Evaluation – Demo Album and Portfolio – Hugh Chamberlain – Exeter College

Initially, this project was to create a demo album that I could send off to labels, management,
venues, promoters, and other people of interest. The plan was to record 8-12 tracks with myself
recording vocals, guitar, bass guitar and keys and my brother Mike recording the drums. I completed
the recording process over a month and then mixed it over two weeks after that. I planned to record
everything at home as I was used to the resources cutting down time of learning new tech and as
well being able to use all my own gear such as amps and guitars without having to bring them with
me on the train every day which would’ve been an almost impossible task. I wanted to make a demo
album because I have real faith in the music I am currently creating, and I believe it is music worthy
of being presented to labels. The tracks on the album span many genres and give me an edge over
many artists which is my level of diversity. For example, one of my tracks, Long Haul, is a track which
is very laid back, it is a neo-jazz style song with a piano that uses jazz chords, bass, and drums and a
dissonant dream-rock-esque solo at the end. Then there are tracks such as ‘The Rescuers’ or
‘Pressure’ which are hard-hitting rock songs full of intensity and chaos. The album also looks at ska, a
country-rock vibe as well as lo-fi-jazz and acoustic/orchestral. There are no limits to where this
album could venture. And that was planned, this is my most diverse project yet and I am proud of
the result. 

When I was planning, I needed to look at the practicality of this project. Was this going to be
something I could successfully complete in the time given? To work this out, I looked at my previous
endeavours in recording (full projects such as an EP) and how long it took me to complete the whole
project. Most of them took the same amount of time as I could allow for myself for this one. So, then
I had to ask myself, why does this project still feel like a realistic task despite the heavier workload?
Looking at previous projects, all of them had a lower intensity than this one because I didn’t have a
tight deadline, and I didn’t need to set myself a timetable; it could be more relaxed. Another factor
that came into it was that two projects had delays due to illness or late deliveries and one I had to
focus on the songwriting a lot more. I had already nailed the songwriting down mostly for this
album.

I realised I had to organise myself and time manage my tasks; that was the only way I was going to
stick to the deadline. Then I laid out a weekly plan, what would I accomplish that week, how many
songs I would record and when I would have the album completed by. I made sure that everything I
needed was accessible to me at any time and that there were minimal problems that could occur. 

The project was a success, I am very proud of my work, and I feel like overall, I have done these
songs justice. I put lots of effort into getting good tones and refining the tracks to make it the best
product it could be within the limits of a basic mix by a non-qualified mixing engineer. Especially with
the research I put into this project, I feel my understanding of these skills and methods has elevated
and the practice that I was able to put into all of these tracks aided me to get a wide understanding
of the recording process and how I can tailor the recording process to suit my way of thinking.

A notable song which I feel was hugely successful was ‘At The Mercy Of’, everything shone through
on this track. The acoustic guitar recording thanks to my research from TheRecordingRevolution
aided the acoustic guitars to go from amateur to professional, and I can confidently say that the
acoustic guitar tracks I recorded are truly mesmerising. With my research into arranging orchestral
music, the strings on this song showed their presence and it brought the track a stunning emotional
context that wasn’t quite there before. Another song that I am proud of and succeeded my
expectations was ‘Plain Old Man’. This finished result felt like everything had fit into place nicely. The
harmonies on this track were such an innovation for my sound as I had never really dug into
harmonies in the past. As well as the lead guitar at the end which was a trick, I learned from a
producer and sound engineer called Ben Malley who taught me about playing when the vocal line
stops and how that call and response can be so powerful to listen to. 

When researching production techniques, it was helpful to build on what I already knew and learn
more about things I was yet to explore such as saturation and vintage tube EQs. Dynamic delays
were something that struck my interest as they clean up your delays by stopping them from playing
when the vocal is, similar to the call and response method I was talking about. All this research into
production made my demo album what it is, and that research could not have been more helpful.

