People just do nothing

“People just do nothing”

 

Qualitative Research:

This type of research focuses more on getting a personal answer rather than just figures which would be quantitative. For example, if you conduct a questionnaire, multiple choice questions would quantitative and questions that require the individual to write their own answer would be qualitative.

 

Audience research:

When conducting audience research it is important to monitor the consumer’s behaviour and attitudes.

 

 

Market research:

This involves a lot of production marketing which involve , studying your target audience and figuring out how much money you coukld possibly get out of the project, this allows you to waigh up how much ney you should put into the project to garentee that you will come out the other side woth a profit rather than a loss.

 

You would also need to looking similar projects being made, if there is another film being made that has the same consept than you would potentially make less mioney due to people needing to choose, therefore you need to analyse your competitors. C4 Films could rival a “people just do nothing” movie by releasing a 3^rd Inbetweeners movie.

 

You would also need to do indepth research about appropriate and effective places to advertise for this production.  We decided that the taget audience for this production would be 15 year olds therefore appropriate places to advertise would be near high schools and in shopping centres. We could also have them working with places such as reebok inorder to advertise and get funding for the project..

 

By advertising in appropriate places we are appealing to our target audience, if you advertise outside a primary school you are attracting the attention of people who are unable to view the product.

 

 

Production research:

Content-

Viablility-

Placement media-

Finance-

Costs-

Diagital redourses-

Personnel-

Locations-

Copyright-

Regulations-

 

 

Secondary research:

Secondary research refers to when you gain information from already conducted research, for example book, journals, magazines, DVDs, internet sites, newspapers and rating. For all of these things people have already done their own research and then published them publicly.

 

The alternative to this would be primary research , thos rerfers to research that you would conduct yourself through interviews, questionares, surveys, and focus groups, this way you can make sure you are using reliable sources and know that your information is accuret.

 

However something cannot be easily gatherd therefore people will turn to data gathering agencys such as, BARB, Experian, mosaic and You-gov

Research an album

Researching an album

what i chose to research

i have chosen to research the album "out of the blue" which was the seventh album to be recorded with a studio album By Electric Light Orchestra
the album fits into the genre of 'British Rock' and was released in october 1977.

The album was wrote and produced by the star of the band, Jeff Lynn. it took him approximately three and a half weeks to write all the songs on the album.
The album ended up selling about 10 million copies word wide.

The album managed to reach:
number 4 in the US billboard
number 4 in the UK album charts

the highest they every got was number 2 on the canadian and Swedish album charts.

in 2007 the album was reissued into the UK album chart, where it reached number 18.

Information on the studio

the studio used was Musicland studios which was located in munich, Germany.
it was create by an italian producer called Giorgio Moroder within the late 1960s and closed in the beginning of the 1990s, this was due to the nearby subway effecting the quality of production.
throughout the 1970s and 80s it was very popular with big named artists such as 'Queen' , 'The rolling stones' and 'Led Zeppelin'.

Information on the tracks

part of the album tells a story of the weather and how it can change peoples mood, the sequence ends with a sunny day within the song "Mr Blue sky". The song was wrote while Jeff Lynn listened to a down pour of rain the was outside his Swiss chalet.
"Mr Blue Sky"  managed to hit number 6 in the UK singles chart and Number 35 in the US
for the last couple of the track there is a vocated segment, very often people would interoperate this as being "mister blue sky" however it has been confirmed that it actually says "please turn me over". this would have been because the album was first released to vinyl rather than CD.
within the song there is an instrument that is mistaken for being a cow bell, however the band decided to used a fire extinguisher for this unique sound that can be heard.

People involved.

there were seven people with the band:

Jeff Lynne-  he was the Lead vocals, backing vocals, electric piano and slide guitars.

Bev Bevan- he was the drums and everything percussion. On the track "mr blue sky" he played the fire extinguisher.

Richard Tandy- Electric keyboard and electric guitar

Kelly Groucutt- backing vocals, bass guitar and percussion.

Mik Kaminski- violin

Hugh McDowell- cello

Melvyn Gale- Cello

There were three people involved in production:

Jeff Lynne- he was the producer, he was also involved in the orchestral and choral arrangement.

Reinhold mack (most commonly known as Mack)- he was the sound engineer

Louis Clark- He was the one the conducted the orchestra, he was also involved in the arrangement for the orchestra.

comparison to my recording

In my first recordings you can hear thing like background noises and the wind however within these tracks they sound very professional. you cannot hear anything that wasn't intently put in. for example sounds such as the fire extinguisher were intended within their recordings where as in mine, the cars in the background were not internal.
they probably used professional microphones where as in mine i used a hand held recorder so the quality of sound isn't to the same standard.

