Finding faults

The beatles - Yer blues (2009 stereo Remaster)
The instruments in the song is slightly panning to the left and it should be in the lift. The song should be straight in the middle. The drum beat is panned to the left about 50 degrees when it should be in the middle, because it's the main instrumenti n the song. In 1:32 it randomly echoes when it shouldn't be like that. The vocals should be turned up more. The bass should be in the middle and not panned 15 degrees to the left, the reason why it should be in the middle is because the bass is one of the main instruments as well, it gives drums a boost and a bit of bass to it. Another fault is that the guitar lead should be in the middle and not panned because it's the main melody in the song, the melody is something for the audience to remember it by. The drums should be louder than the other instruments that's playing. In my opinion (if this was made using with Logic)  the drums should be panned to the middle and not the left - the drums are the one that keeps in time with the track, the guitar that's panned on the right should be panned in the middle, the vocals should be compressed. The reason why the vocals should be compressed is so that the vocals could have a better quality in the song... the echoes should be taken off because it just came out randomly - also the echoes made the vocals a bit quiter.

Love - You set the scene
There's a big problem in this song as the main melody is panned to the right at 50 degrees, when it should be in the middle also it's very low, since it's the melody - it should be panned in the middle and it should be turned up more louder, the reason why this is a problem because as the song starts people wouldn't think that their earphone/headphone is not working on the left side.
The bass and the drum beat should not be panned on the left so much, this is called a " hardcore pan " , this makes the track really empty in the middle. At the moment there's so much space in the middle that only the vocals are there, although the vocals are in the right spot... there's too much emptyness and another fault is that vocals needs to be louder as well. At 5:15 the drums comes off time with the bass...
What I think the producer should of done is that, they should of panned the drum beat in the middle, the bass in the middle, the guitar (melody) in the middle and the vocals in the middle. While the other instruments are panned either to the left or right. This means that the main things are in the middle and there's space in the track for other instruments playing, but they shouldn't be panned to much only atleast 20 degrees to either the left or right.

I live in a dream
In this track the vocals needs to be louder because the vocals are what the audience is going to remember the song by. The drums needs to be EQed as the bass of the drums are quite low, they should be EQed using the Top shelve by just a bit so the drums doesn't clip/distort.

Track 1 (production diary)

Then Till now

Equipment list

In this picture it shows the Microphone (NT1000), headphones, pop shield, Mic stand and the reflection filter.

The reason why we used the Rode NT1000 (mic) because this was the type of microphone we had to use to record in the studio because it's a condenser, it has better quality than the dynamic ones. Condenser Microphones can handle power, ( as it needs phantom power to use ) but dynamic microphones can't handle the power, also Condenser microphones are more sensitive so they'll pick up more sound... as dynamic is less sensitive so it would not pick up that much sound... 

We used headphones to record our song, the reason why we needed headphones is because if there wasn't no headphones then we wouldn't be able to record the song as the artist wouldn't be able to hear the track playing through or the metronome. 

The next equipment we used was the pop shield. As you can see it is placed behind the mic... the reason why it is there is so that no spit could go on to the mic when the artist is either singing/rapping... but this is mostly for rapper's as some of them spit a lot when it comes to rapping fast. This stops the spit from damaging the condenser (as it is sensitive ) it would damage it quickly.

Next up... is the Microphone stand! The microphone stand is the one holding the microphone and the reflective filter. This was used to make the microphone stay still, so that it doesn't drop or anything like that. Also it's there so that no one has to hold the Microphone when recording.. the microphone was the main essential of the equipments.

XLR Cable. The XLR cable is plugged from the splitter box into the Microphone. It has 2 ends... one is the female end and the other is the male end. The Female end goes towards the Microphone and the Male end goes into the Splitter box. This is used to connect to the Microphone.

The next equipment we used was the reflection filter. When recording the reflection filter is used to stop the Reverberation, the 'hush' sounds and other sounds.. 

