Mastering.

EP - 01. Beautiful Thinking (Feat. Danilo Ferreira & Arowstarh)
I was given a harder task when mastering this because this track was already mastered and limited, so I had to re-master it again.
There was a lot of bass on the kicks so I had to take some off it off by using the EQ. I took of about 52Hz, I added a high pass filter.
I then used a multiprocessor to get rid of the spikes that was on the actual audio file, the area I compressed a little was around 3.5k this helped reduced some of the area that was at 3.5k and it also reduced the spikes. However I was not able to reduce one part of the area in the track which is where Kierans was about to start rapping when he says 'thinking' and it has that 'Ck' bit but I think that is because of the reverb tail so it's supposed to be there.
Afterwards I bounced the audio file and did a before & After... As you can see... (The picture blow)

The first picture is the before and the second picture is the after.

For the final stage I then added a limiter, boosted the limiter to +9.5dB and the release time to 15.0ms.

EP - 02. Lost Love (Feat Caitlyn Scarlett)

Again this track was already limited and mastered so it was also difficult to re-master it...

However

In this track, the mix was really good however I had to make a slight adjustments. The Claps were really really really sharp and there was many spikes because of it, also the kick had many spikes too. I had to EQ and add a high past filter around 40 Hz, afterwards I Eq'ed out around 2.1k Hz which is where most of the Claps were coming from, I had to turn it down by -3.5dB. After that I added the Multi pressor, so I can just compress the high frequencies just a small amount but I mostly compressed around 2.1k Hz which helped the claps to make it less sharp. 

Here's the Before and after. 

As you can see in second photo (After photo) most of the spikes are still there, I managed to get rid of some spikes but because the claps were bright the mix it was quite difficult to make them less bright without affecting the whole track.

For the final stage I used a limiter. First of all I raised the gain to the highest point which was (+20dB) and decreased the output level to -10db. I did this because this helped me to deal with the release time, which I slowly raised... I raised it to 16ms which was a good set point. It was neither too relaxed or too tight which was good. Afterwards I put the output level back to 0dB and started over with the gain, I raised the gain to +9.5dB.

Evaluating My EP Campaign

Evaluation
My EP will be a success because, I'm going to be advertising it a lot on social networks. Social networks such as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and I will get a couple of people to promote my Ep on Tumblr as well. On Soundcloud I have joined a lot of groups so I can that I can share the tracks onto the groups that I've joined. This will give me a lot of exposure because this people who are in the group are from around the world such as USA for example. They all have different genres in those groups as well, such as RnB/Hip Hop/Chilled and many more.
I am going to do the same strategy I did with my instrumental mixtape (The Keys Picture below)

The way I marketed this Mixtape is that I did everything on Social sites, it was released on 'DatPiff', 'Media Fire' and 'Band Camp' it was a free download. The reason why it was a free download because this was actually a promotional mix tape, and this mixtape marketing was a success in my opinion.

I already have the design of my EP ( see pic below ) all I have to do is record the vocals. I even informed many of my friends about my EP, also the ones who has a lot of follower's on Facebook and twitter.

I am also thinking of doing hard copies for my EP, about 10-20 this will be free. I have a strategy of my own to do things for free until I have a bigger fan base and that's when I will be selling things. This will be my last free project.

I was thinking of releasing this EP on Datpiff AND Band Camp but I think it might be necessary to just release it on Band camp because before downloading there would be a option to whether you want to pay or not.

Legal performances

When you are planning an event, you will need certain things such as an event licenses before you can put any event. This will prove that you are legal to put on any event that you like.

Alcohol
If you want to sell alcohol at your event you are going to need a license to decided whether if it can be sold or it cannot be sold otherwise you will be responsible whether if something happens to the customer's or not due to drinking,.

Age limit
In certain events the age limit is about 13/14 years old. You will definitely need an Age limit in events because for the safety of kids it is not safe for under 13 years old to go to an events especially when if there is alcohol.

