Mastering.

EP - 01. Beautiful Thinking (Feat. Danilo Ferreira & Arowstarh)
I was given a harder task when mastering this because this track was already mastered and limited, so I had to re-master it again.
There was a lot of bass on the kicks so I had to take some off it off by using the EQ. I took of about 52Hz, I added a high pass filter.
I then used a multiprocessor to get rid of the spikes that was on the actual audio file, the area I compressed a little was around 3.5k this helped reduced some of the area that was at 3.5k and it also reduced the spikes. However I was not able to reduce one part of the area in the track which is where Kierans was about to start rapping when he says 'thinking' and it has that 'Ck' bit but I think that is because of the reverb tail so it's supposed to be there.
Afterwards I bounced the audio file and did a before & After... As you can see... (The picture blow)

The first picture is the before and the second picture is the after.

For the final stage I then added a limiter, boosted the limiter to +9.5dB and the release time to 15.0ms.

EP - 02. Lost Love (Feat Caitlyn Scarlett)

Again this track was already limited and mastered so it was also difficult to re-master it...

However

In this track, the mix was really good however I had to make a slight adjustments. The Claps were really really really sharp and there was many spikes because of it, also the kick had many spikes too. I had to EQ and add a high past filter around 40 Hz, afterwards I Eq'ed out around 2.1k Hz which is where most of the Claps were coming from, I had to turn it down by -3.5dB. After that I added the Multi pressor, so I can just compress the high frequencies just a small amount but I mostly compressed around 2.1k Hz which helped the claps to make it less sharp. 

Here's the Before and after. 

As you can see in second photo (After photo) most of the spikes are still there, I managed to get rid of some spikes but because the claps were bright the mix it was quite difficult to make them less bright without affecting the whole track.

For the final stage I used a limiter. First of all I raised the gain to the highest point which was (+20dB) and decreased the output level to -10db. I did this because this helped me to deal with the release time, which I slowly raised... I raised it to 16ms which was a good set point. It was neither too relaxed or too tight which was good. Afterwards I put the output level back to 0dB and started over with the gain, I raised the gain to +9.5dB.

Evaluating My EP Campaign

Evaluation
My EP will be a success because, I'm going to be advertising it a lot on social networks. Social networks such as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and I will get a couple of people to promote my Ep on Tumblr as well. On Soundcloud I have joined a lot of groups so I can that I can share the tracks onto the groups that I've joined. This will give me a lot of exposure because this people who are in the group are from around the world such as USA for example. They all have different genres in those groups as well, such as RnB/Hip Hop/Chilled and many more.
I am going to do the same strategy I did with my instrumental mixtape (The Keys Picture below)

The way I marketed this Mixtape is that I did everything on Social sites, it was released on 'DatPiff', 'Media Fire' and 'Band Camp' it was a free download. The reason why it was a free download because this was actually a promotional mix tape, and this mixtape marketing was a success in my opinion.

I already have the design of my EP ( see pic below ) all I have to do is record the vocals. I even informed many of my friends about my EP, also the ones who has a lot of follower's on Facebook and twitter.

I am also thinking of doing hard copies for my EP, about 10-20 this will be free. I have a strategy of my own to do things for free until I have a bigger fan base and that's when I will be selling things. This will be my last free project.

I was thinking of releasing this EP on Datpiff AND Band Camp but I think it might be necessary to just release it on Band camp because before downloading there would be a option to whether you want to pay or not.

Legal performances

When you are planning an event, you will need certain things such as an event licenses before you can put any event. This will prove that you are legal to put on any event that you like.

Alcohol
If you want to sell alcohol at your event you are going to need a license to decided whether if it can be sold or it cannot be sold otherwise you will be responsible whether if something happens to the customer's or not due to drinking,.

Age limit
In certain events the age limit is about 13/14 years old. You will definitely need an Age limit in events because for the safety of kids it is not safe for under 13 years old to go to an events especially when if there is alcohol.

The age limit determines whether if person has the right age to go into the event or not, in some cases you will need an adult to go with if you're child is under 13 years old.

Security.
In the majority of events they have bouncer's, the reason they have bouncer's is because if something happens in the event.. for example a fight occurs the bouncer's job is to stop fight and kick them out, but this is in certain  special events. They also are there to check peoples I.D's for proof of age.

If you're putting an event of your own, you should always have security depending on where the venue is. If your venue is outside with loads of space then you wouldn't necessarily need a bouncer maybe a security team would be more useful.

Technical Team.
In loads of events there is always a technical team. Why? No Technical team would mean no event this is because the technical team is the people who deal with the sound, they make sure everything is right and nothing goes wrong with the music. They mostly deal with the microphones, wedges, sound checks mixer's and so on.

The Technical Team are the ones who always need to contribute with the artist to make their performance a success.