Being a recording enginere Unit 48

Introduction to sound production 


terminology for microphones

there are five main words to remember for sound production they are transducer, diaphragm, electromagnet,  compactor plate and Pre-Amp.

Pre-Amp- this a a device that is used when you have a very weak signal, it is used to amplify the sound.

Diaphragm- this is used to produce electrical signals, this is because its a thin sheet of metal thats vibrate in response to sound waves.

transducer- this device is used to covert one form of energy into another.

electromagnet- this is what is called when audio signals are converted into electrical signals.

compactor plate-all compactors have two plates that have some voltage between them. within a condenser microphone, one plate is very light, this is so it can act as a diaphragm.

Types of microphone

Dynamic microphone-

The diaphragm is attached to the coil. When the diaphragm vibrates in response to incoming sound waves, the coil moves backwards and forwards past the magnet. This creates a current in the coil which is channelled from the microphone along wires. A common configuration is shown here:

(insert picture of mic)

Condenser/ Capacitor Microphones-

A capacitor has two plates with a voltage between them. In the condenser mic, one of these plates is made of very light material and acts as the diaphragm. The diaphragm vibrates when struck by sound waves, changing the distance between the two plates and therefore changing the capacitance. Specifically, when the plates are closer together, capacitance increases and a charge current occurs. When the plates are further apart, capacitance decreases and a discharge current occurs.

A voltage is required across the capacitor for this to work. This voltage is supplied either by a battery in the  mic or by external phantom power.

(inser other mic)

Ribbon- When conductive aluminium is positioned between the poles of a magnet it produces voltage, this is what happens with a ribbon microphone

Microphones

Shure SM58-
this microphone is typically used when recording a vocals track, it is made to focus ob the main sounds and minimise any background sounds that may be picked up.

AKG D112-
this microphone is typically used for recording the kick within a drum while in a recording studio, however it can also be used for stage performances, its main feature is that it can handle more than 160dB SPL without going into distortion.

AKG C1000-
This microphone is typically used for live sound productions, its main features is that is a condenser, most microphones are dynamic.

Outside recordings

I used the a hand held recorder to record a glockenspiel in an outside environment . i recorded front, rear, Surround F, and surround R

glockenspiel outside, microphone facing forwards- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/outside-front-glockenspiel

glockenspiel outside, microphone facing rear- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/outside-recording-glockenspiel-rear

glockenspiel outside, surround F- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/outside-recording-glockenspiel-surroundf

glockenspiel outside, surround R- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/outside-recording-glockenspiel-surroundr

classroom recordings

i recorded two different instruments within a classroom, do do this i used a Shure SM58
the instruments i recorded were a glockenspiel and an acoustic guitar.

glockenspiel in a classroom- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/classroom-glokenspiel

guitar in a classroom- https://soundcloud.com/user-318712867/classroom-acoustic-guitar.

Evaluation

classroom glockenspiel- there is no background noise and it has displayed good use of picking up higher frequencies, actual recording is to a high standard.

classroom guitar- good sound quality, however quiet in places, there is no background noise. the instrument is clear and easy to hear, in future ask musician to play a little louder or have microphone closer.

outside recording- in all four recordings there is a lot of background noise, the instrument was places too close to the microphone their is made clear by the buzzing that is heard, scratching can be heard half way through. wouldn't recommend doing a professional recording in this setting.

soundtrack production

sound effects (SFX)

sound effects are created by people who work in a recording studio, they use various different items to simulate the sound of another item, for example a horse running is most commonly created by tapping two coconut shells together, these people are called foley artists

today i have tried to create sound effect for a scene in star wars, to make the sound of the storm troops running i tapped my feet on a music stand, i also tapped my fingers o the keys of a keyboard.
to make the sound of the space door closing i recording an adjustable chair going down. i them used the time strecher effect to make the stack longer and slower.

i feel that these are very effective for the purpose they have,especially the door sounds, i feel that it sounds very realistic for an automatic door in space.

unit 49- brief 3 Creative arrangement

Creative arrangement

Task-
my task was to make a cover of an already existing song but changed into an alternative style

What I have chosen to do-
I have chosen to do Happy by Pharrell Williams presented in a house style

Typical house music-
house music originates from 1980's chicacgo and is a ganre of electric dance music and typically had a 4/4 beat, and the main instroments would be a drum sets and cymbles would be used off beat.
moden day house music will often involve  a sample from an already existing song however as my track is a cover of a song, a sample will not be needed. another typical thing that can be found in a house music track will be a consistent beat that sets the pace for the rest of the song this has stayed since that start of the ganre and is useually created with the drum sets.  they will normally have a very electronic vibe to the song this will be created through a synthsizer.
according to research house music will normallt have a between 120 to 130 beats per minute.

