18/03/20

Today we had a lesson discussing Project 3's brief and what we will do. Because of the current Coronavirus Virus outbreak I have rented out three books (for the sake of future proofing) from the Library that could be helpful for research and bibliography reasons. These books include, Logic Pro X 10.1 Professional Music Production by David Nahmani, Ableton Live 9 Create, Produce Perform by Keith Robinson and BBC Radio 6 Music's Alternative Jukebox by Various Artists.

23/03/20

My brother and I were collaborating on a potential Instrumental to include for my FMP. It featured a drum machine but we thought it would be a good idea as learnt by the Logic sessions from College to implement some Distortion from the Pedalboard. Furthermore, I came up with the idea also to maybe as the writing gets more intense so does the amount of distortion. I did this by pressing A on the keyboard and then under the Volume tab clicked on the Distortion Pedal we were using and then began to gradually increase it throughout the track.

25/03/20

Today I had a lecture with Matt and we got sent a worksheet planning out the project with some added questions. The original file Matt sent got overwritten by another student so I collaborated with someone in the teams call to find another download for the file on OneNote. Once that had been sorted one of the questions was "Use Harvard referencing for the website link" So I used secondary research to remind myself on what the correct format was.

File sent in the chat that was overwritten.

Harvard referencing website format

31/03/20

My brother and I just had a call with Barnabas where we discussed different beat poets as well as writing and production techniques that may help with my FMP. Barnabas mentioned for the writing that a good means of getting ideas down is to have a stream of consciousness. This idea was influenced by a interview featuring the streets. The idea is to just write down whatever comes to mind even if I am not fully confident with the initial concept of my writing at the time. I believe however this will not only make the writing easier once I get in a routine but less contrived due to it merely being whatever is in my mind.

06/04/20

From Today I wish to do daily Stream of Consciousness type writings for source material I may implement in my FMP. I searched on YouTube about techniques on the subject and I watched a video by Lavendaire. In the video she states a good technique to use is to keep questioning your thoughts asking why you think this why or why you are thinking about a topic at this time.

08/04/20

This week I am working on my lyrics to my FMP. I wrote it when I was bored at around 2 in the morning, it's about my eczema and I wanted a way to communicate that it was bothering me. I get my eczema when I am stressed so the first line in my writings "Stop right there" is my subconscious trying to relive whatever I am stressed about. "Pause at hand" is a double entendre meaning as at hand is a saying for stoping quick and my hand is what I itch too (yes I am very clever heheh).

"Is it the right time" is wherever or not I should be focusing on something else, followed by "do I need to fly" which is a way of me saying should I exit out of class or itch my skanky hands.

10/04/20

I need to compose some tunes with my brother Harry as Barnabas has reminded me to do so.

I aspire the sound of the music I will be doing with my brother to be industrial in style so it reflects my frequent intense urge I get to itch my skin. I also think it will be a appropriate style to tackle because of how overly dramatic it is so as a result it makes it hyperbolic in tone rather than serious. Industrial and abrasive type music is music like from the obscure rap artist Dalek or some Death Grips tracks where the sound is very distorted and loud giving a very harsh and aggressive feel to a track.

15/04/20

Today my sister wanted to do karaoke

for her birthday and in a not so serious fashion I thought I would cover a Death Grips song called I've Seen Footage (a band previously mentioned on this blog for being abrasive.) I wasn't taking it all that seriously and I viewed the performance as quite poor but I hope that for the FMP and final show that I come to terms with myself better and feel more confident whilst also having a improved stage presence. What I will want to improve upon is my vocal technique and my stamina.

22/04/20

Here is.a video of me playing around with the ES2 in Logic. I really enjoyed fiddling about with the modulators in the Synthesiser and seeing what weird sounds could come out. I made this foamy, ruffy sounding Synth lead that reminded me of Sd Laikia.

23/04/20

Just had a call with Barnabas discussing about how it is quite good to experiment with Logic as I was doing yesterday. I was experiencing some self doubt, telling myself that I was just wasting my time because I wasn't recording everything I was doing in my track and Barnabas reinforced me about how it's actually rather quite good what I was doing as his work ethos is in similar vein to his own, seeing what sticks and what doesn't musically for a project. Additionally you might be experimenting with a sound that could lead to a expanded idea for another song. He also mentioned some very interesting writing/work management techniques that may help me. One of these was the Pomodoro Technique which is a Technique that uses short amount of time as a advantage in order to make yourself move competitive and hard working as a result of the set timer given. Barnabas also mentioned that it is really good to question why you are going for a particular sound. If you keep questioning a certain aspect of the sonic's of a idea you can achieve quite interesting ideas you didn't know could be relevant such as mentioning a tube station which is a big echoey area and adding reverb. This I feel gives more of a purpose to a instrumental potentially leading to a feeling of it being more personal as a result.

