaces/mixing desks (Avid D-Command, Avid C24, KORG nanoKONTROL 2, Behringer Eurorack MX3242X, Behringer DDX3216, Allen & Heath ZED-R16))</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recorded artists across a wide range of genres (acoustic, jazz, indie rock, alternative rock, grunge, surf rock, folk)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Usage of different recording techniques (Glyn Johns, X-Y, Spaced Pair, Blumlein Pair, Mid-Side, Tchad Blake, etc.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fairly high proficiency in playing the drums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in programming drums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in playing the keyboards and bass guitar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small amount of experience in live sound.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Growing proficiency in playing the electric guitar, thanks to playing Rocksmith.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>Weaknesses</u></b></span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Inexperience with analog studio recording environments.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of connections with local musicians.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of a competent home recording studio.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unemployed.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>My desired state</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pretty much the same as last time; achieve the BA (Hons) degree in Music Production, get my own professional-grade recording studio at home (in the garage), a high-end drum kit, but not an electric guitar of my own now; my dad seems to have forgotten about the guitar all together, so I've pretty much commandeered it. I'm getting better at playing it now, thanks to the game Rocksmith. It's also helping me with the bass too, but I'm obviously concentrating on the guitar, as that's where I most need improving. Still would love to work at a high-end studio too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><u>How to get it</u></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No change with the degree; keep calm and carry on. I'm making it through the first year. Just need to hope the second year won't be much harder, otherwise I might be in trouble. Drums, still need money for those. And for the home studio. A lot of money. Getting a job will help there, as I'm planning to continue living with my parents for the foreseeable future. If I have enough saved up by the end of the third year of the course (which will be around June 2015), I might be able to move to another city and start making a name for myself in the studio.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-19172823261036088842013-02-04T21:22:00.000+00:002013-05-31T16:35:51.851+01:00"And another one gone..."I managed to help out a fellow student in my group today. Olly needed to record a drummer for one of our projects, and I was more than happy to oblige. He chose to cover <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE" target="_blank">"Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen</a>; a legendary song that is thankfully also easy to play on the drums, so it was well within my comfort zone. He'd already recorded the bass, so I played along to that and a click track. Nice and simple. And now to work on my song for the same project. I recorded another student in my group called Ben, playing one of his original songs. He's played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and bass. I'll be doing the drums, and mixing it all together.MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-44079410400285323882013-01-27T21:34:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:13:32.435+01:00Personal Development Plan 1<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is something I'll be doing a few times throughout my first year in university to try and keep track of how my life's progressing. Here goes nothing...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1: The Present...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My strengths:</span><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Experience with various studio environments and control surfaces/mixing desks (Avid D-Command, Avid C24, KORG nanoKONTROL 2, Behringer Eurorack MX3242X, Behringer DDX3216, Allen & Heath ZED-R16))</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recorded artists across a wide range of genres (acoustic, jazz, indie rock, alternative rock, grunge, surf rock)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Usage of different recording techniques (Glyn Johns, X-Y, Spaced Pair, Blumlein Pair, Mid-Side, Tchad Blake, etc.)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fairly high proficiency in playing the drums.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Competent proficiency in playing the keyboards and bass guitar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My weaknesses:</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Low proficiency in playing the electric guitar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Inexperience with analog studio recording environments.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of connections with local musicians.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lack of a competent home recording studio.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Unemployed.</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2: My Desired Future...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My desired future would be to receive a BA (Hons) degree in Music Production, and have my own professional-grade recording studio at home (in the garage), along with a high-end drum kit (ideally, a Neil Peart-sized kit, so at least 20 pieces!), and maybe an electric guitar of my own (probably a PRS Santana Signature); I've already got my own bass guitar, a 5-string Fender Jazz Bass, so I wouldn't be in a hurry to get a new one. And of course, the talent to play it all at a high level. Optionally, I'd also love to be working at a high-end professional recording studio, but as I'm in Plymouth, I would have to move somewhere else (probably London) to accommodate that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3: How to Get It...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The degree is the quickest one; I simply have to proceed through my current Foundation Degree course. I'm in the first year at the moment, there's a second year, and then there is an optional third year to top it up to a BA (Hons) degree, which is what I am planning to do. For getting my instruments, a lot of money is required, so that also means needing a very good-paying job, which in my career, would be at a high-end professional recording studio, meaning I'd have to move away from Plymouth, probably up to London, or maybe even to America or Canada.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-74221841596988591802013-01-25T15:38:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:08:53.501+01:00Exit... Stage Left<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...and it did go well. Admittedly, it did overrun a bit (we had three hours for each session), but only by half an hour, and that was mostly due to the band's setting up and soundcheck, which took longer than expected. But it doesn't matter for us, we've got the session in the can, and some good experience in the bag. Wonder if I'll be able to put it to use in the future...