CC Major Assignment 'Music Concrete for the Common Man'

I made lost of changes from my initial compositional plan to the final result. Initially i was only going to use the vocal samples that we created over the previous weeks, however i only used the paper sounds because i believe that offered better rhythmic sounds.

I am very proud of my concept. Relating Music Concrete to pop/rock. It is something that hasn't been done before and yet still keeps within the bounds of Music Concrete.

Another plan change was the use of instruments. Initially i was going to use very short samples to create an instrument and a melody, however after playing with this for a while i realized that it didn't represent Music Concrete and wasn't staying true to the proper form.

I made my score applicable to anybody that wishes to make a Music Concrete piece in the form of a pop song. Its not the sounds that are important to the concept, its the form and the idea that it is based on repeating riffs and another continually changing sound to counteract this which represents vocals.

Overall lost of fun to play with, and i learnt a lot about the nature of Music Concrete just by playing around with the sounds.

Here is the Mixdown
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/MusicConcrete.mp3

Here is the analysis document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Analysis.doc

Pre production
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProductionComp.doc

Program note
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/ProgramNote.doc

Score
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/MusicConcretefortheCommonManScore.pdf

AA Major Assignment 'Way to Fall' by Star Sailor

The whole recording and production process was very enjoyable. Luckily for me my song didn't require many effects and therefore many laborious hours weren't spent perfecting a delay for example. The one thing that i wish i had experienced was recording a whole band at the same time, rather than piece mealing each part when i could find the time. I'm still undecided which part of the whole process that i enjoyed the most. The recording process is definitely lots of fun, but can be very frustrating when something isn't right, for example the vocals have a natural compressed sound and the snare doesn't sound as good as it should. Although i had these problems, they didn't affect the final sound. I found it amazing that you don't need a perfect recording to get a perfect result. For example, when Amy was singing, she was very tired and there were a few timing and emphasis issues. To get over these i simply moved the word to get into time, and/or i replaced the word with the same one of another take or even from earlier on in the song.

I also found out about the regular occurrence of flukes while recording. When recording the Piano tracks there was a mistake, a very low cluster of notes was hit on accident. However when listening to it, it came at the perfect place and works great with the vocals. It also adds a personal touch to the song. Another fluke was with the overdrive guitar, it didnt require any additional production.

Overall lots of fun and have learnt many valuable lessons for when i do another recording of this sort.

Here is the Mixdown Mp3 http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/WayToFallDougFinal.mp3

Here is the PreProduction Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProduction.doc

Here is the Recording Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Recording.doc

Here is the Production Document
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Production.doc

CC1 Week 12

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/PreProductionComp.doc

AA1 Week 12

Mixing again. this time was a little more enjoyable because u could be more creative with the sounds. I haven't overdone the effects because the song doesn't allow for it, the song has a more natural feel.

The vocals really needed compression, there were times where it got out of control, for example when he said 'in bed.' The bass guitar also needed compression. With the vocal track i made a stereo auxiliary with all three vocal tracks and just compressed that track.

This is a photo of the stereo auxiliary setup.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture147.png
Note, the compression on one of the vocal tracks i bypassed when i bounced the file.

This file only contains compression
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/comp.mp3

The only effects i have added is reverb to the vocals and the piano, i was considering putting this effect on the acoustic guitars, but the reverberant nature of the instrument was enough. Once again i did this reverb using the stereo auxiliary.

This file is compression and reverb.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Revcomp.mp3

The final step was mastering the tracks, i added the bombfactory plugin on the master track and played around with the input output setting till i was satisfied with the result.

This file is Mastered, compressed and reverbed.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/CompRevMas.mp3

Here is the protools session file if you have the audio files at home.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYork_Doug.ptf

Forum Week 11

Construction and deconstruction of music.

This week presented a few more interesting points to consider.

Nathan's talk on Black Metal gave us an insight into the lengths of how musical culture will reject technology, or emulate this, to create a certain sound. The LP played to us represented a poor quality recorded on poor quality. It is interesting to see that poor quality can now be seen as an effect. Even in popular music you can see this with the very popular effect of emulating the "radio" sound by dropping out low end frequencies in the EQ.