Jam Hub

This is called a Jam Hub, it is a conjuction with vocals, instruments, pre amps and many more. the reason why we used the Jam hub is because it was needed to plug into the 'Stage box ' ... the jam hub was also used to send the channel numbers to the mixer.. onto Logic, so that we could know what is recording where for example.. the Microphpone was in channel 7-8 so it was sent to there and we had to use those channels to record what we want.

Stage Box

 The stage box is where XLR cables are plugged into. You only use this if you're recording.. we used this to connect it to the jam hub. The stage box has channels.. as you can see the Yellow cable that is connected into the Jam hub is the Microphone cable, this is where microphone channels was sending to the mixer.








Recording
I first recorded my sounds with Midi the reason why I recorded using Midi because I had to make the instrumental first before putting audio on top of it... also I think that using Midi is more compatible with me as I use it a lot. All of the sounds such as the electric guitar..drum beat, bass etc was recorded using the Midi keyboard. The Midi keyboard is a keyboard where Logic understands the language of Midi, it transmit data from Midi into Logic. My Track doesn't contain any live recording. It has many instrumets into it though, there's also instruments I tweaked as well. I played in everything myself, using 3/4 chords, all the other instruments that has notes in them, Improvised them by myself and built around the beat. I velocitised all the notes in every instrument, in piano roll so that they could have the same levels and the same dynamics. One of the instruments I edited in piano roll was the electric guitar and changed ip the dynamics, the way how I did it is that.. first of all I selected all of the notes in piano roll and went to 'Fixed velocity' this changed all of the colours to one colour which was orange, I then highlited one bar and used tool box (the velocity tool) to drag down the colour to green and then I dragged the last bar abit up so it could be abit more red. I did this so there could be a build up in the instrument.
I used a lot of panning as well, to create space for each instrument so that everything isn't cramped together in one space which is the middle. 2 of the sub drums went towards the left and the other 2 went to the right.. while the bass drum was in the middle. The electric guitar is in the middle because it's the main instrument (melody) that people will remember. All the other instruments were either panned to the left or right.
In the chorus I used a effect called 'high pass filter' the filter drops into the chorus which shows that there is a change in the structure.. after the second bar of the chorus it rises up to do a build up and then you hear a radio sound which drops into the second verse.
Instruments:

• Electric Guitar
• Synth Pads & a tweaked synth pad
• Drum beat ( 4 sub drums and one main bass drum )
• piano
• Bass
• Random sounds (nature & radio )

The electric Guitar is the main melody in the song, that is why it is the loudest in the song. It's alongside with the vocals & the drum beat.

The synth pad in the begining is the one I tweaked... I tweaked it using the ES2, the way I tweaked is that I used the 'RND' tool on the bottom and I dragged the ball towards the right, to make it increase the percentage.. the more you drag you more random & new sounds you would get.

The drum beat.. in the recording there is about 4 drums.. but they are all turned down so it doesn't distort. One of them has bass drum and that is the loudest of the other drums. The reason why it has 4 drums is because I needed the drums to be a bit more louder and to have a better quality. At the time I had one drum and it was the bass drum.. although compressor could turn it up - make it a better quality, it was distorting a bit. I added sub drums ( the 4 drums I mentioned ) which had no bass into it so it could have that punchy feeling, I also Eq'ed the drums (the ones without the bass).

Piano.. at the end of the track you could hear that the piano sounds a bit weird... 

The reason for this is because I used a reverb on it and the reverb I used is called 'Space Designer', I used a a plug in. I used this specific effect because I didn't want the piano to stay boring, I wanted to be creative in the reverb.. Another reason why I used this one is because this reverberation has space.. while the other's don't - meaning when the piano is playing you would carry on hearing the sound until the Reverberation has stopped.

Audio recording... After layering everything out in the beat, I decided that it needed some vocals on it, so first of all me and the artist had to set things up before we recorded anything. We set up the microphone onto the microphone stand first, we had to screw it on, tight so that it doesn't fall off or anything  Then we got the XLR cable and plugged one end in the microphone while the other end went into the stage box... afterwards we got another cable and plugged it into the Jam hub while the other end was plugged into the Stage box.

