I use the software Logic in my music, but there are many effects and inputs that originate from different technology. For example I use reverb, compression, equaliser and more. Since i'm not a performer It doesn't seem fit for me to use a looper, however we use pioneers for our Dj sets and I am very interested in drum pads and other sorts of pads and I wouldn't mind using that in my performance.
Dj'ing (Pioneers)
Whilst we are Dj'ing we use pioneers with a Mac, this allows us to load the songs of our choice onto the pioneers so we can mix them together. The Pioneers we use have effects so whilst we are mixing the decks we have the option to add different effects and sounds to our tracks that we added in. I have been influenced by different artists which change the way I perform my sets, I use some of the effects to make it sound like I'm using a drum pad.
Drum Pads
I'm interested in the Alesis Samplepad Pro Percussion Pad. If there are any pads like this within the music department I would like to get my hands on them. I think there are multiple possibilities with drum pads
Diego Stocco is an artist that likes to make music from literally anything, you can see from the videos below. In the video "Music from a Tree" he smooths the branches of the tree and uses different parts almost like a drum kit. This is inventive as i'm sure there are barely any artists that do this at all, furthermore its music that sounds like music. he uses microphones to different parts of the branches and uses various objects including his hands to make different sounds from the tree.
The video "Music from a dry cleaner" proves my point further, out of all his videos from making music from non traditional methods this is my favourite as he uses almost everything as percussion and produces sounds similar to a bass guitar which I think is amazing. In addition you can tell he is passionate about music as he states "you can really make music from anything".
It's not hard to tell Diego Stocco is experimental, in almost every video on his Youtube channel he surprises you more with his creativity. In the video "Bassoforte" he produces a kind of rock song from one "instrument" he created. For him to have such an idea to create something completely unconventional is extraordinary. He calls this instrument the "Bassoforte" a mix between the bass and pianoforte.
Zoe Keating
Whilst searching for my second artist to research to find I stumbled across Zoe Keating and surprisingly I enjoyed her music. She uses a looper to sound like a "Cello Orchastra" to say shes able to do this by herself shows how well looping can be when use it to its full potential. Within her looping there are overdubs and some artists may not agree with overdubs even if they are live. Furthermore the reverb on her looper plays in her favour.
Quite a few people have said that looping makes things a lot easier when you feel as if you need another you, whether it's that the group your with isn't up to standard, you have an idea that only you can express or that working in a band just isn't for you, looping makes things a lot easier once you've learnt how to loop. Many people like to use loops because its a lot cheaper than hiring people to fill in the gaps for you, just because you might not feel like working in a band doesn't mean you can't stimulate the feeling of one. They also show an artists skill to be able to sync to a rhythm and change instrument swiftly. Personally i am for looping as i think if you don't have the funds to hire people to play instruments, you're able to loop well and you're a solo artist, they can help out a lot. However i do think some looping competitions is done to show off rather than for the musical aspect which i don't agree with as i think music should sound good whenever it can.
Against Looping
The majority of people that dislike looping often call it cheating or dislike that in certain cases some artists will keep one loop throughout the track, which i see no issue with however it can be seen as playing with a backup track which many musicians shun. Furthermore many musicians are against looping as they may be getting replaced by looping rather than hired to play a gig with an artist.
We will present our music by each of us presenting a minimum of 3 tracks to be placed in a playlist for our audience to listen to. We are going to use Youtube and Soundcloud to post our music online but rely more on Soundcloud. We're going to share our music on other social media websites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where we can post short snippets of our music and post a link where people who are interested can access the playlist with ease. Further more we are going to have individual art work for each of our tracks but have a similar background, so that it's obvious each person created their own, but it is still part of the same playlist, however I think it would be more efficient to chose a logo we all agree on and just have our names on the artwork on our individual tracks.
How will we reach a bigger audience than the Decades Project?
We will reach a larger audience than the decades project by using hashtags and other sorts of tags available on social media, this will widen our audience by both making it easier to find music relevant to them and knowing what type of music they will hear. Further more we will reach a bigger audience by choosing a specific time and day to upload our music onto social media, this will help because we chose this specific time as this is the time most people who use social media will be online so this will maximise our views. Moreover we will also share our music onto other social media with links to the Soundcloud post or Youtube post to increase our audience. In addition we will also use different art work on our playlist, on the Decades project it was the college's logo "WKC" this time we have agreed on a logo and have our own names on our individual tracks.
What Research has led us to this decision?
The research that led us to this decision was research we individually found by posting on social media and seeing what time got the most views. In addition we also knew what time to upload by looking into youtube accounts and sound cloud accounts that upload at specific times to increase views. Further more it was a mutual agreement to upload at the specific time.
Provide Examples of Contemporary Musicians that have influenced our plans for the project.
Artists such as "Bonkaz", "Chris Brown", "Bryson Tiller" and many more contemporary artists use different social medias to promote their music, they choose a specific time that they know the majority of their followers and main audience will be online, so it gets more publicity. Furthermore almost all contemporary artists today use artwork when uploading their work or even on cd's and records.
In the playlist project we all had similar roles of adding input and ideas of how to make this project more successful than the Decades project. Furthermore i added the ideas of hashtags and different uses of tags to make it easier to find our music. Furthermore we agreed we will all share the playlist on our different social media websites for more views.
What technical equipment will we require?
As we are posting on social media we won't need too much technical equipment, we just need a computer to upload our playlist and our own devices so we can share the playlist to our individual accounts.