An example oh house music-
an example of modern house music would be "Play Hard" by David Guetta Featuring Neyo & Akon.
it has a BPM (beats per minute) of approximately 130. it uses a sample from song called "better off alone "which was by Alice Deejay

Musical features--
texture- there are three different types of texture. unison, homophonic and polyphonic.
homophonic is the most common of the three and is when a melody is supported by chord progression
unison is when all of the instalments involved play the same melody at the same time
and the last one,
polyphonic is when chords, melodies and harmonies combine together to shape the overall track

structure- the typical structure oh house music would be intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, verse 2, chorus 2, bridge, chorus 3, and an outro.

effects- one of the most famous house music musicians is David Guetta and the effects that he most commonly uses is fades, compression, fades, reverbs and EQ

rhythm and tempo- house music is normally set to a 4/4 beat often et with a kick bass.

Evaluation-
I feel that my track successfully presented happy in the style of house music but in a way that it could still be easily recognised. even though I did not record a vocal track I feel that the main melody is easily recognisable .

Unit 49: Brief 4- Composing using music technology

Composition

composition skills-

form-

form is the layout of different sections of a song, often it uses a chord progression an example of this could be A,F,C,G.

to start off our compositions we were given the form A,A1,B,A1. A represents a simple set of 4 chords, A1 represents the same as A but with a slight difference, this may be 1 octave higher/lower, or it may be 1 chord different, this add a little bit of flair to the piece. B represents a complete change to the whole chord sequence. The track would then go back to the A1 section. and this creates a basic verse for your project.

structure-
a structure is the order the song is presented in.
the most common structure for a pop song is ABABCB where A represents a verse, B represents a chorus and C is a bridge that adds a bit of flair to the overall track. the different sections are made up of completely different forms but flow together smoothly to create an overall song.
The chorus is the part that represents that song as its often exactly the same each time which makes it memorable. it is also the part that connects the verses together. like a break from the main story a song will tell. and the verse it the part that always changes and tell the main story of the song.

genre-
genre means the style of music, an example of this would be county or rock. they have their own typical structure and forms. they show their own techniques which makes them different from the other genres and make them sound unique.

statement-
a statement is something that makes a song stand out from the rest of the songs in that ganre of music, this can be due to a new instrument that it has introduced, or it can be because of a message that it is displaying.

repetition-
in a song repetition is normally displayed through the chorus, however in rap music for artist such as Kanye west they will base a section on one specific word and will refer back to it after every couple of sentences.

difference-
one of the things that make genres so different from each other is the instruments they choose, in a rock song there will be electric guitars and a drum set, where as in a classical piece will have pianos and violins .

individually-
this just means something that makes it stand out.

originality-
this is something that makes it like nothing else that's out there

composers  rights-
the composer is the person who creates the song, they own all the rights to a song so if another composer wants to use it they would have to ask permission from the original composer, this may mean that they get royalties to the song and get a certain percentage of the profit the song will pick up.

Sound design-
sampling-
a sample is a short clip of audio, if it is under 5 seconds it does not break copyright regulations, however anything over would require permission from the original owner of the song or bit of audio. samples can help to make a song unique and give it individuality.
you can download samples from websites and then use the snipping tool that can be found on Cubase to make it a size that suits your preferences.
you can even use Cubase to edit a sample, for example Cubase can be used to stretch the sample, this would make it sound different from the original sample.

Availability-
software inputs-
I decided to use a piano and a solo violin as this is what went best with the genre I had chosen .
these two instruments are ,very common in the classical genre.

analogue and digital input-
I decided that having a microphone track would not suit the genre I was going for as classical is most commonly known for being all instrumental. if I did decide to have a microphone track it would have to be in an opera style and I do not know any artist that I could use to accomplish this.
I also decided a DI would not be nessisery for this project.

playback equipment-
format and compatibility- a MIDI file is the part that tells the system what to do, it will say what instrument you want played and for how long. for example: in my product the system would have told the computer to play a violin at C3 for 2 seconds. This can be beneficial for the system user as it takes up less space than it would if you chose to use an audio file.
an audio file stores a digital copy of a recording.

copyright issues-
within the music industry it is very easy to be tripped up by copyright regulations, it doesn't matter how long a track has been existing, if an artist thinks that you have used part of their song without permission than they can take you to court for breaking copyright laws.
this can be easily solved by contacting an artist as soon as you have interest in their track. it is also important to only use as much as they give you permission to use, if you do get permission from the artist they may ask for royalties for the song, this means that they would take part of the profit made from your track (if it makes any money).
an example of an artist being sued for using too much of a sample would be the verve for 'bitter sweet symphony', they had permission by the rolling stones to use a sample of 'the last time' the original agreement for the song was a 50/50 cut of the profits, however due to them using too much of the song, the rolling stones demanded 100% of the profits.

