This past week has been fairly hectic at the studio. Being that its the end of the semester, I have noticed that the studio is almost completely booked every day for 24 hours a day. I have made a special effort to check in on the studio more often that usual, as more people are going in and out of it. I have tried to keep the cables as wrapped as possible but the high amount of foot traffic has kept this very difficult. I am planning to go down to the studio for my last session on Sunday to make sure everything is straightened up for the holiday break. I also took the time to make an extra trip to the studio to help a student finish up their final project for Audio Production 1. He was asking for advice on how to mix vocals so I showed him the process I take for such a task. Among topics discussed were gain staging and how to build a mix around one particular element, in his case, it was the kick drum. I explained to him how starting the mixing process at the busiest part of the song was often the best method. After this, I told him that he could use the elements in the busiest part of the song as a way to gauge where the rest of the instruments in the song should go. I gave him a very brief explanation on effects routing and how to apply reverb to vocals, telling him to be very cautious when using reverb as it can quickly make the song sound muddy.