This is the Sd Laika song it reminded me of. Hopefully it start's at 0:55 like I told it to do with the timestamped link I provided

27/04/20

I had a idea earlier today to make a silly heavy metal type track as a joke so I got my brother to do a cheeky riff on Logic using a real guitar via a audio interface that he owns. There was a issue with the delay between the Guitar and Computer so we had to do some research on how to get it more in sync with what was happening in real time. Afterwards we mucked around with a lot of different AMPS and Pedalboard plugins and I believe I have found the AMP which I am going to use which is the Steelwood AMP. The reason being is because it has this electronic undertone to the sound which is somewhat reminiscent of the also satirical in nature song by Aphex Twin Come to Daddy.

Here is the Aphex Twin song and the music video for it. Fun fact about this Music video is that it was filmed in the same location as Clockwork Orange!

These were the settings we had to refine in order to get less delay in the sound from the Guitar.

Me looking through the different AMPS in Logic before recording and the audio interface we own.

The AMP I landed on.

29/04/20

I had a lesson with Matt today on Microsoft Teams discussing Virtual shows and or making a pre recorded performance for my FMP. In preparation I decided to use a old Synsonics Drum Machine my mum bought in Harrods in the early 80s for £100. While experimenting on Logic with it using my brothers M-Audio audio interface I discovered that when the gain is turned all the way up on the audio interface and the Drum Machine idles, doesn't have anyone playing with it's inputs and the Pedalboards Rawk! Distortion pedal is maxed out it has this continuous, pummeling, industrial like sound which I feel is appropriate for some sort of Soundscape in a song or build up for a show.

As you can see, above this text is the knob used for the Gain. On the right is the box it came in (which might I add is is amazing condition considering it's age! And below this text is a video featuring the sound I liked as well as some of the Drum beats that have been distorted by Logic from the Drum Machine.

01/05/20

I've just spent my time reflecting so far on what I have done with Project 3. I believe that I might shift focus from Spoke Word to perhaps a DJ Set featuring some song by me and other songs by other Artists I enjoy. I could just do that for the final show and the FMP could remain the same with the original plan. I have really surprised myself by how much I enjoy with playing around with Logic in my spare time. Going back to the DJ set in addition I think it has a wider target demographic that it will appeal to whereas spoken word I don't believe is as mainstream.

05/05/20

I am thinking about filming a music video or some visuals I can use for my FMP or Summer Show. I would like it film it on a day with. good weather however I need to first of all complete the music I am producing so I feel that the video reflects the song in it's tone. I might ask my brother or sister of film it and maybe edit it or I could do the editing on my own behalf I will see.

06/05/20

Matt did lecture today discussing marketing and promotion. In one of the questions on the sheet he provided it said list 5 things about what a promotor does and while coming up with stuff I remembered about Riders and that I owned a book listing famous musicians and what they asked their riders to be. It was quite an insightful and amusing book and something I could implement with Secondary research and Harvard Referencing. I found it in the book that KFC tends to be a popular requirement by artists.

07/05/20

Barnabas today asked if we could Remix or add instruments of sorts to an already existing song seeing what we could come up with. I decided to Remix/add to a song called "HELLIRINN BÍÐUR" by the obscure Icelandic artist "dj. flugvél og geimskip" who I have met in the past in Bristol at one of her shows as seen in Project 1! I found out that what worked well to my taste is to have a minimal sounding electronic synthesizer as it doesn't feel out of place in flugvel's music. Whereas a more complex style sound was far more distracting in the Mix whilst I was experimenting.

Me editing the Midi data of the Synth I recorded to more accurately reflect the original song in it's harmonics. On the top right is the settings I finally used on the ES2 Synthesizer in Logic Pro X.

Below are screenshots of Baranabs and Marjory's reaction to the foundation blocks of the remix I made. Baranbas's daughter loved the original music video for the song!

As you can see on the right, there is a video of me on my AKAI MPK49 trying to get the melody I want correct. Looking back, I think I spent too much time on that small section trying to perfect it rather than just moving on to an other segment of the song. Hopefully next time my time management improves.

