For my event, i want to hold a multi genre rave in a club. I want it to be a ticketed event with multiple supporting djs and a headliner.

S - I am going to make a 2 track UK dubstep EP and perform both tracks in a 20 minute DJ set. I am also going to put on my own multi genre club event with multiple DJ's

M - I want to have both tracks finished by week 8. (mixed, mastered & released)

A - I want both tracks to be released on all of the main digital streaming platforms (spotify, soundcloud), With my event, i want it to be at least 75% sold out.

R - I am setting this goal in order to meet the demands of the assignment but to also gain experience in how the ins and outs of events management works and also how to independently release music onto bigger streaming platforms as i ultimately want to take those skills further in my career.

T - I will have my targets complete by the 16th December.

Two types of riddims that are commonly used in dub music are 'one drop' and 'sleng teng'. A one drop riddim is when beat one is left empty and the kick and snare play on the 2nd & 4th beat at the same time.

Sleng Teng is a type of pattern focused around drum machines instead of live drum elements.

Learning about the foundations of dub music was particularly helpful as I am making dubstep tracks in this module, which draws heavy influence from dub and reggae drum patterns. It allowed me to gsin a deeper understanding into how to lay out drums in such a way that prodives the skippy rhythm i am looking for in my dubstep tracks.

I wanted to progress from just being an amateur bedroom dj and producer to playing in clubs regularly and getting my music to a stage where it sounds professional and is getting noticed by bigger labels/ other djs. In relation to this goal I believe I am still very far off but I do think I have set myself up in a way that makes it seem much more achievable than it did one year ago. By actually setting time aside dedicated to learning producing in depth, I feel as if I am getting to a stage whereto the end product would be good enough to see an official release. While that would not be with a big label, the fact I even feel that my music is at that stage shows to me that I am progressing somewhat.

I think the progress I have made has been steady but good. In terms of my actual skill as a DJ, I have now had the practice of reading crowds and adapting sets to what people want to hear, which is a skill I didn’t have this time last year which is definitely something that will help me progress further. My production has definitely got better, I understand what parameters I am using in a synth and what processing is needed to certain elements for example. I am getting better at visualising ideas and actually making them happen as opposed to having an idea and not really knowing where to go with it due to my limited knowledge.

• Influence: the artists and music that has led to the music I attempt to produce today

      Inspiration: hearing something or seeing something that sparks an idea for a track.

• Common sources of inspiration: other artists music, hearing music live at club or festival, my mood

• Earliest influences: pendulum, the prodigy, metalllica

• Was about 9/10 when I listened to pendulum, the prodigy etc, led me down a rabbit hole over the next decade of different types of dance music. Metal bands influenced my taste to enjoy darker, heavier music which I think is what led me to liking jump up drum and bass (loud, noisy)

  
  

Sources of inspiration & influence:

• Hearing music live at clubs or festivals - 1

• Being in a crowd and seeing people enjoy the music being played, makes me want to do the same - 2

• My surroundings

• The people I am with at a certain point

• My mood - 3

• Making a sound in a synth that I think could work in a track - 4

• Listening to older dance music records, allows me to see the uniqueness in production when dance music was still relatively new, gives me inspiration to try and be unique myself.

• A random idea in my head at any point of the day - 5

Written above is a ranking from 1 to 5 on what my biggest sources of inspiration are.

What can I research?

• Marketing strategies/ the business side of the music industry

• Production techniques

• Cultural impact/ influence of certain types of music

• Historical context

• Equipment (instruments, plugins, DAW’s etc…)

• Biographical research - understanding backgrounds/ influences/ upbringing and personal experiences 

• Artist discography and the themes within that (artist evolution)

• Critical reception (critiques, reviews & general opinions) allows to see the impact and innovation of a certain artist

• Commercial success (chart performance, track sales, awards)

• Social media presence and the artists relationship with their fans

• Visual identity and branding; how do they present themselves to shape their persona?

• Behind the scenes insights (interviews, documentaries) to gain a deeper perspective on an artists creative process and their personal motivations for the way their career has panned out.

^ these elements allow you to gain a comprehensive and deeper understanding of an artists musical contribution and their cultural significance within the music industry

Research Tips:

• Clearly define my question to guide where to look with my research

• Use reliable sources; academic databases, scholarly journals, reputable websites

• Start broad and then dive into specifics; can get a general understanding and realise what parts are more or less important

• Critically evaluate sources - look at the author and their views/ reputation/ check the date to see relevancy of the research/ who is funding the research (conflict of interest)

• Find multiple sources to gather different viewpoints and see what different people agree/ disagree on (cross - referencing) and make sure that website references are valid.

• Be mindful of own bias - do not do research that aims to reinforce an already existing opinion you may have, be prepared to find answers you may not want to hear - leads to a more objective final product.