There are many problems in this video starting off with the drummer coming in too early and off beat, this could be prevented by more practice and the drummer knowing exactly when he was to come in. Furthermore the lead singer is out of key throughout the performance and it could be prevented by knowing what key signature you're singing in and more practice, further more the guitar sounds out of tune, out of time and out of key. This can be prevented by tuning the guitar and practicing more and knowing what key signature you're playing in.
Track 1- In track 1 the error sounds like the person playing the guitar's finger slipped and hit a higher note, this can be prevented by holding the frets firmer.
Track 2 - The intro in track 2 sounds as if the guitar is too loud and it's distorting, furthermore there sounds as if there is a second instrument.
I think the order of the playlist should be : Felipe, Lorenzo, Keanu, Kit, Taylor, Nick, Miles, Josh, Ryan, Jack, Jesse. I think this should be the order of the playlist because the first two tracks are the genre of what i think the majority of audience want to hear, then since Keanu, Kits and Jacks songs aren't main stream music fit them into the mix, in hope the audience not here for a different genre of music will listen to the different genres to get to the songs they will enjoy. However i don't think the current playlist is bad as the tracks are fairly jumbled.
This project will focus on recording 3 Jazz tracks which will be made up of a mix between audio and midi that I will record . With possible vocals from the level 3 performance class. I will get advice from my peers on how to improve my tracks.
Context
This will be useful to me because it will increase my skills of using a recording studio, mastering and producing. I have some knowledge on recording studios and producing already so this will help me further improve those skills and understand mastering better as I will be setting up a recording studio for the singers and . Since I've produced midi more than I've recorded audio, I think adding audio will be interesting to see how I will develop within music production.
Outline Research Plan
My research will heavily be influenced by Miles Davis, Herby Hancock and Nina Simone because these artists have had such a huge impact in Jazz,Since my work will be primarily Jazz I could possibly use some melodies from their songs to further my research. I will look at the different arrangements the artists used in their Jazz pieces. In addition I could possibly look at more Jazz artists to add some more ideas to my work.
Case Studies
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This will be the main source of my research for my first track, I'm interested in the running base and the way the horns comes and goes. In addition the hi-hats throughout the song is also a nice touch. It's almost like there's a conversation with the instruments talking to each other which i want to be able to create.
This track really interests me due to the vocals overpowering the rest of the instruments, which is why in this track i would like to add the vocals from a level 3 singer, furthermore I really enjoy the build up with the drums and horns.
I added this track to the case studies list because i like how the piano, bass and hi-hats are non stop and only change for the swing, furthermore there is almost no change throughout the song but it still sounds good due to the horns leading and having control of the song.
Methodology
I will achieve these goals by improving the way I set up recording studios, so I don't waste time, I will research further Jazz artists too see how i can improve my producing, Ask the performers to sing and/or play instruments that I can add to my work.
Timeline
Week 1 - By week 1 I would have liked to discussed my ideas with all the possible level 3 performers I would like to have in some of my tracks. I would like to have the basis of my research found so I can get back to researching a lot easier.
Week 2 - By week 2 I would like to know what my tracks will be based off of and how i will go out about producing them.
Week 3 - By week 3 i would like to have at least one of the tracks done so I know I am moving at a healthy pace. I would also like to have done quite a bit of research by this point.
Week 4 - By week 4 I would like to consider the notes from my peers that we'll be given during our presentation, I would like to have rounded up my major research so I can focus on producing the music and if I wanted to add further research later.
Week 5 - By week 5 i would like to have added all the possible audio that I will be using from the level 3 performers to ensure I have time to master the track with the audio. At this point I would also like to be sure whether I would like to perform my music live some how.
Week 6 - By week 6 i would like to have completed all my tracks and be mastering them at this stage and adding any tweaks I may want to along the way, if more research is too be added I would like to have the links and knowledge of where I will find it at this point.
Week 7 - By week 7 I would like my project to be worthy of handing in, incase something wrong happens in week 8, I would like all research to be complete and to be finishing my bibliography. I would like to add any final tweaks to the tracks to insure everything is up to standard.
Week 8 - By week 8 If I'm going to be performing my tracks, they will be ready to be performer and I will be submitting the project on this date.
In this lesson we discussed the success of the decades playlist, for example how many views or likes we got. We discussed what went well in the playlist and what went bad, like whether we shared it as a collective. Further more we also discussed how we will improve on our contemporary playlist, for example I added that we should use tags so we reach our target audience. We also discussed how we will get more publicity on our playlist like leaflets or different social media we can use.
Week 2 Class Meeting
In this lesson we discussed what artwork we could include in our playlist and whether we ant individual art work or the same though out the whole playlist. Further more we discussed how we will share the playlist on social media, eg whether we'll have a specific social media team or not and whether we'll have a specific time and date we'll upload.
Week 3 Class Meeting
In this lesson we discussed what time we would upload our playlist, the final discussion for artwork and what would go on our playlist cover. In addition we discussed what platforms we would upload our playlist and that an email would be sent out to performing arts students letting them know once the playlist is up.
I don't think the way we presented the decades playlist was a success. There were very few views on the playlist, and i don't think we put our playlist on enough social media websites for people to see. I think for the Contemporary project, if we spread our music further throughout the internet, use more hashtags or links for people to be able to find our music easier and everyone should repost it onto their timeline. In addition if everyone was to let they're friends know they were dropping a playlist i think that could attract a lot of more views on the playlist.
