Blog: Practical Skills & Research

Week 1 - w/b 27th march:

This week I will start my final major project!! This is very exciting and I really look forward to the four-track EP that I am going to create. I will spend the majority of this week completing my proposal. This has to be done to a high standard and I will create a week-on-week plan to be able to structure my time. I also plan to start to gather some research. In this case, it is primary research. Primary research is when the information has been gathered by the researcher, in this case, me. Secondary research is when the information has been sourced by others, this includes academic journals, websites, YouTube videos, and newspapers. I will utilise more secondary research later on in my project.

Even though I stated some initial research in my proposal, I have not used it as I did not feel it was relevant at the moment. Instead, I conducted some primary research, in the form of a survey. I created a questionnaire inside of Forms, a Microsoft-owned website that allows people to make surveys and asked questions that I believe will help me when producing and marketing my EP. I shared this with lots of different people of all age groups: including DJing group chats with people similar ages to me, friends of my parents who are old school ravers, current famous DJs who I know (Somatic, Bare Up, and E.Coli), as well as some of my peers who are not obsessed with music, this gave me a wide range of data. At the time of writing and analysing, I have 75 responses. Each question had to be answered, except for their favourite colour, which was a question I added later. This particular question has 63 responses. Each question I asked has a meaning behind it. I will now go through the questions, detailing my reasoning behind them as well as analysing the data I collected:

How old are you?

This is quite a simple question but it allows me to have an idea of the sort of person that is answering the question, as there will be some people I do not know personally answering and I have not taken any names to keep it anonymous. As seen, the mode (most common) age to answer was 16-18, with 46-55 people a close second. Also, the mean (average) age was 34 years old.

HOW DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC TODAY?

This was a great question to ask because it allowed me to work out what platform to put my music on, to allow for the best chance of it reaching the most ears. I allowed the subject to choose as many answers that applied to them, because people may listen to music in different ways. On average, the most popular answers were digital streaming services, the most popular being Spotify (63), Youtube (40) and Soundcloud. This is not surprising to me as we live in a digital age, with Spotify having over 456 million active users. Soundcloud also has 175 million users, plus I already have a presence on Soundcloud, which can be seen here, which is helpful. All this evidence reinforces the idea that I need to put my music on these streaming services and not cut vinyl (13) or post to other streaming services like Bandcamp (5). Another reason I would not use Bandcamp is that when buying WAVs on their website, I have personally found they are not read by CDJs when I try and DJ with them, which is an issue for me and I don't want other DJs to have the same problem if they tray and DJ my tunes. Surprisingly, Radio (32) had more votes than I would have thought. This has made me think that I could potentially pitch my songs to radio stations in the hopes of getting them played there. In conclusion, when I release my songs, I will use a distribution service, like Distrokid, to put my music on the popular, most-used streaming services.

HOW MUCH DOES THE ARTWORK MATTER TO YOU?

I asked this question so I could get an idea of how much time and effort I needed to spend on the cover for the EP. I care quite a lot about how a song or album looks, but I wanted to see if the rest of the public agreed with me. As seen by the results, they did not entirely agree with me, however, the average rating was above half, 2.5, and I care about it, so I am going to make sure it looks amazing. The way I am going to do that is by contacting a graphic desire friend of mine, to see if he is up for working on the project, as I know he is very good at what he does. Although, I will focus on that next week.

what is your favoutite colour?

At first glance, this may seem like a peculiar question to ask in a project surrounding music, but it links to the question above. I want to artwork to appeal to the majority of people, a way of doing that is by having the primary colour of the artwork be people's favourite. What I have gathered since asking this is people like blue, with 31% of people enjoying a shade of the colour. I also really like the colour, so that is what I want it to be. I will pass all this information on to my graphic design friend, Jack, so he knows what to do.

how do you find out about new music?

This was another question where I let people choose as many options as they wanted. The reason I asked is so that I could have the best understanding when it comes to marketing my music. Marketing is so important in the music scene, which I believe this quote from a website I saw resonates with, “What’s the point of making the best song in the world if no one gets to hear it?”. The results have shown me that I am going to need to send my songs to Spotify playlist admins to get exposure. I also need to tell lots of people about the music and utilise social media platforms to gain a wider reach. I already have a DJing Instagram page, as seen here, and I will also set up a TikTok page in the future. Although, radio stations have once again seen more votes than I would have thought, so I guess I am going to have to attempt to pitch it to them too.

DO YOU LISTEN TO DRUM AND BASS?

This was just a basic question to understand if the people in my survey will like the music I am going to make, as the EP will be drum and bass. It also leads into the following question nicely. The results show that over 60% of people like drum and bass, which is great as it allows for the most answers to the following question.

tell me some of your favourite/well know artists

This is quite an open-ended question that I asked people so I could gauge the style of drum and bass people most listen to. Subsequently, I would then know what sort of style to make that would resonate with the most people. I could have made it easier by listing some subgenres and asking people to pick, but I did not trust everyone knew what each sounded like. So instead, I have gone through each response and counted how many of each artist was voted, voiding any that were not Drum and Bass. In the survey, there were 11 votes for "DJ ARC", which is my stage name. I felt this skewed results, and ruined to the main purpose of the question, to find what style of music I should make, so I ignored them.

DNB SURVEY ARTISTS

Here is the list of all the artists, with how many times they were voted. I have also given them each a sub-genre that they are most famous for. I have then added all the subgenre votes together, to see what genre is the most popular. This can be seen in the bar graph below.

This graph has shown me that I should perhaps make a jungle or a jump up inspired tune, as those were the most popular and got the most votes. I have never made those genres before, so it would be difficult, but I will decide whether I will or not when I get around to starting to make the songs. I could always merge the two and have a jungle and a jump up drop if I have the time.

Below I have included some definitions and examples of some of the different drum and bass sub genres, to better understand them.

jungle

Jungle has lots of Reggae influences, with dub bass lines and fast-chopping sampled breakbeats from old records, these are the drum parts. This subgenre can be divided even further so people can listen to this music in all aspects of life, whether it be in a club or at home. Pioneer artists include Shy FX, Benny Page, Goldie and Urban Shakedown.

jump up

Jump Up is the subgenre that has the most energy. It has fast beats, gritty memorable leads, and heavy bass lines and is often very simplistic. It has been around since the late 90s but has recently been rekindled by artists such as Hedex, DJ Hype, Turno and Macky Gee.

dancefloor

Dancefloor drum and bass is a style that incorporates lots of techniques from EDM, like intricate sound design, melodic catchy leads and synthesised drums. It can be easy to enjoy in the middle of a sweaty rave, as well as long car drives. Pioneering artists include Sub Focus, Wilkinson, Culture Shock, Subsonic, K Motionz and Metrik.

neuro funk

Neuro funk has a sort of mechanical feel to it. It sort of marries lots of geners together, It has the energy of jump up, the sound design of minimal and the drums of dancefloor. In my own experimce, I have seen people dance the most to this style, which is the purpose of drum and bass music. Pioneering artists of this type of music include Noisia, Phace, Current Value, Mefjus and A.M.C.

liquid

Liquid drum and bass focuses more on the emotional and melodic side of the music. Often they will utilise live instruments like piano and strings and marry them with rolling smooth bass lines and tight drums. There may also be beautiful, meaningful vocals sung over the top. This music is best heard when trying to relax, or personally, I like listening to instrumental liquid when I study as I feel it helps me focus. This is my favourite genre to make. Pioneer artists include Hybrid Minds, Calibre, Etherwood and Technimatic.

minimal

Minimal is a subgenre that strips back drum and bass to the core elements, drums and bass, and focuses solely on sound design and empty space to give it its feeling. There are some minimal-techno influences as the music can sometimes have a glitchy feel. It has a very niche following, people either really love it and can listen to it anywhere, whereas others can not stand it and find it too boring. Pioneering artists include Grey Code, Instra:mental, Alix Perez, Halogenix and Simula.

4x4

This sub genre takes influenced from techno music and combines it with drum and bass. It changes the drum pattern of classic drum and bass to a "four on the floor" rhythm. It creates lots of high energy and is made to be played at clubs and festivals as the crowds always go crazy when it is played as it change in a set. Pioneering artists include Mandidextrous, Dimension, Teddy Killaz and Kanine.

WHO GOT YOU INto Drum ANd bASS?

This question was not linked to the project, it was just answering a theory I had in mind. Speaking to a few DJs, they said it was their dads that got them into drum and bass, this was the case for me as well. I wanted to see if this was the case for everyone, the results showed it was not. It proved that only three people got into the genre through their father, whereas twenty-eight people were brought in by their friends.

how much would you pay for a four track ep?

This question was asked to see if I could make any money off my EP. It was a long shot, and it did not turn out, as the overwhelming majority said they would just use a streaming service instead of buying it. I think that is fair. I am a new artist and so it seems rude of me to ask for money when the work may not be my absolute best. I will just put the EP on streaming services and as a free download. By having the option to download it for free, it allows DJs to use the song in their sets, plus it is more accessible to people, so it can be shared easier and I can start to make a name for myself.

where do you enjoy listening to music the most?

This was another question where people can choose as many options as they wanted, which was asked so I could determine the sort of music to make. What music people listen to is largely decided by where they listen to it. Seeing that a large portion of people listens when relaxing at home, I need to make sure some music on the EP reflects that chill mood, such as the liquid drum and bass tune "Alone" I made with Rosie. A lot of people however listen to music while out at nightclubs, festivals or while exercising. For these settings, I believe you need songs with more energy and empowerment, so I will make sure to make music which fits this vibe, such as dancefloor or jump up.

how often do you listen to music?

This question was asked so that I could find out how long roughly my songs need to be. If people are only listening to music an hour a day, which the majority of people are doing, they would not listen to an EP where each song is seven minutes long, like old-school vinyl. This was done back in the day as cutting vinyl was expensive, so artists wanted to get the most out of their money, so made their songs longer. Also, old DJs often needed tunes with really long intros so they had enough time to manually beat-match and blend into the new song. Another reason why music needs to be shorter is due to the "Tik Tok generation". This short-form media application is shortening the attention span of the younger generation and forcing musicians to keep their songs short so people do not lose interest. For example, in 2016, 4% of the top ten hits were sub-three minutes, whereas, in 2020, that was up to 38%, with it only rising. As such, this is going to force me to keep my songs short and snappy, to keep the listener engaged.