When you're putting on an event you will always need a technical team. They would make your life much easier in terms of the sound.

Risk Assessment.
Creating a Risk Assessment is always important because if something goes wrong or something happens in your event for example people are tripping over wires constantly then the risk assessment would be able to help you... the way it would help is that you write a situation and next to the situation you write a solution so it'd make things easier. So if people are tripping over wires is a problem then you would have to look at what you wrote for your solution and sort it out.

Limiter's.
There is many limiter's in a lot of loud events, these limiter's are installed in the events. These limiter's are really really important because let's say a bands performance is really loud the limiter's will react and squash/turn down the sound by a little bit. The audience would need realise it has been turned down / squashed which is an excellent thing.

Transport.
Transport is really needed for artists / bands. If your artist / band lives far away then it's the promoter's/organiser's role to make sure they get to the venue safely and on time, however most of the time it's the artists manager's responsibility. But if they do not have a artist manager then it's promoter's/organiser's responsibility. If there is problems in getting to the venue then they would need to the promoter's / organiser's asap.

Communication / Positive Attitude.
Everyone would need to have brilliant communication and a positive attitude in order to have a successful event. Band / Artists need to have communication with the audience and with the technical team.A positive attitude would make the audience feel overwhelmed at being in an event. Communication would be needed with the technical team as well because they are responsible with the sound and they must always engage with each other.

Medical support.
People often have accidents at events, this could involve cuts, bruises, scratches and more. First Aid kit is always needed at events for the safety of the people, also someone who knows how to do deal with medical services should be there as well.

Also just incase someones child has a cut then the first aid kit would always be available for them.
it is really important to make sure that the people are safe and unharmed.

Mostly adults who get drunk have accidents so having a first aid kit is a good idea to have. Although if damages are severe then phoning an ambulance will be needed.

Conclusion...
If I was putting an event, all these above would be very important. It would be my job to make the event a success, to get feedback and to make sure the people also have a good time. Everything would need to be perfect.

EP evaluation

1. What is your EP called?

My EP is called Dreams. 

2.  What styles of music are on the EP?

Loads of Ambient types, I'm more familiar into doing ambient stuff, so this is why this is the main style of my EP

3. What genre would you categorise the EP as?  It can be more than one.

 Electronic/Experimental/Contemporary.

4. In terms of the style/artistic content - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music.

The style that I am doing I am more than happy because it's my type of style. I like to do a lot of ambient type of stuff but I would add a lot of influences into one thing which makes it really unique at the end it turns into experimental except it has a song structure.

5. Musically - How well does your EP fit into the genre you work in? Compare your work to your favourite artists…

I personally think that Drake ( who is my favourite artist ) would be able to feature on to one of my tracks because it's kind of his type of style. He does a lot of contemporary type of stuff, a lot of his productions - instrumentals are very warm and calm., that's how my EP is going to turn out to be. Also one of my favourite producer's who produces for Drake who's named 40... I've put a lot of influences from him in my EP, so my EP is going to be warm/calm but very very unique.

6. In terms of technical standard (recording/mixdowns) - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music.

I am not completely happy with my EP yet because it is not fully done yet.

The strengths of my EP is that one of the tracks is completely done, mixed and mastered, I also released it on my soundcloud and many people do like it as I got many good feedbacks about it.
The weaknesses of my EP is that some tracks / Instrumentals are not finished or they do not have vocals on to them.

7. Technically - How well does your EP fit into the genre? Compare your work to your favourite artists..

There's a lot of warmth coming from my EP, I would rather compare my work to my favourite producer which is 40. I've studied him a lot upon how he gets that warmth out of his sounds, especially when using Synth pads.

8. Did you collaborate with other musicians/artists on your EP?

Yes I have collaborated  6 artists. 3 Singer's and 2 rapper's. However I used 2 acapellas for 2 tracks, I didn't ask for permission for both. I got a reply with one artist I told him what I am going to do and what I'd do with it he gave me a thumbs up and wink. However I didn't get any reply from the other artist. 

9. Who did you work with in the studio? What roles did they fill? How did this help you complete your EP?

 I worked with an artist called Imani who is a singer, he is one of the singer's that is featuring on my EP.

10. What was the most important piece of equipment you used when making your EP? How did you use it? Why was this the most important?

One of the most important equipment I used was the midi keyboard, I used this because I needed to create the beats, I had to play in the chords and the melody also do the drum beat. Another important equipment I used was the Microphone (NT1A) I used and recorded with this microphone because It's a good condenser, this microphone was used for pre production.

11. Give me an example of a studio session that went really well. What was good about the session? Why?
A couple of weeks ago in the production room, the reason why it was good because we actually got some recording done which I was happy about, however there was a few minor things that was messing up with the recording, whenever we recorded something the audio file was delayed and whenever the artist wanted to himself there was a weird delay and reverb effect on the recording, so to resolve this 1. we had to go on to preferences on logic and then go on the recording tab, then reduce the recording delay. 2. To stop the delay/reverb effect we had to put the channel on mute then record.