The age limit determines whether if person has the right age to go into the event or not, in some cases you will need an adult to go with if you're child is under 13 years old.

Security.
In the majority of events they have bouncer's, the reason they have bouncer's is because if something happens in the event.. for example a fight occurs the bouncer's job is to stop fight and kick them out, but this is in certain  special events. They also are there to check peoples I.D's for proof of age.

If you're putting an event of your own, you should always have security depending on where the venue is. If your venue is outside with loads of space then you wouldn't necessarily need a bouncer maybe a security team would be more useful.

Technical Team.
In loads of events there is always a technical team. Why? No Technical team would mean no event this is because the technical team is the people who deal with the sound, they make sure everything is right and nothing goes wrong with the music. They mostly deal with the microphones, wedges, sound checks mixer's and so on.

The Technical Team are the ones who always need to contribute with the artist to make their performance a success.

When you're putting on an event you will always need a technical team. They would make your life much easier in terms of the sound.

Risk Assessment.
Creating a Risk Assessment is always important because if something goes wrong or something happens in your event for example people are tripping over wires constantly then the risk assessment would be able to help you... the way it would help is that you write a situation and next to the situation you write a solution so it'd make things easier. So if people are tripping over wires is a problem then you would have to look at what you wrote for your solution and sort it out.

Limiter's.
There is many limiter's in a lot of loud events, these limiter's are installed in the events. These limiter's are really really important because let's say a bands performance is really loud the limiter's will react and squash/turn down the sound by a little bit. The audience would need realise it has been turned down / squashed which is an excellent thing.

Transport.
Transport is really needed for artists / bands. If your artist / band lives far away then it's the promoter's/organiser's role to make sure they get to the venue safely and on time, however most of the time it's the artists manager's responsibility. But if they do not have a artist manager then it's promoter's/organiser's responsibility. If there is problems in getting to the venue then they would need to the promoter's / organiser's asap.

Communication / Positive Attitude.
Everyone would need to have brilliant communication and a positive attitude in order to have a successful event. Band / Artists need to have communication with the audience and with the technical team.A positive attitude would make the audience feel overwhelmed at being in an event. Communication would be needed with the technical team as well because they are responsible with the sound and they must always engage with each other.

Medical support.
People often have accidents at events, this could involve cuts, bruises, scratches and more. First Aid kit is always needed at events for the safety of the people, also someone who knows how to do deal with medical services should be there as well.

Also just incase someones child has a cut then the first aid kit would always be available for them.
it is really important to make sure that the people are safe and unharmed.

Mostly adults who get drunk have accidents so having a first aid kit is a good idea to have. Although if damages are severe then phoning an ambulance will be needed.

Conclusion...
If I was putting an event, all these above would be very important. It would be my job to make the event a success, to get feedback and to make sure the people also have a good time. Everything would need to be perfect.

EP evaluation

1. What is your EP called?

My EP is called Dreams. 

2.  What styles of music are on the EP?

Loads of Ambient types, I'm more familiar into doing ambient stuff, so this is why this is the main style of my EP

3. What genre would you categorise the EP as?  It can be more than one.

 Electronic/Experimental/Contemporary.

4. In terms of the style/artistic content - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music.

The style that I am doing I am more than happy because it's my type of style. I like to do a lot of ambient type of stuff but I would add a lot of influences into one thing which makes it really unique at the end it turns into experimental except it has a song structure.

5. Musically - How well does your EP fit into the genre you work in? Compare your work to your favourite artists…

I personally think that Drake ( who is my favourite artist ) would be able to feature on to one of my tracks because it's kind of his type of style. He does a lot of contemporary type of stuff, a lot of his productions - instrumentals are very warm and calm., that's how my EP is going to turn out to be. Also one of my favourite producer's who produces for Drake who's named 40... I've put a lot of influences from him in my EP, so my EP is going to be warm/calm but very very unique.