HOW DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC?

This question was asked so I could determine how important the mixing and mastering would be at the end of the project, and again it was a question that allowed the user to select all of the options that applied. If everyone was going to be listening to my music on high-end, top-of-the-range, large sound systems, I was going to have to make sure that each song was perfectly mixed and mastered by professionals. As seen by the research, this is not the case. The majority of people would be listening to my music on small portable speakers (52) as well as headphones (30) and earphones (40). Only seventeen people listen to music on large systems, so the mix does not need to be perfect. If we look at the frequency response curves of some speakers you can see what frequencies are boosted or not present. Of course, I will still strive to make my mixes and masters sound as professional as possible, so I can present the best quality work I can.

This is the response for a small wireless speaker, the JBL Flip 5. I own this speaker and will use it to test and reference my mixes to make sure the songs sound good on a range of devices, not just my large, 7-inch sub, studio monitors. The graph shows how much of the low end, below around 80Hz, is cut off from the song. As such, lots of the low end will be removed, so when mixing I need to make sure there is enough low end present to be able to be heard on this frequently used speaker. This is called translation, when you try the mix and master of a song on lots of different devices, to make sure it still sounds great.

This is the frequency response of Air Pods 2nd Gen, which are very popular wireless earbuds. I also own these earphones, so will use them to again test the mix of my songs. Like the speaker, it also cuts the low end out. However, it also boosts a lot of the high mids and lower trebles. When I mix my songs, I need to make sure these frequencies are not too present, and if they are they need to be tamed, otherwise it will be unpleasant for the listener and will make the song not sound as good as it should. I want this EP to be professional sounding.

why do you listen to music?

Finally, my last question. This was my most open-ended question of all, and honestly, it does not have much to do with my project. I just wanted to see why people love music so much. Personally, I find it such a wonderful and powerful thing that has the power to make you feel millions of different emotions, nothing is as powerful as music. Some of my favourite responses to this question include: "It brings joy, connection, celebration, fun, intrigue and laughter into my life. Music is the thing that gives you me that surprised joy feeling the most often." Also, "Music takes you out of yourself and brings memories alive.", and of course the most important one, "Bass is good for the soul!!" Music truly is such a beautiful thing that impacts everyone differently, and I can't wait to see what emotions I can evoke in others with the music I create.

Music Questionare(1-75).xlsx

Here is a spreadsheet with all the responses to the questionaire.

Genre research

As I am a massive lover of drum and bass, I have already conducted some very through research of the history of drum and bass, with it's reggea, free party and jungle roots, during my Unit 1project. This can be found on my page here.

end of week Evalutation:

Overall, I am really happy with what I have done in my first week of FMP, I feel I have a great start. I know what direction to take my music in so that it can reach the right audience. I am very happy that I managed to get so many responses on my survey which has allowed me to gather some crucial information that I feel is going to benefit me in future weeks. Each question I asked had its purpose, they are all going to be used in some part of my project. If I was to do parts differently, I would have put the "favourite colour" question in the survey from the beginning, instead of halfway through. This would have allowed me to get more accurate results for this question. Also, after collecting results, I realised I should have put a question asking for people's emails to put them on a mailing list, whilst I had their attention. This would allow me to have direct contact with my audience, and easily promote any music I release as it would go straight into people's inboxes. This could have been the start of a fan base. If I was to do another questionnaire, I will make sure to add this question. This week I would have also liked to have made some music, as I felt it was a lot of written work, which I have felt to be tedious. As such, over the next few weeks, I am going to focus on actually creating some tunes, so I do not get bored and burn out too early on. I also did not get a chance to message any of the artists that I am wanting to work with. I really need to do this soon, so it will give me enough time to make the music and send it to them so they have enough time to come up with their own ideas for the songs. Next week I will contact them. Regarding research, I did much more primary the secondary this week. The primary was the questionnaire I sent out, which I then personally analysed once I got the results in. I did much less secondary research this week. I looked up some statistics of major streaming platforms, interpreted different frequency response graphs and look up the reasons why songs are starting to get shorter and shorter. In the future, I will utilise more secondary research. To sum up, I am proud of what I have achieved this week. I gave myself an outline and schedule for how the coming weeks will unfold, which I am ahead of at the moment due to already analysing the data, and have conducted a solid groundwork of personal research to be used all throughout my project.

week 1 bibliography

Georgiev, D. (2023). 17 Mind-Blowing Spotify Statistics You Need To Know in 2022. [online] Techjury. Available at: https://techjury.net/blog/spotify-statistics/#gref. [Accessed 5 Apr. 2023].
HeadphonesAddict (2022). 30+ SoundCloud Statistics: How Many SoundCloud Users 2022. [online] Headphones Addict. Available at: https://headphonesaddict.com/soundcloud-users/. [Accessed 5 Apr. 2023].
www.greaserelease.co. (n.d.). Why Music Marketing Is So Important in 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.greaserelease.co/blog/music-marketing-and-its-importance. [Accessed 5 Apr. 2023].
Leight, E. and Leight, E. (2022). Here’s Why Shorter Songs Are Surging (And Why Some Welcome It). [online] Billboard. Available at: https://www.billboard.com/pro/songs-getting-shorter-tiktok-streaming/. [Accessed 5 Apr. 2023].

Week 2 & 3 - w/b 3rd april (Easter half term):

These two weeks will be half-term, so I will probably not do lots of work because of that. As such, I will combine the blog entry into two weeks. I plan for this to be the time when I start to make some music and start on creating some cover art.

song one - Dancefloor:

After reading the results of the survey, 37 people, as well as myself enjoy dancefloor drum and bass. So, I have decided that one of the tracks on the EP is going to be dancefloor. I have never really made this style before, so it is going to be interesting to try. Here is some history of the genre. Dancefloor drum and bass is a style that came into popularity in the late 2000s and early 2010s, that was much lighter and melodic than its predecessors, jungle and jump up. It took lots of inspiration from EDM, with catchy, memorable synth leads and simple and clean drum programming. This was different to jungle, the grandfather of drum and bass, which focussed much more on gritty, fast-chopping sampled 1960s break beats, most famously the amen break. Also like EDM, it utilised rigid structures, like a 16-bar intro, 32-bar build-up, and then a 64-bar drop, this was very useful for DJs to mix with. Famous artists who produce the genre include Netsky, Pendulum, Sub Focus, Wilkinson, Rudimental and Sigma. It reached commercial success when Rudiemental's songs "Feel the Love" featuring John Newman and "Waiting All Night" with vocals from Ella Eyre both reached number one in the official charts. Sigma's songs "Nobody to Love", which sampled Kanye's "Bound 2", and "Changing" featuring pop idol Paloma Faith did the same in 2014. DJ Fresh also claimed a number-one spot with his song "Hot Right Now" featuring Rita Ora in 2012. It seemed when dancefloor producers teamed up with pop singers, it was a recipe for perfection and fans all across the country loved it. Here are some examples of the groundbreaking songs.

To this day, dancefloor drum and bass is still very much a popular genre inside the scene, with old-school artists like Sub Focus and Pendulum still being pioneering artists, with songs like "Vibration (One More Time)" and "Driver" as well as new people coming into the scene, like Vibe Chemistry and AC13. Here are some examples of their music.

For my dancefloor song, I have decided to collaborate with a producer from Exeter called Hush. We followed each other on Instagram as we are both drum and bass lovers from Devon, and I saw that he produces dancefloor and liquid drum and bass and he announced he just released a single on Soundcloud. The song was called "Orthrus", I gave it a listen and really loved his style, it married dancefloor and liquid perfectly. The song can be heard to the left. I then reached out to him on Instagram and asked if he wanted to collaborate on a tune together, he replied saying he was keen. We had to work out the logistics of how it was going to work as we both used different DAWs, I use Logic Pro and he uses FL Studio. We decided the best way was to send each other ideas we have as stems, each instrument split, let the other work on it and then send it back. We would then repeat this process as many times as need be. Here is a screenshot of some of the messages. The rest are all voice notes that can not be heard, but basically, we said that I'd send him an idea of a tune and he will work on it and send it back. This is really exciting, and I can not wait to see what he does with the song!!

I then sent him an attempt at a dancefloor idea I created. I had the idea for the song when I was just listening to lots of different dancefloor tunes and found this song, "Broken Pieces (Culture Shock Remix)" by Camo & Krooked. I like how it had this massive build up and then just before the drop (1 minute and 6 seconds) it had this pause of silence. I thought it made the song sound so interesting and I wanted to recreate this in my music. As such I came up with this basic idea for a tune. Here is a bounce of the tune at the moment, and below is a walkthrough video explaining how I did it.

I have since sent him the stems via One Drive (as seen on the left), and I am now waiting for his reply to see what he has done with the track. If the song needs it, I will contact and ask around the music department for singers, probably female, to sing over the song to complete it.

song two - liquid:

The style of drum and bass I most enjoy making is liquid, so I had to make sure there were some liquid tracks on the EP. Liquid drum and bass is a style of music that is much more relaxed and chill. It started gaining popularity in the early 2000s after drum and bass icon DJ Fabio played it on his Radio One show. It often samples soul, funk and jazz songs, with frequent uses of live instrumentation. The production style is lush, comforting, warm and easy on the ears, which makes it a style which non-DNB listeners can enjoy. The most common instruments used are pianos, often playing extended chords which it has taken from jazz music, horns and strings. All very traditional and familiar instruments. Hospital Records is a record label set up in early 1996 in West London by Chris Goss and Tony Colman. They pioneered the genre throughout time and are still one of the most famous labels in the scene. Artists who produce this style include Hybrid Minds, Netsky, London Elektricty, High Contrast, Monrroe and Technimatic. They can be both upbeat and happy, such as "The Whistle Song" by Netsky and Dynamite MC, as well as melancholy and sad, such as "Dawning" by Monrroe and Emily Jones. Here are examples of both of those songs.

Personally, my favourite liquid DNB track is "Begin By Letting Go" by Etherwood. The song reminds me of the 2020 lockdowns and makes me feel such powerful emotions. I hope to one day make a song that makes somebody feel moved when they listen to it. Here is the song.