Mixing using only midi first
The way I mixed the midi first, I compressed a lot of things... for example the drums, the reason why I compressed them was because I wanted the compressor to raise the low volumes and lower the highs.. BUT! I used the gain to turn them up and I turned down the threshold. The reason why I turned down the threshold is because the threshold makes the compressor work by raising the gain reduction. I did a lot of panning in the mixing, the things that was panned to the middle was the bass drums, the electric guitar and the bass. The reason why the electric guitar was panned in the middle is because it is the main melody in the song. The other instruments (the extras) the were panned either to the left or right, they were panned this way so that everything is not in one space and also so that theres space between the left, right and the middle.

Mixing using Audio
I personally think that mixing the audio was one of the hardest things to do. First of all I had to record Kierans vocals on to the track and we had to take a lot of takes to get it right. We recorded the first Verse, Chorus and the second verse. for the first verse I had to use one of the audio because it sounded more better than the other takes we did - the reason why it sounded better because when we was recording some of the words he was saying in the other takes sound a bit wrong like muffled and that.
we also recorded Ad libs as well.
The way i mixed the vocals in the track is that I turnt down Kierans verse by a bit, I also turnt down the electric guitar is it was clashing a bit with the vocals... another thing I had to turn down was one of the bass kick because it was making the track a bit distorted. I made the vocals all the same level with the other vocals such as the chorus, and verse 2.
I also made Terells verses and chorus the same level of Kierans. I added some reverb on to Kierans vocals in the chorus. I did this because I wanted the chorus to sound like there's some extra space when saying some words and so that it doesn't sound flat + straight.
At the end of the chorus (the near end of the track) I added a echo to Kierans voice, to add a bit of flavour to the song.

Mastering
In the Mastering I bounced the track to a WAV format, the reason why I did this is because this is the type of format you must use when putting on a CD.
I didn't do as much because I mixed it pretty well.
The things that I used was the EQ:
The reason why I used the EQ was because I had to turn down the kicks a bit by lowering the top shelve, the kicks were sound a bit too loud and it was making the track a bit distorted.
Another plug in that I used was the limiter, the reason why I used the limiter is because the track was clipping a lot.
This made my track to go under the clipping bar. I then turned down the gain to -o.5dB. I did this because I wanted the track to go a bit under the volume level.
I then used the Level meter to check if it's going to peak over or not, I think this helped me because although I should be listening to check that it's not distorting or anything, this also helps me too see meter.

Listening style..

Macklemore - Can't hold us

This song structure starts with an:
- Intro
- Verse 1
- Chorus
- Verse 2
- chorus
- Bridge
- chorus

Instruments

1. Synth lead
2. Claps (from real hands - not from Logic)
3. Kicks (real kicks from human feet & a deep club kick)
4. Piano
5. Bass
6. Horns
7. Percussion ( hi hats, tambourine )

The producer of the song is called Ryan Lewis him and Macklemore are like duets - together. I think the genre of this song is Hip hop, with just a hint of Pop because of the time signature (4/4), it goes in 4 beats per minute. The rhythm of the kicks go in crotchets and so does the claps but in 2:05 it changes to semi quavers.

I like The claps and kick because it represents the sound of what church/gospel people do when their making a beat while singing. They do this when they stump their feet.
I can tell that the kicks were recorded as real life stumping from people's feet, in the intro, also the claps are recorded from human hands.


Everything about this song is perfectly mixed & mastered. Many instruments are levelled such as the kicks and the claps, they are levelled out together which means they are balanced. I can tell that the piano has been velocitsed which means that the chords in the piano has the same level of volume.
In the mix there's a nice deep - Bass (club) kick, it's been used very good. I can also tell that the producer 'Ryan Lewis' used a good sense of Compression on to it, I can tell because of the quality of the kick. It's really punchy and quite bassey as well. The attack of the kick is really good I would say that the attack on the kick is around about 40-60%. Although it is a deep bass kick, there's not much of bass on it there's only a little bit. In the mix if the  song is that the vocals is the loudest first, second is the drum beat, then third it's the piano & the horns.


