Also work on work-flow and creativity/inspirations; experiment with different writing structures and where you should start with each track.

I have a backup plan and that is to write a Liquid Drum and Bass track and instead do a Liquid DnB set if creating Jump up is too much for me too soon. This is because Liquid Drum and Bass is a genre I am a little more confident in.

These are current tracks I really enjoy and may want to get inspiration from. These are tracks you may hear in my recorded DJ set. I will most likely change my mind and I will add tracks as I can't come up with everything in one day. I also don't yet have a comprehensive understanding of what a DJ legally can or can't play.

• Sientelo - (Sota and Circadian remix)

• Bailejungle - (Urbandawn)

• Drums - (Sota)

• Flappers - (Turno x Sota)

• High Roller - (Turno)

• Primal Instinct - (A. Way)

• Jungle - (Arcando remix)

• Ascend - (Arcando)

• Let it Roll - (Venjent)

I think I understand the fundamentals of a deck but I still have a lot to learn if I want to keep a 30 minute set going.

(The file size was too large for the free version of Padlet but if you wish to see the video or receive the WAV audio let me know via email)

I downloaded some tunes (garage and DnB) to my USB stick after having my first DJ-ing session with MIMI.

I also quickly learned how to make a popular sound used in DnB - The pushed saw; I might use this later but I'm happy to have developed my sound design even just by a tiny amount today.

There are a couple of specific sounds I want to include in my track and these are influences for the sounds/level of sound design I want to achieve.

Track 1

Gothenburg Cluster - Urbandawn.

• This more modern track is a perfect example of carefully thought out drop sound design. The bass fits in really well in the mix and the movement is extremely clean when the bass is modulated.

• I am also a fan of the use of strings and an orchestral texture used in any EDM music.

Track 2

4 Hero - (Project A-KO) - Afterglow part 1&2

• This track from the early 90's is a fantastic sound that many actively recreate nowadays; while I want to focus mainly on incorporating breakbeat into some of my music, playing with similar synths and modulating minor chords as heard in this track would be just as fun.

This is experimenting with new writing structure (drums first) on ableton [LO2]

I included the Amen Break in the last couple of bars of the build to add liveliness and tension to the build. This is the same technique I used for my previous track "Misty".

I also worked on moving between tempos using the tracks Mania - Kosu and No Juice - Proux

The first attempt I forgot to set the loop on Mania. The second attempt was okay but I set the loop too short so when I span the Jog wheel it sounded quite strange. At least I know what I’ve done wrong!

Im super super happy I managed to push through and create a drop because the lead synth and overall sound design was a serious mental challenge.

Edit: listening back this needs a lot of mixing. The first issue is that the bass is too loud and the drop sound design needs work still but the foundation for creativity is there. [Goal for LO2]

• Weekly planner, calendar and Diary

• I often sit down for long periods at a time and crack on with production, DJ-ing or research.

• I find that having a Padlet to fill out weekly gives me motivation to keep at the same projects over a longer time.

• The Pomodoro technique includes working for 25 minutes then taking a 5 minute break, doing that 4-5 times then taking a 30 minute break. - This is for bigger projects and will likely be how I conduct my essays.

However, some things can be useful to us like AI reconstructing sounds from the ground up to allow us to make the creative decisions regarding what sounds good along the reconstruction process. This gives us a lot more opportunities to play with sound design and thus is a creative tool rather than a way to skip quickly through processes in music production

• I'm at a strong start in terms of production quality, however I'm nowhere near where i want to be in terms of industry standards.

• My existing knowledge of drumming allows me to grasp all different types of genre's drum grooves/patterns/breaks.

Weaknesses

• work ethic towards written work; I'm not used to the study technique used in university level written work (in terms of Harvard referencing)

what went well was the successful and almost smooth change in genre as I went from DnB to faster techno. I personally really enjoy the first piano part of +Willow Rebound as it is super groovy straight off the bat meaning that even after the long quiet part of Gothenburg Cluster, the transition to the intro of Willow rebound was energetic. It’s always a good sign when the Camera is bobbing.

