1. Rate the success of your service / project on the scale below:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
(very unsuccessful) (very successful)
1. Why did you give it this rating?
The event was generally a successful one not just for me, but also for HCJC. Overall, the event had indeed fulfilled its purpose of raising funds through tickets sales. My personal goal of working together with the class was also fulfilled. In fact, it was through this time of project work, that I get to understand my classmates better than before, be it in terms of musically or personality.
One of the things I enjoy doing would be house visitation. I would love going to a friend’s place to see more from their family background and the circumstances they live in. I was privileged to be able to visit my co-video producer’s place to give some perspective to the video, as well as taking last minute shots of video that were cheesy and amusing. It was through this visitation that I found out that my co-video producer had two siblings, a brother and a sister. Otherwise, this ‘truth’ would have always been hidden from me.
Indeed, though it was only about 5 hours in his home, we managed come up with the raft framework of the video and get every resource we needed – the photos and videos taken from the jamming studio, and the videos recorded in his house – to complete our first draft of the video. With many sleepless nights of video editing and synchronising for my co-worker, the video was successfully completed and ready to be shown.
The event was itself was generally smooth and enjoyable. Although there were occasional glitches, the smooth running of the programme was not affected too badly. It was really encouraging to see many local bands and artiste performing that night for charity. Many or in fact all of them were unknown to me (since I had inferior knowledge towards local bands and artiste). I was glad to be able witness local artiste and bands with great potential to perform and expand the music industry of Singapore with their music.
On the whole, our project was considered successful considering that it is our first time we worked together as a class and I hope to have more opportunities working with the class again.
2. How did you / you and your group members feel about rendering the service / working on this project? Why?
I felt honoured to be able to serve in the area of photo taking, video recording during our preparation and sound recording during the performance. It was good to know that my niche area is being used to provide a service to raise fund for the Visually Handicapped.
When we were asked what our most important value was, one answered, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. I feel this is one example of being loving to other people the act of using what we have, what we have been given to benefit others who may not possess what we have, may not have opportunities like we do. Though loving other people does not merely apply to us loving the poor or disabled people, this is also one of the areas we can practice this value in our lives.
Projection Echolocation though was rather successful, was also partly a result of poor planning, perhaps in terms of prioritising the different aspects of the event. I do not expect JC students to be perfect in this area of concert planning, given that it could their first time doing this. In fact, if it were the students’ first attempt, I would have quite impressed. Through this event, I believe there were many things we can learn about event planning through these glitches.
One result of poor planning could be seen in the attendance of the event. The turn out then was a disappointment for me, given that less than half of the seats in the auditorium were filled. One possible reason could be poor publicity or rather persuasion for the event. Another was the period where the performance was held.
I asked some of my HCJC friends about their knowledge of Project Echolocation, Many barely remembered it’s existence others were ignorant of it. Those who knew the event said that they would not be able to turn up for the event as they were going overseas.
The idea of having the event on Friday was good, as it is nearing the weekends and many are willing to stay up late, but perhaps the second week of June holidays, the holiday week for most of us, is not ideal for a performance with good turn up. This is one area we could learn about event planning, not just the importance of publicity, but the importance of considering general people’s schedule when planning a concert. Perhaps, having the event on a period where people are free and not likely travel would be ideal for our next gig.
4. What difficulties did you encounter and how were these resolved?
One difficulty I remembered was doing the mixing during the band’s rehearsal. The difficulty of balancing sound of our band because our guitars were constantly too loud no matter how much I brought them down from the mixer. There were complains of the vocals being too soft and the band not being able to hear themselves from the monitor speakers. We tried all means to bring the vocals up, but to no avail.
So, we took this step by step. First, we had the musicians to move towards the front of the stage, closer to the monitor. We figured that it was the guitar amplifiers that were too loud (to the extend they could be heard deafeningly in the auditorium). We had all our musicians lower their amplifiers and the drummer play softer. Next we did modifications to the signal such that we could balance the vocals and instruments separately from the mixer above and not together. All turned out well for our rehearsal, the sound was balanced to such that the trumpets, which were not mic up, can still be heard clearly when the full band played.
