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Publishing and Copyright      By Ewan Dance Meaning “right to copy”; Copyright is the method in which allows artists to be credited for a piece of music. It allows artists to benefit from their creations financially and allow the rights to manufacture. You can only claim a piece of work is yours and copyrighted when it is actually completed, for example, when a song has been produced/recorded or when a graphic designer has created a unique piece of art, such as a logo etc. Even though “copyright” is a legal perception, its legitimacy can only be guaranteed when the creation of said piece is fixed on a given date. There are a few ways of protecting copyright:

1. Ensure your work is properly marked.

If you make sure that people can see your work is under copyright, it will greatly deter infringement.

2. Register your work.

If your work is infringed and your claim to copyright is disputed (i.e. in a plagiarism case - where the other party claims the work is theirs), you may need evidence to help prove your claim.

This is where registries come in, you can register certain aspects of your piece and help protect against encroachment. 3. Keep or register supporting evidence.

Supporting evidence falls into two categories:

Evolution of ideas

This is evidence that supports how you made the work. Early drafts, rough recordings, “wip’s”, previews, etc. are all evidence that the work progressed over a period of time, rather than being copied from somewhere else.

Footprints or watermarking

This is normally evidence inserted into a finished piece that helps identify the author in some way, such as deliberate mistakes, or hidden data that can be read using special applications. A good example of audio watermarking is Skream’s signature robotized vocal that he inserts into most tracks on his Soundcloud page.

    You can also file your work with a solicitor. In the beginning, music publishing started with the publishing and selling of printed sheet music. The songwriter would allow people to copy their piece (Copyright) in return for a cut of the percentage earned from every copy sold.

A composer might find employment in writing sheet music for commercial distribution. The artist would allow the music publisher to copy his/her piece in exchange for a cut of every copy sold (royalties). After a while, the first record companies were created. They would often travel around the city looking for buskers on the streets to employ.

  The publishers had no interest in producing mass amounts of records to sell, so, instead they would allow the record companies to deal with the manufacture and distribution. As oppose to the songwriter (who receives royalties for their music), recording artists would usually be paid a salary for their services. This is something that has, over the years, faded away from the music industry. Despite having no further input, the songwriter would still continue to earn money off their record from royalties. It is not uncommon for the songwriter to actually make more money from the song than the artist who recorded it. Alternatively, the recorded artists could contribute to the writing of the piece or write their own piece altogether to increase their earnings. This has become very prominent in the recent history of music.

MY RECORD LABEL

Recording costs: £0 (Recording done in home studio)

Promotion: £0 (Social networking websites; facebook, soundcloud, myspace, tumblr, youtube etc)

Manufacture: £0 (Download only)

Distribution: £0 (Can distribute for free through websites such as Bandcamp)

  Evaluation

In the early stages of getting my record label up-and-running, i will base all recordings at my home studio. This can be a setback considering my equipment would not be up to a professional studio quality. I would also have to program drums on MIDI in my DAW for all recordings due to the fact i don’t own a drum kit. This does have its upsides however, as i wouldn’t have to pay external sound engineers and producers to record bands on the label.

In order to cut back on money spent on promotion, i figure i can promote the label and artists on various social networking websites, such as Facebook, Soundcloud and YouTube. I can also send demos off to radio stations and producers to try and get extra promotion on the radio. Once the label is fairly well established, i can start creating cheap merchandise items, such as stickers and business cards. A great promotion technique would be going around London and leaving stickers and business cards all over public transport and train stations so people can pick them up and then access all the necessary websites through their Smartphone.

Another way i could promote the music would be by making a viral video. People all over the world have gained almost celebrity like popularity by doing something stupid or amazing and videoing it. If i could come up with an idea for a video that would instantly grab people’s attention, i could use it as a strong marketing tool for the labels music.