6. In terms of technical standard (recording/mixdowns) - are you happy with the EP? Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your music.

I am not completely happy with my EP yet because it is not fully done yet.

The strengths of my EP is that one of the tracks is completely done, mixed and mastered, I also released it on my soundcloud and many people do like it as I got many good feedbacks about it.
The weaknesses of my EP is that some tracks / Instrumentals are not finished or they do not have vocals on to them.

7. Technically - How well does your EP fit into the genre? Compare your work to your favourite artists..

There's a lot of warmth coming from my EP, I would rather compare my work to my favourite producer which is 40. I've studied him a lot upon how he gets that warmth out of his sounds, especially when using Synth pads.

8. Did you collaborate with other musicians/artists on your EP?

Yes I have collaborated  6 artists. 3 Singer's and 2 rapper's. However I used 2 acapellas for 2 tracks, I didn't ask for permission for both. I got a reply with one artist I told him what I am going to do and what I'd do with it he gave me a thumbs up and wink. However I didn't get any reply from the other artist. 

9. Who did you work with in the studio? What roles did they fill? How did this help you complete your EP?

 I worked with an artist called Imani who is a singer, he is one of the singer's that is featuring on my EP.

10. What was the most important piece of equipment you used when making your EP? How did you use it? Why was this the most important?

One of the most important equipment I used was the midi keyboard, I used this because I needed to create the beats, I had to play in the chords and the melody also do the drum beat. Another important equipment I used was the Microphone (NT1A) I used and recorded with this microphone because It's a good condenser, this microphone was used for pre production.

11. Give me an example of a studio session that went really well. What was good about the session? Why?
A couple of weeks ago in the production room, the reason why it was good because we actually got some recording done which I was happy about, however there was a few minor things that was messing up with the recording, whenever we recorded something the audio file was delayed and whenever the artist wanted to himself there was a weird delay and reverb effect on the recording, so to resolve this 1. we had to go on to preferences on logic and then go on the recording tab, then reduce the recording delay. 2. To stop the delay/reverb effect we had to put the channel on mute then record.

12. What is your favourite track on your EP? Why is it your favourite?

 My favourite track on my EP is ' I don't believe in your stories' The reason why it is my favourite because it's ambient and it has a house influence into it. It's a nice chilled type of track, it's not too overhyped. This fits really well with the genre / style I am doing.

13. What are you going to do with your completed EP? Send to labels? Post online for free? What are your plans for the future?

I plan to do a huge launch on the internet so I can get many many people to advertise it on social sites such as Facebook/Twitter/Instagram and more, it's going to be a digital EP so it'd be on Datpiff, Mediafire and Band camp. Free download... However I am also planning to give out hard copies for free, the reason I am doing this for free is because this EP is mainly for promotional use. I haven't 100% decided yet.

14. What is the most important thing you have learnt when creating your EP?

 I have learnt that Artists are a complete waste of time this is because they take really long to either write lyrics, they're not serious about music like how I am so they're not really bothered about getting involved into my EP or they just don't show up to studio times.

15. What was your most recent music purchase?

All about she - I can't wait...

16. How much money do you spend on music every month?

 I don't really buy music as much...

17. How much money do you spend going to gigs/clubs?

I spend about £3 - 5 going to either launch parties or concerts.

18. How do you plan to make a career in the music industry? What are your future plans?

Evaluation for Grant (Gigs/Tech'ing)

In this evaluation I'm going to tell you how the shows went altogether.
My responsibilities were:
- Setting up equipment for the main stage
- Spectating the sound ( to see if it sounded okay or not)
- Using the mixer's

What went well
- The set up of the equipment was all set up correctly and were in the right place
- The volume of the performance were on point, nothing was too loud or too quiet it was all perfect.
- All of us had good communication skills while spectating the areas.