The song "Alone", which I have already made, is a liquid drum and bass song and will feature on the EP. As such, I have to make sure that the next one I make sounded different to this song. The way I am going to do that is by incorporating some jungle influences into the song by using the Amen Break. Also, when I was doing some primary research, listening to lots of different liquid drum and bass songs on Spotify, I found the song "Still Messed Up". It is performed by the rapper Degs and produced, although uncredited, by Pola & Bryson. The only evidence I could find for this was the credits inside Spotify. I believe this to be reliable as the source is Hospital Records, which is the label the song was released. I found this song incredibly moving and I enjoyed how it went from emotional singing in the verse, to a more darker, deeper-toned rap in the chorus. As such, I reached out to some artists in the music department that could help to recreate this sort of vibe, I found KC and Sam. I thought these two would be the best choice as I know Sam can rap very laid back and relaxed, and KC can sing in a wonderful, emotional, male tone. These guys are the perfect match. I then got to work contacting these two great artists, sending them a beat I made, that I will explain later in my blog. For Sam, I spoke to him in class about the tune and he said he was up for it and asked me to send him an email with the beat. Here is that email. I am now waiting for a reply to see what he does. For KC, I messaged him on Snap Chat and Instagram about the song. Here are those messages. I gave him the reference tune, along with perhaps the idea to record some live guitar in the beginning. As I am writing this, I have gone off this idea and do not think the guitar will work. I am now waiting for him to reply to me with his ideas. If I do not get a reply soon, I will talk to him in person to hurry him along.

Message To Sam

Message to KC

Here is a walkthrough of the start of the tune I sent the boys.

Here is a full bounce of the full tune of where it is at now.

artwork:

I am not too sure when exactly, but I want to tease the release of the EP soon, and one of the best ways of doing this is by releasing a single first. The website "DIY Musicians" talks about how the first release rallies the fans and builds excitement for the audience. The single I want to use is "Alone", because it was the first song I ever finished I was really happy with, as well as being the only tune ready for release. As such, I am going to need artwork for it. I have reached out to an old friend of mine, Jack Ewart, who is currently studying graphic design at a university in London and is very talented in the field. I first reached out to him via Instagram DMs to see if he was up for the challenge, and he was. So I sent him the tune and a Google Doc with some ideas I was thinking it could look like, along with a few album covers I think look great, to act as a reference. I wanted the primary colour to be blue, as it is a colour I like, as well as being the highest voted on my survey, so I know my audience will like it too. I also quite like nature being involved in some way. I find nature to be better than people in artwork because I find more people can relate to it. I also wanted it to be very solitary and not too busy, as the song is called "Alone". As a result, I settled on a waterfall being the key image. I made sure I communicated all of this inside of the Google Doc, so he understood what I imagined it to look like. I will now wait to see what he designs, see what I like and do not like and adjust accordingly. Below are some screenshots of the chats we had, along with the design brief that I sent him.

Notes for Album Cover for Jack

End of week evaluation:

Overall, I feel really happy with what I have accomplished this week. Even though I was not at college, I managed to get the ball rolling with two new tunes and send them off to their respected collaborator. I also started the process of creating some artwork for my music, as well as delving deeper into the subgenres I am making and learning some new techniques to use in my work. Something that did not go so well was how long it took people to reply to my messages. I knew when starting this project, working with others could be a pain and they may take a while to get things done as the project is not as important to them as it is to me. For example, Jack took way over a week to finally start the artwork, and even then he could not get much done as I had left the ideas document locked. This is my fault, but if he had told me earlier on, he would have had more time to work on a design. If I was to use him again, I would offer him money or his work, and not just do it as a friendly favour. This would then speed him up as he has a financial obligation to get the work done. Another example where people have not been as on it as I would like is Sam and KC. I have sent them both the tune and asked them to come up with ideas, so I can get in the studio with them and record them as soon as possible, to give myself enough time to finish producing and mix/master. Neither of them has sent me back any ideas, which is frustrating. To overcome this, I am going to continue to message them all, reminding them to work on the tune. This week I have used various forms of research. The primary I have used has been referencing last week's survey when creating the document brief for Jack to use. I have also used some listening skills when I have analysed lots of different drum and bass songs, to pick out ideas I like to then use in my music. Examples of this include the mix of singing and rapping in Deg's tune and the pause before the drop in the Camo & Krooked tune. Secondary research I have conducted has been finding out the history and crucial elements of the subgenres by reading through different websites. I have also decided on releasing "Alone" as a single, after being informed by my research that this is the best thing to do, release a single before an EP. Even after a few incidents these weeks, I am still on schedule, due to completing everything I needed to, as laid out on my initial timetable. I am proud of what has been done this week.

week 2&3 bibliography

Rate Your Music. (n.d.). Dancefloor Drum and Bass - Music genre - RYM/Sonemic. [online] Available at: https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/dancefloor-drum-and-bass/#:~:text=Dancefloor%20drum%20and%20bass%20typically [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
www.officialcharts.com. (n.d.). Official Charts Company. [online] Available at: https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/7474/rudimental/. [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
www.officialcharts.com. (n.d.). Sigma | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company. [online] Available at: https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/18947/sigma/. [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
www.officialcharts.com. (n.d.). DJ Fresh | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company. [online] Available at: https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/834/dj-fresh/. [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
Rate Your Music. (n.d.). Liquid Drum and Bass - Music genre - RYM/Sonemic. [online] Available at: https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/liquid-drum-and-bass/ [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
Resident Advisor. (n.d.). Hospital Records · Record label ⟋ RA. [online] Available at: https://ra.co/labels/392 [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].
Robley, C. (2020). Why new musicians MUST put out a single FIRST. [online] DIY Musician. Available at: https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-promotion/why-musicians-must-put-out-a-single-first/#:~:text=Artists%20at%20the%20major%20label. [Accessed 16 Apr. 2023].

Week 4 - w/b 17th april:

This week I am back at college and will be working on creating tunes, sending them out to collaborators, carrying on working on the artwork and starting to promote my single. I also may be able to get my song onto the radio, so I will be pushing to make this happen.

song one - Dancefloor:

After sending Hush the stems to the tune last week, he has since replied with his version. It had some really cool sound design bass patches at the end of each phrase, which I thought sounded nice and added to the song, and a lead bell sound that gave the song atmosphere. He did something I could not currently do, which is why I rate collaborating with other producers, they can show you stuff you did not know before. Although I did like what he had done with the song, there were some parts I wanted to take out and alter. As we agreed before, we sent each other each part, the stem, so I could do that in my own DAW. I chopped up some of the WAV bounces, pitch-shifted some of the bass sounds, and also changed up the drum pattern when the bass changed so that the song stayed interesting. I also sped up the rate of the cut-off filter for the main synth to 1/16 notes to give it some more hype and energy. After the changes were done, I bounced out the stems and sent them back to him with an idea. I thought that the second drop could be different to the first and be 4x4 style. This is a style of drum and bass that is becoming increasingly popular, with heavy influences from techno music, with its "four on the floor" kick drum pattern. This is when the kick drum hits all four beats of a bar. The song that inspired me to maybe have it in our tune is 1991's remix of "Tell Me Why" by Supermode. At 1 minute and 50 seconds, it merges dancefloor with 4x4. I sent this tune to Hush and he said he was up for giving it a go. I will now wait to see what he gets back to me with. Another tune that transitions from dancefloor into 4x4 really well is "All of Your Love" by Belgium producer Primate. The first drop has a traditional syncopated (off beat) drum rhythm, whereas the second drop goes into harder 4x4, with on beat kick drums carrying the main rhythm. The song can be found on the left. Below is both Hush's bounce and mine after I altered it, along with a screenshot of his project in FL Studio and mine in Logic Pro X.

Here are the messages talking about the reference song.

HUSH's FL Project

My Logic Project Now

Whilst I wait for Hush to do the second drop, I thought I should try and add some vocals to the song. I was thinking of trying somebody new, but when I was talking to Rosie about doing more songs, I sent her this and she loved it and instantly wrote to it. That night, she sent me this video of her singing and I thought it sounded nice. Here is the video she sent. The next day, I extracted the audio and put it into my Logic Project, flexed it so it was in time and listened to it in context with the rest of the song. Here is that bounce. I thought it worked amazingly well, I sent it to Hush too for his opinion and he agreed saying, "Yeah sounds sick with the vocals even from that rough copy". As such, I and Rosie agreed to go into the studio next week and record the vocals the right way, maybe trying some experimental mic techniques, like using a dynamic mic instead of the classic condenser.

live performance and radio play:

This week was also really exciting as I managed to have my first ever radio play, on the radio station KISS FM!! This is a really exciting thing for me. Personally, having a tune being played on the radio has always been a dream of mine and professionally, it is great exposure for my name and the song itself. The song that was played was my song with Rosie, "Alone", and it was played on Fred V's Drum and Bass show. When I conducted my initial research, the number of people that find new music via radio stations was 35. This was higher than I would of expect, personally, I would have thought more more people in my demographic would be using streaming services like Spotify. To be honest, when I saw this I choose to ignore it, as I did not know anybody in the radio industry and did not have the time to try and sort it out. However, as fate would have it, I bumped into a Radio DJ whilst at the gym of all places! His name is Fred V and he is an extremely musically talented Drum and Bass DJ from Exeter. His successes include having track support from Annie Mac, Mista Jam and Friction, tours of the USA and most recently running a weekly Drum and Bass radio show on KISS FM. I find his music emotional and inspiring as he merges orchestral, traditional instruments with drum and bass. The tune "Alone" was heavily inspired by his style. When I saw him at the gym, I went up to him and told him how much I love his music and how much of an inspiration he is for me, especially as he is so famous in the Drum and Bass scene and from Exeter. I asked him if I could send him my tune for some feedback, and he was very up for it. He sent himself a voice note, so he would remember. When I got back home I sent him the tune, along with some blurb about it. He liked it and offered to play it on his show. This was such a surprise and not what I think was going to happen when I sent him the tune. I then waited about a week, saw my name on the tracklist and rushed to listen to the show. When musicians say the music industry is all about networking, it is so true, like how I just landed a radio play from the gym. Here are the screenshots of the messages between him and him, the tracklist and him playing the song, after giving me a shoutout.