However, a part of my market research changed the direction of this project. When reading through
the feedback from my survey, I realised that people need all the information, not just a demo album
or a bio, they need videos, and pictures and they need it quick, easy and simple. This is where I
decided, I needed to research portfolios. Because this was what I was going to create. This portfolio
research then led me to what became part 2 of my final major project. I worked very hard to
research all the aspects of presenting yourself as an artist. From research about how to get your
demos heard to taking the best photos and how to edit them to make the perfect artist image. I
researched as much as I could and learned so much about the ‘common industry player’s way of
thinking, how to get their attention and how to keep it. All this research was compiled into making a
portfolio website which now links to my official website and contains a downloadable electronic
press kit with my promo video, photos, in-concert photos and in-concert videos, artist bio and my
demos. 

With my original action plan, I had aimed since the beginning of the proposal to have all the
recordings done by the 2nd of May, which I managed to beat by a week, and then mixed all the
tracks within the next week, meaning I had lots more time to work on my portfolio. Not only was my
efficiency great in terms of having time to fix mistakes, but it also meant that I could devote more
time to creating a portfolio which then had to be coordinated into the action plan. Then my action
plan was to break down the portfolio into days and do a different task each day. This made the
portfolio feel a lot simpler and meant that I could then allow for overtime or delay. For example,
taking photos became an issue because of availability. We had scheduled to shoot a couple of
different scenes at different locations but because we wanted them to look empty, we would have
to go late at night meaning that my brother, who was to take the photos would’ve had to stay up
late when he has exams to be revising for. I had the same thing with the portfolio website, I wanted
to use Adobe Portfolio and I spent hours putting together the Adobe Portfolio website to then be
told I had to pay for the site to be published. This meant I had to start all over the next day in
Weebly.

Breaking every task down and dedicating days to them meant that I knew the trajectory that I was
working on, and I knew what was coming up and how to prepare. Preparing included research on
the topic such as for the promo video, where I researched transitions and found some amazing ones
that made my video exceed my expectations; as well as ensuring I had all the right tools for the job.
Such as, with the promo photos, we had to make sure everything was charged, and I had given the
soft lights enough time to heat up as the bulbs were mercury bulbs. I learned not to underestimate
set up time as problems can and most likely will occur.

When creating the demo album, I explored many old and new skills, these are the collective of the
skills that work for me. One old skill that became new on this project was the proximity effect. The
proximity effect occurs the closer a sound source gets to a microphone. For example, if you’re
singing into a microphone, the closer you get to that microphone the deeper and ‘bassier’ the tone
of your voice will get. This is because there is less distance for the low frequencies to dissipate in the
air between the source and the microphone. Little did I realise, this applies to everything, not just
vocals. This was when I was researching guitar amp recording and realised that speakers work the
same as voices it’s just a different harmonic structure. There is a sweet spot for every amp and mic
combination that gets the natural tone of your amp. You just have to find it. This then led to much
better amp recording and understanding of what is needed for different sounds which then helped
with drum recording, especially with the kick drum where I needed a natural spot on the kick drum
that I could then mix with.

Another new skill for me was learning how to pitch correct in Melodyne. This was fascinating to
understand the minimalism of vocal pitch correction and find the correct levels to make it sound like
the pitch was perfect in the first place. Once I had the pitch correction down, every track felt more
professional because of it as the perfect pitch is a lot more satisfying, even for non-musicians, you
just wouldn’t pick it up as easy as a non-musician.

Diving into the portfolio, I learned a new skill in learning how to use Adobe Photoshop. I needed to
learn how to get rid of a textured background and replace it with a white one and then add shadows
to fit it. As well as this, it included understanding how to use shadows to then emphasise light to
make it seem like light was coming from a certain direction to blend the foreground and the
background. Going back to the mixing side, I focused on my understanding of compression, eq’s and
saturation a lot in this project. I furthered my understanding in all these realms and it has helped a
lot in making my mixes tighter and register better. 

Something beneficial that aided me in finding the best guitar sounds was the fact that I used a D.I.
Box (Direct Input Box) to get a clean signal of the guitar. I could then put this through an amp
simulator called Amplitube that could help me develop ideas for tones and what needed changing in
the signal chain. With a range of pedals and amps, it enabled me to explore many different paths
that would change the feel of the track entirely.

Another way I developed my ideas was in Long Haul where I tried and tested harmonies, vocal
adlibs, and vocal textures to see what they would add to the track. This gave me the benefit of
having lots of ideas to choose from and the freedom to make what I wanted to make.

