Studio recording
During two recording sessions at Eastlake Studio, I recorded live versions of several songs, which are included in an EP entitled "Things Get Better (Live)", each tune demonstrates the depth and emotion in both my songwriting and performances. When I play the piano alone, I feel free, and the lyrics come through me, painted by an expressive singing style. Recording live was a challenge, but I during recording I realised that all of my hours spent practicing to a metronome and jam tracks had paid off. For the first time, I was able to enter a recording session feeling completely comfortable and confident in my abilities. I knew what I was looking to create by studying my singing and playing in the demos. I wanted there to be a sense of vulnerability in my vocal delivery. I like the sincerity of the recordings and have added these as part of my honor project to display the level of musicianship I have achieved. These tracks were recorded when I was shadowing HND students in East Lake studio, I learned how to set up mics with different stereo pick-up systems. Two room mics were added X-Y at the back of the room to pick up the natural room reverb. Spaced C414 mics were added to the front and condenser pencil mics to the back of the piano. Upon listening back I decided that the darkness from the rear miking was enough to compliment the vocals, which were recorded through analog compression and subtle EQ. Afterward, taking out some frequencies from 90hz and around 4k very slightly with a dynamic EQ (Fabfilter Pro Q3)
I will not release this EP to streaming services, as I wasn't completely happy with my performances. Recording live, solo was challenging, especially playing the piano while singing. Vocal mistakes and intonation issues can be heard as I was nervous recording in front of HNC Students in Eastlake Studio. 'Waste' and 'Memories' for this reason, weren't going to make the album. I decided it would be best to release privately on SoundCloud. In the near future, I will rerecord the songs from this EP as part of my album. I have now been playing and singing for the past five years, starting vocal training in 2018. Since then, I've spent almost every night playing and singing my favorite songs, sometimes to my friends and neighbors, sometimes to my cat, and usually on my own. This has been a journey of self-discovery and taught me valuable lessons about who I am as a person and what my identity is. It has emphasised the importance of being true to myself; as a neurodivergent individual, I have struggled to fit in with others. Expressing myself through music has allowed me to 'come clean with the world', revealing myself through my music. This was extremely beneficial to my mental well-being and has inspired a career motivation.