After seeing the song get played on the radio, I found a new love for it and decided to see if I could get Rosie out to perform the song live at an upcoming performance platform with the college. I asked my college tutor Ian via an email, and he agreed thinking it would be a great idea. I exported an instrumental version of my song ready for my set and then practised how to transition into it. On the day, we did a tech rehearsal to get everything sounding as good as it should be. This was done by the sound technician asking what sort of effects to add to Rosie's voice. I said to add reverb and some subtle delay, just like the original song. That evening we performed it, and it went well. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, and I found it so refreshing to have a live singer with a DJ set, as they can sometimes seem too moody, with caps on and stern faces. We both enjoyed it so much that I have managed to secure Rosie to come and perform the song with me at Altitude Festival, which is a festival I am playing at over the summer. This will be a great experience for both of us and will set me apart from the rest of the DJs over the weekend. Here is a video of us performing the song at the college show, and the emails from my tutor. However, the video is only the tech rehearsal.

artwork

This week I also had the artwork for "Alone" finished, so that it is ready to be released on the 28th of April. After sending Jack my initial ideas last week, he first got back to me with the typography. This is the font and colour that I want the text to be. Here is what he sent me. I liked how the blue will match with the water, and the slightly distorted edges make it look unique, and not just a generic font. I let him know that was what I liked, and so he came up with the design of the cover.

The first cover he sent me used the photo that I gave him in the draft, it looked like this. I thought it was a great start. The text matched the photo, and I liked how distorted the image looked, yet I found the words "DJ ARC" to be too overpowering and draw too much attention. I also did not like how white the water was, I needed it to be much bluer. I sent him back this feedback, but then we ran into a different problem. We did not know if this image was copyright free, and I did not want to get in trouble with the person who owns the photo, or potentially owe the money. We instead went looking for other images that we could use. I also asked him to make a second version reading "Alone EP", which will be the cover for the actual EP when it comes out, but use the same photo.

The next design he sent me was this one. I was not a big fan of it at all. The photo seemed too busy and the waterfall was not solitary enough. The vision I had in my head was a waterfall that stood alone, like the title of the song, and looked gentle, which is the vibe of the song. I also did not like the dark blue and black text, it seemed too moody. The letters are also too fuzzy and hard to read. I gave him all this feedback and he sent through two images of waterfalls and asked which one I preferred the look of. They looked like this:

I chose to go with the image on the left, although crop out the bridge. I felt it was much darker, and the water was much smoother. I did not like the one on the right because of the log at the top, it ruined the image as it did not look pristine and calming to me.

Finally, he sent through the design that would be used for the real thing. I found the text to be a perfect size, the font and colour matched the waterfall, the waterfall was solitary and imposing, yet still peaceful and the image was not too distorted. It also did not have any copyright issues, so I was free to use it how I wished. I told Jack that this was the one and he emailed over the photo, along with the EP cover. Here are some of the messages we exchanged on Instagram, as well as the final email.

Now that the artwork is finished, I am going to release "Alone" on Friday 28th April 2022. There are a few reasons why I have chosen to do it on a Friday. The first is that I need enough time for Distrokid to receive my song and approve it. The second is that everyone always releases music on a Friday. I looked into this and researched why this is. I found that record labels often release music then because Fridays are the days that Billboard starts counting the number of plays. This gives the song the most amount of time to be streamed. As such, this information has led me to release my song on Friday. I know my song will not reach the Billboard's Top 100, but I want this to be as professional as possible so I want to keep consistent with the big players. The third reason is so that I have enough time to promote it. I have already teased it a little bit, including the radio play, but a week will be enough time to post some social media posts and tell lots of people. Especially as in my initial research of 75 people, 58 people find music through word of mouth and a combined 46 people use social media.

distrokid

The platform I am going to use to distribute my music is Distrokid. A digital distribution company is "a platform that sends your music, cover art and data to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Pandora, Amazon, YouTube, Tidal and more". The reason for using it is because it is the service that my peers, have highly praised as the best. Jack, a student in my class, sang its praises, especially pointing out how you can upload as many times as you want for a set yearly fee. This is great, as it means I can upload my entire EP for the same price. To work out how to use the platform and how to upload my songs in the right way, I watched this YouTube video. It taught me that Distrokid will automatically set up a Spotify artists page, which is useful, and also how to correctly upload it to the right streaming services to get the most attention. In my survey, the most popular ways people listen to music are Spotify (63), Youtube (40) and Soundcloud (29). As such, when I uploaded the song, I made sure to tick these platforms. Soundcloud was not an option, but I already have a presence and know how to upload to Soundcloud, so that was not an issue. I have now fully uploaded my song, ready for release on the 28th!!

Also in Distrokid, you are able to decide and implement the splits for the tune. The splits are how the royalties and money is split between collaborators on a tune. After interviewing my tutor Ian, who worked in the music industry as an engineer and producer, he told me that typically in the music industry, 50% will go to the music. This will be the producer or band that makes the backing track. The other 50% will be for songwriting/lyrics. These are all the words that are said in the tune. From learning this, me and Rosie have agreed on a 50% split for "Alone". The way we split the royalties is through Distrokid. It has a built in function that allows us to do this. This is what it looks like.

end of week evaluation:

Lots of amazing things have happened this week, that are getting me closer and closer to my end goal of finishing my EP. Having my tune played on the radio is something I thought may happen one day, but not as soon as this, so it is amazing that this has happened. However, if something like this was to happen again, it would have been great if the song was released. If it was, people who listened to the show would be able to find it and listen back to it, and the radio play would be a free promo. On the other hand, it not being out can create anticipation for the release and build hype surrounding it when it finally does come out. That links to another thing that did not go so well this week. Jack finally managed to get the artwork finished to the standard I wanted it to be but cut it very fine with the time. Distrokid says it needs a week to process and approve the song, to make sure there is no plagiarism or offensive content before it can be put onto streaming platforms, especially with new artists. I repeatedly said this to Jack during the design process, yet still only sent the final design through on Sunday night. Hopefully, this will give it enough time to be submitted, so it can be released on Friday. I have done all I can do, so now I need to wait. This keeps me on track with my schedule, as I wanted the artwork to be finished by now. Throughout the design process of the artwork, I continued to evaluate Jack's work to make sure it was the best it could be With regards to the dancefloor tune, I am overjoyed at how well it is progressing. Hush is very easy to collaborate with, he understands my ideas, is not afraid to add his own, replies to messages fast and makes the whole process a breeze, even though we are using different DAWs, and have never met in real life. The tune has evolved so much in the last week, in particular now we have the start of some vocal ideas from Rosie, which I believe is going to complete the track. I will work with him again in the future. With research, my primary has included other than listening to the 1991 tune, asking friends what they think of Distrokid and interviewing my tutor about royalty splits. I have not done as much secondary, only really finding out how to use Distrokid and upload my tune. As the deadline of the project draws closer, I am starting to worry that I am slowly starting to fall behind schedule. This is because by now I wanted to have all my tunes on the go, when in reality not all my blog work has been completed to a standard that I would like, and my 4th tune has not even been started. I am going to give it another week and then decided whether I need to strip back to a three-track EP or not.

week 4 bibliography

Hospital Records. (n.d.). Hospital Records. [online] Available at: https://www.hospitalrecords.com/artist/fred-v [Accessed 23 Apr. 2023].
Veen, T. van (2021). Why you should set a date for your music release (and make it a Friday). [online] Disc Makers Blog. Available at: https://blog.discmakers.com/2021/03/friday-music-release/#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20that%20every [Accessed 23 Apr. 2023].
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). How to Upload an EP to Spotify Using DistroKid. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVWSJu_ouEU [Accessed 23 Apr. 2023].
Gateway, M. (2019). What Is DistroKid & Is It Any Good? [online] Music Gateway. Available at: https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/music-distribution/distrokid-review-is-it-worth-it#:~:text=What%27s%20DistroKid%3F [Accessed 23 Apr. 2023].

Week 5 - w/b 24th april:

This week I look to carry on creating music, this time by booking out studios and getting in some live performers to further progress the tunes. I will also be promoting my single, which will be out on Friday, to the best of my ability, so that it can get as many listens as possible.

in the studio with rosie

This week I recorded some vocals for the dancefloor tune with Rosie. I have worked with her before on the tune Alone, so I knew we had good chemistry and worked well together. When we got to the studios, we conducted some primary research. We set up two microphones. One was a condenser, the Rode NT2A and one was dynamic, the Shure SM58. Here is a video of me explaining how I set up the microphones in the live room, so the signal got to Logic strongly.

Also, here is the signal flow of the session in a visual diagram.

Before I talk about how the actual recording session went, here is some information comparing condenser and dynamic microphones.

microphones

There are technically three different types of microphones, these are dynamic, condenser and ribbon, with each type being used for different things. However, ribbon microphones are really ever used due to them being very fragile and expensive. As such, most studios only use dynamic and condensers. Dynamics are used on instruments that create high sound pressure levels, such as drum kits or guitar/bass amps. They are heavy duty, not very sensitive which is great for live performances as this avoids feedback. Condensers on the other hand are much more sensitive. They are very fragile and can be easily broken if dropped or the instrument that is being recorded is too loud. They are great for recording detailed intimate instruments, such as vocals, pianos, strings and woodwinds. With regards to set-up, they are both the same, except condensers need powering with 48v (phantom power) to work. This can be done on a mixing desk, or at college inside of Logic or the Apogee software, which is synced with Logic. As I have mentioned before regarding speakers, all microphones have a frequency response curve too. Each microphone has a frequency response curve, which is a graphical representation of how a microphone will respond in the audio spectrum, subsequently how it will affect the signal's timbre. These are very good indicators to use when deciding what microphone to use when recording. Here are some examples of the two microphones we tried.

shure sm58

This is the frequency response curve for the Shure SM58, which is a dynamic microphone. It shows that it will cut some of the lower frequencies, below 200Hz, yet will boost some of the higher frequencies, from 3000-6000Hz. This is a great one to choose if you wanted to record a snare drum, as the crack of a snare is at around these frequencies, the upper mids, or some live saxophone, but not a kick drum or bass amp, because of that low cut. This proves how crucial it is to look at the graph before recording because if you just thought that it would work on a kick because it is a dynamic microphone and kicks are loud you would be wrong. It would not accurately record the sound that is being produced.

rode nt2a

This is the frequency response curve for the microphone I used to record Rosie, my vocalist, the Rode NT2A. It has a low cut filter (the blue dotted line) on the microphone itself, which when I use it, I switch on, to remove any low rumble which could muddy a mix. It is a perfect mic for vocals or acoustic guitars. It is a condenser, so picks up sensitive singing or intimate guitar picking and has a relatively flat response curve, other than a slight boost at the 2000-8000Hz range, so is a great choice when trying to record any instrument. Although it should not be used for anything with high sound pressure levels, like a bass amp or snare, due to it being condenser it could permanently damage the microphone.

polar patterns

Microphones also have polar patterns. The polar pattern is the term used to explain the direction of the microphone. It shows how much of the signal will be picked up from the different directions. There are three common ones: omnidirectional, cardioid and bidirectional. These are shown to the left. Omnidirectional picks up the signal from all around the microphone. It is great if you want to record live ambience, like in nature, or record a group of backup singers with just one mic. The Cardioid is the most common choice, as it is only sensitive at the front, the best choice for recording vocals. Bidirectional records from the front and the back of the mic, but ignores anything from the sides. This makes it perfect for recording podcasts or a duet of singers.

