George Lauder Bursary - Week 4

We are starting to approach the halfway point in my trip to the U.S! Hard to believe so much has happened already and now we are moving on to the "second summer semester" so a new round of classes, both with similar focus areas but I'll get into that later in this post. For now enjoy reading through my latest adventures! (Unfortunately most of the photos I got this week were night ones so apologies about the over-saturation of the nighttime photos!)

Monday 30th June

Another Monday meant another early start for Engineering the Record I and today was fairly simple. For context, throughout the last couple of weeks we have been assigned quizzes to answer for homework. The topics covered in these quizzes are the similar to what will be included in my final exam so we went through each question to ensure everyone understood the reasoning behind each answer. Apart from that, today for ETR I was fairly uneventful.

Me, Jackson and JV quickly grabbed lunch at the dining hall, having a brief discussion about how we were each feeling for the final exam. Me and Jackson finished up and left for our next class of The Virtual Producer: Beats & Beatmaking which I had been looking forward to for all of last week! Our instructor, Kayvon organised a showcase listening session on Zoom with four industry professionals where we each showed a couple of our projects that we had worked on, ideally produced. I chose to show the projects I had been working on over the last month as I wanted to get some specific feedback on them to get them ready for release. We eagerly waited in the Zoom call for them to join, and then one by one they all appeared and we begun. We began with introductions to who the guests were (tap on their picture to visit their Instagram pages) -

RJ Pasin - a guitarist, producer, and songwriter who blends metal, hip hop, and hyperpop into catchy melodies. He is known for his viral riffs and unique playing style that can sound like a synth. Pasin first gained popularity on TikTok, where he shares his original music and productions.

Stacey Muhammed - a visionary filmmaker and episodic director who has captivated audiences with her compelling storytelling and distinctive style. Stacey is known for shows like Cross, Manifest and Harlem.

Eli Evnen - an artist, composer and producer. Eli is known for his work with A$AP Ferg, Ski Mask the Slump God and with Vogue for the Met Gala.

David Shane Sweeten a.k.a DJ Burn One - a DJ, record producer and songwriter from Atlanta. David is known for his work with Gucci Mane, A$AP Rocky and personally played a significant role in now producer/artist Pi'erre Bourne's development into the acclaimed producer that he is today.

We were each chosen at random to initially give a brief introduction to ourselves and our backgrounds before presenting our projects. Unfortunately due to time constraints I was only able to show one of the songs, but I got specific feedback from RJ about an element of my mix and some potential ideas with getting involved with Sync (music for visual media) from Stacey. The guests only stayed for an hour so eventually they left and we stayed for a little longer with Kayvon to go over some final bits of material for the course before wishing us well as this would be the last class as on Wednesday it would switch to the second summer semester at NYU. Our final project and homework was still due by midnight on Wednesday however so I still needed to complete that.

I finished up with class and ventured back to the accommodation to get some dinner before heading back out in the evening to explore Dumbo at night. I walked a similar route to when I first visited in week 2 but this time I went west towards Brooklyn Bridge Park. I got to see the Brooklyn Bridge properly lit up at night at such a great angle as well. Afterwards, I returned back to the accommodation to quickly study for the exam tomorrow and prepare for my presentation!

Tuesday 1st July

Today is the big day! ETR I was up first, we made sure to arrive early for today since we would be starting bang on 9. Our mix was up first, we got good reception and our instructor Michael gave us good feedback and liked our use of specific effects like reverb from the Lexicon 480L (a legendary reverb unit that adds space and depth to sound, making recordings feel like they’re in a concert hall, room, or other environment. It’s been a go-to tool in music and film since the 1980s for its rich, immersive sound). We then listened to the other two groups songs, one group did a cover of "Summertime Sadness" by Lana Del Ray and the other group did a cover of “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals. Both projects sounded really great, and we all got good appraisal from Michael. We got straight onto the final exam which consisted of multiple choice questions, true or false questions, short answer questions, etc. I made sure to take my time with each question, checking every option and ensuring I was also answering the short questions with enough detail. I finished up my exam with just under half an hour to go, I thanked Michael and then left to meet up with Jackson and Sabrina to get lunch and discuss the exam. We all felt we had done well and we were looking forward to getting started on Engineering the Record II the following morning.

After lunch I left earlier than usual to head for the Paulson Centre near Washington Square for my final class of The Basics of Music Licensing. Today was the day of our presentations, of which I had been practicing for over the last few days. I arrived and began going over my pitch and presentation in one of the quieter areas of the building. Soon enough, the time came and class started. We went through everyone at random, unfortunately not without technical issues which meant some had to be cut short or adjusted to allow for some form of presentation to actually happen. I ended up being the last one to present, and lo and behold I also faced technical issues! My MacBook decided that it did not want to play my music replacement examples on the big screen, so I had to download them to my instructor, Lee's MacBook and then swap to her's to allow me to actually show off my examples. Overall, I got good reception on my examples and my overall presentation. We wrapped up for the day and I stayed behind to thank Lee for delivering such an interesting course but also to ask questions about areas of my career that licensing and copyright will fall under and how to tackle those situations and ensure I am doing everything legally and correctly. In addition to this, one of my classmates Alex, actually came and asked me about if we could connect at some point to discuss music production, getting into the industry and learning more about what I do as an audio engineer/producer. We exchanged details and agreed to find sometime soon to meet up!