11/05/20

I have just completed an assignment asking questions about how I will plan my virtual show. After completing the 2nd question I felt that the overall presentation of the questionnaire was not appropriate for a Distinction qualification so as said by Oz I made the presentation look far more professional in nature. This was achieved by me making the questions as asked on the sheet in bold (therefore making it easier to read for whoever is marking it) and then disposing gaps between the Questions, Answers and referencing.

This is a screenshot of the answers I did for the Virtual show questionnaire sheet. Hopefully you can see clearly that I have made my writings easy to make out as shown by the clear difference between the questions (being in bold) and answers (being in regular text) as well as the referencing being blue indicating a web page link.

13/05/20

For the Summer Show I want to utilise the Heavy Metal riff my brother did in a song for my Live Set. I have been experimenting with some of the audio effects in Ableton Live 10 because I am thinking about adding ridiculous, distorted and aggressive metal type vocals. I was also using Ableton because when I am performing I believe it would be a more appropriate DAW to use instead of Logic. For example in Ableton you can more easily change the BPM or play samples on the fly during a live performance much quicker than in Logic and with the added benefit of it being more stable and less likely to crash (so I have been told).

In the first 3 seconds of the clip you are not able to hear anything as I was changing the Audio Monitoring from off to on. This option output's the Microphone audio to a previously selected device of choice. When I was trying to record the video using QuickTime Player I had issues with recording the audio coming from Ableton. I later discovered that I had to go into Ableton's preferences, change the audio output from the default Built-in Output option to my pre made Screen Recorder configuration that I created in the Audio MIDI Setup software in MacOS . The reason I had to make the configuration is because Quicktime Player doesn't have a built in internal audio recorder mode so I had to download a third party plugin called Soundflower in order to make QuickTime capable of the feature. I thought just keeping the output settings as it was would be fine but upon reflection I was wrong. Additionally, in the video you can see I have maxed out the Drive, Dynamics and Dry/Wet setting on the Distort effect and the same goes for the Overdrive other than the Drive being at 60% instead.

Ableton's Preferences Menu, you can see all of the audio options and my Pre Made one designed for Screen Recording. Below is the tutorial I used so I knew how to capture the sound in QuickTime. I think for the Summer Show I might record the Ableton session while I am performing Live for me to put in the video while Editing.

On the right is a selection of the Audio Effects you can choose in Ableton. For now I am just using the Overdrive and the Distort effect both of them give an alarming and intrusive sound. Above me is the Audio MIDI Setup software showing my QuickTime Player configuration and next to that is my System Preferences selecting the option that let's me hear my Mac when recording

14/05/20

I have just recorded lot's of footage of me trying to light and smoke a cigar. I want this to be used for my Summer Show as some of the visuals. The person recording the footage is my sister and before starting I set up the Camera on my phone to record at 1080p, 60FPS. This was done so that when I or my sister edits the footage we will be able to slow the footage by half without making a difference to the frame rate. As a result we can make the footage slow motion in any segment of the video we want to. I planned to Record on this day for the past week because according to BBC weather it said it was going to be a bright, sunny day and it was. Because of the weather it made the lighting conditions excellent for filming so that the footage had a more vibrant look which I wanted for the Summer Show's visuals so it gives an uplifting feel.

Here is a sample of the footage me and my sister Recorded. I tried my best when filming to give my sister some direction of what I wanted and vice versa. At one point whilst recording one of the Clips I was standing in a perfect position lighting wise and she told me to stand still. Additionally you can see in the video I am wearing a Cricket outfit. This is merely for comedic value to reflect the cheeky mood I was going for.

15/05/20

Tonight i've just taken photos of a rough outline showing what my Summer show could look like. I got together some of the lights I already own as well as my AKAI MPK49 and Laptop. I think the living room on my Glass table was the best option because it's incredibly spacious which is good for the lighting and on my end it's a lot warmer than my Shed or Kitchen and additionally has better Wi-Fi coverage in my home.

I think when I am recording myself this will be the prospective I use, the position on the left is a bit too far and doesn't quite show the Hardware nor what I am doing very well.

Above is the main light which has the most visual presence out of the two LED light set-ups I own. It's powered by just a USB cable which is convenient because it means less wires coming from the Mains plug so there is less clutter. To the right are some finger LED lights that I had laying about. Only two of them work although I think if I tinker with them I could recover them for the show.

