Terrell Brown

Terrell Brown by Young Fenn

Week 3 Reflection

The last week of senior project was a success in the end of everything. Their was a lot of work to be done this week. I finished the last little bit of my Mix-Tape Terrell Brown. In addition to wrapping the Tape up I planed , prepped and prepared for the Alter Egos concert that I put together.  

   

        Creating the album was fun while it lasted. Recording took a lot of patients. Things didn't always go my way.Things not going my way was expected. I had to work around things. Things like studio time and  when I could get some one to engineer me. In the end it all worked out. I spent a lot of time working on my own early in the week. 

        Preparing for the show this week took a lot out of me. I have never had to prepare for a show in my entire life. I have never even stepped on stage to perform anything. I almost lost my voice several times this week. Despite the scares I didn't loose my voice. I kept practicing and preparing for the show. 

         The show went on Yesterday evening. There were a lot of things that went wrong. Over all everything wasn't perfect, but nothings perfect.  In the show we had problems that we had to solve and move around. One of our performers wasn't feeling the love from the crowd so he left in the middle of one of his performances.  The show had to go on and it did. I continued to rally by performing some more of my songs with the help of Christopher Allen. The show didn't come out to what it was suppose to because of the performer leaving but all is well. 

The Show

I have been rehearsing and organizing things for the concert on Saturday. Putting together everything is coming together well. I have almost everything planned for the concert. this mourning i woke up and finished my set ( the songs I will be performing).

We made and put up posters all around campus. If you haven't seen one of these posters some where around campus I will personally pay you a dollar. I think were doing an excellent job in promoting the concert. In addition to the posters we sent out an facebook invitation to almost the whole school. So far 60 said that they were coming but im predicting more than that will show up. Getting people to show up shouldn't be a problem. Getting them to stay is the hard part.

Parental Advisory

Official Track List

Terrell Brown-Intro

Set You Free - Young Fenn Ft Alex Richichi

Gorgeous - Young Fenn Ft Alex Richichi

Home -Young Shotta Ft Young Fenn

ASHe-Young Fenn

What You Doing?- Young Fenn

Bounce To- Robin Dirt Ft. Young Fenn

Heights - Young Fenn - production ACE

Break Down- Young Fenn Ft. Chris Allen

*Sweet Moans- Young Fenn 

*Free Play- Young Fenn

Terrell Brown-Outro

*Possible Bonus tracks

The last of Recording

As of lately the studio has been a little pact. This is a problem for me for multiple reasons 1 being I like to have my personal space and be isolated with a select few while working. 2 I am extremely  cluster phobic!!! I do not enjoy being in a building or space with large amounts of people at all. In the studio there has been a lot of people coming in and working on minor projects. With so many people working on small projects it distracts me and takes away form what I try to do. I have been lucky to have the studio for as long as I have to myself practically.

 The End is near for the recording of Terrell Brown. I am excited to listen to it and see if I am a fan of what I created. I am my biggest critic so I am extremely nervous. I would hate to listen to a whole Tape that I created and HATE it. Especially sense I know for a fact that people would be forced to listen to it. I guess in the end of it all I cant get to down on myself because I had so much fun recording all of these songs.

Since I pretty much know what I am going to put on the tape, I am going to post my track-list of songs tomorrow. I will try to give a brief over view of some songs that may be considered Controversial to the outside eye.

Weekly Reflection 2

This week was a very productive week for me and my senior project. I got a lot accomplished. Even though I did get a lot of things done everything did not go as planned or turn out like I expected it to. I am perfectly ok with my plans not going the way I expected them to. My original plan was to record the last four songs that I had hoped to be on the Mix-Tape but instead I only got  two done. I only finished two songs but I spent my time doing other productive things involving my music. 

This week was spent recording and practicing. Practicing and preparing for a concert that I am putting together by myself with the help of very few. The concert that I am coordinating is a lot of work. It is a lot of work but its fun as well.  Performing live is something that I have never done before. I am looking forward to performing in font of a live audience. The concert as of right now is going to be held in the Wise. Its not determined  inside or out yet. My peers and I thought it would be amazing if we had the concert outside. Due to the thought of rain we put that thought on hold to be on the safe side. 