However, there was a 1 beat delay in the start of Willow Rebound because I didn’t set the que point in the right place. This tells me I need to prepare my mixes a lot better even when put on the spot. It always helps to be able to make decisions much faster. (LO3)

• Get all the equipment ready

• get the daw (busses and FX chains) ready

• Eat

• Sleep

• Rave

• Repeat

Mental

• Walk

• Run

• Eat

• Listen to inspiration to get me in the mood

• Having the ideal workspace.

I also learned from my Creative Electronic Music lesson and used 9th and 7th chords mapped to a single key using the Logic Quick sampler. This actually helped make my keyboard solo more interesting as it follows different key-centres. This applies to my LO2 (writing styles) and Lo-Fi targets

How this helps

This is the ideal place for me to achieve my best work-flow as I see myself always wanting to come back to this space to compose.

All I do is set my computer on the stand, plug in the interface and keyboard, open logic and just start hitting keys; I find this is the fastest way to start my workflow and get ideas down without burdening myself with setting up virtual instruments.

What I could do

Live in a house with enough space to make noises with a monitor system (preferably Adam Audio monitors with the tape tweeters) without disturbing my immediate neighbours. I would also get my hands on an actual weighted midi keyboard with a sustain pedal, a launchpad, electric drum kit, guitar, bass, a tape recorder and player and various classic keyboards (Moog, Rhodes etc). These instruments would help massively in letting me have more fun when playing instead of feeling like I'm using the same old unweighted, plastic keyboard for everything I do.

• Ear Protection

• Due diligence when setting up a stage

• Electrical safety

• Trip hazards

• pyro/fire

• Dealing with people

• Burn out/block

• Drugs

• Sleep

• Financial

What went well

• The song choices were pretty good for what I wanted so sound like.

• I incorporated Misty (one of my own tracks) into the set.

• I had a couple of good transitions.

• I did make use of effects.

• I moved to garage at the end which is a huge change in tempo - variety.

What didn't go so well

• Misty was in the wrong key so when I mixed it in with Jungle it sounded awful.

• a couple of the transitions were janky and failing to beat match is really obvious from an audience point of view.

• I need to understand how long I will be playing for so I pick the best songs I can for the time I am allowed - I didn't manage to transition all the way to hip-hop like I wanted to in the ~ 10 minutes we were given.

I did actually use the Set opener I proposed at the start of the term but I don't know if I will keep it.

Initial notes

• Low cut kick at the start then sudden introduction of bass

• Acoustic drums

• Heavy use of synths

• drone guitar

• Harmonic drone -  feedback?

• Reversed and reverb-ed vocals with backing vocals

• Bass, drum and guitar breakdown

• Looping used a lot

• Distortion pedal on the guitar

• Lots of reverb overall

• Pads and drones play a huge part in the ambience

• Around 130 BPM

Listening back with headphones

• Distortion/flanger Effect applied to the cymbal/snare at the start

• 13/4 or 2 bars of 4 and a bar of 5

• Two of the tracks I chose to use as Reverb-ed panned backing vocals for stereo spread. Around half way through I froze the reverb on certain harmonics I liked at two different points on the two tracks to lay into the creepy ambient sound of the track

• One track was a centralised reverb-ed and low cut backing VOX with a de-esser to avoid reversing the harsh high frequencies.

• The Lead Vox had most of the work done as after compressing and exciting the track, I could hear the bleeding of the monitor headphones in the recording which called for a noise gate and the sibilance also became quite unbearable so I applied a high-shelf de-esser.

I also split the backing track into stems and stereo spread the guitar for a much wider sound.

To master the Stereo out:

• First thing I had to do EQ and Multipress the master.

• Using the Multimeter I aimed for a bass-heavy slope down to the top end and I managed this with the EQ and Multiprocessor.

• Then, due to the amount of stereo spread I had applied across the different channels I had to monitor the correlation and use a direction mixer to ensure the track would sound good if played on a mono system.

• I then applied an adaptive limiter to bring the LUFs up to a more "commercial" level but without crushing important elements of the song.

Research task

• Many people write poems before making them into lyrics.

• Here's a useful link - https://www.rcm.ac.uk/media/Lyric%20Writing.pdf

• when I went home for the weekend I played the guitar for the first time in a while and sung some old songs, I then experimented by building on these chords, using new chords and just singing whatever crap came out of my mouth and it ended up being quite pleasant. I might need a guitar here in brighton.