Considering in recent years that the sale of CD’s has declined somewhat, i feel that it would be only wise to make music off the label downloadable only. This will save money on manufacturing and reach out to a much broader spectrum of potential customers, since downloading music has far surpassed any other method of purchasing it. Initially, the first couple of releases will go on a personal Bandcamp account for a “name your price” price tag. This means that people can choose to download the music for free or make a contribution towards the artist. If people know they can access the music for free, it will rapidly increase the popularity of it as well.

MY EVENT for “POINT BELOW ZERO”

Venue: The Camden Underworld Capacity : 500 Ticket Price: £8.50 Max Revenue: £4,250

Costs For Artists: £750 Maximum Headliner (Point Below Zero) : £375 Main Support: £220 Second Support: £155 Remaining Profit: £3,500 Venue Hire: £900 roughly Sound Engineer: £120 Flyers: £75 (450) Max Profit: £2,405 Break Even at 412 People: 8.50 x 412 = 3500 Minimum Costs: £750 (artists) + £900 (venue) + £120 (sound engineer) + £75 (flyers) = £1845

  Evaluation of my gig

Radiophonics.

I decided, that for this project, I would try and experiment with the ways I sequence tracks on Logic and the way I manipulate samples. I had to create 2 songs entirely comprised out of samples that I had recorded myself or “found”. I tried to keep it as simple as possible with the recording side, because I had a bit of difficulty with my computer recording samples, it kept cutting the recordings short and not picking up the natural reverb that you get from claps etc. I managed to overcome this, however by just adding reverb onto the samples after they were recorded.

The first song I created was a 100bpm Electronica song. I drew in influences from many genres however, from hip-hop to Dutch house, which can be easily distinguished between throughout the piece.  By producing the track at 100bpm (typically a hip-hop tempo), it gave the song a completely different feel than if I had produced it at 128bpm, which is the tempo of house music. I also created a typical Dutch house lead synth sound for this song by recording a percussive sound in a microphone that I mouth. I then added a space designer to the recorded piece of audio and make the percussive hit sound like a chord. I then exported the single chord sound and resampled it into Logic’s EXS24 virtual instrument. I then decreased the sustain and decay on the envelope and added a “portamento” affect to, thus giving it the “slide” effect between notes.

The second song I created was a 140bpm deep dubstep song. I particularly enjoyed producing this song, due to the fact it is my first ever piece of work where I have recorded singing of my own. The ethereal Arabic style vocals in the background were all done by me. I just recorded the vocals and then put reverb and a slight bit of delay on it, pitched it up a couple of semitones to make it sound more feminine and pitch corrected it to ensure it wouldn’t go out of key with the rest of the song.

  I thought, before I made this track, that making a decent sounding sub bass would a big challenge. However; I just recorded a single tone through the microphone in a low pitched voice. I then equalised it and subtracted everything above 100 Hz and then boosted everything below that line. After that I used Logic’s SubBass effect plugin to boost the bass frequencies even more. I then resampled it into EXS24 in contiguous zones so I plot the notes out in MIDI.

Overall, I was happy with the project, because it challenged me in new ways. I am very used to just dealing with the MIDI side of music production, however, recording live sound is something I am only beginning to delve into properly, yet I feel a have grasped most vital aspects fairly quickly.

SONG 1:

EWAN_SAMPLE_TRACK_1_(100BPM).mp3 Listen on Posterous

SONG 2:

Simiarities and differences between "Studio A" and a "Project studio".

  Similarites: . Both use Logic as a its DAW . . Both have computers. . Both have midi keyboards. . Both sound proofed. 

Differences: 

. Soundcards in "Studio A" are external, whereas they are built in to the midi keyboards in the project studio . 16 different outputs and inputs in "Studio A"; 2 outputs and inputs in project studio. . Studio 1 has a patch bay full of hardware fx, such as; Joe Meek Compressor, Mesa Pre-Amp and many more. . Studio 1 has 2 sets of speakers to balance out the sound to enable better mastering. . Studio 1 has a seperate live room. . Studio 1 has a mixing desk.