Thursday
This was the day when East Kent college came to perform. We had to Rig up the instruments/mixer/microphone and so on.  One of the things I did I set up the acoustic drums with Danilo, the microphones for the sax and the Key-tar.
I also helped out with the soundcheck too.

This was our first time Tech'ing for another band. I mostly did the mixer with Elliot and I was also spectating around the room just to check whether the sound volume is right, if certain instruments are loud enough or not. I would tell Elliot and he would do the mixing. I also did some of the acoustic stage, which I wasn't that familiar with at first but I got used to it.

There was no Technical problems, that issued here.

Wednesday
This was the day when Level 3 Music & Music Production, had a gig. I helped out with the soundcheck, by playing instruments such as the electronic drums and the Juno.Elliot wanted to do the levels as I was playing them. I was mostly spectating the room and shouting at that Yemesi's vocals were too loud.

There was only one problem which was the Reverb wasn't on for the acoustic stage and we couldn't figure out why it wasn't working, So we was unable to resolve this, but in some of the performance's we didn't really use the Reverb.

Thursday
This was the day when it was the level 3 music gig. We held sound checks here again. We had to set presets for the main stage on the mixer, so it could be easier for us to manage on the main mixer ( main stage ).

There was one technical problem that was happening which was on the DJ mixer, when Baran was performing the backing track wasn't playing for some reason so we had to wait for about 5 - 10 mins while Kieran was sorting it out.
Friday
I mostly did the acoustic stage, I found using the mixer on this stage much easier than the main stage because there wasn't that many controls/knobs to touch/turn which made things quite easy. That was one of my responsibility to do. Also I had to spectate around the stage, which means I had to do a lot of moving around in the crowd to check whether the vocals / guitar was too loud,too quite or the FX (Reverb) was too loud. I was also in partner's too, so I did the spectating while my partner was doing the mixing, I'd tell him/her whether things are okay or not.
One of the artists vocal range was very dynamic, so I had to control the fader on the mixer manually, I couldn't leave it one play otherwise whenever she got louder then the overall volume of the vocals would be too loud.
I also did some of mixing on the main mixer (main stage) when things needed turning up or down... although sets on the mixer were already saved it made life much easier and it saved us a lot of time.

Technical Problems issued + solved.

-There was a couple of things that did go wrong in the show. In the first couple of performances on the acoustic stage the reverb wasn't on at all. The reason the Reverb wasn't on was because the FX output volume was either turned down or it wasn't on at all. We sorted this just before the show went on again.

- The last show everything was going perfect except that on the very last performance of the night... as soon as the guitar played it almost blew everyone away off the stage because it was so loud - it was roaring. Kieran tried to mute the guitar/turn the fader down on the mixer but it was still very very loud. It seemed that it wasn't the mixer it was the amp and the pedal, the amp volume was turned all the way up + when she pressed the pedal while playing it increased the volume as well. We was all panicking, Sashani had to run to the back and turn down the amplifier.

Conclusion
I personally think that the show went really well because everyone had a brilliant time especially me. We got great feedback about our engineering skills upon the stage from the performer's and audience.
In my opinion for future reference I would like to do more controlling on the main mixer so I can get the hang of it a bit more... I'm already used to controlling the mixer for the acoustic stage.
I did learn a few things, I learnt that you must be 100% engaged with the sound and not to be distracted by other little things, things such as your phone. I got distracted with my phone quite a lot so to resolve this I had to switch it off. I learnt more about the mixer as I got to use it a bit more (mainly for the acoustic stage) and how to mix manually on stage - controlling the volume of vocals/instruments and fx.
Although things did go well I wasn't that happy with my input in the group this is because I didn't get to do that much, sometimes I wanted to do more which means I wanted to try and use the main mixer more so I can become confident with it... even when Elliot wasn't on the mixer and it was just me and my partner I still didn't get to use it as much which was really disappointing. In future I would like to use the main mixer more so I can become more confident with it.

EP Campaign

Social Network
Since I have already released a instrumental mix tape, I will marketing this on social networks such as Instagram/Facebook/Twitter.