The reason why we tried two different microphones in the recording session with Rosie, was because we wanted to try and see if using a dynamic microphone gave her voice a different texture. Most audio recordings use condenser microphones, as they are much more sensitive to sound and capture intimate recordings in much more detail. This was great when recording "Alone", which is a very subtle and gentle song. For this dancefloor tune, everything has more energy and sounds a bit grittier, so we thought perhaps a dynamic microphone may fit this vibe. We recorded a take on them both and this is what they sounded like.

After listening to both takes, we agreed that the condenser, Rode NT2A, sounded the best. It kept her voice crisp and pronounced, whereas the dynamic is much harsher and muddier. The Rode NT2A is also Rosie's favourite mic to use, it is the one she has at home so she knows how it affects the tone of her voice. I trusted her with the decision, as she knew how she wanted herself to sound. We also used a pop filter to eliminate any plosives. Plosives are "consonant sounds made by stopping air flow from the mouth before suddenly releasing it, often from the letters p, b, d, t, and k." If they are present, they can potentially distort the signal and ruin a mix. As such, pop filters are used to act as a barrier between the singer and microphone, to eliminate this problem.

Before a pop filter, the signal is distorted.

After a pop filter, the signal is clean.

Also during set up, I positioned the mic so the diaphragm was facing her and made sure that the switch on the mic itself had the correct polar pattern selected: cardioid, so it just recorded what was in front of it. Before we recorded any proper takes, I did some test recordings to make sure that the gain levels were set at the correct level so that the recordings did not clip and distort and there was a strong signal present. Now we started to record the song. On the channel that we were recording too, I added an EQ with a low cut filter on at 215Hz. I did this to remove any low rumble that can be heard when recording, which could potentially muddy the mix later on. We started by just recording multiple takes of the melody she sang in the initial video she sent me. This can be seen in this video, the audio in it is poor but that is due to an issue with my phone. Rosie said during the session that she liked recording in the dark, as she found that there was a lot less pressure on her. So that is what we did, to be honest, I quite liked it too. I found it more relaxing and comfortable, which I find to be perfect conditions when being creative. After a few takes, by accident she sang a different melody, one which was much higher in pitch. I loved that version so much more, I felt that it had much more energy and interest than the first, it fit the vibe of the tune much more. In particular, she sings a really high note just before the drop, an F5 to be precise, which I think sounds epic. We then recorded multiple different takes, singing the same melody, which I then cut and comped together into one full version. This is what the vocals sounded like after our recording session.

Looking back, I am really, really happy with how the session turned out. We only had a couple of hours, and what we managed to pull off in that time is truly spectacular. We conducted our own research, recorded multiple takes, completely changed the tune and still managed to finish the session with everything I needed. Rosie is an amazing and professional singer who made the whole process very easy. She is polite, came prepared with lyrics, arrived on time and stayed focused for the majority of the session. The one time she did start to drift, we had a five-minute break and then got right back to work. Rosie also thought the session went well, she said "I think it went well and we were more specific with what we like and didn’t and did multiple takes and got to comp the vocals so that they sounded really good".

I would definitely work with her again, she knows what she wants, as well as being very easy to work with. Also at the end of the session, we decided on the royalties for the tune. We agreed she would get 20%, as even though she wrote the lyrics, they were not crucial to the overall feeling of the track. The other 80% shall be split, 40% each between me and Hush, as we both equally produced the tune.

After the session was done, I sent the vocals to Hush as he wanted to have a go at mixing them. After not much time at all, he sent them back, along with a description of what he had done. He said, "I’ve added 2 very fast delays which are high passed at about 1k, so it just echos tiny bits of the words; each delay is panned to left and right and one is the double speed of the other so it's like a nice glitchy airy thing". Also, he added some own made harmonies, an octave down and up, to fill out the vocals, along with some basic reverb, echo and compression.

reverb

Reverb is often described as putting a sound in a space. Reverb provides space and depth to your mix, but it also gives the listener important clues about where the sound is taking place and where the listener is in relation to the sound." It is one of the most powerful tools in a producer's arsenal. For vocals, it is great and makes them sound exciting and interesting. Here are the vocals, with and without reverb. It makes such a difference with it. It also smooths out any stutters, as they all bleed together.

echo/delay

Delay, sometimes called echo, repeats the audio signal that has been fed into them and plays it at time intervals. Like real-life echo, like in a cave, it plays the same sound just quieter. This gives the sound an eerie, mysterious feel. Here are just the delayed parts of the vocals.

A value of 0, a hard knee.

A value of 1, a soft knee.

compression

Compression is often regarded as one of the hardest effects to understand, but it is so crucial in order to achieve high-quality music. Sample library giants Splice said compression "reduces the overall dynamic range of a piece of audio by detecting when it exceeds a specified level, and then attenuating it by a specified amount". What I have learnt is that compression equalises the dynamics of a given sound. It reduces the gap between the loudest and the quietest part of a sound. On the stock Logic compressor, there are six main knobs. This theory can be applied to all compressors. The threshold sets the level at which the compressor will squash the signal and is measured in dBs. The ratio dictates how much will the signal be reduced. For example, if the threshold is set to -20 dB, the input signal hits -16dB and the ratio is set to 2:1, the output signal will be attenuated to -18dB. This is because the gap between the threshold and the input is 4dB, so the ratio halves the gap, as it is 2:1, and adds it to the dry signal, making it -18dB. The makeup allows for the overall compressed signal to be louder and more present in a mix. The attack and release are the same as a synth. The attack is how long it takes for the compressor to turn on, and the release is how long it for the compressor to turn off. The knee determines how harsh the compressor works, and is given as a decimal value between 0, being a hard knee and 1, being a soft knee. A hard knee will make the compressor harsher and a soft knee will do it much gentler, and over gradual time. It is best visualised, as shown in the images to the left. A steeper line is a hard knee, and a gentle curve is a soft knee

In drum programming for drum and bass, often a combination of modern drum samples and old drum breaks are used. Compression helps to glue the two together to make them sound more cohesive. For vocals, it is great as sometimes a singer can go from singing very loud, to very soft. This may not always be wanted, so compression is a tool that can be used to even this out. It can sometimes be subtle but does often make a big difference. Here are the vocals, one is compressed, the other is not.

The vocals play in the build-up as well as repeating in the drop, yet slightly altered to keep it interesting. This was after a chat I had with my tutor Ian. He thought that the vocals had just been added without any thought, and sounded too repetitive, after listening back I agreed. He showed me a stock Logic plug-in called Remix FX. It loops and cuts the vocal to make it sound like it has been sampled. After messing around with it, hearing what I do and do not like, I live-recorded some automation onto the track. I am very grateful he showed me this as it adds variation, to an otherwise boring, drop. I also changed some of the instrumentals. This includes automating the cut-off rate of the main synth so that it slows down to an 1/8 note every so often. This is where the song is at the moment.

Here is a screen shot of Remix FX and the corrosponding automation.

Releasing "Alone"

This week, "Alone" was released to the world. I am so overjoyed to have a song that I produced put onto all major streaming services and to be able to receive some heartwarming feedback. Leading up to it coming out, I put out lots of teasers on my Instagram page, along with a pre-save link, so people could sign up to have the tune automatically added to their Spotify library. One of the ways I teased the release was by putting this video on my story. It is a clip of the verse, just before the drop, but does not play the drop. This builds suspense and hype around the tune, as people are going to want to come back and listen to the full thing when it is out so they know what the climax of the song sounds like. I took this idea from how lots of drum and bass are released. A good example of which is Selecta J-Man and his forthcoming release "Right There" on DNB Allstars. I have never seen the tune being played out anywhere on social media, so when I saw he had a clip of some new music coming out, I got very excited. Although the clip does not include the drop, this builds anticipation and makes me want to come back on Friday to listen to the whole song. Another person that has done this is Kanine and his forthcoming single "Escape" on Unleashed Records. I hoped that if I implemented these techniques in my music, it would have the same response as it has on me.

Once the tune was finally available, I did a collaboration post on my Instagram, with Rosie so that it comes up on both of our feeds. I chose to post this at 11am, due to some secondary research I found on Shopify that informed me that this was the best time to post, as most people will be active on the application at this time. The post included a teaser video that was made by Jack the graphic designer, a clip of Fred V playing it, a clip of Rosie and I performing it at the Phoenix, us in the studio recording it and some photos of the Fred V track list when he played it on KISS FM and the EP cover. Here is that Instagram post. I also wrote a meaningful and heartfelt caption, expressing my gratitude towards everyone who helped make the tune what it is. I then processed to message/DM/Email as many people as I could to give the song a listen, or to share it. This included some DJing, party and friends group chats that I am in, Altitude festival's Instagram (they have a wide reach) and some previous teachers. The feedback I got for the tune was overwhelming. Lots of people called the tune "lush", and even people who I knew did not like drum and bass seemed to really love it. This was one of my goals when making the tune, making it accessible to as many people as possible. I feel I have succeeded with that. Here are some of the people that loved the tune so much, they shared the tune to their Instagram stories.