Patch Bay and Out Board Equiptment

1. This is the Line Input for the channel which is numbered 1-36 (in corresepodence with the channel strips on the mixer)

2. The Insert Send  is used to connect seperate parts of the out board to the channel strip via a bantam lead. An example of this would be connecting a bass guitar to a pre amp so you can record it.

3. The Insert Return connects the soundcard bay to the output of any given channel.

4. This is the Channel Out. You can use this to go straight to the soundcard if all the group outputs on the mixing desk are occupied.

5. Is another channel is needed, you can use the "Tape Send".

6. Tape Return allows play back through the monitor faders.

7. Monitor In allows an alternative way to play back through the monitors.

THIS DIAGRAM IS JUST AN EXAMPLE OF THE MANY PATCH BAY STRIPS THAT CAN BE FOUND. THERE WOULD BE MANY IDENTICAL COPIES OF THIS. Outboard Equiptment: 

TL Audio Parametric Equalizer: The Parametric Equalizer allows the producer to manipulate particular low, mid and high frequencies of an instrument or recording.

TL Audio Compressor: The Compressor is designed to make the dynamic range of a sound more consistent so that quieter sections of a recording are not drowned out by louder instruments in the mix. Compressors can be used on anything but are more commonly used on guitars and vocals. 

Joe Meek Equalizer: (Meequalizer) This equalizer is similar to the TL Audio Equalizer but is much less precise. Although you are still able to manipulate the low, mid and high frequencies you are unable to be as precise as you can be on the TL Audio Parametric Equalizer. 

Focusrite Pre Amp: The Focusrite Pre Amp does exactly what it says on the tin, prepares a signal/potential recording for amplification. 

Samson Powerstrip PS11: (PS10) The Samson Powerstrip is a simple piece of equipment which simply turns on the entire outboard, this picture is of a PS10 but in the college studio we have a PS11. 

Roland Dep-5: The Roland Dep-5 is an unit used to achieve a reverberated effect on instruments or samples. 

Sony DD7 Delay Unit: The Sony has a similar role to that of the Dep-5 but instead of reverb, this unit gives a delayed effect on the instrument or sample.  

Mesa Rectifier Pre Amp: This piece of outboard equipment also has a similar role but not to the Roland or the Sony DD7. This is another pre amp like the focusrite but designed for guitars.

  (CHANNEL STRIP)  

. Can record AND mix/playback with just one channel strip.]

. Tape return is just another way of refering to playback of a previously recorded sample.

. Playback ---> Bottom faders.   Recording ---> Top faders.

  Studio A Layout: . 

  Studio A Live Room Layout:

    Bantam Leads:

Microphones: Audix F14 (Kick Drum) - This mic is perfect for kick drums since it is tailored to pick up the lower frequencies of a signal, such as the bass from a kick.

Shure SM57 (Snare Top) - This microphone is perfect for all percusion, especially the top of a snare drum however, as it can withstand high levels of sound pressure.

Shure SM58 (Snare Bottom) - This microphone is very similar to the SM57, however, when used at the bottom of the snare it produces a slightly different sound, but adds to the overall quality of the sound of the snare.

Audix F10 (Rack Tom & Floor Tom) - The F10 can be used for all percussion, however, it minimises feedback so is perfect for the Tom drums because they often resonate and interrupt with the rest of the mix.

Audix F15 (Hi Hat) - The F15 is designed specifically for high and mid-high frequencies, perfect for reecording hi hats. It has a high sensitivity which allows milking from any chosen distance.

Neumann KM184 (Overheads) - The KM184 is perfect for overhead use since it accurately captures a wide range of frequencies especially the resonating tones from the cymbals.