I will get loads of people to share my EP, like how I got loads of people to share my mix tape on Facebook:

Twitter:

As you can see I did a lot of advertising upon my mix tape,  I will be doing the same thing for my EP

I chose it to do it this way because I already have a lot of followers on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram already so this'll be a good idea for me to release it on, especially since it's going to be a digital EP.

Marketing Techniques.

There is many Marketing Techniques that also involves doing crazy things just for a lot of exposure.

There's Techniques like:

Guerrilla marketing.
Guerrilla marketing is something to  do with events. You have to get the publics attention by doing things like Flash mobs, things that could go Viral (this includes doing crazy/stupid things just for exposure). This is actually a low cost strategy if someone can't afford proper promotion upon them then this is a good idea to do. This is also includes things like Graffiti, so you could graffiti your band name on a wall for example, this is a good way to promote yourself but it is a bit risky.

Hosting Events/Performing Events
Hosting events and giving/selling hard copies of your mixtape/album is also a good way to promote your stuff. Another thing is performing (if you're a band/artist) on stage with known artists this will surely get you some exposure also it's a good way to network.
you do not have to perform on events like mini concerts (The 02 Academy) although this is a good way to promote since the 02 academy is really known but you can also perform events at marriage for example

Magazine/Newspaper adverts
Magazines such as 'Rewind' will able to give you reviews about your mixtape/EP/Album and this would help you get out more in terms of promotion too. Even on the internet they can do reviews, one of many that does reviews is the MOBO. They give a lot of reviews on artists mix tape/albums.

If possible you can even get yourself on the newspaper by performing or being in little adverts.

Public Transport/Public
On bilboards is another technique to market yourself, getting yourself on a billboard is the best thing because a lot of people do look at the billboards whether they're walking / on the bus or in a car.

You may have seen many artists in the tube area on the walls, that is also another marketing technique which could help market yourself.

Stickers, on walls/floors/Bus stops are also good.

Social network.
Things like Facebook is one of the biggest marketing/promotion technique you could do. The reason is because over 14 million people use Facebook. Nowadays Facebook can help you promote BUT that would mean you would have to pay. Facebook will give you a option whether if you want them to promote you with a wide range of audience this means that they'll promote you on Facebook all over the world. So people who don't even live in London or your area will see you, how they do this is that they sponsor you. Every time someone see's your page on their screen it would say 'Sponsored' on the bottom of their name. Facebook is a great tall in terms of marketing.
There's other social networks like Twitter/Tumblr and other's as well.

The best ones for marketing on social networks is Tumblr/Facebook and Twitter. Twitter you can put a hashtag on whatever you're promoting ( #Music < For example) and a lot of people would be able to check it out this is because they would search for the hashtag.

Tumblr is quite good because all you have to do is post a picture alongside the links, so it is a okay way of marketing yourself.

Another way is Instagram, Instagram is really good because you can even post a 14 second video (preview) of your track so your followers can listen, upon that you can post a picture too. You can post a link in the caption but the downside is that they would not be able to go on it unless you post the link in your description.

What type of Marketing Technique would I use for my EP and why?
The type of marketing Technique I would personally use is social network (Instagram/Facebook and Twitter)) but mainly Facebook & Instagram. This is because I have a good fan base that always shares my music and I also know people who have over 7,000 followers on Facebook, they would also help share my stuff too. I would use Instagram and Twitter because I have a decent amount of Followers and people on Twitter would be able to 'RT (Retweet) my EP. For Instagram my followers would post a picture of my EP cover on their instagram too, so this also works in terms of marketing if you have a good fan base. Another reason why is because my EP would be a DIGITAL EP so it would be released on sites such as 'DatPiff', 'Mediafire' and 'BandCamp'.

Production Diary Two. Uriel - You.