Sadly, the settings were messed up when the other bands came up to practice. Because of a very violent drummer, the amplifiers were blasted again and it was back to square one. I was very disappointed and frustrated for the change in setting after the hours spent to mix something perfectly. On my part, it was my mistake that I did not tell the musicians to remember the settings used and memorising it.
5. How do you feel about the feedback that you have received from others about your service / project?
It was a delight to hear compliments for our performance, even though I not directly involved in the performance. We were considered the best band of the night.
Michael Tan, our lecturer expresses his satisfaction in the way the performance was arranged and how the band coordinated well together. Personally, I feel very proud for the band. Despite only working with each other for less than 2 months, they have managed to gel with each other to the extend that the band can easily pick up when a member made a mistake during the performance.
I believe after Project Echolocation, we will have greater opportunities for future gigs and more opportunities for the class to work together again, both as Musicians or Technicians.
6. Describe some of the most important lessons that you / you and your group received from this experience.
Personally, I felt that this was one the most difficult times given to me to train my control of temperament and patience. At times, I wanted to criticise the audio technician for being over-protective over their audio-equipments and the sound crew for their ineffective sound setup. But thinking over it, I believe there were constrains that prevented the ideal setup. Moreover, scolding people who were of more experience than me only creates more trouble. I’m thankful for this time of testing to learn how to respect other people and their decisions, and to adopt a submissive attitude towards them.
Another lesson was the lesson on humility, and the lesson to be sensitive to other people. I remembered how I used to keep telling people how they should play for certain song, and what they should not. I admit that I was very harsh in my judgement, even though my intention was that of a suggestion. That apparently inflicted a heavy damage.
Once, I got off my seat to show the drummer how he could play the bridge for one of the songs. Apparently my action crossed the line. Halfway through the practice, he dropped his sticks, got off the chair and walked out of the room suddenly. We were all shocked and looked at each other with blank faces. A few of us formed a search party and found him in the hang out area. The drummer expressed to our bandleader that he felt he was inferior and not good enough to play drums for him.
Later, I approached him to apologise and return the watch he left in the jamming room, but was given the cold shoulder. From that day on, I learn to reserve comments to myself.
7. Which of your skills do you think you have developed while carrying out your service / project?
I certainly had great experience developing and apply my knowledge on sound. Indeed all that mixing was tiring, but it was through this time of mixing that I found many solutions to the many problems I encountered when mixing for live smaller live performance previously.
Another skill I acquired may sound simple, but it is the importance of communication skills between a sound technician and a musician. As a musician and a sound technician later in life, I found it a important skill to have in order for a good performance. I am glad to have this experience to work with experience performers like my bandleader who is patient to bear with my instructions, which tends to be unclear. Nevertheless, I develop my communication skills in every event I do sound for and I’m glad this is also one of them.
One thing I felt was enriching was talking with one of Luther Music’s sound crew as we watched the rehearsal ad sound check. I was given some tips on operating audio equipment like the mixer and also an insight to the economy of the audio industry and the tough life of being a stage crew and a sound technician.
It was also my first attempt to do live recording through a new part of the mixer called the Auxiliary Outputs, which is basically how people can transmit sound into a recording devices to record sound. Throughout the performance, I spent 50% of my time enjoying music and 50% troubleshooting on the mixer. It was my first time using my macbook to record a live performance, something which I always wanted to do, but not given the opportunity or equipment to.
8. What kind of training do you think you would need in order to do a better job?
Sound-mixing training would be very helpful in improving my skill set. One of the challenges was mixing the band during the rehearsal. It was challenging because I could not hear what the performers were hearing and thus had to depend on a headphone to mix. But through my trips on and off stage, I could not rectify the problem of unbalanced mix not matter how I rectify it.
After listening to the recording of the performance, I also realised how bad my mixing skills (balancing the volume of sounds) was. Of course, there were certain things beyond my control, because of the way the sound system was setup, but I failed to mix a good mix even at a basic level of vocals and music. Therefore, I hope to be able to develop my sound mixing skills to a higher level to do a proper mix for all to enjoy.
