Unit 2 - Creating a Music Product

Create a CD

Learning Aim A 

First Meeting

We decided that our target audience is going to be chart music listeners. We chose the content of the CD to be covers of pop songs and the selection of material will be house music recordings.

Plan of how to record it, recording equipment: all team attend auditions and record on iPads.

Availability of performers: all at auditions

Time constraints: recording at lunch and mixing in lessons

Rehearsal: attend lunchtime rehearsals
There are no copyright issues.

First follow-up meeting

In this meeting we discussed what we will be doing whilst recording, and we came to the conclusion that we should stand wherever in the hall (preferably the middle or sides) has the best sound quality. We also decided who is going to record on what days.

On 10/2/15 Reece and Sophie recorded today and in our next lesson they will show the rest of the group what they recorded. We will decide as a group which recordings are best and which ones we should keep.


10/2/15 -  in todays meeting we listened to the recordings Jak got from Monday that we all agreed to like.

11/2/15 - we listened to the recordings Reece and Sophie got and decided which ones we liked. We finally narrowed it down to six songs.

12/2/15 - in this meeting we talked through who is doing what next, we decided that Reece and Jak are doing the mixing for the songs.

13/2/15 - today Abbie and I recorded the songs from today's year 11 and sixth form house music and we got a few tracks recorded.

25/2/15 - today we sat down and listened to a few final pieces that were recorded before half term. I think Sophie and Reece worked the best in this lesson as they put forward a lot of productive opinions. Jak found us a good tattoo-styled CD cover, which had no copy right issues.

3/3/15 - In todays meeting we gave everyone in the group designated job roles. Jak is doing the CD cover, Corey is doing the magazine advert, Sophie is doing the poster, I am doing the press release, Reece is doing the radio advert, Charlotte is creating the website and Zoey is doing a TV presentation.

4/3/15 - I was not in todays lesson, but through talking to other peers in my group I found out that Corey, Reece and Sophie mixed tracks and burned them onto a disc

11/03/15

Today, the music department were setting up for the house music finals tonight. I thought this was a
good opportunity to take some photos of the equipment they set up because this was the equipment they used for the house music auditions (which is where our recordings came from).

This picture was taken from the back of the hall. I can identify the two speakers, one on the right of the hall and one centrally at the bottom of the stage. There is a range of musical instruments on the stage, of which I can see a drum set, a microphone stand and a couple of amplifiers. There is also a keyboard on the left of the stage.

This picture is of the mixing desk where two people will control the volumes of the sound and lighting on the stage - this is an important aspect of recording as this will determine how well the sound travels and the quality of the sound.

This is a closer image of the stage set up, where there are two microphone stands for the vocalists, a keyboard, a drum set and three amplifiers.

Our Product



Learning aim B

I have looked at different press releases and decided which ones I like the most and others I don't like so much:

"Girls F.C." press release

Things I like:

• the colour scheme
• the layout - how it is spread out
• the use of pictures to inform

Things I dislike:

• lack of information
• childish design
• font is too small

"Diverse Voices" press release

Things I like:

• the lack of colour because it doesn't attract the reader
• too formal
• boring to read

Things I dislike:

• loads of information, and ample amount
• clearly lay out
• it is clear what it is about

The "Magician's Elephant" press release

Things I like:

• the colour coordination
• eye catching for audience
• pictures relating to title

Things I don't like:

• too much information
• font is quite boring 
• a bit to formal, considering the content

After reading these press releases, I now have a good idea for what I would like the press release I'm going to create, will look like.

Learning Aim C

Evaluation

Overall, I think that our group worked fairly well together. We all came up with some ideas. I think that Zoe and Reece participated a lot during these discussions and were therefore good team members. I think I participated the least, but everyone else had good and valid opinions towards our team project. I did record one of the house music auditions to go towards our groups project and I put my opinion across on which recordings I thought were the best and suited our teams goal best.
If we were to improve on anything, I think we should ensure that everyone is participating as the outcome would probably be better if we had more of a range of ideas.
I think we did work well as a team though because once it came to the individual roles, for example mine was to write up the press release, we all worked well on these and the result was good.

My Press Release