The Ambient music of Aphex Twin shows us that music doesn't need to be complicated to be interesting. It is also a demonstration of how timbre can present as much importance as harmonic qualities in music.

Simon's presentation on "jacking" music showed how dance and pop music is created through borrowed ideas and layering these ideas. He gave the impression that he is opposed to this idea, but i believe that when done well this represents a very similar skill to actually composing these ideas in the first place. Is it not true that when these composers wrote their pieces they too borrowed ideas from others. Maybe even copied. But in the case of "Robot Rock" by Daft Punk, i totally agree with Simon. That is laziness! I also agree with Simon when he says that the originals are much more engaging. In the case of dance, the originals have much more harmonic and, in many cases, rhythmic interest. But it must be agreed that the constant repetition of certain riffs can induce other sounds to be heard. i.e. hearing the musical idea differently. Very similar to Phillip Glass.

Overall interesting and intriging arugment presented, more interesting than last week i believe.

CC1 Week 11

Meta Synth again, fun fun as always. I must admit that although this program is fantastic, the GUI is a little frustrating at times, the icons can be a little hard to find and the simple ability to drag and drop not only from the finder but also within the program can be frustrating and time consuming at times.

Playing with the 4 other rooms opened up a few extra possibilities for sampling, although many of these effects, i found, could be found in the earlier rooms we investigated. Only these rooms offer much more precision. Just playing around with the samples trying to create interesting sounds can be a little annoying, but if you were going in there with a particular sound in mind you wanted to create then it would be much more engaging.

I made 4 samples, put them in the sequencer and made another sample from my instrument.

The first sample I used the vocal sample from the previous weeks and filtered the sound with the image filter, i created a sound that had random mono frequencies.

The Next sample i used the spectrum synth and analysed the audio at a low quality to create a slow "digital" sound. I then analysed this analysis to create another sample which was an extended version of this "digital" sound.

1st step2nd step

The final sample used was created with the sampler. I put all these new sounds into the sampler and created a rhythmic sample.

The final step was to put all this into the montage room and create a sequence.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Finalmontage.mp3

References:

Haines, C. Lecture 24/5/07 (Meta Synth (2))

Meta Synth Pro Tutorial

AA1 Week 11

This week's task was much harder than i first thought. I was initially excited about hearing a commercial song broken down.

I had, and the mixdown still does, many problems. There were so many things to think about, such as the overall volume, how loud the song should be during certain sections. The problem of each section getting louder and louder i have many issues with.

What i am proud of is my drum kit EQ, i believe that i obtained a good sound for the song. What i did find difficult was getting the right sound for the toms because it was recorded with only 2 overheads, i couldn't control the individual sound of the toms without affecting the sound of the hats and cymbals, which was quite annoying. Because the kick comes through the overheads as well it was quite bassy as well. But aside from this i think i came to a happy medium.

Also Kavyen Temperley's voice can get out of control sometimes, especially when he says the word 'about.' I had to quickly lower his volume when he says that word. His voice needs compression, and additional reverb, the room reverb is horrible and sometimes stands out quite substantially.

Mixdowns are hard, i admit i haven't played with the panning much, just a little with a few vocal tracks, but the recording seemed to have sufficient panning on it.

Also, when i mixed it on the speakers to a sound that i thought was good, when i put my headphones on, it was way too muddy, i could barely pick out sounds.

Overall, an eye opener to how hard mixing is!!!!

Mixdown Mono
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYorkDougmono.mp3

Mixdown Stereo
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYorkDougstereo.mp3

Mixdown Stereo EQ
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYorkDougEQStereo.mp3

In case you have the audio files on your computer, here is the Protools Session.
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/EJNewYorkDoug.ptf

This is an overall image of the Session
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture1.png

This is an Image of the Vocal section where his voice goes out of "control." What i have done is essentially a manual compression.
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture327.png

This is an Image of the EQ on the Overheads.
www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture4.png

References:
Fieldhouse, Steve. Mixing (1) lecture 22nd May 2007

"The Art of Mixing," chapter 11 AA1 Readings.

Protools LE 7.3.1

Sorry about the hyperlinks, they don't seem to be working in the mac lab, blogger doesn't want to give me them.