Mixing is something that you can lose perspective on easily, you can overthink a song and do things
that don’t work for the song; as often you don’t have any frame of reference. I spoke to a fellow
student, Zak Zaffiro about the mixes and we listened through them together and we looked at what
is good and what could change. From this, I could consider the notes that Zak had said to me when
finalising the mixes to make it sound much better. 

One of the key problems I faced was to do with the amp recording. I was struggling to record any
guitar tracks from my amp that didn’t sound like garbage. These couldn’t be used as they were not
to the same standard as everything else. To tackle this with regards to quality and efficiency, I did
two things. The first thing I did was buy a Direct Input Box, this meant that I could record a clean
channel of the guitar at the same time as recording the amp recording. Meaning that after recording,
if I liked the take, I could then re-amp it through an output in my audio interface so I could get it
right. The other thing I did was research more about amp recording and learnt that different mics do
different things and I also learned about the proximity effect. What came of all this was I backed up
the dynamic microphone I was using, added a condenser microphone even further back and put a
Direct Input Box before my pedalboard to get an unedited sound from the guitar which I could re-
amp or put through an amp simulator.

Another problem came in the mixing phase of the project, I realised when recording one of my
videos that part of the bass drum recording for ‘Are You Really An Angel’ had gone missing. The first
thing I did was search all the folders for the recording and all the ones I found were all cut out at the
same time. I looked at my options, I could either go back and record the drums which would take a
lot of time out of my project, or I could find a way to replace the missing kick drum. I chose to do the
second option to help make time for the portfolio. I replaced the kick drum by sampling the original
recording and putting it into Quick Sampler on Logic which meant that I could then place the kick in
manually or with a midi keyboard.

Another big problem I faced was editing photos, as I mentioned earlier, I had to replace the textured
background with a plain one to have more creative freedom with. The problem was, we had a white
sheet and that was fine but no matter what we did, it had creases in it. We tried shooting with
different lights to hide the creases, but nothing worked. So, we carried on anyway hoping that this
problem would be able to be fixed in photoshop which I had just got a trial of. I first researched how
to get rid of a wrinkled background. The results included blurring the background till you couldn’t
see any textures anymore. The problem with this was that it blurred and blended the light together
and it became a sort of grey colour. So, my next course of action was to replace the background
which I researched and once I had removed the background, I could then add in shadows and
directions of light which then made it seem so realistic. This also made the foreground (being myself)
so malleable due to being able to change the position of the light and where shadows strike.

When looking back at the answers from the survey I sent out. One thing became clear and that was
that a demo album wasn’t going to be enough. Many said about videos and having up to date social
media content, and the more research I did, the more evident it became that I had been blind to the
full aspect of presenting yourself to others. You can’t make demos and expect that to suffice. It
would be best if you made yourself a whole new presence, this is the same for any business. Take an
estate agent, for example, say they have a redesign, they can’t just decorate the offices. They need
to keep up consistency. So, they have new flyers printed, new business cards, new coasters, and new
for sale signs. Everything they need to keep an up-to-date profile of themselves. I now realise this is
the same for being an artist. But this means that I needed to adapt my project into more than what
it was, it had to become a portfolio that I could represent as myself. I had to adapt my whole project
to fit this.

To ensure that this didn’t negatively impact my aim, I had to reorganise my time to make sure that
everything was on the first or second try. The Direct Input Box helped and having the easter holidays
meant we had full days to record drums. The main thing that kept this project moving was time
management with this huge change to what I was creating, this meant that I needed to be strict with
the time I gave myself. I found efficient ways of working, such as when I was creating the
promotional video, I also curated the performance videos I wanted to present, and I had the in-
concert photos arranged whilst I waited for video transitions to render in the project. Seeing how I
could multi-task and do tasks in the moments when there isn’t anything else to do was a huge help.
When I couldn’t record, I would research aspects that would give me a better understanding of
presentation and portfolios or if needed, production techniques that I could use the next day. It was
an act of interconnecting and knowing what was, and wasn’t done. This meant that I knew what I
needed to do and when I could do it.