What I also like about this song is that the Piano is the main melody and it's easy to remember for people.  The chords for this song is, Em, Dsus, Bm, C and the bassline is E , D , B, C. This is how the chords go in order:

• Em x4 + bassline E
• Dsus + bassline D
• Bm + bassline B
• Then it goes back to a C x4 + bassline C

Business plan

Releasing a/EP 

Objective 
My objective is to release a EP online on a website called bandcamp, the reason why I picked bandcamp is because they won't take any money away from me... also I would stay in contact with those who purchased my EP as I would get an email from them.
My main aim is to grab a bigger audience/bigger fanbase also I hope to gain more artists to listen to my beats - so that they could get at me to make them instrumentals for a fee.

Target audience
Tto everyone who likes my music mainly for Artists so that they could use them, for me to gain more exposure. Mainly for those 15-23. The reason why it's mainly for Artists is because once they hear my EP, they would probably contact me and decide to work for me.

Timeline of planning 

I would be making a lot of instrumentals and working with artists for my EP. I would need to book some studios but I should have some connections, so I wouldn't have to pay for studio time. I think that on the weekends I would do recordings with the artist because that's the time I mostly be available. The editing & the mastering I would do it in my free time unless I have a deadline which I woould then plan out when I should edit & master the tracks.

Promotion

I would be promoting on Twitter/Youtube (Previews)/ On my team of collectives page/Facebook and more. Loads of people such of my friends would help me promote as well, and I'll also get other known people to help me promote as long as I do things for them... I negotiate small deals just so that they could help me advertise.
Cons: The cons are that some of the people won't have social networks to reach my music
Pros: Most of my target audience are on social networks so they could listen to my music.

Marketing Strategy 

I plan to release a beat mixtape first, so I could get more exposure and so people would know that I would make a EP afterwards. If I make this beat mixtape, people would probably buy my EP as they probably would like my beats.
This would not be free on Bandcamp.. I would probably release 3 tracks so that the audience can get a taste of it first. The EP might also go on Itunes.

Budget 

Design prices for the front cover (artwork) should be around £30-£50 or I could get someone to do it for free (that's I have connections with people)
-The format of all tracks would be MP3, because it's not going to be released on a CD it's gonna be released for digital download.

Contact details

The contact details of the beat Mixtape would be on the back... so would the EP as well.

The contact details would show my Email address.. my website... Twitter & Youtube.

Freelance (task B)

Producer
As a producer my role is to get known to the public so that I could grab the artists attention/non-artists attention to listen to my instrumentals, to work with me and so on.  This is my role because loads of producer's need to work with artists and the only way that could happen is if their music gets advertised a lot. Also another reason why is because producer's need to make money. The way that I plan to promote myself is...

Marketing Materials

- My LOGO/My sign. If people see this sign, they would know that this is " STEVIEBBEZTZ " and only him.

• Soundcloud - Www.soundcloud.com/StevieBbeatz

SSB - ( Myteam of collectives) this would help me because this group is quite known as well, also the producer on the right is more known as well. This could help me get more exposure.

T shirts - (StevieBbeatz/Stevie-Bbeatz) - I plan to make more T shirts like this one which I made personally for myself, the way I plan to do this is to make more T shirts and sell by myself for the time being if sold I would keep on repeating in making more T shirts and selling. I also plan in making a LOGO if possible. If  I amsuccessful, I would try to get a few connections in helping to sell them in a store. 

Another way that I could promote myself while wearing this T shirt is to appear in videos, so that people could recognise what my t shirt says and hit me up.