</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-25321309577606458342013-01-18T15:02:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:08:40.897+01:00Check, check, 1, 2!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Something a bit different today. Leo, one of my tutors, has organised an optional live sound recording session for my uni group. Obviously, it's optional because we're not studying live sound (that's a completely different group), we're studying audio and music production. Still, I could do with branching out my expertise just in case, so I went down to dBs Live today to take part.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today's sessions was a practice session; the real thing's happening next Friday. We'll be recording a local band called Matthew & Me, who are an up-and-coming indie band from Totnes. They're a quintet, and thankfully there's no tricky instruments, and their setup is fairly intrinsic, so it shouldn't be too difficult next week. Most of our difficulty comes from where to set up the frontman's vocals. He sings and plays guitar, so obviously there'll be an amp close to him, meaning it'll bleed into the vocal microphone, so we're not going to get an entirely clean recording. However, we have a cunning plan! We'll set the frontman up in one of the corners of the live room, with one of the boxes from the PA speakers propped up to try and block some of the other sounds, and we'll also drape a curtain over the box to help damp the sound a bit more. Everything else is pretty elementary; drum kit at the opposite end of the room to the frontman and his guitar amp, bass amp near the kit with another box to block out the drums, keyboard amp and the other guitar amp in between. Should be good...</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-5024524456352193162012-12-14T20:06:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:08:29.385+01:00A Twofour production...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...and I have finished my two week stint at Twofour. It's been a great experience. It's given me a little peak into the world of television. Well, outside of me watching Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, that is. I did get to look at the progress of two of Twofour's other shows they're currently working on that are past the transcribing stage. The editors and producers don't mince their words either; they told us straight up that most of the footage we've transcribe usually doesn't get used.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first show we got to look at was another show being worked on for the Discovery Channel, but it's at the other end of the spectrum. It's a hidden camera reality show where parents go on holiday for a week, leaving their kids in charge of the house, and in reality, the parents are spying on them, seeing what they get up to when they're not there. The guys working on that show told us they have over 50 hours of footage to sift through for just the first episode, and each episode is an hour long, so there is a lot of editing to be done. The episode we saw is of two teenage brothers, so you can probably predict what they get up to when the parents are away. There's also the addition of a couple of chickens in the family's garden, which they also have to take care of, which leads to some comedy moments when they start throwing eggs at each other, as well as used straw that they're supposed to be cleaning up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moving on to the other show. This one is a more serene affair; it's a clip show about major sporting events in the 1980s. When we visited, they were working on Ayrton Senna, which I consider perfect timing, as I'm a big Formula 1 fan. It talked about his dominance at McLaren, as well as his rivalry with Alain Prost, and his tragic death at the San Marino Grand Prix.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I won't dwell on that though. All in all, I enjoyed my time with Twofour, and I'd love to work with them again sometime. I kindly asked Laura to keep me in mind if anything pops up, so I guess fingers crossed...</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-15140626388888623662012-12-13T19:54:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:08:18.782+01:00Twofour: one day left...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Quite the change today. Laura transferred me over to another show now over in a different office. The show I'm working on now doesn't currently have a name; it's a show about tropical diseases, and it's being made for the Discovery Channel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the moment, I'm working on footage of one of the doctors in the show making his way by jeep to a hospital in Dar es Salaam, which is a city in Tanzania. This footage is a bit trickier to work with, because of all the road noise. The jeep looks pretty barebones, so obviously little to no soundproofing, and the crew are travelling on dirt roads, so it all adds up to a sometimes inaudible conversation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's also the odd location shot in some of the clips, getting shots of local animals, the scenery as they're driving by, and signs of the hospital when they get there; the kind of shots that get used to interlude between scenes that have voiceovers on top.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-65884970866288090382012-12-12T20:04:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:08:09.177+01:00Twofour: days two - four...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...well, there hasn't really been much to say the past few days, which explains the lack of posts. I'll try to summarise in as much detail as possible...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Day 2: </b>Pretty similar to yesterday; still worked on Jean and Jeanette in the Britain's Biggest Hoarders show, and got a more detailed tour of a couple of places; specifically the Master Control Room (MCR), which is where they keep multiple backups of every show they work on (on hard drives, as well as tapes), as well as the required facilities to archive all the material. There's a minimum of two backups to every single show at any time within the Twofour Plymouth building (they also have offices in London, and they're international as well, with offices in Los Angeles, and Abu Dhabi).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Day 3: </b>Bit of a changeup today; Laura <i>(Johnstone, the person in charge of me and the other people on work experience)</i> switched me from Jean and Jeanette to working on Wendy now. She's quite different to Jean; she seems even more difficult to deal with; Jasmine <i>(Harman, the host of the show)</i> looks visibly frustrated throughout too. I did look her up online after the first day and found out her firsthand experience of hoarding; her mum was an equally compulsive hoarder, and they were actually on a show before called "My Hoarder Mum and Me", which is where "Britain's Biggest Hoarders" has come from, and coincidentally, <a href="http://www.twofour.co.uk/news/twofour-secures-two-deals-with-uktv/" target="_blank">Twofour also did that show</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Day 4: </b>Changeover again. Laura's now put me on Jeff, who is the one from Plymouth, which was who I was hoping for. He's a former engineer (in the footage I've got, he's also wearing overalls throughout) and seems to be quite a computer geek as well; there's loads of old computers and computing parts around his place, as well as a load of computing magazines. Seems I relate to him a little bit with the computer obsession. It turns out there's also a little memento of his in the Twofour office near where I'm working...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">No one there seems to know what it is, and I haven't got a clue either. I tweeted that picture asking if any of my followers knew what it was, but no replies.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Answers on a postcard!</span></b></div>