• I'm listening to lots of music inspired by struggle or loss with really well thought out lyrics (at least in my opinion) (Oliver Anthony and Mon Rovîa) which is nice for acoustic music but probably not transferrable to electronic without sounding face-meltingly cringy.

• In memory of Quincy Jones I am listening over my favourite song (cover) of his, 'Ai No Corrida' and reading its lyrics. The song itself is a jumpy Disco track and the lyrics seem to be about love, love being seemingly a popular theme in dance music. another example of this would be my most recent track 'Shameless' that uses chopped Splice vocals written by a vocalist and the theme of the original vocal is love.

• Ai No Lyric Corrida notes

  • Metaphors are quite often used; "In a maze can't find my way".

  • This leads on to my next point - quite often grammar is subtly undermined to aid the flow of the song.

I will be taking notes as I think I should try doing what he does and instead of having a drop followed by a transition to a build of another track, I should go from the drop of one track straight to the drop of another track to maintain the energy.

I use different headphones and my phone and Mac speaker for listening to my tracks after I'm happy with them in the Hi-X60s. I've started to use the waterbear venue speakers too.

Next year I aim to find a space where I can invest time and money into a proper monitoring setup, for now I will use the Waterbear mixing suite as much as I can.

"X artist is more important to Y than Z artist"

• I would first look into who made the statement. If it was an individual or news outlet I would choose to chalk the statement up to 'Hate-fishing' for attention, but if it was a researcher I may look into it more.

• It also depends on how much the statement irks me, of course. If it was against an artist I enjoy I would do my research. This goes for accusations and 'cancelling' for me too. if someone I like was 'cancelled' I would definitely take the time to do my research.

• Do the research - wide reading. come up with a conclusion.

Task - Deconstructing a music Statement "Jazz is for nerds"

• Initially I disagree, however I cannot speak against the statement personally as people might label me a nerd.

• Music like John Coltrane's Giant Steps are incredibly popular jazz tunes famed for their complexity and the skill of the player. It is the Loud minority of Tracks like this, "Donna Lee" and a more recent jazz track that has become popular outside the jazz world for its wild nature and 11/8 time signature, "Night in Tunisia - Jesus Molina".

• I have just asked my classmate what he thinks of jazz music and he responded "Weird time signatures" this is the first indicator to me that people might just have the wrong idea about Jazz music. I will ask more people about what they thin about jazz music to better inform me of the opinions of the average non-jazz listener.

To achieve this sound I had to understand not just how to bit crush sounds, but what Nintendo used to make the sounds, this was a Ricoh 2a03 microprocessor/sound chip.

This contains:

• low frequency programmable timer

• two nearly-identical rectangle wave function generators

• triangle wave function generator

• random wavelength function generator

• audio sample playback unit (delta modulation channel)

_{- (Brad Taylor. (April 23rd 2004). 2A03 technical reference. [Online]. nesdev.org. Available at: https://www.nesdev.org/2A03%20technical%20reference.txt [Accessed 13 November 2024].)}

To simplify (for myself), the 2a03 uses 2 slightly different 'lead' square wave oscillators (both capable of pitch-bending), a triangle oscillator primarily used for bass, an LFSR powered random noise generator (mainly used for rhythmic 'drums') and a DPCM for importing various samples (at a very low bit depth) giving a total of just 5 channels the composers had to work with.

I limited myself to these parameters in Logic, using an 8bit synthesiser that had just what I needed (Magical 8bit Plug 2) I had a channel with the square wave oscillators, 2 monophonic channels for the triangle wave and noise and an audio channel with a bit crusher and real drum samples to emulate the DPCM. I wasn't fully able to capture the sound of the DPCM as I am unsure on how to lower the bit rate, sample rate and bit depth of logic. I then proceeded to write something in keeping of the style, it was also horrible compared to what Nintendo's composers were able to write.

I'm unsure of exactly what the DPCM does to the waveform of audio but I have found a plugin that might help - _{(Emma Essex. (2024). Pseudopolygon - Manual. [Online]. Heckscaper.com. Last Updated: April 29th 2024. Available at: https://heckscaper.com/ct/s/ctfc01_manual/ [Accessed 13 November 2024]).}

I have also found a site that helps me to understand what PCM and DPCM is in more depth. _{-https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-pcm-and-dpcm/.}

This time I just used an eq to subtly lower the high mids, ensuring the audio quality remained for other systems (I will do further checks with all sorts of systems including the HQ mixing suite before release as well). I also used a multipressor with the Multimeter to remove any stand-out frequency ranges that the multimeter could pick up, I then used the Phat FX exclusively for the soft clipper it had, I then used a final limiter to ease up the LUFs without damaging the sound and it sounded pretty good.

