Grant - Wind sound

Unit 9 - Technical Development

In our live production lessons we have been using several pieces of equipment such as a vocoder, a looper and a freeze pedal.

A looper allows you to record pieces of audio and then the signal is repeated at the rhythm the settings are put at, this can be done multiple times and reset by pressing one button. This piece of equipment is useful for solo artists who are performing live as it allows them to record the same instrument(common ones to use are guitars and vocals) multiple times. This means the artist can create a big and layered sound with one guitar as long as they get used to timing the looper pedal correctly. A nice pairing for the looper pedal can be a delay pedal as it allows even more depth to the performance repeating the sound again.

A vocoder is meant for taking someones voice and essentially turning it into a synth. You speak into the mic attached to the vocoder and this takes your voice and essentially creates multiple signatures of it that are based on the frequencies going into the mic. The sound you want your voice to be based on is fed into another input on the vocoder if you aren't using the presets that are on the device itself.
This is useful for artists how are attempting to make a lot of sound out of very little as to me it works how a synth pad does backing up the track adding that other layer, except with a vocoder the audio it creates can be used to just back up the normal vocals, I prefer this way of using it as you get the naturalness of the original vocals but you also get the unique and interesting sound that the vocoder creates following the vocals . This video of Bon Iver is a good example of this, it's just him and a vocoder



   

A freeze pedal is similar to the looper pedal as you speak into it and it takes the bit of audio and repeats it. Different settings on the pedal determine the speed at which the audio signal is repeated. This is useful if artists want to have a phrase repeated during a song or a specific part of the song.

Yr2 Portfolio

Portfolio

My overall career goal is to be able to make an average living off of music by either making rock or indie albums or being a producer/engineer who works with a large variety of artists. At this point in time I'd like to get to a point where I could work with a couple of modern indie artists such as MGMT, Boy Pablo and Gus Dapperton as I feel like these would be the target people to work with in the genre of indie as they are at the top of their genres at this point in time. Me being able to work with these artists would mean I am gaining notoriety in an underground environment and my plan from then would be to get to a point where I can work with mainstream artists who have inspired me as well as people would be willing to let me work on songs with them as well as have opportunities to play with them on stage. These artists include people like Neil Young, Noel Gallagher, The War On Drugs, and Bon Iver. One brand that I would like to work with would be Fender as they are probably one of the most well recognised guitar brands creating iconic guitar models, being able to work with them would provide me with equipment such as guitars and amps which are beneficial for anyone attempting to play live. Others include brands like boss and Ibanez both mainly for their work with pedals as this is an important part of my music.

These are my targets as I developed an interest in music after listening to the first 2 Oasis albums which then inspired me to learn guitar and I then found a large amount of other bands and musicians who ended up inspiring me such as The Smiths, Neil Young and The Beatles. I'd say I'm primarily an artist and attempting to pursue being a performer but after studying music production at college I think it might be a good idea to continue studying some form of production or engineering at university after a gap year as this will open up career opportunities, allowing me to meet new people who are as involved with music as I am and if I'm continuing I don't want to be limiting myself in what I can do in terms of technical ability whether it be in a studio environment or even just using a DAW on my mac. I'd say my guitar abilities are probably my strongest asset right now when it comes down to music but I am improving my producing abilities as well as gaining more confidence to sing.

One of my inspirations would be someone like Noel Gallagher due to the fact that he inspired me to learn guitar and I respect his songwriting ability. During his time with Oasis before the release of their debut album they spent a lot of time rehearsing and writing songs and played a couple of small venues which eventually led to them being discovered by Alan McGee and he signed them to his record label Creation Records which allowed them to become well known to the public and release a debut album which lead them to their success.

Another person who has heavily inspired is David Bowie. His level of confidence on stage and being able to connect with his crowd the way he does has always intrigued me and definitely made me aspire to have such an incredible stage presence. Bowie was from South London and his interest in music began early with him learning how to play saxophone and then when he was a teenager he was apart of numerous bands which didn't go really go anywhere other than releasing a couple of singles, making him decide to release a solo album in 1967 which yet again didn't really do much for his career. During these unsuccessful periods of Bowie's career, he had obviously been developing his persona saying he's interested in acting and developing characters which explains his constantly changing style and persona throughout his career. Then in 1969 he released Space Oddity which was the first big turning point of his career, it being played alongside BBCs coverage of the moon landing made it instantly recognisable to the British public being one of the reasons for the songs success.

Bowie then went on to experiment more with his music and public persona sparking albums like Hunky Dory and The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, both of which for me are his most iconic albums and the latter album is probably his most crucial turning point, largely due to the fact that he had came out as gay and had created a character called Ziggy Stardust who was an alien from mars who had come to warn earth of its destruction.

Bowie then went on to enjoy success with each album released after he killed off Ziggy, some of the earlier ones including Aladdin Sane,Young Americans which included his first US single Fame co-written with John Lennon on it. By this point Bowie had developed a cocaine addiction which then ended up creating another one of his iconic personas, The Thin White Duke whom he described as an ogre and product of what he says was an "astronomical amount of cocaine".The album that followed through with this persona was Station to Station which showed a much darker and twisted side to David Bowie. Then the Berlin Trilogy came about which was a period where Bowie had moved to Berlin to apparently get away from his excessive lifestyle and he went on to make the album Low which at first wasn't received brilliantly but it is now considered one of the best albums of the 70s. After he released Low, he then released the album Heroes in 1977, which featured the title track Heroes on it which I consider to be one of Bowie's best songs.This is largely due to the sound of the song which was a product of Brian Eno's and Tony Visconti's production styles, both where very experimental and attempting to break new ground in music which was probably what attracted Bowie to working with them and I imagine experimenting more with his music, rather than his image and personality which would've been quite relieving as he wasn't exactly acting or pretending to be a character during this period as I'd like to think at this point, he would've been going through a recovery period after being in the spotlight for so long, he was probably just attempting to create new and interesting music.

Bowie released music up until his last days unfortunately dying on the 10th of January a few days after the release of his last album. Bowie has taught me to be experimental in all areas of art and to work with as many different people I can making sure I get the most out of being interested in music, I wouldn't want to release one album and then five albums on show no sign of progression.

My plan is to intern at radio stations and record companies this year and then continue doing the same next year possibly getting a job at one as well as continuing to make music on the side hopefully getting to the point of releasing an EP. I'd like to go to Uni but at this point in time in not entirely sure if it's the right choice for me so I'd like to take some time off and if I'm not satisfied with what I'm doing I'll continue some form of music production at University which will hopefully let me develop my sound and work with more people outside of London possibly.

My portfolio will be an EP which will hopefully accompany some form of animation which will be uploaded to youtube to promote the EP. I'll need to get in contact with artists and animators which could prove quite difficult but if I can do that it's something I've always been interested in and I think its important for you to incorporate other forms of art into your music.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ziggy-stardust-how-bowie-created-the-alter-ego-that-changed-rock-55254/

https://www.biography.com/people/david-bowie-9222045

https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/david-bowie-the-early-years-763372

http://time.com/4183603/david-bowie-1970s/