Ivo Amps FMP

due to blogger having an issue with sharing audio we have had to upload the tracks to soundcloud , to be able to link the tracks on here. the tracks are in order apart from mrs jane which was not originally meant to be on the ep, however it now is just for this project but will not be properly released in our ep. https://soundcloud.com/the_cag3/sets/the-cage/s-iAcKrS1JyQN?si=84f38faf55034fa9b24b6dbf38ff8806&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

 we just managed to get all of the songs recorded and mixed (not very well) before the deadline. I think we may have over estimated the time we actually had, which is why we has to add mrs Jane to our ep, because this gives us more songs in the ep. we came up with a few ideas for the theme of the ep, like the fish idea which I liked. however we didn't have enough time to execute any good ideas. so our ep is just random songs that we've made. no specific genre or idea. this isn't ideal but will have to get the job done.

 yesterday we had a listen to all of our songs that we've recorded and mixed. we had a long talk about a lot of things. when we listened to 'dead' we noticed that the tom sound was cut off. I told Isaac about this and he changed it so the tom sound rang out instead of just cut off straight away. this was ironic as Isaac accidentally deleted my two tom hits right before the breakdown before. once we changed this I was happy with the drum sound. Alex and Isaac were also happy with all of their parts in the song, however Isaac thinks Anthony's vocals need to be re done, whereas I like the sound of his vocals on dead because I think it fits well. we don't have enough time to change his vocals now, as we have to submit the songs later today and Anthony is in Poland so we will probably re do them after our final major project. also Isaac put an enveloper on the kick drum and the snare drum, making them sound a lot better in the mix. while listening to 'mrs Jane' w

today we talked about quite a lot of things and we also recorded guitar for 'the day i left'. firstly the whole band got together and spoke about changing up our setlist a tiny bit. we chose to change our cover of the who's 'my generation' for a more popular cover that people would know and could sing along to. the options we came up with were break stuff by limp bizkit, teenage dirtbag and other songs from bands like metallica and nirvana (the generic type). we decided that break stuff would be a good fit to swap into our set and play it near the end with 'the day i left' and civil war' as they are all low tuning for the guitars. we have done this change so that we have an extra song under our belts if we need it, because our next gig is on the 9th july, so if we don't get another  original completed we can use the cover instead. also once we have an all original set we could use break stuff as an encore song if the crowd wants another. we also spok

yesterday anthony recorded vocals. him and isaac set up a single mic and recorded into logic. anthony listened to the backing track and sang to it over a few takes. once he had a good main vocal line he recorded a lot of different harmonies. in the end he didn't use them all, as the didn't fit, however the ones that we have kept in sound great with the song and he did a good job. this means the song 'dead' is all recorded and now all it needs is to be mixed and mastered. today i recorded drums for our song 'the day i left' we didn't have a lot of time, so after me and isaac set up all of the mics and plugged them in we did a sound check. this took a while as there was no signal in the fifth input(bottom snare mic) for some reason. after looking into it more and trying a few different things isaac realized it was the mic that was broken, therefore we swapped it with another mic that did work. after this alex and isaac sat in the studio getting the levels righ

 on the 12th may, after recording my drums and isaac's bass we recorded alex's guitar and anthony's guitar. we got anthony's done first after a few takes. he played to my drums and isaac's bass recording through the headphones again that we connected to logic. after we finished anthonys final take, alex got set up with all of his pedals and then we set up the mics in front of his amp to capture his sound for recording. alex struggled to keep to what he usually plays on the song, as he likes to show off with random slos or change up the riffs. so after anthony told him off we eventually got a good take that was what he usually plays. every ones parts all sound pretty good together, and they all sound tight. we now have to record anthony's vocals and then if anyone wants to re do parts we can but i doubt we will need to. after that we just have to mix and master the track and then we can start the next one.

 on the 7th may we had a gig at the sunflower lounge in birmingham. i had to take breakables, meaning: my cymbals (2 crashes, a ride and hi hats), a drum throne, a kick pedal and a snare. i also took my hi hat clutch, as usually other people's clutches are terrible. however my clutch didn't fit on the stem of the stand they had, so i had to use their terrible one. we had our soundcheck at 7 and we were on first at 7:45, therefore we could keep all our equipment on stage which was good. the gig went very well as i didn't mess up and i played very energetically, as oppose to other gigs in the past, so i am happy with myself for that. the drums sounded very tight on videos people took and from my memory, because i play to a clicl live. the rest of the band were also happy with the performance as overall it sounded great and all the practice paid off. the crowd wasn't the biggest we've played to before, however they were very interactive with the set and seemed to enjoy

 yesterday on the 10th of may we decided to record drums for one of our songs called 'dead'. we set up a kick mic, a floor tom an high tom mic, a hi hat mic, a snare top and bottom mic and 2 overhead mics. this got all of the sound out of the drums that we needed for this song, as i incorporate all of the drums and cymbals throughout this song. after setting up the mics and tuning the drums to a decent sound we connected headphones to the studio and logic, meaning i could hear the click from logic this time and not from my phone like last time. i think this worked well as we didn't have to line up the drums to the click like before and it sounded pretty tight. for the recording as it was just me and the click and no other instruments i asked anthony to come in the room with me to tell me/sing me the changes. this was a good idea, because all went well and i got the structure of the song perfectly. this meant that my first take was pretty good. we had a break and then did on

 Yesterday me and the band rehearsed our setlist 5 times. This was because at the end of the day we had a performance critique, which is where we play some songs (10) and the rest of the people including our teacher tell us positive feedback on our performance. Overall the feedback was great for us as a band, because we heard new advice that we had never heard or thought about before. This means that we can incorporate this into our live performances, so we give a better performance overall. We also practiced so much as well because we have a gig at the sunflower lounge on sunday 7th May. After so much practice yesterday i think all of us feel very prepared to play our set live at any event or opportunity/gig now. 

 today Anthony recorded his guitar for 'I wrote this in your bed'  Anthony recorded the whole guitar track in one go across a few different takes. He played to the track that the rest of us recorded with a click on. After his best take we filmed him again so that we had footage for a music video. The track now has all vital parts recorded, so is now ready to be mixed and mastered most likely by isaac.

  today we rehearsed our set twice for our gig on sunday at the sunflower lounge and also for our critique clinic tomorrow at college. we ran through the whole set - song for song , also practicing what Anthony will say to the audience, when to change guitars and when to switch things around. we did this so we are now very prepared for all of our gigs coming up. it sounded very tight. i also practiced playing to my click track to make sure my drums are as clean and crisp as possible when playing live. as a band i think we sound great. however i think i need to work on my endurance for my forearms and wrists at home, as through the set my arms get quite tired and tight, but i can still make it through the whole thing every time which is good. this was our setup for rehearsal. it was very simple, as we just used the drum kit, bass and both guitars to practice. this was because alex didn't bring in his pedal board, therefore we couldn't practice exactly like it will be on the nigh