IN-DEPTH #4

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, my progress for in-depth has not been slowing down. I decided to take advantage of this social distancing / quarantine period and use it for in-depth. I am happy to say that I have indeed made a lot of progress! For starters, I have made my very first Lo-fi track (click here to listen!)

Below is a picture of what the process looked like:

In the GarageBand project, there are ten layers that make up the song. It definitely took some time to get the hang of using so many layers for a single song, especially since this is the first track that I have produced for in-depth and electronic music production in general.

What has been my most difficult mentoring challenge so far?  Why?

The fact that the virus is causing so much concern and stress to most people lately, it has also been on a lot of people’s minds. Because of this, I have not been communicating with my mentor that much aside from our regular meetings. I think with everything going on, getting everything to work and taking the time to adjust to this temporary lifestyle is what most people are prioritizing currently. However, I just had a meeting with my mentor, Sherry today, and I am making it a goal for me to ask questions during the time until our next meeting.

What is working well? Why?

My progress for in-depth has definitely been working well. One of the main reasons is because I have so much time on my hands. There is no need to rush anything for in-depth this year as I am basically stuck at home. On top of having lots of time to work on my project, because my mentor and I have already been having online mentor sessions, we have not spent any extra time trying to figure out a new way to have meetings. Also, there have been rumours in the news lately that, Zoom, the application my mentor and I have been using, has been hacked. As a solution, my mentor and I have been using Messenger calls instead, which has also been working really well.

What could be working better?  How can you make sure this happens?

On top of the problems associated with the virus and the communication between my mentor and me, I have realized that I am not as familiar with GarageBand, which is the application I’m using, to the extent that I would like to be. Although I know my way around GarageBand pretty well, I would still consider myself a novice with using it. This is because many of the types of tracks that I am aiming to produce require more advanced skills. To achieve the skillset that I want, I will make sure to research a lot more and watch a lot more videos on using GarageBand. Furthermore, I will practice using GarageBand more by producing more tracks. Because I have so much time on my hands right now, I will use it to my full advantage to perfect my skills.