Week 2: Arrangement and programming of drum MIDI clips.

• Before starting a project in Ableton: Go to preferences-- Record/Launch/Warp-Auto warp long samples--> off

• When duplicating specific sounds in a midi clip, select the whole bar and then cmd+ D.

• To select individual midi notes, use Shift + left click.When programing velocity for hi hats (used to add realism, movement, and energy)

• To get a more realistic feel for your drums, change every fourth closed hi hat in a bar to an open hi hat sound.

• Use Ableton's saturation to add gritty drive to your drum sound chain. Increase drive and reduce volume to balance the increase in gain. (sounds good on natural drums if done right). The Drum Bus plugin also has a transient control knob that you should use to find the sweet spot for tight, punchy drums. (Be careful of long tails in your transients that might interfere with other sounds.) research saturator and drum buss plugin.

• Use an 8-K band equalizer. The EQ boost at 5.5kHz brightens and livens up the sound.

• Sub-rumble and extraneous low frequencies

• If the sound is too muddy, it's a problem at low-mid. Start at 300 hz. Filter sweep for annoying frequencies in the 200-400 hz range. Identify and make a small cut. 300hz is the sweet spot "rule of thumb"

• To save a drum chain: select all effects in the chain (using the shift key)-right click-group-save by hitting the floppy disk icon.

• Use sends to add texture and swing to your drum rack, use effects like chorus and flanger, and experiment with your drum chain.

His Career & Achivements:

2013 – 2017

Conan Gray began making videos at the age of nine and launched his self-titled channel in January 2013 at the age of fourteen. Covers, original music, and vlogs characterized his channel. His channel began to gain viewers and subscribers at a very quick pass due to his voice. Conan moved to Los Angeles in 2015, where he studied at UCLA. He maintained his web presence by adding original pop tunes to his portfolio. Early tracks such as “Those Days,” “Lovesick Boys,” and “The Other Side” were more stripped-down, with his voice, ukulele, and guitar serving as the key instruments. Conan released his first single, named Idle Town, in March 2017, which gained millions of listens and views on Spotify and YouTube at a very speedy rate.

2018 – 2020

He signed a record label with Republic Records in 2018 whereby he released his track named “Generation Why” in October of that year. He released his new very first EP named “Sunset Season” in November 2018, which had five songs: Idle Town, Generation Why, Crush Culture, Greek God, and Lookalike. The EP earned excellent feedback made it to number two on the Heatseekers Albums billboard.

2020 – present

On March 20, 2020, Conan released his first full-length studio album, named “Kid Krow”. The album was made up of his hit songs such as Maniac and Heather and reached number five on the US Billboard making him the largest new artist in the United States. After his big launch successes and with the start of the COVID pandemic he then released the track named “Fake” with American artist Lauv in October 2020.

His Infuences & Target Market

Taylor Swift is a major admirer of Conan Gray’s. His favorite artists include The Dixie Chicks, Lana del Rey, and Adele, but Taylor Swift is his number one lyricist songwriter, and he refers to himself as “the biggest swiftie.” In terms of Conans’ target market, his are normally along the same lines as “Shawn Mendes” and “Justin Biber”. Conan aims to target the ‘Generation Z’ and more specifically ages 12 to 18. His music is known to be part of the ‘Dream & Indi Pop’ which is something common to catch the attention of the newer and younger generation.