12. What is your favourite track on your EP? Why is it your favourite?

 My favourite track on my EP is ' I don't believe in your stories' The reason why it is my favourite because it's ambient and it has a house influence into it. It's a nice chilled type of track, it's not too overhyped. This fits really well with the genre / style I am doing.

13. What are you going to do with your completed EP? Send to labels? Post online for free? What are your plans for the future?

I plan to do a huge launch on the internet so I can get many many people to advertise it on social sites such as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and more, it's going to be a digital EP so it'd be on Datpiff, Mediafire and Band camp. Free download... However I am also planning to give out hard copies for free, the reason I am doing this for free is because this EP is mainly for promotional use. I haven't 100% decided yet.

14. What is the most important thing you have learnt when creating your EP?

 I have learnt that Artists are a complete waste of time this is because they take really long to either write lyrics, they're not serious about music like how I am so they're not really bothered about getting involved into my EP or they just don't show up to studio times.

15. What was your most recent music purchase?

All about she - I can't wait...

16. How much money do you spend on music every month?

 I don't really buy music as much...

17. How much money do you spend going to gigs/clubs?

I spend about £3 - 5 going to either launch parties or concerts.

18. How do you plan to make a career in the music industry? What are your future plans?

Evaluation for Grant (Gigs/Tech'ing)

In this evaluation I'm going to tell you how the shows went altogether.
My responsibilities were:
- Setting up equipment for the main stage
- Spectating the sound ( to see if it sounded okay or not)
- Using the mixer's

What went well
- The set up of the equipment was all set up correctly and were in the right place
- The volume of the performance were on point, nothing was too loud or too quiet it was all perfect.
- All of us had good communication skills while spectating the areas.

Thursday
This was the day when East Kent college came to perform. We had to Rig up the instruments/mixer/microphone and so on.  One of the things I did I set up the acoustic drums with Danilo, the microphones for the sax and the Key-tar.
I also helped out with the soundcheck too.

This was our first time Tech'ing for another band. I mostly did the mixer with Elliot and I was also spectating around the room just to check whether the sound volume is right, if certain instruments are loud enough or not. I would tell Elliot and he would do the mixing. I also did some of the acoustic stage, which I wasn't that familiar with at first but I got used to it.

There was no Technical problems, that issued here.

Wednesday
This was the day when Level 3 Music & Music Production, had a gig. I helped out with the soundcheck, by playing instruments such as the electronic drums and the Juno.Elliot wanted to do the levels as I was playing them. I was mostly spectating the room and shouting at that Yemesi's vocals were too loud.

There was only one problem which was the Reverb wasn't on for the acoustic stage and we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, So we was unable to resolve this, but in some of the performance's we didn't really use the Reverb.

Thursday
This was the day when it was the level 3 music gig. We held sound checks here again. We had to set presets for the main stage on the mixer, so it could be easier for us to manage on the main mixer ( main stage ).

There was one technical problem that was happening which was on the DJ mixer, when Baran was performing the backing track wasn't playing for some reason so we had to wait for about 5 - 10 mins while Kieran was sorting it out.
Friday
I mostly did the acoustic stage, I found using the mixer on this stage much easier than the main stage because there wasn't that many controls/knobs to touch/turn which made things quite easy. That was one of my responsibility to do. Also I had to spectate around the stage, which means I had to do a lot of moving around in the crowd to check whether the vocals / guitar was too loud,too quite or the FX (Reverb) was too loud. I was also in partner's too, so I did the spectating while my partner was doing the mixing, I'd tell him/her whether things are okay or not.
One of the artists vocal range was very dynamic, so I had to control the fader on the mixer manually, I couldn't leave it one play otherwise whenever she got louder then the overall volume of the vocals would be too loud.
I also did some of mixing on the main mixer (main stage) when things needed turning up or down... although sets on the mixer were already saved it made life much easier and it saved us a lot of time.

Technical Problems issued + solved.

-There was a couple of things that did go wrong in the show. In the first couple of performances on the acoustic stage the reverb wasn't on at all. The reason the Reverb wasn't on was because the FX output volume was either turned down or it wasn't on at all. We sorted this just before the show went on again.

- The last show everything was going perfect except that on the very last performance of the night... as soon as the guitar played it almost blew everyone away off the stage because it was so loud - it was roaring. Kieran tried to mute the guitar/turn the fader down on the mixer but it was still very very loud. It seemed that it wasn't the mixer it was the amp and the pedal, the amp volume was turned all the way up + when she pressed the pedal while playing it increased the volume as well. We was all panicking, Sashani had to run to the back and turn down the amplifier.