Multi-Tracking:

Multi-Tracking is a recording technique which allows multiple instruments to be recorded at once, this is most effective when recording drums. Instead of recording all the drums on to one channel which would give a messy restricted sound and would be impossible to mix properly you can record each separate drum and percussion on to its own unique track allowing a better overall sound and to enable a proper mixdown.

Overhead Microphones:

Standard microphone positioning is when both KM184 microphones are placed to the left and right of the drum kit, pointing to the snare drum (the centre of the drum kit), in order to catch a good stereo image of the drum kit.

For this project, i was set the task to produce two pieces of music with a minimum length of 2 minutes 30 seconds. These were to be made to give my tutors an idea of the types of music i prefer to listen to and produce. Personally, i think i am a rather open minded person when it comes to music, so therefore, i tried to incorporate a mix of different genres into both tracks. These genres varied from Grime to Classical and from West Coast "Gangsta" Hip Hop to Drum and Bass. 

My first song was a 140bpm "Trap" song. Trap is a genre that has recently exploded onto the EDM scene due to major artists like Hudson Mohawke, Lunice, Skrillex and Diplo releasing lots of new tracks in this style. The characteristics of this genre are similar to that of Dirty South Hip Hop; however, it can be changed to share characteristerics with electro and dutch house. Traditionaly, the drum samples in trap are ones taken from a Roland 808 synthesiser. They are either used raw or processed in a DAW to subtly change how they sound. It is also usually sequenced with a halftime drum beat (like dubstep) but with extraordinarily fast hats, this gives a certain groove that i have been unable to find in any other genre. Furthermore, the bassline is usually derived from a booming sub bass that is layered underneath a kick drum. I decided to make a really evil sounding trap song with brass playing a big part in it. I particularly like working with the Brass VST in Logic Pro. I really like how you can get different sounds from the same note just by changing the velocity of the note. This helps alot with this genre since there are so many massive cresendos throughout the song.

(The MC on the track is an artist from North West London called MΔGMΔTIC MΔGNΔNIMOUS who asked to collaborate on a song with me. I thought his vocal acapella would go nicely with this instrumental)

http://soundcloud.com/astrexmusichttp://soundcloud.com/magmatic-magnanimous

Astrex_-_Demon_(ft_MagMag).mp3 Listen on Posterous

      The second piece i produced was a 170bpm Liquid Drum and Bass song. I decided to do a liquid drum and bass piece so i could demonstrate my versatility as a producer and to show that i don't necaserrily always produce dark music. 

    Born 24th April 1994

Address: 10 Tuam Road, Plumstead, London, SE18 2QU

Contact Details:

 02088548136 07412399292 [email protected]

A hard-working, reliable and enthusiastic individual looking for work that allows him to engage with the public and demonstrate his good organisational and communication skills.

Key Skills

Literate and numerate

Reliable

Good people and communication skills

Good verbal skills

Reassuring

Strong

Enthusiastic

Confident

Good Natural Leader

Education and qualifications

January 1998-1999: James Wolff primary school, Greenwich

1999-2001: Plumcroft Primary, Plumstead

November 2001-2005: Christ church primary school, Plumstead

2005-2010: Bexley Grammar School, Welling

2010 – May 2011: Bexley Grammar School Sixth Form, Welling

September 2011 till Present: North West Kent College (Music Technology BTEC Level 3 Diploma)

GCSES

  GCSES 

GRADES 

French 

B 

Food technology 

A 

Maths 

B 

Spanish

B

English literature

A

English language

B

Triple science

Biology: B  chemistry: B physics: C

History

B

Drama

B

Religious Education

C

  EXPERIENCE

. Sales Representative at Anglian Home Improvements Welling Branch – October 2010 - January 2011 Assistant DJ at DJ Darren Gilbert – February 2012 – July 2012 INTERESTS

   I am a keen cricketer and committed member of Old Colfeians Cricket Club.

I am highly interested in music. I am currently is working on producing electronic music at home. This has gained much interest from various promoters on the internet.

