Project Proposal
Production Project Files (80%)
Please upload your production project audio files to the file block below. If you are submitting a video for your production project, this must be uploaded to Panopto and embedded in this Show page. You must also submit a separate audio file of your project along with the video.
Progress and Management Records (20%)
Project Overview
As per my project proposal, this project is a portfolio of new music made for release after graduation. My aim is to have three EP’s worth of music which, when added to some of my previously submitted music, make a vibrant collection of unique R&B tracks. At the beginning of each month find an audio file that will provide extra context to the appendices provided, illustrating the progress and management of my project as time goes on:
talk about how these tracks will be added to previous submissions of music,
talk about Daylight Chasing being more acoustic
I’m fine with this more electronic
A guide to caring a mixture of the two
31/6/25 – 26/7/25: Initial Notes
I organised my songs in the summer ready for this project, making a note of all the demos I would like to use and what their file names are for easy access on logic. Then, I made a note of what instruments the strongest contenders will need recording during the project.
29/7/25: Mind Map & Reference Playlist
I made a mind map to help me decide what direction to steer my project, and decided on my three EP idea. Then I made a playlist that encapsulates the vibe I’d like to create with my music.
Listen to the reference playlist here.
15/8/25: Final Track Choices
Here are the final tracks I decided on for my SS3 project, in the form they were in at the start of the process.
Piece Of Myself (demo):
Easy (demo):
Shame On Me (demo):
Kinda Thing (demo):
Gentle (demo):
It’s Not Gonna Work (voice memo):
to be added
Run Away With Me (demo):
16/9/25: Notes and Calculating Durations
Here, I made some extra notes about song ideas and their durations, but I ended up sticking with the aforementioned final track ideas.
29/9/25: Strongest Demos So Far
Here are sone extra notes about my strongest demos and what instruments they need added to them.
30/9/25: Cat’s 1-1 Notes
My first 1-1 with Cat was introducing her to my project idea and getting on the same page about the genre I like to make. I described my music to her as ‘swimming pool songs’, the kind of slow R&B you’d hear playing on a warm holiday relaxing by a pool. We discussed:
- that I can’t use pre-submitted songs for my SS3
- ruled out all my pre-submitted songs and made a list of strong contenders
1/10/25: Strings Advert
I wanted strings on two songs this year, “Dusk” for my collaborative project and “Gentle” for SS3. I know that organising this takes a lot of time, so the first things I did for my final project was put an advert out for some strings players. From this advert, Lauren Askew got in touch and I explained my project to her.
2-9/10/25: Lauren Messages
These are the messages between Lauren and I planning the strings for my project.
6/10/25: Strings Prep
My strings planning consisted of organising strings players, and deciding if there were any other songs I’d like strings on too.
7-9/11/25: Lauren’s First Draft Messages
Lauren and I organised a session so I could hear her first MIDI draft.
11/11/25: 116a Booking Confirmation
11/11/25: Lauren’s 1st Draft Notes
My notes after hearing Lauren’s first draft consisted of starting the strings later and simplifying the melodies in “Gentle”.
13/11/25: Cat’s 1-1 Notes
My second 1-1 with cat consisted of talking about impulse responses for reverb and discussing how I was going to record piano for “It’s Not Gonna Work” – I decided on recording it to a metronome instead of free time for ease of adding instruments later on.
other vocals had already been recorded in demos
talk about specific sound I wanted from each vocal and how long this took?
12/12/25: “Shame On Me” Vocal Recording
13/12/25: “It’s Not Gonna Work” Vocal Recording
14/12/25: “Piece Of Myself” Vocal Recording
15/12/25: “Run Away With Me” Vocal Recording
I positioned myself a hands-width away from my mic when recording these vocals, the recommended distance according to The Indie Music Lab to achieve a non-intrusive vocal sound.
Lauren updates
booked piano 104
drums for easy and rawm and mention others
13/1/26: Lauren Updates
15/1/26: 104 Booking For Grand Piano
15-16/1/26: Nathan Kirby Drummer Messages
These are the messages between my drummer Nathan and I asking him to play drums on “Easy” and “Run Away With Me”.
16/1/26: Demos For Nathan In Google Drive
I shared the demos with Nathan over google drive so he could rehearse them before our session.
Dusk (collab studies):
Easy:
Run Away With Me:
Tell Me How You Feel (extra):
20/1/26: “It’s Not Gonna Work” Before Piano Logic File
This was my Logic File ready for my piano recording in 104.
20/1/26: Photos Of Studio
This was my mic setup for recording the grand piano in 104, I captured the intimate pedal and hammer noises and the fullness of the whole piano with my room mics.
20/1/26: Video Of Recording
20/1/26: “It’s Not Gonna Work” Piano
This is the final product after recording piano.
26-27/1/26: Simeon Sax Messages
I got in contact with Simeon Lord to play saxophone on “Run Away With Me” and “Shame On Me”.
26/1/26: Demos For Simeon
These were the demos I sent to Simeon.
27/1/26: Saxophone Room Booking 116a
this month consisted of a lot of live instrument recordings, including saxophone, drums, electric guitar and strings as well as starting to mix these instruments into certain tracks referring back to my reference tracks.
