Chappel session for 14-10-2013

Hi all, and welcome to another entry about the chappel sessions. This entry is about the chapel session for 14/10/2013, where we had a band in called Selurians. They were a rock band with 2 songs. It was a very unplanned session, as we weren't sure whether we would have a band in or not. So it was a surprise when we turned up at the chapel and a band was playing. So we made our way to the control room and watched the camera's and audio being set up. It took about 10-15 minutes before everything was set up correctly, and the band started playing properly, and we started recording them. The band started to do a song called Dozey Rosey, but messed it up, so we did it again. It took five takes until they were happy with it, so then we moved on to the next song, which was called knock knockin'. That took 4 takes until they were happy with it, and when they listened back to both songs they decided they wanted to do Dozey Rosey again, so off they went back to the studio. Then they came back in to the control room to listen to it again, and they were happy with it. Dozey Rosey was a really catchy song, but I think the band could have been better oganised, for example the drummer, guitar and bass guitar were out of time with each other, and they were in a different time signiture. Also, the drummer kept coming in at the wrong time, causing the band to have to start again. They were a very nice band, and I think with practice, they could be really good. I think what I'm trying to say is, they have potential, and could become really good, if they work at it. After the band were happy with their two songs, we went in to the chapel and started taking down the equipment, and putting it all away. I tried to wrap up a xlr microphone cable, but I wasn't very good at it. Aventually though, with lots of curse words, I did it. THat's it until next time folks, Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Chapel Sessions for 23/09/2013

Hi there and welcoem to another entry on this blog about my chapel sessions that happen on a monday night. This week we had an artist in called Richard Watson, who personally, I thought was the UK's version of Tim Minchin. And if you don't know who Tim Minchin is, where have you been? Seriously though, google him. You'll love him. Anyway, we weren't producing this week, we were just observing so we could get a feel of what it is going to be like on a Monday, when we are producing/recording the session for ourselves. We had been breefed about Richard, and his background, which I found quite interesting, and we were told about what was going to happen with regards to set up, live mixing, recording, ETC, and setup began. The cheef engeneer for the night was Paul Cobbald, who was running the mixing desk, and giving Richard directions, EG "let's try that again". The thing I liked about Paul was he didn't hold back on giving Richard Criticism. The RTU's were setting up the equipment, which included 3 microphones, and three cameras (2 static and 1 moving). Paul Cobald was running the sound on the desk, and Dave was opporating the cameras in the chapel; he was being directed by Phill, who was on the tricaster in the studio. Oli was being the floor manager with the clapper board (announcing which take we were on). We were sitting in the control room watching the setup process, and it took ages to get the camera angles and the colour contrast right, but at the same time, Paul was trying to get the audio levels set up so they didn't clip, or weren't too low. He also added some reverb on Richard's vocal mic, but I'm not sure how he did it. Once all was set up, and Richard was comfortable at the piano, we started to record. The first song he sang for us to record was called "I know precisely", which took 5 takes to get right, and then he cmae in to the control room to listen to it back, and when he was happy with it, we moved on to the next one. The next song was called "I'll do it tomorrow", which took 8 takes to get right, because Richard was getting pretty stressed, and kept forgetting the lyrics, and hitting the wrong notes on the piano, but after 8 takes we got there. After that we gave Richard a small break, as he seemed to be getting stressed. Then he performed another song called straight to video, which took 4 takes to get right, and he seemed pretty happy with it. Then it was 7 o'clock, so we had to leave. There were plenty of mistakes made in the hole process, which we all observed, a few of them being with Richard's singing, and a few of them being with different camera angles, but being blind, I can't comment on those. I also observed how quickly everyone worked, and how swiftly the hole process went, apart from a few hitches, but they were quickly ironed out when they happened.

Introductory session

Hi, and welcome to this new blog, all about the chapel sessions that I will be helping to produce on a monday night in the chapel at RNC. This blog entry will be all about the introductory session, in which we were told about the course and what it would in tale. We also listened to a few different styles of music that had been produced in previous chapel sessions in previous years. We listened to some fully acoustic folk music, psychedelic rock and some traditional booze. I liked the psychedelic rock peaces the most because I have listened to that type of music before, and all ready liked it. I wasn't really a fan of the loose, only because I haven't really listened to enough artists in that field to work out whether it was a good standard or not. THe acoostic folk, however, I quite enjoyed. I enjoyed it because I quite like that sort of music, if I'm in the right mood. This is the end of this blog entry, but I promise they're'll be a new entry next week, so stay tuned and look out for it! Thanks for reading, Kieran.