SYNERGY

Last night I had the opportunity to showcase my work at SYNERGY, a networking event that SAE (My University) holds. I was given the MIDI Studio (the same studio where I recorded DODGE) to show my work to the public as they passed by my studio, and I'd say overall it was a pretty good night for my development in the Audio field. This was my first time ever showcasing my work to the public, usually I'd be nervous in these situations but this time I wasn't at all - I was super eager to discuss my work to people and talk about my processes openly.

I set up in the MIDI Studio Early and set up my Ableton mixing session of DODGE for people to come by and listen to. I made sure to also turn on all of the various pieces of outboard gear in the studio as they light up and I figured it might draw more people in if they saw flashing lights. Unfortunately, not many people actually came into my studio, in some instances people came past that looked interested but didn't come in because I was talking to somebody else. I guess because I was at the end of the hallway and was in a studio that didn't have a huge desk or anything, people either just missed it or weren't as interested. Regardless, I still received some feedback from various people and everyone that I did speak to really liked my track.

My first visitor was actually Akshay Kalawar, the department coordinator of audio at SAE. He had a listen to my track and gave some feedback on it. He said that the track had a lot of potential, and it sounded great in many areas but the vocals could be improved on, he recommends that next time I record many layers of vocals to give it a much fuller sound. As pop vocals are something that is new to me as of this project, I can definitely take this feedback and apply it to my next project. Some Trimester 6 students across the hall came by and left some feedback on the vocals too, so it's definitely something I can still work on. We didn't actually want to have any vocal harmonising in this track, so perhaps I can look into pop vocal layering in ways that aren't harmonising, such as doubles etc.

I also received a visit from Steve Robin, a producer who runs a studio called "The Barn Recording Studio", this studio also often comes to SAE looking for interns. He had very positive feedback for my track and said that I was doing really cool stuff, so that was really good to hear.

Other than that, I didn't really have any other people in the Industry visit - mostly other Sae students, people interested in joining SAE and just the general public. That being said, you never know who you're going to run into and who can be a useful network in the future, so I would say overall it was still a successful networking event. Even though I didn't have too many Industry people (that could leave feedback) come by my studio, I still stick by my motive to network as much as possible, you never know who is going to be doing what in the future!

It's good to finish my first year of University on a positive note and have a piece of work that I can be really proud of, and when comparing to my work from 1 year ago see the huge upgrade in quality.

I wonder what is to be discovered next trimester?

Thanks!