<br />MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-41421584280974314432012-12-05T20:20:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:07:53.937+01:00One two, Twofour...<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Survived my first day at Twofour. It was actually quite pleasant. I got a quick tour of all the areas first, and then I was given the tutorial on the work I'd be doing. I'm working as a transcriber. The show I'm working on is called "Britain's Biggest Hoarders 2". Have to admit I never watched the first series, but from the footage I've been working on, it seems pretty interesting. The footage I'm currently working on is of a woman named Jean, and her daughter Jeanette. And one of the hoarders in the series is actually from Plymouth, so I'll keep my fingers crossed I get to work on them eventually...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">...speaking of Plymouth, they have filmed parts of the series down here. Twofour have a big warehouse where they store the people's stuff and get them to sort through it all, so probably about half of each episode on average is recorded there.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-86138651875925389132012-11-27T18:02:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:07:42.661+01:00"Oh, radio! Tell me everything you know..."<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you get the reference in the title, congratulations, you're also a wrestling fan.</span></i><br />
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The training session went off without a hitch. Just had to pay the £6 fee for joining the society, and I was shown how to operate both mixing desks, the microphones, and also the software that controls the station.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UPSU Radio uses an open source program called <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/" target="_blank">Rivendell</a>. I can't remember which operating system they use, but I do know it's a Linux distro, so probably Ubuntu. There's no installers for Rivendell, and the program has to be compiled from the source code, so I wouldn't be able to practice with it at home, as I am useless when it comes to that. There's no way to get it running on Windows, anyway; it's strictly Linux-only, officially. Well, there is an unofficial Windows solution around, but it's not all parts of the program, so it'd be useless for me. There is apparently a way to get the Debian version working on Mac OS X, but I haven't attempted that yet. Rivendell is thankfully easy to use, and the interface is touchscreen-friendly, which is great, as the station has a touchscreen monitor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I know the station's rules now, and most importantly, I know the procedure for adding new music into the system, which I'll probably be doing a lot, as the music I listen to is pretty different to what they usually broadcast. They have good standards, too; 320kbps MP3 files preferred, no lower than 192kbps (obviously, the files have to have been legally acquired, so either ripped from a CD/vinyl, or bought from a music store, like iTunes or eMusic).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm not gonna rush into doing a show yet though, due to the upcoming work experience at Twofour, plus current assignments at dBs. I'll probably wait until the break in-between semesters to do a show. Or failing that, summer break.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-15944477233020130352012-11-23T16:18:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:07:44.964+01:00UPSU Radio Training<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've had an email from Josh Hancock over at UPSU Radio. He's set the day for dBs students to have their training sessions before they can work at the station. It'll be next Tuesday (the 27th). He's set up a Doodle page for everyone to pick their timeslots (the training sessions are only half an hour long, and they're running from 12:00 to 21:00). I've already marked myself in for 16:00, so I can go straight to there after finishing up at dBs at 15:30.</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-19715538392677593052012-11-16T13:37:00.000+00:002013-05-31T18:07:15.038+01:00...well, that was fast!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, on Wednesday, I fired off an email to Laura Johnstone, the Production Coordinator at Twofour, expressing my interest in doing a two-week work placement with them, and also explaining my restrictions; I wouldn't be able to work Mondays and Tuesdays, due to being in dBs Music those days, obviously. So in reality, I'd only be working six days. After a few back-and-forth replies, it was all sorted, and the next day, I received a confirmation email from the HR department, containing <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3hGcwp8t2uiTkY2ZVhyV3RvSmM/edit" target="_blank">this PDF.</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So there we go, I've already secured 51 hours of work experience for myself. I'm also currently in touch with UPSU radio (University of Plymouth Student Union), so there may be more hours on the way...</span>MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3579816715495631967.post-33751945386903160702012-11-13T15:34:00.003+00:002012-12-04T15:01:05.795+00:00Unearthing lost relicsI've only just discovered I still had a Blogger blog. Hadn't posted here in over three years (the previous posts have been hidden for this blog's new use). That's temporarily going to change, as this is going to be turned into a journal for the work placements I do during one of my university assignments.<br />
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First step: actually looking for a placement. I saw a post on the course's Facebook page yesterday talking about a one/two week placement at Twofour, an independent media group actually founded here in Plymouth. They've supplied programming in recent years to the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky1, and various other channels. It's an ideal placement for me (I'd be a transcriber), but transport would be an issue, as there's no buses which go to where they are. The closest I can get to it on a bus is a 20 minute walk away (or just over a mile), and I'd have to walk a mile to get to a bus stop actually on the route that takes me as close to Twofour as possible. So I'd have to walk two miles each way, which at least isn't all in one go; I get a little rest on the bus.<br />
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Oh well, I'll apply now first, see if they actually do take me on, and then worry about the potential transport issue.MightyJordanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05925004396093941557noreply@blogger.com0