After leaving class I ventured back to Brooklyn but unfortunately got at subway station due to issues on the subway tracks downtown. I finally got home after an extra 45 minutes and decided to grab a couple slices from Fascati Pizza near my accomodation. I spent the rest of the evening relaxing after a long day, watching a couple shows on Netflix and resting up for tomorrow!

Wednesday 2nd July

Goodbye semester 1, hello semester 2! Well, right back into it I guess! A familiar feeling back at Clive for 9am to start the first class of Engineering the Record II. I arrived for class, sitting in my usual spot with Jackson before we had a few new faces arrive! The class was a bit smaller this time around, only consisting of less than 10 of us. Thankfully this did not affect the overall dynamic of the class so we were back up and running as usual! Today was mostly orientation for the new students who either did not take ETR I or it had been a while since they did. We all introduced ourselves and went over the syllabus for the course. We finished up at 11am and to no surprise myself, Jackson and JV went to the dining hall for lunch! We had a brief discussion about the group projects and if we would remain in the same group or not, opting to wait till tomorrow to decide as we wanted to see if the newbies wished to mix in with us since we had a bit of experience.

The remainder of the day is fairly uneventful. My final project as well as every homework project for The Virtual Producer: Beats & Beatmaking was due today at midnight so I spent the rest of the day finalising my project, compiling my homework together before sending it through to my instructor in the evening.

Afterwards I decided to try make myself some dinner. Now, I wanted to add this into the blog as I found it pretty embarrassing but also funny! For anyone familiar with the U.K ready meal scene, you'll know that it's pretty on point in terms of quality and usually comes as a full meal (i.e. curries will come with rice, pasta-based dishes come with meatballs, bolognese, etc). I had assumed that the U.S would be on similar playing fields so a few days ago I bought a Chicken Tikka Masala "ready meal" (as it was advertised). I chose to try it today as I had been so focused on my work that I never got a chance to properly nip out to the local shops before they closed. I examined the package before getting it heated up and cooked in the microwave. This is where I realised, I had been a complete idiot! I took the meal out of the microwave, opened it and waited a moment for it to cool. When I started digging in to it, I quickly discovered that there was no rice! I didn't think to check before cooking as I just assumed it would be the same situation as back home, so unfortunately I had a very interesting dinner of Tikka Masala, with no rice (definitely won't be doing that again lol!).

Thursday 3rd July

Starting off with the first proper class of ETR II! We focused primarily on the concept of compression, how it works and how we can effectively utilise it within our recordings and mixes. We had covered a small amount of this topic in ETR I, but never in great detail (for context to non-audio people, audio compression reduces the difference between the loudest and softest parts of a sound. This makes the overall volume more consistent, so quieter sounds are easier to hear and louder sounds don’t jump out too much. It helps music and speech sound smoother and more balanced). It is one of the fundamental tools in an audio engineer's arsenal but also one of the most misunderstood areas in the audio engineering industry, especially for novices.

Following class finishing around 11am, as usual myself, Jackson, JV and Sabrina visited the dining hall to quickly get lunch out of the way since we had a tight turnaround for our next class which started at 12pm. This was a longer class that usual, a little over 3 hours total so I was ready to be sat for a while. We arrived for class, got settled and then we met our instructor, Jason!

Visit Jason's website here!

Jason is a Grammy-award winner, Multi-Grammy nominated and highly acclaimed mixing engineer who has worked with incredible artists/bands such as Beyoncé, JAY-Z and The Roots! We all introduced ourselves to him, explaining our background in mixing, the experience we had (if any) and what we were looking to get out of the course. This class was primarily going to be orientation but we did begin to cover some fundamental topics such as level balance, dynamics, vibe, loudness, etc. We also covered areas such as using a mixing template (a pre-set starting point that audio engineers use when mixing music or sound. It includes things like track organisation, effects, and routing already set up, so they don’t have to start from scratch each time. This saves time and helps keep mixes consistent). Jason showed us the template that he uses, explaining the thought process behind each section and how he approaches his mixes. As part of the way we would be learning in class, Jason presented a pre-mixed song which we would be working on every class together, covering a different section of the mixing process each day (drums & bass, percussion & melody, vocals, stereo bus mixing).