Sound design - will help to gain a better understanding on how to create sounds using synthesisers which can lead to  tracks becoming more unique and professional ultimately giving me a unique selling point

Stylistic development - drawing influence from other genres can be useful, could potentially provide a different outlook on my production techniques as we learn many different types of how music has been made in the past.

Sonic Art - collecting original samples - supports usp as they are samples only you have access to

Case Study:

A detailed research approach focused on understanding n individual or group of people. 

Involve multi - media

Types of case study:

Single- in depth analysis of a single case

Multiple - analysis of several cases similar in nature

Illustrative - examining a familiar case to help others understand it

Useful to gain useful contextual insights and develop research skills

2 PARTS TO MY CASE STUDY:

1. Artist Research

2. Musical Analysis

SUBJECT - what am I looking at?

RESEARCH - what do I want to find out?

METHOD - how am I going to find out?

CRITERIA - what am I looking for?

DATA - what is the data?

EVIDENCE - what have I learned?

I am going to do my case study on Skream & Benga

LFO 1 is conrolling the movement of the first oscillator and the filter cutoff, which allows the formant filter to move over different frequencies.

LFO 2 is controlling the master tuning of the whole synth, i set this at a 1/4 rate at a level of 2, which gives a slight pitch bend effect.

USP vs VP

USP - unique differences in my production that sets me apart from others in each track that I make

VP - The overarching message I am portraying through my music/ image, and the impact that was on the music industry as a whole

I want my unique selling point to be centred around certain production techniques that I utilise, such as sound design or drum programming. 

I want my value proposition to be the emotional impact my music leaves on people. The music I make tends to be suited to raves, so I want my songs to be the ones that people remember hearing after they leave the rave

Aesthetics

Definition: "In pop culture, an aesthetic refers to the overall style of someone or something, like a musical sound, interior design, or even a social media presence."

This is the contemporary definition, and fits in more with the discussion we had in the lesson today.

My Own Aesthetic:

Nature: dark, gritty, underground music inspired by previously existing genres to emerge from the UK (dubstep, jungle, drum and bass). In terms of the visual aspect of my aesthetic, I want to present a raw, almost unfiltered image that provides a visual representation of how my music feels to listen to.

Purpose: I want the purpose of my music to be to make people energised through dark baselines and heavy synths

Context: The UK underground electronic music scene

Importance: I feel my music will be important to people who appreciate authenticity and experimentation. I make music for me and don’t follow certain musical trends in order to garner popularity, which I think will resonate with people who listen to my music.

TRACK BREAKDOWN - MF DOOM (MadVillain) - FANCY CLOWN 

Tempo - 90bpm

Time Signature- 4/4

Key - G sharp/ A flat major

Structure - Intro, Verse 1, Break, Verse 2, Outro

Instrumentation - Chopped sample, sampled drum break, vocal

Tonality- ???

Rhythmic Patterns - Snare on the 2 and 4, triplet kick in bar 1, sample chops are syncopated

Chord Structure - ???

Lyrics/ Themes - story from a 1st person point of view that relates to the contents of the sample; story of a heartbreak he is going through, his partner being unfaithful

 Dynamic Range- steady dynamics, no major changes apart from when the drum come in and drop out 

Equipment - sp303

Performance - ???

Production techniques - most of the track is made up of samples

Melody - ???

This excersise was useful as it showed me how to critically analyse a song and understand the decisions the producer made when writing/ composing the song. This type of analysis may be beneficial when writing my case study, as i am able to listen out for elements in production that formed the USP for the artists I have chosen.

I also have a sub bass playing staccato notes in between the main bass to fill in empty space, which is just a copy of the patch above but with a lower sustain value.

I routed the drum bus to an extra channel that is soley being used for heavy compression. You can see the settings I am using in the screen recording to create a heavily compressed signal that i then blended with the original signal going into the drum bus. This allowed me to kepp the original transients and dynamics of the drums as well as having a heavily compressed signal which gives the drums so much more character. The difference can be heard in the screen recording.

SESSION 8 

Programme notes - an article written in a programme for a play or concert 

These notes serve as a guide for concert goers, offering insight into the musical and historical background of a piece of music 

For me - programme notes will help the assessor make sense of my work.

How to write programme notes:

• Understand the audience (in my case the assessor)

• Identify how and where my influences are evident in my tracks

• Clear, concise and engaging writing style

• Cite sources

• Keep notes concise (250 words approx.)

• Proofread

Structuring Programme notes:

Introduction (of artist & track)

Historical context (when and why piece of music was made)

Musical analysis (structure, form, themes, other musical elements)

Performance considerations (any challenges or techniques this track had)

Significance (why is my track important in the context of music history)

Conclusion (key points)

For my programme notes, I think I am going to talk about the reasons as to why I decided to make dubstep this term and explain my influences for how my tracks end up.

To make a clear difference between the teo 32 bar sections on the first drop, I created a variation of the main bass, which can be heard in the screen recording above (patch can be seen below). It has the same 1st oscillator but to make it different I used the second oscillator playing at a high frequency to add some harmonics to the sound.