Mixing and mastering-
PQ codes-
PQ codes are what separate the track that are on a CD and this makes it easier for a person to find a specific song on a CD rather than having to fast-forward throughout one massive track and guess how far in it starts.

MP3-
MP3 is short for MPEG audio layer 3, and it is used to compress a track so that it can keep close to CD quality. an MP3 takes up less storage space making it easier to download and stream.

WAV-
this is an uncompressed file that would take up a lot of storage space. however because its not compressed non of the file is lost, which would be a benefit of using WAV.

AAC-
this is short for Advance audio copy. it compresses a file but not as much as MP3 would, and would have a better quality of sound.

Internet distribution-
throughout the years music has went from being sold on a record, to being sold on a cassette player, an then eventually to a CD but with modern technology the need for CDs have decreased and people have taken to listening to music on the internet. so sellers decided to take advantage of this and make it available to buy music straight onto your phones. this is demonstrated though things like iTunes, the perks of doing this is that it prevents the hassle of having to import music onto a computer and then go through the process of getting it onto a mobile device. 

compressor-
a compressor is used to make the load sounds in a track quieter.

Unit 49: brief 2 - Sequencing a pop song

Process of sequencing project

How to set up a project:

To set up a project you must have a DAW, this stands for a Digital Audio Workstation. A DAW is device or computer software that is used for recording, editing and producing an audio file; the file can be anything from a song to a basic piece of human speech or sound effect.

The DAW that I use is called Cubase, the system allows us to produce a project where we digitally insert and instrument, within the software we can be precise with the notes we want to use, DAW systems allow you to produce a file that can be manipulated so that an instrumental piece is done without a note out of place, it offers procession that you cannot get from a studio recording.

My class uses a MAC computer to operate Cubase, the mac has a 4GB memory, this allows use to make big files and complex software without having to worry about not having enough memory to save it internally, if the MAC did not have much memory the class would have to use memory sticks to save our work, through this we would be put at risk of losing the USB therefore losing the work we have produced.

Setting up a track with Hal Lion SE:

Before you set up a project you need to know about MIDI, which stands for Musical Instruments Digital Interface, it allows a variety of digital instruments to work together

To set up a new project you have to:

Firstly open up the program

(Cubase Logo)

you will be shown a menu , along the to there is an option labelled “more” on the menu you click on “empty”

(Cubase empty document option) 

From this you will have a completely blank work space, to insert an instrument you need to find the option “project” along the tool bar , the project option will open a list of options, in this list you need to choose the option “add track”  on the next menu you must choose “instalment”.

(cubase header)

(cubase prodject)

(cubase add track)

A box will pop up on your screen. This will give you the options has to which type of virtual instrument you want to use, for example if you wanted to use a virtual drum, or if you wanted to use a synth, the first instrument I chose to work on was strings therefore I needed to use a synth track.

(add instrument track)

(DI options)

The synth menu give you the options of synth you would like to use, my project required me to use the HALion Sonic SE. this option allows any Cubase user access to a wide range of sounds, it focuses on aspect of producing music that some people would see as essential such as having a good clear sound, it also makes the virtual analogy synthesizer have a powerful effect.

(Synths options)

Once you add the track it will be put on your workspace, at the point you can focus the side bar that would have now appeared along side your track, this bar will allow you to choose which specific instrument you are choosing to use. In order to pick your specific instrument you need to click on the blank space that can be located within the side bar below your option for MIDI input.

A new pox will appear will different types of basic synth, ay the top there is a search bar where you can search for a specific instalment, my project required me to search for strings, once you have searched a verity of your instruments will appear.

(cubase screen)

(instrument options)

(instrument type/strings)

(instrument string options)

What is MIDI
Midi gives instructions to the computer telling it what sounds to play,. at what pitch and for how long

software synthesisers
software synthesisers allows you to change the sound of an instruments due to it using serval samples from the existing instruments, this allows you to edit the instrument to suit how you personally want it to sound for your project.

using a groove agent for drums
instruments are recorded and use as part of the software, it can be used as a sample for people to use as part of their projects. groove agents are mostly used for drum tracks. to use a groove agent you take all the steps you would take to insert any other instrument but instead of selecting "Hal Lion SE" you would select "grove agent" instead, then go over to the toolbar and select "media" and then "mediaBay". this will bring up the options for what samples you can use, you ,can listen to each one until you find the one that you want, once you have found the perfect one you take all the steps as before to get the groove agent up, now with both the groove agent and the samples windows open, just drag and drop the sample into the groove agent.