There is a lot of work that goes into planning an event. This week I got the chance to see this fist hand. I got a chance to witness Proctor’s ensemble concert. Bill Whitman planed everything. For him to plan everything the way he set things up had to take major pre planning. I know this because of what I am experiencing. There is a lot of work done behind the scenes of events like live performances. Sound would be a problem with us. Getting everything set up and working properly is what I am most concerned about. Every one who plans on performing has minimal experience with setting up for a live show. I decided it would be best if I called upon the man with more experience Jacob Hines. Hines would make things easy for us. There is a slight problem that we have with renting out Hines for our show though. He might night be available. Hines have to do booth work for the upcoming musical on the same night as our performance. I am going to problem solve and how work my way around this slight problem that we have.

This week I’ve learned that making plans are important so you can have a guide to follow. Guide lines and rubrics does nothing but help you in the long run. Even if you make a plan and it doesn't go accordantly, It is better that you still have that initial plan as a blue print. In addition to planning everything in advance I learned how much work it takes to plan a big event. 

Moving forward  this week I plan to wrap one or two songs on the Mix-tape an be done with the recording of Terrell Brown. In addition to completing my Mix-Tape I plan on having some one follow me around in the studio for a little while with a video camera recording what I do in the studio. I would love to to do this because I would like to give a visual to everyone reading this blog on the entire operation. 

Mixing & Editing...

Everything you hear now a days on the radio or even threw your speakers is mixed and or edited. yesterday I talked a bit about Pro Tools but not in depth. The mixing and editing part is where Pro Tools come in to play. In a recording session a producer wants to get the best possible performance out of the artist as possible. After the recording is done and everyone is satisfied the real work begins.

Pro Toos offer plugins that makes vocals sound better or worse depending on how each is used. In editing a song there are endless possibilities to what a producer can do to vocals. (And I actually mean endless). Im not even joking when I say that with the help of protools you can edit and arrange anything and make it sound like what ever you want. Have you ever heard a song and fell in love with it (the way it sound)?...and went to hear it live and it wasn't quite the same? In fact it was horrible?? well a combination of good producers and Pro-tools would be the blame for that....


Mixing and editing vocals is a hard thing to do. Hard do to the science and technicalities of sound and with all the options you have. Sometimes I find myself staring at the mixing boards for periods at a time deciding what I want for little details. Me personally, I try to make my vocals sound crisp and clean nothing out of the ordinary just basic.

The Technical Aspect of Recording

It has come to my attention that people reading my blog may or may not understand what I do. So I am going to attempt to explain what I do. In Proctor's studio we use Protools as our base recording software. Protools is the Industry standard recording software and is used or can be found in any major professional recording studio. Everything I do in the studio that has to do with recording anything starts with Protools.

While recording

There are many things that could go wrong while recording. The most common things that go wrong in a recording session would be clipping/levels low/performer cant hear producer/ performer cant hear the beat ect...(all of these errors can be flipped as well). The errors that I mentioned isnt even a half of a quater of all of the possibilities that could go wrong. As you can imagine working in the studio could be a technical nightmare.

Clipping- is when a vocal signal is to hot or to strong. Clipping is prevented by setting the performers levels before he or she records.

All of the other common problems are real life technical issues that often times have to do with broken wires ect. Those problems are above my head. New problems are faced day to day in the studio. When faced with a technical difficulty you have 2 options work around it or fix it. often times I tend to work around it. I know a lot about the studios equipment but some how every now and again I come across a problem that stumbles me. Its a humbling experience. Even if you do everything correctly something can go wrong at any given moment.

The Voice

My voice is a bit damaged from yesterdays fiasco. Its just a bit sore. Im not sure if I could have a work day like yesterday but i'm going to try to be productive. Despite my sore voice i'm still going to record some things today. I am uncertain on how well i'm going to do but we shall see.

Hopefully later today i'm going to drop some other songs on the blog.....Not sure though....

Bounce To

Bounce to by Young Fenn


As promised, I said I would put some more songs up. Here is Bounce To Ft Will/F-minus/Robin Dirt. This song was meant to be playful. I had fun recording this track. We came up with the name Bounce to due to the simple fact that Bounce To is the first words that comes out of Will's mouth in his verse and the song makes you want to bounce.

Getting It Done!

Today was by the most productive day of my Senior Project. It was a honest hard day of work. I began my day in the studio at 7am. Unfortunately I didn't began so early on purpose. I was helping out a fellow classmate who is on Senior Project as well (Sam Johnson). Sam asked me to do some basic things involving some tools that I use on the daily bases while in the studio. After that was done I was hooked in on the Project that i was working on and had to finish it. I recored the track (song) shortly after Sam's  departure. I had no intentions working on anything else but once again due to another distraction (Not really a "distraction") I got hooked into another one of my songs that was not completed. Once I got hooked on it I had to finish it. In addition to finishing some songs I also set up a potential concert that would take place sometime soon. I don't want to go into to much depth about the concert right now because there is just high hopes as of right now and its not for certain ( pretty sure it going to happen though). The only thing that i will say that it would be extremely DOPPPEEE!!!!!