As of writing, we have had 17 streams on Apple Music, 82 views on Youtube, 203 streams on Soundcloud and 389 streams on Spotify. This gives me a total of 691 streams, which I am really happy with, especially as it is my first-ever release!

end of week evaluation

After looking at what I have achieved this week, and previous ones too, as well as looking at my original schedule, I have made the decision to change from a four-track EP to a three-track. I have done this because, at the moment, I only have three tunes either finished, or already started, and do not think it is possible to start a fourth and finish it to a high standard. When it comes to my music, I always want to take quality over quantity, and I feel that making this decision will make this goal much more achievable. A slightly negative thing that has hindered my progress this week is how long it is taking Hush to reply. Normally he is quite fast on the turnaround of making music, but this week he is being much slower. Him being slow impacts me, as I am not able to mix, master and finish this tune without his input, so it is creating more workload for me in a shorter space of time. Moving forward, I am going to contact him, letting him know this and asking him to speed up what he is doing. On a more positive note, I am really happy with how the vocal session went with Rosie, we achieved a lot and made a massive jump in getting this tune finally finished. I have also included both primary and secondary research this week. The primary is trying out two different microphones and choosing which sounds best to me, as well as using trial and error with the Remix FX plug-in inside of Logic to find a texture that I think sounds good. The secondary research I have made includes: looking at how other artists tease and release their music, when is best to post on Instagram, what the different parts of a compressor do and which microphone to use for what instrument, by looking at frequency response curves. By looking at my timetable, I am behind, as explained above, but also because I wanted to finish all my studio recording this week, but did not get around too. Next week I plan to continue working on the dancefloor tune with Hush and Rosie, as well as finally getting some vocals recorded from Sam and KC for the other liquid tune.

week 5 bibliography

Teach Me Audio. (n.d.). Microphone Responses and Measurements. [online] Available at: https://www.teachmeaudio.com/recording/microphones/responses-measurements. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
Sweetwater (2022). Ribbon Mics — How They Work and When to Use Them. [online] inSync. Available at: https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/ribbon-microphones-how-do-they-work/#:~:text=Ribbon%20mics%20have%20a%20reputation [Accessed 30 April. 2023].
Wreglesworth, R. (2022). What’s the Difference Between Dynamic and Condenser Microphones? [online] Musician’s HQ. Available at: https://musicianshq.com/whats-the-difference-between-dynamic-and-condenser-microphones/. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
K.T, T. (2019). Microphone polar patterns. [online] Lewitt Audio. Available at: https://www.lewitt-audio.com/blog/polar-patterns. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
iZotope. (n.d.). Removing Plosives from a Voice Recording. [online] Available at: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/removing-plosives-from-a-voice-recording.html. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
https://www.facebook.com/jvlyndark (2017). What Is Reverb? The 8 Step Guide to Mixing’s Most Powerful Effect | LANDR Blog. [online] LANDR Blog. Available at: https://blog.landr.com/what-is-reverb/. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
‌Anon, (n.d.). What is compression? | How to use compressors in music production - Blog | Splice. [online] Available at: https://splice.com/blog/what-is-compression/. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
Shopify. (n.d.). When Is the Best Time to Post on Instagram? (2022 Guide). [online] Available at: https://www.shopify.com/uk/blog/time-post-instagram. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]
Anon, (n.d.). What is compression? | How to use compressors in music production - Blog | Splice. [online] Available at: https://splice.com/blog/what-is-compression/. [Accessed 30 April. 2023]

Week 6 - w/b 1st may:

This week, I plan to backlog some of my blog work. Including what happened last week and alter my project due to some recent feedback I had from Ian regarding my proposal. I also plan to start to mix my song with Hush and Rosie, once Hush finishes it, so I can keep to my initial schedule. If he is not able to finish it in time, I plan to continue to work on the production of the KC and Sam tune. I will also finally get in the studio with KC and Sam and record their vocals, after last week getting cancelled. I have less time than I like, due to the bank holiday, so I am going to have to work more efficiently.

Work catch-up

A large majority of what I did this week involved improving and finishing the previous week's blog entries, as well as some feedback I got from my tutor Ian about my proposal. This has now been completed, with each section of writing checked with Grammarly, research correctly Harvard referenced and each week having a plan and evaluation for the week.

studio with sam

This was the week I finally got into the studio with Sam to record some rap vocals on my liquid dnb tune. The session started with getting into the room to set up, with all the microphones and headphones. It was identical to when I recorded Rosie with the patch bay and the use of a pop filter, except we used a different microphone, this time the Audio Technica 4033. Inside the studio, again it was the same as before. Here are some videos of the set-up we had.

audio Technica 4033

The Audio Technica 4033 is a cardioid, condenser microphone, with a frequency range of 30-20,000Hz. It is a great microphone for vocals because it has a relatively flat response curve, so there will not be any unnatural peaks in the sound. It also has a highly sensitive diaphragm, which makes it perfect to pick up an intimate singer's voice, as Sam has. The other reason we used this microphone was because Sam had used it many times before, so knew what effect it had on his voice.

As always, I then conducted some primary research in the form of sound tests to make sure the gain on the microphone was high enough to get a loud signal from him, without distorting. This was done by trial and error, recording a small section of him rapping and then listening back to see how it sounded. Now we made some music. Sam had not yet written any lyrics, so the next thing to do was loop the instrumental and give Sam some time to write his lyrics and get his flow right. Here is a video of him doing that. After a while, Sam got into the live room and lay down a basic idea of 16 bars, with the vibe he was going for, except he did not have lyrics for the final 4 bars, so instead he hummed it. This acted as a great benchmark of how the song was going to sound, so I had an idea of where to take the tune. Here is a video of Sam in the live room recording. This is when we ran out of time and had to pack the room away.

Overall, this session was not a great success. I felt that Sam was not in the zone and ready to record as I hoped he would be. Compared to Rosie, he had not had his lyrics prepared beforehand, even though I had sent him the backing track weeks previous and asked him to come up with words before the session to minimise time being wasted. We also had less time in the studio than I would have liked, due to having to share it with another group. If I was to do this again, I would try and book the studio for a longer time, and not be disturbed. I think Sam is an excellent musical artist and I would very much like him on my tune, but as deadlines draw closer, I need him to be much more focused. I voiced these concerns to him, and I believe he has listened. Next week, when we get back in the studio, he has said that he will come prepared and concentrate much more. Another problem that happened during this session was more technical, and that was that we had some headphone bleed. This is when the microphone records some of the backing track through the headphones, which can potentially ruin a mix. I did not notice this until after we recorded the takes. Luckily this is only the demo take, but before next week's session, I will research how to stop this from happening, to ensure I get the best quality sound possible out of him. In conclusion, this session gave us some foundation for the tune but needs to be recorded again with more time in order to achieve what I want the song to sound like.

Dancefloor Tune

With this tune, I was waiting a while for Hush to get back to me with what he had come up with regarding the second 4x4 drop. Finally, he sent it through and this is what it sounded like. I liked some of the aspects he had in it, but as always, he sent through the stems so I could alter it and change what I do and do not like.

After combining his ideas with mine, I had a version I sort of liked, but I was not 100% on. I played this version to my tutor Ian, for some feedback, and he told me that the drop did not drop hard enough, and sounded quite boring. After hearing this, I went back to the project and came up with the idea to have the vocal loop, as well as a snare build-up, in order to create some more tension. This is what I came up with at the end of this session.

I think the tune now has a very strong direction on where it needs to go, as well as I feel the mix of the first drop is really great, but it is nowhere near finished. I believe all the production elements are there, but just a much cleaner second drop mix, as well as being properly mastered. We also need to come up with a name for the tune. This can start to be completed next week.

End of week evaluation

This week has been productive, just not in the way I wanted it to be. I spent the large majority of my week doing blog work, which should have been completed in the previous weeks, instead of cracking on with practical work. If I was to do a project like this again, I would need to structure my time better than in previous weeks to make sure this does not happen again. This has put me behind schedule, as I wanted to have finished mixing at least one of my tunes by now. As such, I will now have to find time to do this in the coming weeks, which are already looking busy. Another big issue that arose this week was not being able to get into the studio with KC to record some vocals on my liquid track. This is not great as I am still producing my songs this close to the deadline, which I did not want to be doing as it is reducing the amount of time I have to mix and master my tunes. To overcome this issue, I may now have to look at trying to outsource mixing and mastering my projects to other people to reduce my workload. Hush also took longer than I expected to reply to me, which delayed my progress with the unnamed dancefloor tune. I thought this tune would be good to go with finally mixing this week, but due to this, it is not. However, as I said before this week was still productive. All of the previous weeks' blog work has been completed, I have a reference vocal from Sam and plans have been put in motion to achieve more next week, which includes finally recording KC, and tidying up the finishing touches to the dancefloor tune. This week, not much research has been conducted, as most of the time I was working on tracks with techniques I already know, or researching for previous weeks' work. The only primary I have done is sound checking when recording Sam, to get a clean signal, and the only secondary I have done has been researching the microphone I used to record him. Next week, I look to just tie up loose ends with projects to finish the project on time, with everything being completed that needs to be completed.

week 6 bibliography

www.audio-technica.com. (n.d.). AT4033a. [online] Available at: https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/at4033a. [Accessed 7 May. 2023]

Week 7 - w/b 8th may:

This week, my ideal plan is fully complete all of my tunes. This would include recording vocals for the liquid tune, finish producing both songs as well as mixing and mastering them both. This would put me in a great place to release it next week and give me enough time to evaluate my FMP work. I do not think this is too realistic. This is a lot of work to do in 4 days, as we have had a bank holiday, with too much pressure on my collaborators to complete their work, which is out of my control. As a contingency, I could scrap the liquid tune and use a song in my back catalogue. This is a last resort as I am not a massive fan of the tune, and feel it is too similar to the dancefloor tune with Hush. At the very least, I want to finish the dancefloor tune. I will know if this goal is met when I have the final bounced .wav on my computer.