Uriel - You.
Well with this track compared to the stuck in the dream one is very different. The style of this track is also Dark but it's Dark RnB more likely to  be contemporary/Ambient. With this track I made the instrumental first. This instrumental was actually featured on my instrumental mixtape 'The Keys'. There is loads of influences in this instrumental coming from artists like Jhene Aiko for example. She is a singer who sings on a lot of RnB but more of that ambient/contemporary type of RnB.
The singer who was singing on my instrumental is actually an American singer from overseas (New York).

Equipment

The only equipment I used was the Midi Keyboard. Everything I did was on Midi, I decided to use this because I am more familiar and comfortable in using.

Making of the instrumental (The important things)

I used a lot of Pads for this track. The pads on the track are the ones that actually make the track since they are the main elements that complete this song. I used pads from the logic library (EXS24) but I did a lot of processing into them. I used the filter in the EXS24 (cutoff) and turn it down for a low pass effect this made my pads more warm and dark which is what I wanted. 

The notes that I used to make this track are not really chords it's just 3-4 notes throughout the whole song., but there some changes as the song progresses. These changes are caused by the pads I used. I used about 7 pads.

The reason why I used 7 pads is because, I hard panned these pads so that one is on the left while the other one is on the right However not all of them are hard panned. Only 6 of them are hard panned. The first Pad is panned to the left while the second one is panned to the right but it's not really hard panned it's panned to about 15 - 35 degrees. The 'main fairy pad' is the middle pad so it's not panned either to the left or right. The ones underneath that pad are the ones which are hard panned to the left/right. The 'rising fairy pad' is the pad that makes an awkward sound when played. I automated it by raising the low shelve so that the quality of the sound could pop out more but this was only used in the intro as a little drop, just before the instrumental comes in. It is however also used in the chorus.

The kicks I used are the drums that I made by using 2 drums from the logic library and processing them. These kicks are heavily compressed, but for kicks I used different circuit types. One is VCA which I used on the actual channel fader. VCA stands for Voltage Control Amplifier. The VCA circuit was used to make the kicks pop out more and to make it a bit more fat. I then sent a bus for another compressor but this time I used the circuit type FET. FET stands for Field Effect Transistors. I used FET circuit type to give the kick a nice punch.

The snare I used is not actually a snare it's more like a Rim Shot and it's from the Logic library. I EQ'ed it a lot to get that sound and I added a stereo Delay so when It's been hit the delay would go the right of the speaker, but it would then bounce back to the left of the speaker. The filter was also used so it's not too bright, I was looking for a Dark RnB sound so the filter created a low pass effect upon the stereo delay.

The bells are the only melody that's played through in the chorus, these bells are from the logic library kit, except they just sound a bit more warmer and thinner. This is because I EQ'ed around 1k Hz and turned it down by about - 3 - - 6 dB. I did this because the bells were very very sharp and bright.  There's 2 bells. One bell is being played in left side of the speaker while the other is being played in the right side of the speaker however the difference between this is that they both play different melodies.

Chopped vox?? As you can see there's a chopped vocals that I used for the chorus so the listener's would know that it's the chorus but it's turned down so it didn't clash with the main vocals. I got from vocal from Youtube. The vocal is actually Mary J blidge. The only difference is that I reversed it and added Averb.

The guitar? Now the guitar that I used is from the logic library and I didn't do that much for the guitar because I didn't have an idea what needed to be done. When I showed my friend producer the track he could already tell that that guitar was fake, I didn't really decide on getting real live guitars for this but it would've sounded much better if I did use live guitars.

Vocals.

The vocals are from Singer and Song writeR Uriel who lives in New York, she wrote all of the lyrics when I sent this instrumental to her manager. This is obviously a free instrumental since it appeared in my Mixtape so they had the rights to use it, as I also gave them permission to.

My Mixing & Mastering

As you can see for the same as the other's I mixed every instrument low again. 

