Hey, thanks for taking a look at my new blog.

2015 is looking like a pretty massive year for me with a few things going on. I’m still mixing at the Mallard on Thursdays and Sundays, and in Geelong with Wooshka Coverband every Saturday night and the odd Friday as well, and there’s the occasional recording project in between. You can read a bit about these misadventures on the news page of my website:

brendanmullersound.com.au/news

The new development this year is that I’m hitting the books for my Bachelor of Audio, and this blog will mostly be about my projects at SAE, learning new skills and meeting interesting people.

First up we have a music production assignment that involves developing a commercially successful song from a given demo recording. I’ve buddied up with Fadain to work on this, and we’ve had a preliminary discussion about genre and a potential recording approach. There’s a lot to nail down here, as the chosen genre has to be confirmed early on and will determine the rest of the process. It looks like this will be the focus for week 2.

It’s hard to say if there’s a genre I’m least familiar with, as it’s a bit of an unknown variable. In live sound and as a musician I’ve worked with a pretty good range of genres and you get a feel for each one as it’s happening. Producing and arranging a commercial track however would require a solid understanding of the genre to get it right. I think whatever direction the song takes there will need to be some research and analysis to do it justice.

Week 1 also included an introduction to location sound. This is something I’m really interested in and is one of the driving factors for me returning to study, along with the pursuit of post-production audio. We had a good time shooting a mock-up sitcom scene in the Neve studio using 2 lapel systems, boom mic, production mixer and a Zoom H4n. It was great to learn about the on-set conventions and procedures and I’m looking forward to more of that later in the course. Also, boom swinging is harder than it looks. I think it’s quite rewarding, but I haven’t had to do it for an 8-hour shift. Yet.

The music production project and the location sound modules both make up the ‘Audio Studio 2’ unit. The other unit this trimester is ‘Cultural Studies’ which starts with a lot of philosophy and art history. This is a lot more intellectually involved than I had expected, and I’m quite excited to be learning about these things. I’ll be able to hold conversations with art graduates and keep up, for what it’s worth.

It’s motivating looking forward into the calendar with plenty to get on with in the coming weeks. I think a challenge will be to establish an effective study routine and fit everything in, while actually enjoying the process. I’m fortunate to have the chance to pursue the things I enjoy and make a living at the same time. Time management will be critical to make it all work. The good thing is that it’s all stuff I like and want to do.

Thanks for reading! More next week.

Cheers.