Week 1:
This week I set out to record one of my songs for my project. I wanted it to be mainly consisting of synths as this is one of the primary parts of my research. I have got the main melodies and chord progression done of the song so far and next week Joseph from college will be coming over to mine to help me get a good drum section done as I find this is a part of my music I lack in.
I enjoyed making this song as for me it was one of the first time I've been able to make something that actually ended up sounding how I wanted it to sound. By this point, I've been using logic for roughly a year and a half so it's nice to see development in my music. The melody was what done it for me.
I, for the most part, achieved what I wanted this week, I got a couple of pieces of research done as well as the structure of my song, obviously, it would be nice to have gotten some drums done on it but Joseph will come over and help me next week. I'll learn how to do drums for a track like this then.
I also have done some research on Brockhampton which when doing so, taught me all about how they used genre-mixing to gain the success that they did as quickly as they did. I then researched synthesizers leading up to making the mp3 above which in doing so lead to me watch the first part of a series on youtube on the basics of synthesis. It's quite an old video from the 80s but as the video states it doesn't matter what type of synth you're using, all of the fundamentals to sound design are applicable to any type of synth, whether that's the sound waves or the envelopes it applies to everything synthesis related.
Next week I'm planning on getting the drums done and researching some guitar pedals that I have to know how to use them effectively in my music.
Week 2:
This week Joseph came around and we finished my track together. We went for a drum track reminiscent of modern trap songs as genre melding is a part of my project. I quite like the mixture of the original indie/pop sound of the first week and the addition of the trap drums in the next week. Perhaps we could've tried a live drum track with the drums I have in my home but I am quite happy with the result of it so I see no need to change it yet. I also learned in one of Grant's lessons that adding a bus to my bass will allow me to change the cut-off of the sound whilst recording a new audio track. I added this new bass with its cut-off manipulating under the original bass to add more surprise and dynamics.
I then researched guitar pedals such as chorus, crunch, reverb and flanger as well as how to use the tone of your guitar effectively in preparation for next week as I am planning to record a song which the main element of it is guitar. I want it to have a similar sound to the last one blending pop and trap together with the main substance of the song consisting of live instruments and synths and the drums being trap influenced.
I also looked at this video on youtube which is a guide to synthesis. It teaches you all about the waves of a synth as well as examples of what they sound like by themselves and together. I want to have some pads and lead synths in my music so this is a useful video for me. As well as this I did a case study on Brockhampton which when doing the research for it, I learned it is difficult finding information on such a new band about such a specific topic as genre mixing but I got through it by looking at reviews and youtube videos about the band as well as comparing its aesthetics to indie groups.
I am quite pleased with my progress this week. I have a song nearly finished basically(I just need to mix it now) and I have researched pedals to help me with all of my next tracks. Next week I would also like to put mp3s up on SoundCloud of me testing out my guitar pedals too see how the settings on them actually change the sound rather than just reading about it and then put it into my case study on the tone of guitars in indie.
Week 3:
During this week I had planned to finish a song by the end of it but unfortunately, all I had done for it was the main guitar melody. It's very simple, spacey and reverb-heavy as I'm attempting to keep a similar vibe for the whole project. I quite like the idea of the tracklist getting more and more natural song after song, so that is something I'm now considering in my project.
I have also researched modern Indie pop musicians such as Boy Pablo and Gus Dapperton(who in a few weeks I'll be doing a case study on). I chose these two artists specifically to mention as I feel like they are some of the biggest at what they are doing right now and this is a good place to start with research. The instant you hear some of their songs you can tell that they have been influenced massively by 80s pop and indie. You can hear artists like The Smiths and New Order in a lot of their music even if they aren't direct influences, so I'm planning to research 80s bands next week.
I also recorded my reverb, chorus and flanger pedals this week by recording them in my cabin with my SM57 through my vox amp. I have used the research from some of the sources I will be using for my case study on pedals for these pedal recordings to know what to do with the sound.
Clean:
Reverbs:
This is one of the presets I will be following after I will alter it to how I like it.
Chorus: This is the only one I won't be using presets on, I will just be using what I know about the settings.
All 3 together: I decided to put all 3 together and it definitely sounded way better with the combination of the reverb and chorus.
This is a useful bit of research to look back it when making music later on to help me with the sound of my music and pedals.
Week 4:
This week I got around to finishing the majority of the song I began last week. It consists of similar fundamentals to the song I completed during week 2. I definitely enjoy recording live instruments more even if it was only 2 tracks this time, so I've decided the last couple songs I do for my EP are going to be mainly live sounding. I reversed the guitar melody and used that as a good way to intro the song as this made the transition into the actual guitar work really smoothly.
As well as finishing that song this week, I recorded another guitar melody this week to be used for a song sometime in the next few weeks.
