University

Peer Remix

Analysing the Original

“The Fuzz” by Callum Connah is an interesting chilled instrumental Hip Hop piece based around a nice piano riff. I also get hints of Jazz in the mix. Here is an exmapleof instrumental jazz hip hop from Youtuber “TheOfficialTone”

Talking to Callum himself he said that his main inspiration was the album “Coloring Book” by American rapper Chance the Rapper.

After listening to some sections of the album i can hear clear influences, first being the classic sub bass sound found in fair amount of hip hop orientated genres, also the mix of synthesised and organic sounds, especially with samples of real instruments chopped up in the background of a song.

To remix the piece i have a few ideas. First i can drastically stray from the hip hop/jazz elements of the original and craft a completely different tune using the stems provided. If i do so the remix would be influenced mainly by The Orb. This piece would probably end up quite ambient.

Secondly, (and the likely avenue i will take) is to create a remix with hip hop elements sticking close to the original but choping it up, creating an alternate version of sorts. Keeping the original vibe of the piece is my goal.

My Remix

The remix i have created coincided with my second idea of sticking close to the orginal. I sampled the original drums to create and instrument to do the intro drums with. Bass guitar was also recorded over one section as chopping up the bass i had prooved to be somewhat tricky, plus i feel the clean bass sound still fits in with the original tone.

After creating the main remix i used that as a basis to create library versions of my mix. Copying the whole song in Abletons arrangement window along and then trimming, chopping and rearraning the piece to create a few lirbrary versions of varying size and also a Sting version, all of which can be heard above.

After meeting again with Callum to showcase the remix and library versions he said that he loved the remix and like how i was able to create something new that refelcted his original creation well, keeping the correct elements in and adding new ones where nessacary . The only thing he pointed out to me was that it needed slight mastering as the overall level of the track was low, something i subsequentaly went on to do as a final stage of creation.

Writing 20 Minutes of Audio | Weekly Log 2 |25th SEPT 17 – 1st OCT 17

This second week i’d like to introduce you to the music i will be making over this project.

The Influence

For my 20 minute ep i am making exactly that, a 20 minute (approx.) medley of electronic music. The suite will consist of 6 parts each flowing from one to the other until the end. Ladies and Gentlemen… here is an introduction to “For the Sake of Patience”

I got inspiration for this piece from three sources here. The first being Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream.

This piece combines elements of rock music and electronic music. With flowing rhythms and great musician ship, you are drawn into the action. Tangerine Dream are certainly an influence on me and have been for a while. There was a long 30 minute ambient piece i recorded inspired by their album “Zeit” from 1972.

The second artist who has been a big influence on this work is Jean Michel Jarre. His most recent album “Oxygene 3” and some tracks from his album “Electronica 2”.

Part 5 of the suite is highly inspired by Mike Oldfield and is even based around a sample from his “Incantations Part 2” from 10:40. I used a loop of the African percussion as a backing then build the part around that. The sampled loop will be replaced with my own drum loop which i will write based on the pattern shown here:

I did also drawn influences from Kraftwerk, Robert Miles, Pink Floyd and the Orb for this one aswell. Check out this playlist of all the inspiration tracks.

The Details

For the Sake of Patience (medley) (22:47)

The Marsh
For the Sake of Patience
The Crane
Tsunami
Fire Dance
Only as Patient as i Like to Be

Band: Klvoool Band breakdown: Caleb Morganfield (Drums, Backing Vocal), Joseph Bagwell (Guitar, Keyboard, Bass, Vocal)

Produced by Joseph Bagwell with help from Caleb Morganfield and Callum Connah Genre: Techno, Trance, Progressive Rock, Electronic, Ambient, Experimental, New Age.

Now For some Progress…

Over last week i managed to track vocals and re amp one of the lead guitars.

I achieved this by setting up an amp and mikes in the voice over booth and over the dante rednet systems i recorded the re amping from Prog A. Microphones that were used were the AKG C414 condenser and Sennheiser MD441-U dynamic. Both possessing a 20hz-20khz pick up range i knew there would be no problem in getting a nice sound.

The microphones were placed together in front of the speaker cone on the guitar amp i was using, with the MD441 placed above the C414.

Sing it Loud!

Next thing i have completed is the vocals for Part 3. These were co-engineered by Callum Connah. We used the MD441 again but this time paired up with the Neumann TLM103 condenser, i chose this microphone because i knew it was very good for getting crisp clear vocal recordings.

TLM103 and MD441 paired together in the same setup as was used for the amp microphones.

The MD441 i ran through my Presonus TubePre pre amp unit and gave a slight amount of drive and plenty of Gain. I did this to give the dynamic microphone a slight warm distortion to it.

After setting this up i decided to run the TLM103 through the Neve 8801 pre-amp / strip in the TLA control room. This was done to create a unique contrasting audio file that will be compatible with the 441 recording.

After nice vocal takes were done we decided to send the vocal tracks to a reverb to allow the vocals to have a trail rather than dead air in between lines.

The reverb effect will be added subtlety to the final mix.

Where from here?

Next week i hope to mix in the new vocals and guitar re amping. I also want to start just getting a basic mix overall for the piece and look into any guitar parts that may need redoing.

Writing 20 minutes of Audio | Weekly Log 1 | 18th Sept 17 – 24th Sept 17 |

Here is the first of a series of logs to document the production process of a 20 minute track. The piece entitled “For the Sake of Patience” is to be handed in as a degree assignment but will also be released along with a second track in an EP a the end of the project when the track is finalized.

I began by creating midi tracks with various VST synthesizers and drum kits. I then started to record ideas down.

At the early stages i wasn’t sure what i wanted the piece to be. I knew i wanted it to be Electronic, but i didn’t know what styles and genres i would incorporate into the project. I also wanted to incorporate some rock influences into the piece by having some live drums in places and also guitar and bass guitar.

Next i sequenced all loops and tracked any additional parts to get a solid basis of the piece.

After doing all this, i had a solid piece of music to work on. Next step will be recording live drums for the appropriate sections and also Vocals, the latter of which will be recorded next week.