19/05/20

I was on Ableton just now experimenting with lots of the Audio effects provided with the software and applying it to the Metal Riff my brother did a while ago. I came up with an idea for how I would like to finish the show. I want the last song to be the Metal type track I keep discussing and for the majority of it to play out normally but towards the end just build up loads and loads of noise using the previously mentioned Audio effects till eventually fading out. I think this way of finishing the show feels far more theatrical then just ending the song normally and I think would be a standout moment and a great high note to end on. Oz spoke about keeping demographics in mind when creating my music and I believe that this electronicy, experimentally type music appeals to young male (16-24) outcasts. My experimental outro I would of thought is appealing and interesting to that demographic i.e me.

Statista, J.J. 2020. How often do you stream music tracks or albums through the internet?. [Online]. [21 May 2020]. Available from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/291712/digital-music-streaming-by-demographic-group-uk/

The Plugin I used that quietened the noise down is the Loud-Kneless plugin. I think by moving the Dot higher it turned down the Ratio making the sound much further back and quieter.

27/05/20

I decided that I want to try experiment with emulating a Aphex Twin type beat. I am currently following a tutorial on YouTube that gives a very good overview of what you need to do. I started by opening the Drum Rack in Ableton followed by attaching the sampler to the Drum Rack. I implemented 808 Kick Drum samples in the drum rack, I had to on my own behalf learn how to dissect the 808 Drums already found in Ableton and put the raw samples in the sampler. I did this by searching "808" under Drums in Ableton and copied all the samples into the said sampler instead of using the pre made Drum Machine. After that I went into the Sampler's zone editor and went to the Velocity tab and gave the 808 Drum beats different Velocities.

These two screenshots show the before and after when I attached the sampler. It means I can assign a button on the drum rack to begin playing the samples I want with the added use of Plugins from the MIDI effect rack.

To the left of me is me dragging the 808 samples into the Audio track in Ableton. I did it for easy access to all the 808 Ableton samples so if I wanted 808 Cymbals I can import them into the Drum Rack easily. Below is me on the Velocity tab under the sample selector area of the Drum Rack. I Distributed the Ranges Equally so it would result in

To the top left is the default settings in the sampler and the top right is the settings I sat on. It's the same as it is in the tutorial. I didn't change it because I wanted to focus on other areas of the tune however I am open to the idea of eventually changing it to something unique.

29/05/20

I followed up on the tutorial today and created the Probability Rack he made in an other tutorial that in addition was used in the Aphex Twin one. The MIDI audio effect I was using before was the Scale Driver which comes with Ableton which I will still keep as it results in an interesting sound especially with the added Probability Rack.

Above is the Probability video tutorial and the right is the Aphex Twin one I am also following.

Below when creating the Probability MIDI Effect I used the Velocity tab in the Effect Rack to make the Probability Chains. I had to duplicate the Chain using Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V 127 times as that was the max amount. Under the chain editor after right clicking and selecting Distribute Ranges Equally so that they were all evenly spread out I dragged the bottom chain creating a Cascade looking visual so that the chain probability will work from the range specified. All the different Chains represent the amount of chance that something is going to happen in the Drum Rack.

Today I also added added Snare drum 808's. I am beginning to understand the basic control scheme of Ableton as here I copied over the Kick 808's to the Drum Rack pad next to it holding the Alt key and holding down the mouse. I then replaced the samples with the appropriate Snare beats.

Under the chain editor after right clicking and selecting Distribute Ranges Equally so that they were all evenly spread out I dragged the bottom chain creating a Cascade looking visual so that the chain probability will work from the range specified.

01/06/20

I am preparing to submit for the Summer show. In a tutorial with Oz he stated he reinforced the idea of me producing my own original material. I have been focusing on my own stuff for the past couple of months and I am ready for the Summer Show's deadline.

03/06/20

I have completed an instrumental song in Logic that I produced whilst collaborating with my brother. The Aphex Twin stuff I was doing in Ableton I started to lose interest in so out of sheer desire of wanting a creative outlet I downloaded a handful of VST plugins one of them being Serum and started making a fresh track. The song is called 03.06 Crofters Rights Toss Party. This is because when I went on my phone I saw that a year ago from today I went to see one of my favourite bands Guerilla Toss at the Crofters Rights in Bristol!