Recording Sam again

This week I have gone back into the studio with Sam, to record the real version of the liquid tune that he is rapping on, that we made a reference track with last week. When we got into the studio this time, he came much more prepared with lyrics and a flow of how to rap on the beat. The set-up was the same as the previous week including the same microphone. We did some gain testing, to make sure his vocals recorded loud enough, but not too loud so that the audio was distorted. Before I went into the studio, I did some research on headphone bleed when recording, as this was an issue that we ran into last week. Headphone bleed is when the audio playing on the headphones of a performer can be picked up by the microphone, which can make the recorder audio a pain to mix, as well as the performer not being recorded accurately. The best way to stop this is to wear closed-backed headphones. These completely cover the wearers' ears, so no sound can escape. We did not have any other headphones to hand, only my open-backed Sennheiser HD-25s, which sit on Sam's ears and allow for sound to bleed, yet reduce ear fatigue as their ears can breathe. So what we did, was first turn the headphone output gain down, so the volume was quieter for Sam. I also told Sam to cup his ears at the front, so that his hands would act as a barrier and block the sound from reaching the microphone. We then got to recording the song. As I said before, Sam had lyrics ready to go so the session ran smoothly. We changed a few of the notes that he sang, under my direction, turned all the lights off and took off his shoes, so that he felt more relaxed, and then finished with some adlibs over the ends of sentences. It was all done in one take, instead of multiple and comping them together. This was a decision made by Sam, as he felt his voice sounding more cohesive this way. Overall, I was really happy with how this session went, Sam knew what he was doing and I walked away with two 16-bar sections that sounded crisp and were exactly how I imagined the tune to sound. I then added the vocals to the original project and added in some live strings, following the chord progressions, to give the beat some variation, plus I like strings in my tunes. Here is a video of Sam in the studio this time, as I said previously the set-up of the microphone was the same as before, as well as Sam recording the vocals.

other tunes

Outside of this project, I have been working on other tunes, one being a bootleg (unofficial remix) of the classic Arctic Monkeys song "Do I Wanna Know?" with my friend Toby (DJ name TAWK). This got released this week onto Soundcloud, although only a clip of it due to copyright, but also as a free download so that DJs can download it and play it in their sets. I am very happy with how the song came out, and have really enjoyed playing it out to crowds, as well as sending it to other DJs and producers to see what they think. Here is a clip of the tune and a video of me playing it out at one of my sets in Bath.

This week "Alone" also got played on the radio again! This is really great as it shows that Fred V, the guy that runs the show, actually likes my tune as he has now played it three times on his show. If he just played it once, it would just be because he is helping me out, but as it is multiple it shows he enjoys it. This time playing is even better, as the tune is now out to stream, which is great. I am really happy this tune is making it onto the radio, it is a goal I did not have, yet still proud that it came through and happened. Here is the clip of him playing it, and proof that he has played it three times on his show from the website tracklist1001, which is used to show the tracklist from radio shows and live mixes. I use it a lot when watching DJ sets to find out certain tunes to use in my own sets.

Mixing the dancefloor tune

This week I have started to properly mix the dancefloor tune. I also have binned off the 4x4 idea. I thought it was a cool concept, but felt I did not have enough time to fully complete the sound to the degree of quality that I wanted, so instead just copied over the first drop, and changed some of the bassline notes to give it some variation. With regards to mixing, I low-cut every instrument, except for the basses and kick drums. This means I added an EQ, that removed any low frequencies from getting through, below around 230Hz. This was after I was given some advice from one of my teachers, who when listening to the tune found that there would be much more room in the mix, and give me much more headroom to master. He was right, after doing this, the master output was much lower, yet the tune did not sound any quieter. This is great because it means it can be mastered louder, which most drum and bass tunes are, without distorting. I also researched and implemented some sidechain compression. Sidechain compression is when the level of one instrument or sound triggers a compressor on another sound. It was created by film audio engineer Douglas Shearer who needed a way to tame the sibilance, harsh "s" sounds, in his projects. Today, side chain compression is used in almost all genres, as a production and mixing technique, with it most often being tied to the kick drum. In production, it can be used to create a pulsing effect on an instrument. For example, in EDM when the volume of the synths ducks out with the basic 4x4 kick pattern which gives the song its distinct danceability and groove. From a mixing perspective, sidechaining is useful when controlling the low end. Both the kick and bass instruments occupy the same frequency range, so using sidechain compression to duck the bass when the kick hits allows for a clean mix, whilst still keeping the melodic transient of the bass. In my music, I have side chained my bass to the kick, so the volume of the different bass synths ducks out when the kick hits. I have done this by adding a compressor to the channel that I want to sidechain, then in the top left there is the option to set a sidechain input. I chose my kick, and then you can see the needle tick every time the kick hits. I then changed the settings on the compressor to achieve a sound I liked by using my ears and trial and error until it sounded natural but still allowed the kick to shine through. I repeated this process on all the necessary bass parts. Here is a photo that shows how the compressor ticks every time the kick drum hits.

Here is an audio example of sidechain compression on an EDM synth chord progression and kick drum to give it the pulsing effect. The first section is without the compression, the second is with. There is a noticeable difference, with the second being much more exciting and danceable.

End of week evaluation

Looking at my schedule that I set myself at the beginning of the project, I am not on time. By the end of this week, I wanted to have mixed and mastered all of my tunes, but sadly that has not happened. I wanted the dancefloor tune to be finished by now, so I only have to think about one tune and I would be able to complete the goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the week. However, it is almost finished. I have completed the producing and mixing stages, I just need to send it to Hush to master the song, as he has mastered tunes like this before. I have made good progress with the other liquid tune this week, by being able to finish recording with Sam. This means that I do not have to scrap any songs I have made, or delve into my back catalogue and release music I am not too proud of, like I said I may have to do earlier in the week. I still have not had a chance to get in the studio with KC, which is frustrating as he became unavailable at the time we agreed to meet days before. Moving forward if I was to do this again, I would check with my performer on the day to double-check that they are still all set to record that day. My primary research this week was listening skills, hearing what Sam was rapping and changing things after hearing it to get the sound I wanted. The secondary research I have performed was on how to reduce headphone bleed, and the history and how to use sidechain compression in my music. Next week, I really need to get my head down and finish all of my tunes, so I can release them before my project deadline.

week 7 bibliography

Rebecca (2020). What is Headphone Sound Leakage? [online] TaoTronics. Available at: https://blog.taotronics.com/headphones/headphone-sound-leakage/ [Accessed 14 May. 2023].
‌1001Tracklists (n.d.). DJ ARC ft. Rosie Reynods - Alone. 1001Tracklists. [online] Available at: https://www.1001tracklists.com/track/2w34318f/dj-arc-alone/index.html [Accessed 14 May. 2023].
Ableton.com. (2018). Sidechain Compression: Part 1 - Concepts and History. [online] Available at: https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/sidechain-compression-part-1/. [Accessed 14 May. 2023].

week 8 - w/b 15th may:

This week, I plan to finish all the tunes, with mixing and mastering. This will involve getting in the studio with KC to record some vocals for the Liquid tune, as I did not get a chance to last week. I then need to mix his vocals, along with Sam's and the rest of the instrumentals. Finally, I need to master it. With the dancefloor tune, I need to master this tune too. To give myself more time, I am going to contact Hush I have heard tunes that he has mastered before, so I know he will do a great job. I will know if this week has been a success if I have all the .wav files for my three-track EP ready to be uploaded onto Distrokid for release.

recording KC

Finally, after many weeks of planning too and different things getting in the way, I have recorded KC. We decided to set up the microphone in the live room, this way it would be easier for us to communicate and for me to help KC with lyric ideas. KC came to the session with some ideas already formulated but still had to come up with a few more lyrics to match what Sam had rapped about, I helped with this. We then set up the mic in the live room and patched everything incorrectly. Here is a video about that. Now everything was set up, KC started laying down some initial ideas. I liked what he was singing, but we were very indecisive about what the notes he is singing should be, should he stay monotone, or do big note jumps? After many attempts, and recording different versions, we decided on it being very simple, with low-energy singing, so that the drop has a bigger impact as there is a more noticeable change in energy between the verse and the drop. As with Sam, we had similar problems with headphone bleed. We tried the same techniques that I researched before, yet some were still coming through. Luckily, I did not change any of the instrumentation from when I recorded him and the final thing, so it is not noticeable and blends in with the song fine. Here is a video of KC recording some of his vocals. We did multiple takes of him singing, which I comped together after, using his version of each word. By the end of the session, we had done everything we needed to do. I had two solid 16-bar phrases from him, that when combined with Sam's rap vocals sound cohesive and complement one another really well. We also finally came up with a name for the song, "Without You". As an artist, KC was great to work with. The tone of his voice is great and unique when put under a drum and bass beat, as there are not often times where a male vocal like his is used for DnB. The only exception to this would that I can think of would be Tom Walker, which I have included examples of below. Other than his poor time management skills, which delayed my project by a significant amount of time, once we got to recording he was very easy to work with. He came prepared with lyrics, stayed focussed throughout the session, and was confident in himself to tell me if what he was doing was not the best he could do, and subsequently kept recording takes until it was. I would definitely work with him again.

mixing and mastering without you

Now I had all the producing of the tunes done, it was time to mix and master it. I started by mixing the instrumental myself and then I asked my classmate Jack to help. This was because he has mixed and mastered lots of tunes with Sam in the past, so he knew how to make Sam's vocals sound great. He sat next to me and added lots of different effects, as seen in the photo to the left. After around half an hour, he had finished and I gave it a listen. It sounded good, I was especially grateful for how well Sam and KC's vocals sat in the mix. After hearing the whole tune, what I was not a massive fan of was the delays that Jack added to their vocals. As it was my Logic project, I was able to change this to get it to sound as I wanted. He also mastered the project by adding a limiter to the master and increasing the gain until it was loud enough but did not distort. The next step now after bouncing the master was to translate the mix onto different sound systems. I did this after conducting some research that said how important it is to listen to your tune in different ways. I have learnt that people listen to music on an array of different outlets, so you should listen to your song in as many different ways as possible: headphones, speakers, phone speakers etc. so that it can sound great on them all. As such, I was able to test this tune out on a really decent set of speakers made by Funktion One at my local nightclub studio. Here is a video of me listening to "Without You" on these speakers. What I learnt after listening here was that the sub was far too loud and overpowered the mix. As such, I went back to the project and turned the sub down by a few dB, which made the song sound much better. I also tested it out on my AirPods and my JBL speaker, both of which made the song sound great. I also showed the tune to both Sam and KC and they were both beaming with smiles after the tune finished, they were really happy with it and excited for it to be released. "Without You" is finally finished, which is 2 out of the 3 tunes for the EP done.