I was well pleased to hear it for a second time on the venues speaker, this time without any standout issues.

• Nick Parker (stage director and lighting engineer)

• Julian Hundy (theatre sound engineer)

• Dave Barrows (cover artist)

• Damian Fisher (freelance drum tutor)

• Racetech (on-site horse racing broadcasters)

Fellow musicians and friends

• All of my classmates

• Charlie Blades (piano tutor, student at Guildhall)

• Oscar Barron (fellow digital synthesiser geek and Ableton user I can call on for help)

• Annabel Owen (Logic nerd, programmer and visual artist)

Working to a brief

• A band's EP

  • mics needed

  • instruments

  • mixing

  • track order and mastering to fit the volume of each track (louder and quieter depending on the style of each track

  • budget

  • what needs done (demo tracks, guide tracks, just mixing/recording)

    
    

• A Collaboration

  • genre

  • melodies

  • roles

  • availability

  • instruments and mics

    
    

• A sync track

  • how many tracks should be written

  • the length of each track

  • what each track is representing

  • instrumentation

• Write an electro-orchestral piece reflecting to the best of your ability the excitement and speed of racing through space, avoiding asteroids and opponents.

• the tempo should be anywhere around 140 - 160.

• the duration of the track should be roughly 5 minutes (+-3 seconds) but each separate section should be loop-able at the drop or equivalent. This is in case racers should take too long to reach the 2nd or third lap.

• The first lap (intro and section A) must fit the energetic orchestral melodic bass style.

• the second lap (B section) should have reduced texture. feel free to make use of more reserved drums and pads here (that is only a suggestion).

• the third section should return to a Melodic Bass.

• The third lap returns to orchestral Melodic Bass.

• instrumentation can be varied but include brass (stabs or full melodic or harmonic lined) and strings (or synthesised strings). you can also make use of sound design for basses and leads.

• we want to emphasise when a player is hit by or brushed close to an asteroid, we request that you make short melodic 1 shots that can fit over the mix when this happens; they must reflect the intensity of brushing past asteroids or being hit by them. we will program triggers for these sounds so we will need these one shots sent separately.

• Send the track as a WAV along with the track segmented into section 1, 2 and 3 as separate WAVs and also include each 1 shot as separate WAVs.

I also plan at this point to have a PRS account set up and paid for to cover potential future releases.

I have decided to switch my main project from the Drum and Bass I had before to a Garage track. I did this because I feel this track fits the set I had in mind and I believe it is closer to what a live crowd would want to hear over the type of drum and bass I was making. I will not ignore the last track as I am aware of markets it appeals to as my reference track by Venjent has seen success in many parts of Europe where Venjent has been doing a lot of his gigs despite being a UK-based producer. I also do enjoy that style of DnB myself.

This is the current progress on my summative track to be used in the final DJ set. I incorporated vocals from Sammy Virji and Flowdan's track "Shella Verse", giving credits as the song is now under their name but labeled as a bootleg/remix. If I want to release this however, I will need legal clearance and it will most likely not be monetised.

Other than that I have added sound design (you can hear from the previous post) plus other sections. I have also experimented with using PhatFX's soft limiter to raise the LUFs a bit more without sacrificing sound. I have also added significantly to the arrangement of the track; adding sections and breakdowns after the piano chords get monotonous (if you pay attention to Shameless it also shares this structure). I took tips from Joe to extend certain sections that are not explored for long enough as well.

• Skrillex popularised a genre called "Brostep" from the existing underground sounds of Dubstep. This pushed dubstep into the limelight making it a far more popular genre.

• The sounds of "Brostep" quickly became what the average person would think of dubstep and, for the most part, that is what dubstep became associated with.

• Scary Monsters and Nice Spirites, a track you will associate now with early 2010's CSGO clips from screaming children was, at the time, pushing the boundaries of sound design and sound system culture; noisy basses and screeching top end unheard before.