In this Screenshot above I am editing the volume of the Drum Machine so that over a short period of time it slowly builds up volume. Doing this builds up suspense and keeps the listener interested over the period of the song. When recording on the said Drum Machine I used the arpeggiator on my keyboard at a low temp and pressed two handful worth of keys which resulted in this forever twirling, analog, beepy electronic type drum sound which in of itself catches my attention due to it's alienating yet oddly satisfying melodics. When it slowly creeps up in the song I precise it as it the beat creeping under your skin without you knowing which in further conjunction with the Synthesizers I utilised such as the built in ES2 found in Logic and Serum results in a memorable and melodic piece of music. Looking at the song as a whole I think the most proud aspect of it is the ending. I am really chuffed at how well it worked, all the instruments slowly disappearing and finalising on a simple yet effective Synth melody that slightly echos for a few seconds and then finishes.

To the left you can see the Plugin I am using Serum. For one of the synths in the song I tried to make the sonics sound wavey and wonky. I wanted a hypnotic sound as it felt like a much needed addition to the overall composition of the song. Without it, it felt a lot more face value and tiresome. Above is a selfie of me Collaborating with my Brother and below is a video of him discussing ideas with me.

06/06/20

I have sampled a part of the Metal Riff my brother did as an intro to a song I am working on. In this song I want to utilise both the Riff and the Drum Machine samples and see what I can come up with. For the metal bit I copied a part near the end of the Recording and added this Echoy reverb type sound to give a sense of scale and grandness.

The Reverb I used is the simply named "Echo" plugin and while I was at it I added some Distortion for the sake of further aggression with the Rawk Pedal found in the Pedalboard plugin.

07/06/20

The Metal sample I had done yesterday has since been exported or as Logic Pro likes to call it "Bounced" and I have now been playing around with Audio effects for the Drum Machine recording I did a while back. Before that though I had to do the tedious exercise of Editing the audio file so that when it loops it sounds organic and not abrupt and apparent that it is being played over again. If I don't do this this will make the Loop sound poor and jarring compared to the rest of the song.

Here in this video I demonstrate the comparisons between the loop I finished with which sounds natural and what it would sound like if I were to be lazy and not properly Loop it. In addition you can see I added a bit of Distortion using the Pedalboard a style of audio effect I tend to carry with a lot of my work.

After exporting the loop I then put it into the Project with the Metal Riff intro and further added FX using the SerumFX Plugin. The settings I used as shown to the left creates this muddy but boomy sound that sonically sounds unique and can easily grab peoples attention in a yet subdue and discreet fashion. I wanted to add more FX because without them the Drum Machine would sound a bit too dated for my liking as it was produced in the early 80s so doing all this is a sort of refurbishment almost like instrument recycling. Below is a recording of what it sounds like.

11/06/20

I am beginning to work on a Music Video using footage from me in a Cricket outfit smoking a Cigar and a video I recorded facing upwards towards the leafs in Weston Woods. Both of these recordings were done when the lighting was very well lit for recording footage.

In the video I want there to be a cross fade ghosting effect as shown by what I have done here. This is so that the video has a variety of visuals instead of the repetitive repeated showings of me smoking a Cigar.

The first shot of the video is the footage of the leafs in Weston Woods which is then shortly after a Synth Cord is played switches to a clip of me. This is done to reflect the flow of the music so it syncs well with the video and doesn't feel clunky.

Here I clipped a sample of video my sister recording of me doing spiral and then jogging along to a bench. As a result of me thinking ahead and recording in 60FPS I slowed the footage by half so it is in slow motion without sacrificing the frame rate. The clip is positioned in sync with a part of the song where the Synths output a spiraling, twirling feeling hence why I chose the footage. The sound is then repeated so in response I copied and pasted the clip and put it in reverse. As a result it gives a alienating yet entertaining visual.

Shown here is me deliberately pulling off a silly face after smoking a Cigar. The segment is also in slow motion for the sake of comedy. It is then suddenly interrupted as soon as my song turns more melancholic in melody do the what I believe to be beautiful leafs in Weston Woods that I shot. The juxtaposition of the two clips I think enhances the video and gives it a memorable quality.

For the ending I chose to go down a silly route and not to give the impression that I took the video too seriously as I think the video overall is comedic in nature. I chose the notorious Comic Sans font and added a cheesy animation similar to the likes found in PowerPoint to give a childish and innocent feel. The title of the song was given disco lights which I had to do research on how to do as you have to go out of your way to change the colours frame by frame.