• Facebook - Www.facebook.com/StevenProducer

(Facebook page so people could contact me - personal fb & producer)

• Youtube - www.Youtube.com/Steviebbeatz

(Youtube, where all of my videos are and songs)

• Twitter - Www.Twitter.com/StevieBbeatz

(Twitter - Producer & personal twitter)

• Blog -  http://steviebbeatz.blogspot.co.uk/

These Marketing materials would help me a lot because they would help me to become more knwon, the ones that specifcally will help me the most is Youtube, Facebook, Twitter & soundcloud. I think these are the main ones because for Facebook I could get a lot of friends to share my music, I can advertise them on Famous artists pages, peoples wall, my wall & more. For Youtube I would put my music up there, videos and things like that - Youtube would help me get views, I could even pay for advertising it on a lot of Youtube videos at the beginning of the video. Soundcloud would definitely help me because I could also put my music up there, people would be able to Download them as well & they could spread the word as well. Youtube & soundcloud are main marketing materials because this is where I would put my music up on. I think Twitter is one of the main ones too because I could hash tag rappers like this "#rappers" to follow me, dm me about using m instrumentals or to make them a beat for more exposure. I could also tweet a lot of artists as well, which is more easier.

Target Audience
As a producer my target audience would be for everyone who likes music, preferably teenager's/young adults because they would promote my music more than adults, as teenager's/young adults would enjoy it more. This is because my music would mostly be the genres of this audience would listen too. Not only teenager's/young adults would listen to it maybe street promoter's/manager's (of clubs) would listen to them so that they could play it in their club or in a building, but the main audience that it would be directed too is artists so that i could work with them. This would help me in getting a bigger fan base for myself.

Royalties

Writer's Royalties & Rights
The way a writer gets their royalties is that when their song has been recorded or performed then they are entitled to a royalty or a payment. Companies would have to pay a synchronization fee that's If their song gets played on TV, film or radio which means the companies would have to pay them and the rights from the writer's to use them.

There is another royalty called the " Mechanical right " this means that every time a track is written & recorded the writer must be paid. The way a Mechanical royalty works is that if the track gets put onto a Vinyl for instance then that's when a Mechanical royalty comes in. The MCPS (The Mechanical copyright protection safety) HAVE to negotiate on the publishers half, with other record companies, broadcaster's or more, if they wish to have a song.

Performer's royalties & license
performer's would also get royalties if their used in a recording as well. The way a performer get's their royalty as well is that if they performed a song that they recorded in the studio as well. performer's rights are owned by the people who plays instruments most of the time. If a performer wants to use their part in a song, they would need to get permission from the writer in order to use it.
If you are an artist there could be a royalty payment which means that they get paid a percentage of each record sold in a shop, Things like clubs, shops, bars, hotels or whatever

'A company called Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL) collects the license money and then passes a share on to the musicians. Royalties Reunited is the simple way for you to claim airplay royalties that are owed to you.' (ref: http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499 )

How much they get
This all depends on what deal they've signed/what distributor they've signed or what the contract says. They should get about 10-20% of money, this means that every record that's sold they'll get that amount but it all depends what it says on the contract, for example they'll either get 10-20% of the retail money,whole sale, distributor price or something else. Sometimes the percentage would be more than 10-20% it just depends on whatever the contract says. You have to be real negotiable if you want a good contract.

However you must be real negotiable, this is because some labels would include 'clauses' which means that labels would reduce the amount of money your supposed to get, they would do this in contracts, this is why you must read carefully when getting a contract. 'Bear in mind that record companies will often try to include clauses in their contracts with artists that reduce the amount they have to pay them' (ref: http://www.venturenavigator.co.uk/content/499 ) . Some of these deductions would come from making copies, advertising, poster's all them kind of stuffs.

A better way in making sure you get ALL of the money/royalties to yourself is to be independent (by creating your label), selling the records yourself and much more. This way you won't have to be concerned about any contracts or have a fuss about things. On the other hand when making/having a independent label it would be a lot of work because you have to take control in everything and do it yourself. This way is a better option because you won't have to pay back anything back, everything goes to yourself and you could be in partnership with other acts/ small labels to use their recording studios for example. This option is way better than signing any label record and the reason why is because they would give you money in advance - then you would have to pay the money back to them.