Part of Jason's mix template session file

Finally, before class we were each asked to either provide a song for us to mix ourselves as homework which consisted of a minimum of drums, bass, a melody section and vocals or Jason would provide a song to mix. I chose to use a song I had stored in my drive called "Hard to Fathom" by Colin Train. For a bit of background on this song, I personally recorded it with my university group back in February/March for one of our projects. We were to record, mix and master 4 songs to make up a potential EP for the artist we were working with. "Hard to Fathom" was one of the two songs I did not mix for the project so I decided that it would be cool to see what I could do for the song with a lot of these new techniques and approaches that I would be learning with Jason. Those in the class who were presenting their own material were asked to do a rough mix to show on the first day, so we went through each song before identifying areas for each of us to begin tackling to start getting our song on the path to sounding like a commercial release.

After a long class, I ventured back to the accommodation to crack on with some homework which I had due for tomorrow and to begin working on my mix for class. I also visited the shops finally to get the supplies I had been needing (did not buy a supposed "ready meal" this time!).

Friday 4th July

The time of celebration was upon us! It was Independence Day in the U.S and from early morning the streets were busier and more lively than usual! There were plans for celebrations all over the city but the main highlight in the evening was the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Show which would be held around the Lower East River and Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately I had a final write up due for my Music Licensing class so I spent much of the morning and early afternoon finalising this before getting ready to head out and enjoy the festivities and weather!

I chose to wander Brooklyn to figure out where would be best to try and see the fireworks from. I had a few options such as my window, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade or somewhere in Manhattan. Unlucky for me, my window's view would block much of the display and the Promenade was closed to the general public unless they had pre-purchased tickets, as was much of the area around the river in Brooklyn. I decided to try venture over to Manhattan after grabbing some food to see if I could find a better viewing spot. I got off the subway at Fulton Street and headed south to try get close to FDR Drive to get a good spot but the streets were absolutely packed with people so by the time I found a spot that was decent enough, I was still a few blocks away from the river and surrounded by hundreds of people. The display began shortly after I arrived, lasting around 30 minutes and it was honestly a really good show! But now was the difficult part, getting home! There were so many people going both up and downtown from Fulton Street that I found it was going to be super difficult to get a subway from this area so I decided to walk a little distance away to get on at a quieter station. I managed to get back to High Street station which is a short walk from the accommodation. I had expected for most businesses, but primarily food spots to be shut over the holiday but to my surprise, many of these places were still open late! I was in dire need of some quick food and my luck came when Fascati Pizza was still open and busier than I'd ever seen it before! It was only right to pick up a couple slices on my way back to round off the night!

Saturday 5th July

This was another relatively relaxed day overall. Since I was up late last night, I ended up slightly sleeping in today which was really nice! I eventually got showered and dressed and got on with some work for Mix Intensive. I wanted to see how much of my mix I could get done before Tuesday so I worked on that for an hour or so. I had some washing to do so I made sure to get that sorted before getting ready to leave for Midtown. Earlier in the week, I had been looking for things to do in NYC and I stumbled across the Rooftop Cinema Club which was showing a variety of films but one in particular caught my attention. As some people might know, I have a love for the cult classic film, Friday starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker, and as such it was being shown today so naturally I had to go and see it. I caught the R subway up to Times Square - 42nd St and a short walk south to West 37th St and I was there! I got my ticket at the box office and found my seat. I decided I would get some food while I was here so I ordered a hot dog, fries and a coke. Unfortunately the chef advised that the fryer was not working but he could do a pepperoni pizza instead so I wasn’t too bothered. I got settled in and shortly after some adverts, the film started.

Once the film finished, I got back outside and started walking towards the subway station. I took a slight detour to swing by Times Square from afar, just to see it at night. Finally I took the 2 subway directly back to the accommodation.

Sunday 6th July

Waking up I decided that I needed to get out and take a walk for some fresh air as I wasn't feeling 100%. I got dressed and walked around the neighbourhood before returning to get on with some more Mix Intensive work.

I had organised in the evening to hang out with Jackson and JV since we were yet to properly spend time together outside of class. JV offered to host us at his accommodation since it was fairly central in Union Square. I caught the Q subway up to 14th St - Union Square and headed south to the building. I arrived outside where JV met me alongside Jackson, signed me in and we went up to his room. We got settled, admiring the view from his room and chatting about class. We did originally plan to go out for food, however JV quickly went downstairs and came back with a bunch of snacks, drinks and pizza which was leftover from a student party so we chose to save money and stick with that! We sat for ages chatting before Jackson left and I followed him not long afterwards. It was nice to actually do something with them which not university related. Plus, I think I missed hanging out with people in a casual setting. I've mostly been doing things myself since it's been hard to actually organise when there is a lot of work taking up your free time.

Anyways, I caught the subway home and arrived back at the accommodation shortly after where I got immediately into bed, ready for the next week to come!