Conclusion
I personally think that the show went really well because everyone had a brilliant time especially me. We got great feedback about our engineering skills upon the stage from the performer's and audience.
In my opinion for future reference I would like to do more controlling on the main mixer so I can get the hang of it a bit more... I'm already used to controlling the mixer for the acoustic stage.
I did learn a few things, I learnt that you must be 100% engaged with the sound and not to be distracted by other little things, things such as your phone. I got distracted with my phone quite a lot so to resolve this I had to switch it off. I learnt more about the mixer as I got to use it a bit more (mainly for the acoustic stage) and how to mix manually on stage - controlling the volume of vocals/instruments and fx.
Although things did go well I wasn't that happy with my input in the group this is because I didn't get to do that much, sometimes I wanted to do more which means I wanted to try and use the main mixer more so I can become confident with it... even when Elliot wasn't on the mixer and it was just me and my partner I still didn't get to use it as much which was really disappointing. In future I would like to use the main mixer more so I can become more confident with it.

EP Campaign

Social Network
Since I have already released a instrumental mix tape, I will marketing this on social networks such as Instagram/Facebook/Twitter.

I will get loads of people to share my EP, like how I got loads of people to share my mix tape on Facebook:

Twitter:

As you can see I did a lot of advertising upon my mix tape,  I will be doing the same thing for my EP

I chose it to do it this way because I already have a lot of followers on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram already so this'll be a good idea for me to release it on, especially since it's going to be a digital EP.

Marketing Techniques.

There is many Marketing Techniques that also involves doing crazy things just for a lot of exposure.

There's Techniques like:

Guerrilla marketing.
Guerrilla marketing is something to  do with events. You have to get the publics attention by doing things like Flash mobs, things that could go Viral (this includes doing crazy/stupid things just for exposure). This is actually a low cost strategy if someone can't afford proper promotion upon them then this is a good idea to do. This is also includes things like Graffiti, so you could graffiti your band name on a wall for example, this is a good way to promote yourself but it is a bit risky.

Hosting Events/Performing Events
Hosting events and giving/selling hard copies of your mixtape/album is also a good way to promote your stuff. Another thing is performing (if you're a band/artist) on stage with known artists this will surely get you some exposure also it's a good way to network.
you do not have to perform on events like mini concerts (The 02 Academy) although this is a good way to promote since the 02 academy is really known but you can also perform events at marriage for example

Magazine/Newspaper adverts
Magazines such as 'Rewind' will able to give you reviews about your mixtape/EP/Album and this would help you get out more in terms of promotion too. Even on the internet they can do reviews, one of many that does reviews is the MOBO. They give a lot of reviews on artists mix tape/albums.

If possible you can even get yourself on the newspaper by performing or being in little adverts.

Public Transport/Public
On bilboards is another technique to market yourself, getting yourself on a billboard is the best thing because a lot of people do look at the billboards whether they're walking / on the bus or in a car.

You may have seen many artists in the tube area on the walls, that is also another marketing technique which could help market yourself.

Stickers, on walls/floors/Bus stops are also good.

Social network.
Things like Facebook is one of the biggest marketing/promotion technique you could do. The reason is because over 14 million people use Facebook. Nowadays Facebook can help you promote BUT that would mean you would have to pay. Facebook will give you a option whether if you want them to promote you with a wide range of audience this means that they'll promote you on Facebook all over the world. So people who don't even live in London or your area will see you, how they do this is that they sponsor you. Every time someone see's your page on their screen it would say 'Sponsored' on the bottom of their name. Facebook is a great tall in terms of marketing.
There's other social networks like Twitter/Tumblr and other's as well.

The best ones for marketing on social networks is Tumblr/Facebook and Twitter. Twitter you can put a hashtag on whatever you're promoting ( #Music < For example) and a lot of people would be able to check it out this is because they would search for the hashtag.

Tumblr is quite good because all you have to do is post a picture alongside the links, so it is a okay way of marketing yourself.

Another way is Instagram, Instagram is really good because you can even post a 14 second video (preview) of your track so your followers can listen, upon that you can post a picture too. You can post a link in the caption but the downside is that they would not be able to go on it unless you post the link in your description.

What type of Marketing Technique would I use for my EP and why?
The type of marketing Technique I would personally use is social network (Instagram/Facebook and Twitter)) but mainly Facebook & Instagram. This is because I have a good fan base that always shares my music and I also know people who have over 7,000 followers on Facebook, they would also help share my stuff too. I would use Instagram and Twitter because I have a decent amount of Followers and people on Twitter would be able to 'RT (Retweet) my EP. For Instagram my followers would post a picture of my EP cover on their instagram too, so this also works in terms of marketing if you have a good fan base. Another reason why is because my EP would be a DIGITAL EP so it would be released on sites such as 'DatPiff', 'Mediafire' and 'BandCamp'.