The electronic music group in SAM has been an amazing experience. I have really enjoyed it as it has allowed me to broaden my horizons with composing and start using synthesizers alongside orchestral instruments- before I was restricted to little but orchestral instruments due to not having heard the potential of synths. I want to implement these aspects, as well as mixing and automation into my new compositions yet still keeping the style in which I first envisioned. For this reason, I believe that the course has been an amazing experience- not only for learning new things on new software but being inspired by the many other musicians taking the course. However, if I could change a single thing I would have the course allow for many different software’s as well as Ableton; logic, garage, etc. as I think this would help us get more experience with the software we use and be useful in the long-term. Despite this, I have really enjoyed learning something new and Ableton is definitely a great resource everyone should use and I can definitely still take what I learned and use it in logic- as I believe many of the shortcut keys are shared and overall they are very similar. Honestly there was nothing I didn’t like- I thought the staff were brilliant and so were all of the students and being able to partake in something like this was amazing.

I think that the event has definitely inspired me to listen to more of this type of music- I always enjoyed 80s music and electrofunk, but I’ve never really sought after too many- but now I think I’ll be able to have a wider range of music which I think will be extremely helpful when coming to compose- and I can appreciate now how, when used correctly, synthesizers can make for a sound like no other. 

I think I’ll definitely attempt to use the things I’ve learnt in my work! I’ve enjoyed every moment of SAM and plan to use everything I’ve heard to give my music more depth. I think I’ll implement them subtly- but allow them to flourish in my music- I’ll add synths as layers rather than main instruments.