1/2/26: Drum Room Booking 104
3/2/26: Cat’s 1-1 Notes
In my third 1-1 with cat we discussed:
- Who I’d be recording next
- To chase up Lauren about strings
3/2/26: Saxophone Recording Notes
These are the notes I took when recording saxophone, this helped me comp the tracks later.
3/2/26: Photos Of Recording
3/2/26: “Run Away With Me” & “Shame On Me” After Saxophone
6/2/26: Drum Recording Logic Files
This is what my files looked like after recording drums.
6/2/26: Photos Of Recording
I treated the drums like one big instrument in this session and it made the world a difference when it came to mixing my tracks. My mic choices were:
- RE20 Kick in
- Audio D6 Kick Out
- SM57 Snare Top
- MD441 Snare Bottom
- Sontronics Delta 2 Overheads
6/2/26: Video Of Recording
6/2/26: Drum Recording Notes
These were the notes I took while recording drums.
7/2/26: Drum Edit Messages
7/2/26: Songs After Drums
Dusk (collab project):
Easy:
Run Away With Me:
9/2/26: Strings Room Booking 116c
9/2/26: Choir Callout Instagram Story
“It’s Not Gonna Work” needed a choir for the second half of the song, so I put a story on instagram and called some friends together.
10/2/26: Choir Group Chat Messages
I made a group chat to begin with but decided using a few closer friends would be easier to organise.
10/2/26: Lauren’s Plans For Strings Bounces
Here are Lauren’s final MIDI strings draft before we started recording.
Dusk (collab project):
Gentle:
10/2/26: Lauren’s Strings Notes
This was our plan for the studio, Lauren would conduct the players from the control room and we’d work together to record them.
10/2/26: Photos Of Studio
10/2/26: After Session Messages
We then planned when would be a good time to record the strings in studio.
23/2/26: Lauren Scores
To prep for the session, Lauren notated her MIDI scores and I printed them out to save studio time.
23/2/26: Strings Room Booking 104
1/3/26: Strings Group Chat
The strings players consisted of Albert Chin, Emily Keable, Gemma Rose and Lucy Reynolds.
2/3/26: Strings Recording Photos
2/3/26: Strings Recording Video
2/3/26: “Dusk” and “Gentle” After Strings
Unfortunately, the strings had so many pitch and performance issues that I couldn’t iron out during the session or after in post production. Because of this, I decided to leave the strings out of the final masters for now.
Dusk (collab project):
Gentle:
5/3/26: Demos For Bass One Drive
Then, I contacted Fynn Clements to record double bass for “It’s Not Gonna Work” and electric bass for “Kinda Thing”, “Run Away With Me” and “Shame On Me”.
5-7/3/26: Fynn Bass Messages
20/3/26: Isolated Vocals For Choir
These are the demos I sent to George Gellerson, India Davies, Greyson Cadman and Lauren Liversidge to record for my choir.
Full Demo:
Bv Section Demo:
Isolated Vocals:
Just Bvs:
24/3/26: Cat’s 1-1 Notes
In my 1-1 with cat we discussed:
- Mixing the drums in “Run Away With Me”
- That I was recording my choir that day
- The pitch issues in my strings recordings
24/3/26: “It’s Not Gonna Work” Choir Recording
24/3/26: “It’s Not Gonna Work” After Choir
This achieved the exact sound I was looking for, everyone brought something new to the song.
1/4/26: Bass Room Booking 422
1/4/26: Bass Recording Notes
1/4/26: Bass Recording Photos
I used a Km184 hanging from the bridge of the double bass and the Goldmike DI for the electric bass.
1/4/26: Bass Recording Video
1/4/26: Songs With Bass
This is what the songs sounded like after our session.
Dusk (collab project):
“It’s Not Gonna Work”:
“Kinda Thing”:
“Shame On Me”:
“Run Away With Me”:
23/4/26: Acoustic Guitar Room Booking 116a
28/4/26: Dan Murphy Acoustic Guitar Demos
I sent these demos to Dan Murphy to record some acoustic guitar on “Easy” and “Piece Of Myself”.
Easy:
Piece Of Myself:
29/4/26: Acoustic Guitar Photos
30/4/26: “Easy” & “Piece Of Myself” After Guitar
I ended up using my original guitar for “Easy” as it sounded softer, but the new acoustic added more punch to “Piece Of Myself”.
Easy:
Piece Of Myself:
5/5/26: Mixing Session 1
I gave my tracks an initial mix, sent this to Cat for some feedback and booked a second session to respond to these comments.
18/5/26: Mixing Session 2
photo to be added
18/5/26: All Songs After Mixing
Piece Of Myself:
Easy:
Shame On Me:
Kinda Thing:
Gentle:
It’s Not Gonna Work:
Run Away With Me:
19/5/26: Mastering Photos
I mastered the tracks once I was happy with the mixes to get them all to industry standard velocity. This sat around -14LUFS to -10LUFS depending on the nature of each track.
to be added
19/5/26: All Songs After Mastering
Piece Of Myself:
Easy:
Shame On Me:
Kinda Thing:
Gentle:
It’s Not Gonna Work:
Run Away With Me:
20/5/26: Final “What I’m Listening To” Playlist
Find my “What I’m Listening To SS3” playlist here