I am an ex-member of “The New Stagers” (based at the Bob Hope theatre, Eltham). 2004-2008. The New Stagers is an amateur dramatics company, and in the time I was there, staged 8 performances as to which I was a part of.

Ÿ  I am a qualified “Junior Sports Leader” and “England Cricket Board Young Leader” (both done in conjunction with Bexley Grammar School). I have demonstrated my coaching skills by working with various Primary Schools in the Bexley Borough.

Ÿ  I have also recently just completed my “ECB Coaching Course Level One”.

My interest in music was sparked from a very young age, due to the enthusiasm my parents showed while collecting a large and diverse library of music. Through this, I was introduced to many different sounds. This huge influx of music upon my life made me realise the subtle differences, but most importantly, the similarities there are between most genres. I grew to appreciate all types of music; however, one I feel that has remained a constant love throughout my life is rock music. It has energy, feel, and beautiful melodies whilst still being tremendously simple. It instantly grabbed my imagination and from that moment on I was obsessed with music.

I began trumpet and tenor horn lessons shortly after joining my second primary school. This was my first real experience at making and playing music. I was told by various music tutors that I had a certain knack for playing brass, however, I did not feel that I wanted to pursue a future in that particular musical path.

3 years later, I started my secondary education at Bexley Grammar School. The music facilities were, the best I had seen, and that, in turn, inspired me to start learning guitar. I must hasten to add, however that this was rather short lived, as two years later; I got into the technical side of music production rather than live performance. A few of my friends at school produced music, and it interested me greatly. I started educating myself in many different styles of electronic music and it was through this that I found FL Studio. It was at this point where my musical knowledge really blossomed and grew. I started teaching myself the ins and outs of basic music production. It became a full on obsession, I wouldn't sleep purely because id stay up all night producing. When I became a bit more competent with production and I thought that I was producing semi-professional sounding songs, I decided to create a soundcloud account so I could share my music with my friends and other producers. With this, I went on a self motivated musical adventure, to discover my own personal library of music that spoke to me in a particular way and tapped into my emotions. I honed and developed my music production skills over 2 years, and decided that it was the one thing that I was truly passionate about and that I wanted to pursue in my life. So, I decided to undertake a BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Music Technology and Sound Engineering at North West Kent College.

Over the last 2 years, I have managed to become a competent music producer, demonstrating my skills in a wide range of genres. I also have worked on and off as an assistant DJ. This has enabled me to get a first hand view at working in the music industry and hopefully it will benefit me greatly over the next 4 years. Apart from music, my interests are reading, skateboarding, playing cricket and cooking. I’m a hard-working, reliable and enthusiastic individual who is keen on self progression.

For our audiobook assignment, we (myself & Jack Waters) decided to record a narrated horrror story. The thinking behind this? Well, horror stories and films tend to have very intricate sound design and we felt that this would give us loads of space to chuck in as many effects and backing tracks as possible.

Throughout the whole audiobook, there is a constant droning tone. This adds to the overall eeriness of the story. The sound closely resembles a feedback noise that you would get off an guitar amp.  Layered with the droning tone are many different sound effects that i sourced off various websites and from Logic's fx collection. To create an accurate sense of suspense, i had to place the effects at the right part of the story, so it would synchronise with the narration and be relative to what is happening in the story. One example of this is where the characters "heard a deafening crash". I feel that i managed to create alot of suspense leading up to this section of the story by layering various soundscapes, droning tones, reversed cymbals and white noise; then finally at the end of the build up, i layered 3 different explosion sounds, and panned them seperately, so when listening on surround sound speakers or headphones, it emphasises just how loud the "deafening crash" truly is.

Another example of this is where the words "all track of time" are repeated at around 30 seconds into the audiobook. I created the repeating effect on the speech by adding an instance of the echo effect in logic. I managed to make the delay on the vocals synchronise with the ticking clock sound effect i had layered underneath it. Firstly, this allowed me to create a smooth transistion into the next part of the story, where it switches from being narrated to some actual character interaction. Secondly, it helps add to the ghostly atmosphere at this part in the story by becoming slightly weird, but just for a few seconds.