• Pace-Maccarick (2024)

• Drums - 4/5

• keys - 2/5

Music theory knowledge

• Music notation - 4/5

• chord progressions and harmony - 5/5

• Scales and modes - 4/5

Songwriting skills

• lyric writing - 2/5

• melody creation - 3/5

• song structure and arrangement - 4/5

Production and recording

• DAW proficiency - 5/5

• recording techniques - 4/5

• mixing and mastering - 3/5

Collaboration and communication

• working with other musicians - 3/5

• communicating musical ideas effectively - 4/5

• giving and receiving feedback - 4/5

Performance skills

• live performance - 3.5/5

• stage presence and audience engagement (no idea yet)

• Improvisation - 4/5

Music Business and Promotion

• Copyright and licensing - 3/5

• Marketing and self promotion - 1/5

• networking and building industry connections - 2/5

Self reflection and goal setting

• Clearly I need to get performing more often.

• I probably need to collaborate with a singer-songwriter

• keep flexing my fingers on the keys, get better with soloing over modulating chord changes.

• keep doing rudiments.

• make a specialised music account on social media. And actually find an artist name.

Open MPT in conjunction with Acid Pro

• Open MPT is a modern Tracker software DAW. Electronic music in the 90s was commonly made using a tracker. It works like an Excel spreadsheet that quickly scrolls downward. This makes the software ideal for drum programming even to the super fast limits that other daws such as Logic and Ableton cannot reach due to system overload. On top of this the software is free and obtainable on Github. It is available to Microsoft and linux users but not to Mac users. Considering the price of Macs, open MPT is a good tracker for people interested in programming drums this way.

• Open MPT is better than old trackers is that it allows VSTs for post processing on samples.

• As a DAW on its own, however, Open MPT is extremely hard to use. Although people had to use trackers for creating simple pieces of music like old Garage tracks or, in earlier cases, like the music you would hear on old video game systems like the NES.

• Some People, like Apex Twin and other, more underground artists are able to create music on trackers, however, for more developed pieces of music, these artists use it in conjunction with other DAWs. An artist named Halley Labs uses Acid pro as well as Open MPT. Acid pro functions in a similar manner to Ableton at a much cheaper price, alternatively, you can use Audacity for completely free while using Open MPT for creating the loops to arrange in Audacity.

Renoise

• Renoise is an interesting hybrid of Modern Daw and Tracker. Renoise functions as a normal DAW such as Ableton or Acid Pro, but instead of a drum and piano roll, it uses a tracker. https://www.renoise.com/products/renoise

Open MPT, Audacity, Acid Pro and Renoise

• Ease of Use - not easy at all; you have to go out of your way to program note values and velocity for each grid point (8ths, 16ths, 32nd notes). Acid pro works in a similar way to Ableton but is more loop - focused, whereas Audacity is entirely loop and sample focussed, making Open MPT a useful tool for working with Audacity.

• Workflow - incredibly slow; you have to literally type in the notes exactly where you want them. if you want a sample with delay, you have to program the delay of the sound in each box of the channel on the tracker. (as seen in the video). You can see what all the inputs are on each channel: Note Value (Black), Sustain (Blue), Velocity (Green) and Pitch bend (purple)

• creativity - quite interesting; the limitations and convoluted nature can often lead to positive mistakes and old-skool sounds that are associated with old Techno, garage, jungle or even videogames.

_{Brad Taylor. (April 23rd 2004). 2A03 technical reference. [Online]. nesdev.org. Available at: https://www.nesdev.org/2A03%20technical%20reference.txt [Accessed 13 November 2024].)}

_{Unknown. (2024). Difference between PCM and DPCM. [Online]. geeksforgeeks.org. Last Updated: 11th September 2024. Available at: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/difference-between-pcm-and-dpcm/ [Accessed 6 December 2024].}

_{Solomon Pace-Maccarick. (2024). What is brostep? A history of the infamous genre in 5 key tracks. [Online]. dazeddigital.com. Last Updated: August 26th 2024. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/64343/1/what-is-brostep-five-key-tracks-skrillex-fred-again-dubstep [Accessed 6 December 2024].}

_{https://www.renoise.com/products/renoise}

https://soundcloud.com/oppidanmusic/gravity