End of week evaluation

Again this week I did not meet my beginning of the week target, as well as not sticking to my schedule. I thought that by the end of the week, I would have finished all my tunes, so I could send them to Distrokid to be released, but that is not the case. I am still waiting on Hush to master the tune, although I have completed my liquid tune with Sam and KC "Without You", so next week I only have to focus on one tune. As such, I have decided to push my release date back. I wanted the tunes to be ready for next week, but as they are not all finished and Distrokid says it takes a week to process the tunes, there is not enough time. Another reason I have decided to move the release date is because I am playing at Balter festival next weekend, and will subsequently be posting about playing there on my social media, as well as posting clips from the set afterwards. A while ago, I spoke to a big DJ/Producer called Sota, and he told me that he had to move the release date of his tune "Harter Street VIP" because he had a big Radio One feature that weekend. He said not many people would see the tune had come out, as well as the Radio One feature. I have taken this advice and decided that people may not see that my EP has come out with the hype around Balter, and I want this EP to have the best chance of succeeding so I am waiting. However, I have played "Without You" to a few people and the feedback I have got has been extremely positive. My tutor Ian said it was, "the best beat he has heard me make", which is surprising because out of all my tunes, it is the most simple. I also sent a snippet to my group chat of mates, and they all seemed to love it and were waiting eagerly to hear the full thing. I have not done much research this week, as most of my time has been spent waiting for other people to do their thing. Next week, I need to finish "Anyone", the dancefloor tune, and send everything to Distrokid so it can be realised before the project ends. I also need to complete my end-of-project evaluation. This is a lot to do in one week as I have had significant delays in previous weeks, so I really need to focus.

week 8 bibliography

Audio Issues. (2021). Mix Translation: The Importance of Listening to Your Mix Everywhere. [online] Available at: https://www.audio-issues.com/keeping-track/mix-translation-the-importance-of-listening-to-your-mix-everywhere/ [Accessed 21 May. 2023].

week 9/10 - w/b 22nd may:

This week, we have been told that we have been given an extra week to do this project, which is a relief as I did not feel I had enough time to do everything I needed to do. What I do need to do is tie off all loose ends, so the project can be submitted. This includes getting the final master of "Anyone", uploading all three tunes to Distrokid to be released, finishing off all blog work, doing two walk-through videos of my tunes and writing a detailed evaluation of the whole project. I will know if I have completed my targets and if each of those things I have listed has been completed to a high standard.

mastering "Anyone"

Mastering this tune has been a massive challenge, due to none of the masters being quite right. I got the first master for the tune at the beginning of the week, and I was really happy with it. I sent it to Rosie for her thoughts and final confirmation so I could upload it to Distrokid, and regrettably, she was not too happy. She sent me this message and asked for things to be changed. At first, I was quite annoyed that things had to be changed now, as I was finally relieved that things were fit for realise, but after taking a day and speaking to my tutor Ian, she was right. Ian told me that it is her choice in deciding how her voice sounds on the track, so I had to change it. Thinking back on it, he was right. So I went back to the project and slightly EQed her vocals by adding a high-cut shelf to her vocals to get rid of some of the harsh, tinny sounds that she did not like. In all honesty, it was a good change and did make her voice not sound so aggressive. Here is the EQ that I added. Now that this change had been made, I sent the mix back to Hush to master. Stupidly, I sent him a version without any FXs, like white noise risers and downers, so when he sent this version back I noticed that it did not have them. Also, it sounded too distorted. So I let him know via an Instagram message about the mistake, sent him an updated version with the risers and waited for him to reply. A few days passed, and he sent it through the master when I was at Balter so could not listen to it, but when I finally did I thought it sounded OK, so I uploaded the EP to Distrokid. It was not until a few days later that I was looking to do some promo that I l listened back to the tune and realised that the version he sent me was also without risers! At this point, I was panicking, as the EP was set to be released and had the wrong version of the tune. I went back through the messages and found the most recent bounce I sent Hush had risers, so it was a mistake on his part. I thought about sending it back to him, but found out he had a festival all day that he was playing at so knew he would not be able to do it fast enough. I then thought about my friend Toby (TAWK), he had mastered tunes before so I knew he knew what he was doing. I sent it to him and he said he would do it by tomorrow. This was not ideal, but it was a last-resort option. I also sent it to my dad's old friend Clayton, as he is a DnB producer that masters his tunes. He got straight on it and managed to get it back to me very early the next morning. This was great and I immediately deleted the old EP and uploaded the new one to Distrokid, as well as putting the release date back a day, so there was more of a chance it would have enough time to be released. After a couple of days, I got a confirmation email from Distrokid saying that it would be released on June 5th. I had done it, the EP would be released on time for this project. Now I just need to wait for the EP to finally be available on all streaming platforms.

mastering "Anyone" pt.2

After listening back to "Anyone" a few days later, and after Rosie contacted me, we both came to the conclusion that we were not happy with how Clayton mastered the song and found it was distorting and the vocals were ducking in volume before the drop. As such, I deleted the EP from the streaming platforms and got in the studio with Rosie to overcome this issue. When in the studio, we went over the mix of the song and changed some of the reverb settings and EQed her vocals slightly differently. After messing about with different parameters and listening through the tune many times, we found a sound that we both liked and decided that the mix was finished. When it came to mastering it, I had to do it myself. I have had some experience in this area but not as much as the other people I contacted before. Nevertheless, I took matters into my own hands and added a limiter to the master channel and increased the gain until the song sounded loud enough, but did not clip or distort. A limiter is very much like a compressor, but with an infinite threshold. After researching them, I have found that "A limiter catches the loudest peaks of an audio source and applies brick wall compression that prevents it from exceeding the clipping point of 0 dBFS. Limiters are used to increase perceived loudness by increasing the quietest parts of an audio signal while preventing the peaks from clipping". This means that when the gain is increased, the quieter parts of the song get louder, which overall makes the song seem louder. The song now sounds clean, with Rosie and I both liking how it sounds. I have now sent the EP back onto Distrokid to be released onto streaming platforms, like Spotify and Apple Music, as soon as possible. I also put it onto my Soundcloud, which uploads immediately so I do not need to wait around for it to be seen. Here is a video of me and Rosie in the studio finalising the master.

playing at balter festival

This week I got the opportunity to play at Balter Festival, in Chepstow. It was amazing, the sound system was great, I had my dad as my MC and got to finish my set with a remix of "Alone". At the start of the project, it was a goal of mine to play one of my tunes at a gig. I am glad this been able to come true. The remix has been done by TAWK, and in the future, I am looking to release it, alongside other remixes of this EP, potentially named "Alone EP - The Remixes". People seemed to love it, with comments I had afterwards and on stage the DJ after me Refrecta, telling me how great it was and then asking to have the tune afterwards. Here is a video of me playing the "Alone" remix on stage.

Serum

In the videos below, I talk about the synthesiser Serum. Here I have researched how it works, with all its different functions. This includes the oscillators, which are the part of the synth that creates the sound. On this digital synth, this is stored as a wavetable. Wavetables are "a method of generating sound based on a single sampled waveform expressed as a table of values." There are so many to choose from in Serum, as well as making your own. You can also change the unison, how many of those sound wave is being played and other minor adjustments knobs. Serum has two oscillators, a sub and a noise generator. Serum also has a filter to control the sound produced by the wavetables. These could be a low pass - which only allows the low end though, a high pass - which only allows the high end through, or a band pass - which allows only a "band" of frequencies through, high or low. These can be controlled with wet/dry mix, cutoff, fatness and drive. Serum also has an envelope, which controls the sound by changing the ADSR. After researching what ADSR is, I have learnt that the Attack is how long it takes from the key being pressed to reach its peak volume. The Decay is how long it takes for the sound to reach its second volume. The Sustain is how loud the secondary volume is, this is the only parameter that is not measured in time. The Release is how long it takes for the sound it fades out after the key has been let go. Serum also has an LFO, Low-Frequency Oscillator, which is used to modulate different parameters of the synth. It is inaudible and just controls different parts of the synth. This works by drawing a pattern and then dragging it onto a parameter, such as filter cut off or wet/dry of an effect. This allows the sound to have movement and makes it much more interesting. The final crucial part of Serum is the effects section. Here you can add things such as distortion, EQ, reverb and compression. An advantage of using the effects in the synth instead of external plugins is that they can be modulated by the LFO. Here are some photos of Serum, with their corresponding captions saying what they are.

Wavetables

Envelopes

LFO

Filters

Effects

video walkthroughs

Here a two video walkthroughs explaining how I made my tunes "Anyone" and "Without You".

This is a walkthrough of "Anyone". I have not explained how this song was mastered as I was not the one to do it, I sent it off for somebody else to do.

This is the walkthrough for "Anyone". I forget to mention how it was mastered. It was mastered by Jack in the project very simply by adding an adaptive limiter on the master and increasing the gain until the song sounds loud, but is not clipping or distorting. Here is a screenshot of the limiter on the master channel.

week 9/10 bibliography

LANDR Blog. (2022). Xfer Serum: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners. [online] Available at: https://blog.landr.com/xfer-serum/ [Accessed 4 June. 2023].
Swisher, D. (2019). ADSR: The Best Kept Secret of Pro Music Producers! [online] Musician on a Mission. Available at: https://www.musicianonamission.com/adsr/ [Accessed 4 June. 2023].
iZotope (2018). An Introduction to Limiters (and How to Use Them). [online] iZotope. Available at: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/an-introduction-to-limiters-and-how-to-use-them.html. [Accessed 4 June. 2023].

End of Week Evaluation:

The majority of these weeks were spent doing the end-of-term evaluation, but a few things that are exclusive to this week are detailed below. As I said previously, the initial schedule has been completely derailed, however, I have still managed to get everything ready on time as I planned too in my start-of-the-week plan. This includes all the blog work, as well as getting the tunes out for release not too late. The main thing that led to the tunes taking a while to be finished was mastering "Anyone". If I were to do this again, I would make sure I send any other performers on my song the final mix and make sure they like it, before I have it mastered. This would reduce lots of time that have been wasted this week. In future, I also need to leave myself more time to mix and master than I have, as it has taken longer than I thought. This is a great lesson I have learnt. I have done some primary research these weeks with listening back to tunes and checking them up to a high enough quality and some secondary looking into how Serum and limiters works. Overall, the project is completed. I just need to do the final touches on my evaluation, and everything is finished.

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