Final Version:

  Acoustics for musicians 

The physics of sound 

When something vibrates; sound is produced. The vibrating body causes the medium (water, air, etc.) around it to vibrate. Vibrations in air are called travelling longitudinal waves, which we can hear. Sound waves consist of areas of high and low pressure called compressions and rarefactions, respectively. Shown in the diagram below is a traveling wave:

      The shaded bar above it represents the varying pressure of the wave. Lighter areas are low pressure (rarefactions) and darker areas are high pressure (compressions). One wavelength of the wave is highlighted in red. This pattern repeats indefinitely. The wavelength of voice is about one meter long. The wavelength and the speed of the wave determine the pitch, or frequency of the sound. Wavelength, frequency, and speed are related by the equation “Speed = Frequency x Wavelength”. Since sound travels at 343 meters per second at standard temperature and pressure (STP), speed is a constant. Thus, frequency is determined by “Speed / Wavelength. The longer the wavelength, the lower the pitch. The 'height' of the wave is its amplitude. The amplitude determines how loud a sound will be. Greater amplitude means the sound will be louder.

Sound Envelopes

A sound envelope is made up of 4 separate actions; Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release.

 Each sound has its own unique envelope, though some instruments and sounds will share similar envelope structures. For example drums will tend to have a very quick attack, so their initial sound is strong and harsh but then finishes very rapidly. Electronicly synthesized pads, violins and other orchestral stringed instruments will share a slower attack and longer release.

  Attack

The attack of a signal is the initial sound a signal makes. Whether that’s the quick whack of a snare or a slow attack of a orchestral instrument such as a violin, attack is the first sound we hear from a specific instrument.

Decay

Decay is the time the signal takes to reach the sustain phase. In many cases, the attack reaches the highest amplitude but the loudness of the signal decays into a quieter part.

Sustain

Sustain, is that long(or short) part of a signal that is at the same volume. A long sustain is a guitar note held at the same volume for a while, while a short sustain can be a short violin stab.

Release

Release is the sound an instrument makes after you’ve effectively stopped playing. With synthesizer for instance, the release is the sound the instrument makes after you’ve stopped playing your part. If you press a note and then release it but the note is still playing, the time it takes for that note to die is the release time.

  Frequency

Each and every sound has its own frequency. The frequency basically means the pitch or “note” we hear it in. Each frequency has its own 'wavelength'. A wavelength is the width between sound waves. The closer the waves are to each other the higher the pitch or frequency will be, vice versa if the waves are far apart from each other then the pitch or frequency will be lower. Frequency is measured in Hertz or Hz.  Humans can hear anything between 20hz to 20,000hz (20khz).

  Amplitude also plays a part in measurements and this is measured by how high the waveforms are. If the waves are tall and high then the amplitude is strong meaning that the sound is loud, alternatively if the sound is quiet, the waves will be small and short. When a sound is made in a large room and the sound lingers on, even after it has stopped; We are experiencing 'reverberation'. This is the act of sound waves bouncing off walls and gradually losing amplitude every time. Low pitched sounds tend to linger around alot longer than higher pitched ones, due to the fact, the higher the pitch of the sound, then the easier it is absorbed, so if a high pitched sound was made in this room, we would stop hearing it faster than what we would if we made a low frequency sound.

Fletcher Munson Curves

Fletcher Munson Curves are a way of depicting the measurements of pressure over different sound frequencies. They are a way of showing how well a person can hear a sound at a certain frequency in relation to the volume it was played at.

        Timbre And Complex Wave Forms:

Timbre is basically the physical characteristics of the sound. These characteristics could include things such as: The attack, vibrato, pitch and volume etc. Timbre is what makes the sound of instruments vary. It is what makes a harp and a guitar different for example, even though they are both stringed instruments.