With the fact that I don’t have enough money to afford a mixing engineer currently, I needed to mix
the tracks myself. My current knowledge of mixing is average or amateur if you would like, and I
wanted to make sure that what I got was going to be something good, even if it wasn’t going to be
the best mix you have ever heard. So, I researched what felt important such as compression, tube
EQs, saturation, reverb and delay which gave me a lot to work with over what I already know about
standard eq’s, basic compression and levelling.
When mixing the demos, I would bounce them (turning the project into a wave or mp3 file), then I
would put it in my music library and listen to the song on lots of different speakers to give me an
understanding of how the songs would sound in different rooms and with different speakers. This
helped to get an understanding of what needed changing and what was good already. This type of
evaluation meant that I could then note any problems and see how I could refine them or even
develop them to become a bigger part of the song or an interesting motif/idea that could happen at
one point in the song.

Being able to listen like this was a very dynamic process and cut down on constantly going back and
forth getting people’s opinions which takes time and engagement that I can’t afford to rely on. But I
could go back and forth, however I pleased, checking the sound on regular headphones, car
speakers, soundbars and Amazon Echo’s to name a few. This doesn’t mean that speaking to my
peers and asking them to listen to my songs wasn’t beneficial, everyone has a different background
when it comes to music, and that means what they want out of music will be different. When you
get many different opinions, you come to what I like to call, the perfect compromise. This is where
there is a balance between everything which is likely to result in a professional sounding mix.

To show my progress, I created a Microsoft Sway document/presentation that talks in lots of detail
about the journey that this project was. The sway includes all my cited research. Lots of my work and
how I created it as well as over five hours’ worth of videos where I evaluate the recording stage of
my project and then mix live on camera so you can see my strategies and learn my way of thinking.
Making these videos not only saved time but also gave me a connection to the audience. Knowing
other people could be listening meant I stepped back to listen to it as an audience member which
did help to give me more perspective.

Sway is a great tool in that you can organise your work into sections like a fluid version of
PowerPoint. This helped me to communicate my work in a way that wasn’t based on time but type
of work. If I had it in order of when it was written or researched, it would all be scattered and
uncoordinated so that you wouldn’t be able to recognise or remember where the information was.
To show all my outcomes of the project, I created a portfolio website using Weebly. Weebly is a
website creator that I have used in the past with Exeter College and outside of college also. This was
a great way to display my work in sections, showing demos, videos, photos, and the biography as
well as creating an electronic press kit to go inside the website. This organisation meant that this
product could be shown not only as an accumulation of all the work I had done for the project, but it
is also a way that I can now present my work to others via emails and direct messages. 

My target audience was and still is record labels, music management, venues, promoters, and music
investors. Overall, this project’s outcomes completely apply relevantly to the target audience of the
project. This is because I built a new public image of myself based on where I am at today. Starting
with the demos, every company looking to take on new artists will not be interested in hearing their
old music; they need new music that they can then invest in the professional creation of. The demos
were recorded professionally, and as much as the mix wasn’t the greatest, it gave enough musical
and industrial context (referring to professional sounding tracks in the eyes of the industry) to
understand the feel and potential of the song, as that is what demo does. It demonstrates what a
track is and the potential behind the track.

Then due to my research, the project began to apply more and more to the target audience due to
the work I did next. I created a public image through professional and artistic means of promo
videos, performance videos, in-concert photos, and professional photography (headshots). This
meant that I then was able to show myself as an up-to-date business that has grown and is now
taking on new stages due to the level of professionalism you see in the content. That was something
that mattered in that everything had to match the same level of professionalism. Continuity and
consistency matter in the music world, you need to make sure everything that you present yourself
with isn’t slack and it all evolves together, your music must sound more professional with your
photos and vice versa. No one is going to look for your music online if your photos are bad quality
and unprofessional because they will assume that the rest of your content is the same even if it’s the
most amazing track of the time. The same goes the other way, if your music isn’t good quality, they
are not going to give you another second and they aren’t going to check out your social media.

Researching about the presentation of demos, photos, videos etc. made me understand that these
people don’t want to spend valuable time waiting for the portfolio to download. That’s why I created
a website where you can stream everything. This way, access to your content is almost instant and
you don’t need to worry about their patience level being exceeded. Having all this information in
one place and having already prepared an email that you can see in my sway, means that I have
directly addressed my target audience. Every section in my portfolio, every part of my research and
the produce is relevant to them primarily. They are the focus of this project and I have created the
keystone that will provide the current pathway toward my target audience.