A couple of tracks

today i worked on a couple of tracks that will support the body of my project. one song that stuck out that i worked on was Break Down. Its the first song that i have gotten excited about in a while. Honestly when i play it back its OK but for some reason I envision it sounding a bit better. whatever the trick is i still like it. it has a certain sass to it that i like. Its a new sound for me. I will try to put it up along with some other songs tomorrow. I think Break Down would be a good live song to perform in front of an audience. who knows I might actually do it. Terrell Brown concert!!!!! That would be dope!!! We shall see

Weekly Reflection

This week went according to plan. I didn't record as much as I thought, but I blueprinted everything out. I wrote every track that I plan on having on my tape. The upcoming week should be a breeze for me to lay my tracks down. I had trouble finding time to record this past week because of all the activities that take place in the studio. My goals for this week are to edit and complete the tracks I have done, and although it will be a lot of work, I am confident that I can accomplish it.  Recording under pressure is defiantly harder than I thought, so I am going to try to relax more and have a little more fun on this project from now on. To spice things, I plan on free styling to beats that I am familiar with. I tend to have more fun when I am going over someone else's beat. If I can pull that off, it will be fun and swaged out. Hopefully these freestyles will turn out well, and I will be able to put them in my Terrell Brown album, but I am sort of doubtful about that. I am going to take my music day by day, and keep everything under control and flowing smoothly. Working all alone on a project of this magnitude is teaching me how to allocate my time. In addition to me managing my time, I am learning life lessons. The lesson of this past week was; if you want something done, do it yourself! I learned this lesson because the people who were going to have a small part in my tape, failed to contribute, leaving me to figure out another route. This tape is pretty much all me and I don't mind it one bit, even though it is hard recording and mixing my own work. 

One Week Wrap-Up

The first week of Senior Project has come to an end. This week I would say I have completed a minimum amount of work(for a high quality tape). Moving forward I will apply more pressure on myself to produce more music this week for the Tape. Overall as of right now I am liking the overall tone of the tape and looking forward to seeing how well I can piece each song together.

I've always imagined and pictured my music flowing from track to track. Trying to find the medium/balance is a hard thing to do for me. I would like for TB to flow from track to track with the songs blending without sounding like one another. I appreciate songs like Set You Free and what they stand for but there is another rhyming style that I have. The other style of music that I enjoy creating isn't for everyone and I am perfectly ok with that. I am wise enough to know and understand my audience. I am aware that I may only appeal to a younger demographic of people. Which is fitting because I am only 18 years of age. Younger people would concur and relate with some of the things I say because we often experience some of the same situations.

Set you free

Set you free by Young Fenn

As promised here is Set You Free. Written by Fenny Wilkinson and produced by Alex Richichi.

Set you free...

The first song that is fully completed and ready to go on the Tape is titled set you free. Set you Free is a song about a troubled relationship that works out in the end. The song was written by myself and produced by Alexander Richichi. The song will be put up first thing tomorrow morning stay tuned. Thanks.

Day 3 of TB

im trying to put everything together still. Progress was made the album cover was made. I chose to keep it simple. in addition to the cover, a single was finished today. The single is titled set you free. I tagged up with proctors own Alex Richichi to make it. I will post it up later tomorrow evening.

Day 2 of TB

Today started off slow but finished strong. 3 songs were written in addition to the 3 that were written yesterday. I am currently in the process of finishing up 2 songs for the album, hopefully i will be able to complete both of them tomorrow.

First Day of Terrell Brown

Today went well for my mix-tape. I didn't record but I set the foundation of the project. Several beats were gathered that I am considering using for Terrell Brown. In addition to gathering the beats, I wrote and constructed lyrics that I feel will go well over top of them. Writing in the early phase of the album is a difficult task to do for me. Its difficult because i am uncertain of what I want the overall tone of my project to be. So far Terrell Brown is a collection of music that is over emotional (for me). Anything with my name on it being over emotional is ironic. I guess its good for me to step outside my comfort zone even though I am a bit nervous. By the end of the night I hope to have a clearer vision of what exactly I want for my debut album.