Complex waveforms are used in electronic synthesisers. They usually have multiple waveforms, that will each produce a different sound.

The Sine Wave:

The sine wave is the standard plain waveform which gives a smooth, flowing sound. Many electronic music producers tend to use this wave form for things such as sub bass, since it gives a clean, non-distorted sound.

  The Square Wave:

The Square wave tends to give off a robotic electric, tinny sound.

  The Triangle Wave:

The Triangle wave form is a lot like the sine wave form but with a lot steeper gradients and less of a smooth sound due to the sudden change at the peaks of the wave form.

  The Sawtooth Wave:

Acoustic Song (TETRIS ACAPELLA REMAKE):

For this song I decided to do a completely acapella (apart from a clap sound I recorded) remake of Doctor P’s take on the Tetris theme tune (

). I used Logic and a condenser microphone to record the entire song. I built it up with many layers of my voice, so I could accurately capture the sounds used in the original. I used a variety of FX plugins on my voice throughout the song. On the acapella melody, I added a pitch shifter to the recording, shifted it up by 5 notes, then turned the mix down to 50% so it would harmonise my voice and make it seem like two separate recordings layered on top of each other. On the “bassline”, I added multiple distortions VST’s such as Logic’s own Bitcrusher and its Phase Distortion. This made my voice have a more robotic feel to it since I increased the downsample rate on the bitcrusher. That is how the distorted “yerrrr” and “yoiiii” noises were made.

Sample based (INFIDEL) :

For the sample based song, I decided to make an instrumental designed for an MC or a rapper to work with. The sample I used was an ethnic female vocal loop off of logic pro’s media sample folder. All in all the song was pretty simple, using only this one vocal loop, some programmed drums which I created, some hip-hop style strings, a pad and some sub bass to fill it out, but not make it seem to aggressive. The ethnic sample made it seem eerie and somewhat evil, with the grimey strings adding a dark vibe to the song. With the addition of some nefarious lyrics, this would be certainly one of the darker songs I have ever produced. I auto tuned the vocal sample so it would sound musically correct with the backing music, then added reverb to it and turned the mix up considerably. This enables the sample to still be auto tuned, but the reverb masks some of the skippy changes between notes and makes it sound more fluid.

Own Song 1 (BOUNCE) :

For this song, I decided to make an Old School 90’s style garage tune. The main synth lead is a simple saw wave layered with a square wave in Logic’s ES2 synthesiser, then when the song drops, it is just transposed down 2 octaves and the note sequence slightly changes. This switch up in the song makes it perfect for dancers in clubs and raves. I spent quite a while on the percussion in this song. I wanted something that was new and fresh, but still had obvious influences from old school garage. Instead of having the kick hit on the 1st and 3rd beat of each bar I added more kicks to fill in the spaces between each kick and snare. This gives the track a more Skippy, bouncy feel, hence the name. Layered with the kicks and snares is a regular offbeat hi hat that is common in garage. It helps give a consistent beat to nod your head to, seeing as the kicks and snares in garage can be rather random.  This track was a bit of a breakthrough for me to be honest. I tried alot of new things in it, which I think will all greatly help me with production and sound engineering in the future.

Own Song 2 (MALICE): This is yet another song designed for an MC. This time, as opposed to grime, I have gone for a more west coast, American style trap beat. This is genre common with artists such as Lil Jon, Wocka Flocka and Wiz Khalifa. This whole song was produced under the 8D swing option in logic’s quantization tool. This makes the track seem alot slower than it actually is, and also adds alot more space in between notes playing, to add a “swingy” feel to it. The intro synth is just a simple detuned saw wave. I felt detuning it would make the song seem alot eviler than having a standard melodic synth. I then added a high pass filter to it to cut out the entire low end. This was more done in the mastering stage of production, I didn’t want sounds mixing together and making the mix sound “muddy”.