I decided to change my case study idea after struggling to find good sources for modern indie artists like Boy Pablos and Gus Dapperton as they have only had attention for the last couple years so instead I will be looking at older indie bands.
I have researched a couple of 80s bands in preparation for my upcoming case study on indie and it's use of tone with guitar and synths, some of these artists include New Order, The Smiths, and The Cure. All of these bands are known for chorus and reverb-heavy guitar or their powerful synth leads so I feel like those are good bands to research.
Next week I'd like to also research some bands my teacher Chloe told me about who will help with researching the tone of jangly guitar's. I also plan on completing one more song for my project and I think I'm going to go to Deans over the weekend. I want it to be acoustic and reminiscent of some of Bon Iver's earlier work.
Week 5:
This week I went to Dean's and we began making a song, I spent a while attempting to come up with something but I eventually settled on a slow acoustic guitar progression. Yet again this song is simple and will stick to the basic formulae of my other songs, I might go for a live drum kit this time though rather than a digital one as I feel like it will fit an acoustic vibe more, we only put a kick sample on their. This is what I have done so far.
Rather than it being a piano playing the lead melody towards the end I'd rather an electric guitar with some reverb on it to be playing it over the piano so I can bring the guitar in and out to add some variation to the structure otherwise it'll feel repetitive. I also might re-record the main acoustic guitar as Dean's mic picked up on me tapping my foot trying to stay in time and this is bad for the overall sound of the song.
I have done my case study on indie, I looked at a lot of the old bands I said I was going to as well as the ones Chloe told me about. This was really useful for me as I got to look at what Indie started off as and how it incorporated pedals into their music to give it a larger than life and often very emotionally driven effect.
Yet again I haven't done all of the drums on my track this week but I do have an idea of what I'm going to do on it next week, I want it all to be very simple and just build up constantly. Now that I have finished two of my case studies I will be researching the Beatles during their Sgt Peppers era to see how they went from pop to psychedelic music quite quickly and swiftly.
Week 6:
During this week I finished the song I began with Dean last week at his in our studio lesson with Grant. I had Joseph finish off the drums for me on the track and I then went home and played the main melody on my electric guitar. I just wanted a kick and a snare on the track playing every beat but the way the metronome on logic was set up made it more difficult for Joseph to stay in time so we made it so the metronome in logic was playing in quaver notes rather than crotchets.
This is the intro to the song again updated.
This week I began looking at The Beatles specifically their Sgt peppers phase and how it changed the group and music. I looked at how they went from pop to psychedelic music in their short decade long span as a band and how that made their impact on music grow far wider than they'd ever considered.
I plan to finish the sad guitar idea song I came up with a couple weeks ago next week when I go to UJs as well as write up my last case study.
Week 7:
This week consisted of me beginning my song with UJ. We ended up only getting some drums over the guitar loop I made but it still sounds pretty good. UJ reversed some of the guitar loop and made a cool intro and some transitions.
So far we only have about a minute of it done but we plan on adding some more bass to it and maybe a couple of synths.
Other than that track I didn't get much done other than a literature review this week. I didn't get my Beatles case study done but as I've got a decent amount of my work done already this shouldn't affect my workflow too much, so I'll get it done and begin working on my final song next week.
I decided to release 3 songs off of my project on my SoundCloud just to have them there in case anything happens to the files. I have 2 more songs left so I wouldn't want to lose anything this close to finishing my music.
Week 8:
This week I made a song which I plan on using for my ep. It fits a similar vibe to all of the others and I plan on getting Will to do some vocal stuff on it. This is what I have so far.
I heard a Brockhampton song where they had a guitar with a bunch of flanger or phaser on it in the background just strumming the chord once on each bar.
This week I finished a couple of the literature reviews as well.
Next week I plan to completely finish my EP as well as finish off the literature review and start the Beatles case study.
Week 9:
This week I finished the last song on my EP as well finished off a couple of literature reviews. William came over and done some vocals on the track as well as some backing vocals, but unfortunately, I will only be using the backing vocals as I haven't got any sort of vocals on the other tracks so I feel like if I was to add a hook to one of the tracks it would be a bit off-putting and confuse the listener.
I told him I wanted some high harmonies when the guitar riff comes in.
And this is the finished intro to the song.
I didn't get to start the Beatles case study this week but I have collected a couple more pieces of research for it.
Week 10:
During this week I polished up all of my work, completed my last literature reviews and then checked if anything was missing and made sure I had published all of my work on my blog. I also got my final version of my EP up. The first 3 tracks haven't been altered much, other than how they fade in and out to help with the transition of the instrumentals but the last 2 tracks are now on it. Other than me not having time to put vocals on it I am quite happy with how the music turned out as well as the project as a whole. I didn't have time to finish the Beatles case study so I added some more information to my other case studies to make up for it.
