Lyrics On My Floor

I recently began working alongside fellow students and lecturers at Leeds Beckett University to promote, present and book gigs at our University Students Union. 

My roles include booking artists, social media promotion, graphic design in designing posters and flyers, and hosting certain events.

Continuing the Irwell Sessions outside of University has become a demanding, yet exciting project. We were requested to record 13 artists for the Irwell Sessions, an arranged open microphone session held at Ramsbottom Festival on the Chameleon Stage. We recreated the technique of adding interactivity to the videos so as to engage the audience further. Part One is presented below:

The official Irwell Sessions video.

As part of the final instalment of our social media marketing campaign, we had to create a poll, for which viewers and fans of the Irwell Sessions and Chameleon Productions can cast a vote for which artist they would like to next feature in the next Irwell Sessions’ video. To do so, I joined a Facebook poll app which allowed me to create polls and decipher which page I could upload it to. From this, I decided to cast the vote on the Chameleon Productions’ page, as this is a poll directed towards artists from this company, and also fans of the artists. Therefore, I shall share this on the Irwell Sessions Facebook page, thus allowing the followers of this page to also cast a vote. Personally, we believe it to be a brilliant method to increase the final engagement rating of the sessions.

Overall the video had a reach of over 1,491 people, and it totalled 22 likes, with 96 post clicks. 

Furthermore, the total number of views of the YouTube video were 110.

However, on reflection I believe that we could have done more to drive people towards the website. As we mainly used Facebook as a platform to embed the YouTube video, so it isn’t well known that the video was additionally embedded onto our website: 

Using the skills that I learned in the lab sessions across the module, I began to add annotations to the official video, thus inserting the interactive aspects of the recording.

After I had placed the sufficient number of annotations into the video, it was complete and ready for publishing. To date, here are the overall page analytics of the Irwell Sessions facebook page:

This is the result of my experiment with FFT 

I then inserted this sound into Kontakt within the ‘zebra weird delay pad’ sample map for use within various compositions.

Using a sample that I had created using granular synthesis techniques in Granulab that replicated that of an alien-robotic-like bird, I began to experiment using FFT methods within Adobe Audition. Firstly, using the lasso selection tool, I was able to cut certain sections of the frequency spectrum and copy it into a new file.

I then cut multiple sections of these frequencies out, and pasted them into the same file, thus merging the sounds together to create interesting sound structures.

The overall wave file then began to take shape into something new:

Show Reel 3 - Orchestral.

This was created using voices from the following sample maps:

In creating my final show reel I wanted to encapsulate something entirely different to my other two films, for example, a more melodic and musical piece. Therefore, I took a clip from a Planet Earth documentary on forests, and came upon the idea that I would compose a classical piece of music. However, due to time constrains, I had to use a midi file, as I couldn’t compose the entire track. Therefore, using the piano midi tracks from Ludovico Einaudi’s song Fly, I pieced together my track using the sample maps that I had created. Firstly, using the piano sample map, I routed this to perform the main piano melody, and assigned a set of strings, featured on my orchestral sample map, to play the underlying chordal melodies. Following this, I inserted various field recordings of birds, and layered them atop each other to create a thick texture to replicate the dense forest (see print screen below). 

Additionally, I wanted to create spacial awareness within my track, and to also create a strong shaping atmosphere, therefore I used the various abstract sounds that I produced using granular techniques on my ‘glockenspiel abstract’ sample map. 

After doing so, I gained feedback on the piece for ways in which I could improve it, and it was suggested to me that the piano should sound more natural, as it appeared too manufactured. Additionally, it was posed that I should further extend the dynamic range of the various voices, to bring more depth. Therefore, I elongated certain notes and altered the velocity of individual hits. Due to the fact that I had recorded different velocities of the piano when I had captured its timbre, I was able to replicate a much more realistic sound within the midi file. Thus therefore supplying me with what felt like a live piano performance within the composition. Finally, I applied automation to the tracks that I felt needed it, to bring a larger dynamic range and to also increase the musicality of the piece.

In creating my second show reel, it was suggested to me that I should create a more dramatic change in sound to replicate the sudden change in shape of the objects towards the send of the sequence. Therefore, I reverted back to the second show reed video and made these slight alterations. For example, I removed the previous reversed cymbal sound, so that this final section sounded much cleaner than the rest of this track, I also lowered the sound of the swells so that each rotation of the shape was replicated with the percussion elements. Following this, I inserted some orchestral string sounds to bring a more unique character to this final scene. Finally, I wanted to create the impression that this is a graphic logo clip marking a brand, and so I applied a subtle field recording of birdsong to create a more upbeat and impressive cut.

It was my idea to further implement my research on SEO onto the Irwell Sessions website, that I had created on Wix. Using the ‘SEO Wizard’, I could add keywords to the website, thus making it appear in more relevant searches on search engines. 

On top of this, I could get a review of the overall website, to give feedback on the success of the SEO that I had in action across the site. 

Finally, in order to further implement more engagement of our Facebook account, I altered the visuals of the page slightly, by adding a ‘find us on Facebook’ simulator, thus therefore encouraging people to like the page.

In creating my first show reel, I utilised all of the sounds that I had created in Kontakt, Zebra and in studio recordings, for example, the various percussion and glockenspiel sounds that I had recorded. On top of this I used the following sample maps to create the depth of texture present in the video: