Chinese New Year Concept Album
Year 3 Final Year Project
This project is a 5-song soundscape concept album that tells the story of the Nian folklore through the use of sound design and music to convey context and emotion.
Everything is composed and produced by my team and I.
My Contributions
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Since my team members were generally cooperative, my role of team leader was not as difficult. I often point out what needs to be done by when and also make sure someone volunteered or has taken charge of that task to see that done. For example, I made sure someone was in charge of communicating with Zendyll when necessary rather than wait for someone to complete it.
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To add on, since we only had a little over a month to finish this project, I also made sure our team was always on track to completing all the deliverables on time. Being the first person to request a meeting, making sure everyone knows what needs to be done by what day, and just trying to motivate my teammates to spend time on their parts.
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After splitting up the relevant parts, I actively discussed what and suggested ways my team can improve our final product. For example, I gave ideas on how we could convey certain ideas with limited use of narration since we are producing a soundscape. One of the ideas I proposed for act 2 was to have 2 different lead instruments to convey a conversation between 2 characters. One idea I provided as a session musician was writing and performing a guitar solo for act 1.
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Being my first time producing a song with orchestral parts, my inexperience was showing. However, I learned a lot from working with my teammates. With suggestions and ideas on how to improve from my teammates and Mr Adam Lee, I managed to come up with a soundscape I was somewhat pleased with.
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I have done sound design for film & soundscapes, I have produced music. But this soundscape was the first project I produced both music and sound design for. I learned how to better implement sound design to compliment music composition. This new skill improved my ability to convey a story through just the sense of sound.
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This project has given me an opportunity to work with a group of like-minded individuals. It is the first time I am working with a team on such a project compared to it being just myself or one other. At first I thought it would be a challenge to have so many different opinions, but later realised how beneficial for the end product it would be when we use each of our strengths.
This difference was clear to me when I realised how quick we got something decent sounding together in a short time.
Things I Learned