You can also hear I have added extra kick drums in this section, alongside some extra cymbals that i have panned fully left and fully right respectively, with some delay automation to create an interesting feel in the background of the track.

To achieve this, I used the same bass used in the first drop and automated the LFO rate to be slower, then faster the next time it plays and vice versa. Its a noticeable change compared to the first drop however the foundations set in the first drop are still very much present.

(The LFO rate automation can be seen at the end of this screen recording)

I kept the drum pattern throughout the second drop the exact same as the first drop.

The second half of the second drop is kept virtually the same as the first drop.

To add some variation in the drums, I added a triplet hi hat.

Bot bass patches used in this part of the track are shown next to this entry.

The build up section consists of a kick, snare and a revere hi hat that is used in the drop, which I then slowly filtered out as the drop got closer. I turned off this filter in the last 2 bars before the drop with a clap to indicate the drop was coming. I think this is a good way of building the final bit of tension before it is then released with the drop.

To achieve the effect heard in the screen recording, I took the dry vocal heard at the start, pitched it down, chopped it and added reverb and delay. I then copied this, reversed that copy and bounced it out to make it one audio file. I then layered it over the top of the vocal that is not reversed with led to this cool effect that i used in the drop to fill out some empty space as whell as an atmospheric element in the intro.

I routed all of these elements out of the master channel and into a drum bus which is then sent to the master. This allowed for greater control of processing and and overall volume of the drum group.

I have shown all of the processing that is used on the drums. I stated with a saturation to give the drums some more distortion and weight, followed by a multi - band compressor to glue all of the elements together a bit more. I then applied a transient shaper which gives the drums some much needed punch, as well as cutting off some of the harsh transients in the highs. I added a bit crusher to give more of an 'old - school' feel to the drums and finally an EQ to take of a small amount of the high end as it was quite harsh due to the bit crusher.

All drum elements have appropriate EQ settings on the individual channels.

Both main basses have identical settings: EQ to bring out the low mids and take out some unwanted frequencies in the mids, followed by OTT which really helps the sound to stand out in a crowded mid range. A dimension expander helps the sound to fill out the stereo field and then the final bit of processing is a small amount of reverb to provide some brightness

The sub basses only have an EQ and a limiter applied as the original signal from the sub bass patch sounded full and clean as it was. The EQ is to just boost the low end to make it more prevalent, and the limiter is being used to sidechain both subs to the kick to get rid of any muddiness in the lows. This was quite an important step in the mix as it is a very low end focused track.

I have used some delay on the vocal and taken off the top end for no other reason than to make it less boring.

Other than that there are no noticeable interesting mixing techniques other than setting the levels for each element.

Towards the bottom of the mixer you can see a dial that is either dark blue, light blue or neutral. The channels with the dark blue are set to be full mono, such as the kick and basses, and the light blue elements are set to have a large amount of stereo seperation.

I was allowed to use my time this week to work on my tracks which I have included information on in seperate posts.

After a 64 bar drop, I simply just let the track fade out. I do not like having to do this, however I made the intro longer and more atmospheric in comparison to my first track in order to compensate for this.

On the drum bus, all I have added is saturation to bring out the dynamic range and add extra character, along with a tape cassette plugin which I am using to provide some warmth to the drums.

I have not included a compressor on the drum bus as i have the parallel signal doing the compressing for me, and it felt a bit unnecessary to ad a second compressor.

All of the elements have been EQ'd individually.

I also have a reverb bus for the snare which just gives me a bit more control over the amount of reverb I want on the snare to allow it to cut through.

I have taken off any high end that was apparent in the sub bass and boosted the low end to make it more present. I habe also added a limiter which is acting as a sidechain to the kick, to prevent muddiness.

The melody bass has an EQ boosting the mids and rolling off some of the high end, as the white noice oscillator was overpowering the high frequency range, which was negating some of the hi hats.

Annoyingly, I did not leave myself enough time to do a proper master, so the master channel consists of a soft clipper and a soft clipper only. This is on there to boost the overall level of the track so it is ready for my DJ performance.

Following the EQ, I have a soft clipper which is just increasing the overall level of the track, whihc is the followed by a limiter to ensure the track isn't distorting.

In my smart targets at the start of term, I said i would have both of my tracks mixed, mastered and released by week 8. I didn't manage to achieve this however I am not disappointed as all it meant was that I was able to spend more time on the mix and master of the tracks, I have plans to release them independently in the new year.

One thing I would possibly change if I was to do this again would be to choose a set idea for my tracks earlier on in the term. As I highlighted in this development diary, I changed my first track idea at around week 7, and my second track idea was changed twice before I made something I was happy with in week 8. I think if i was able to pick my track ideas and stick with them earlier on in the term, I probably would have had a better end product due to having more time available to work on them. I don't think this was a particularly big hinderance to the quality of my work though so I am not too disappointed.