I mixed the pads kind of equal so they have the same volume. Certain Instruments level are quite low for example the bells, I didn't really want them to be that noticeable. The kicks, clap (not the rimshot) and the pads are mainly the loudest in my mixing. I Eq'ed every instrument individually, as you can see I am kind of mixed it the same as the track 'Stuck in my dreams'. As apart of the mixing I didn't mix the vocals! (unfortunately).

Engineer's mixing & Mastering

When the Engineer mixed the track, he used pro tools to mix it. He made a lot of things loud, the loudest point of the track was the vocals but it also it was the Rim shot. I think in his eye he wanted the rim shot to be one of the main elements as the same for the vocals. The only thing he did which was quite odd was that he turned down the chopped vocals that was used in the chorus, but I think he did this because he didn't want it to clash with the main vocals.

For the vocals he used a AKG C1414 microphone, as you can see this type of microphone is really popular. The C414 produces a nice clean quality when recording with it, it's really crisp as well. 

I can hear that he did some effects on the vocals, with the deep voice in the chorus and the rewind effect as well. I personally think that it was really effective and interesting. Also I think that he boosted around 1.5k Hz for the air of the vocal but not that much which was really good. 

The whole mix of the song is really good nothing is too loud besides the rim shot but it doesn't clash with the rim shot.

Sound Design

I highlighted each of the instruments I used with the following colours:
RED: Motion Pad
Cyan: Crazy Lead
White: Swirking Pad
Black: Warmy Pad
Light green: Glowy Electric Piano
Dark Blue: FX Whoosh
Yellow: Drum kit
Brown: 808's
Green: Found sounds.

1. Motion Pad

This Pad is actually a Logic preset except I just tweaked it into making my own mad, I boosted attack a bit more so the attack of the pad could be slow while the sustain is up just so that the pad could go on for longer. In the filter area I turned it on and made it fat because I want a fat type of pad, I then turned down the cut off because I wanted more of the low end area. On the router the filter cut off has been turned up only because I wanted MORE of the cut off in the pad. It was sent to Envelope 1, I raised the attack of Env1 So high because I wanted the attack to be even more slower, while the release is also high, so the sound doesn't finish quick.

Even though I didn't do much in the EXS24 Sampler, I used another plugin called 'Spectral gate'. The spectral gate is like an effect that can be used for vocals, you can use it for LFO's, treat it like an EQ and so on it can also help you cut frequencies off! So it is sort of like an EQ. But in this sense I used it an pad to create this bubbly effect. Which was really useful. The Motion pad was used as the backing track.

2. Swirking Pad

 Here is how I made my 'SWIRKING PAD'.  I used 3 Oscillators, but they're not the default ones. I used the ones that are  not in the sign wave of 'sine, saw, triangle or square'. These Oscillators are the ones that come with different options under the sine wave (when you right click) these are called 'Digiwaves'. I brought all of the Oscillators down by -12 semi tones but the first Oscillator went up by 5 coarse while the rest of the Oscillators went dow by -12 coarse. I did this to manipulate my sound, and to get a bit of the bass.

Routing.

The attack in 'ENV 3' is not that high so is the Release, I wanted to have a medium length of an attack only for the cut off 1 ), however in the 'ENV1' the attack is quite long but it's for the cut off 2. I added a 'OsC3WAVE' which went into the' LFO1' to make it crazy, the LFO1 made the sound cut in and out like a filter, except the rate (hz) wasn't that fast and so was the delay. I added 'Reso 1'  to give it a bit of that high frequency range but I turned it down and made the source the LFO2 to make it cut in and out again just like the LFO1 but although I added 2 LFO's this one would cut in time which was (1/16)

After sorting out the Swirking pad, I added some reverb to it just to make it more and more spacious but I didn't add that much because it was taking the clarity of the sound off. I usually use the reverb on a bus for the swirking pad. I did add some distortion as well.  The swirking pad (wet with reverb) was also used as a backing track while the swirking pad (dry without reverb) was used as the backing as well but it was one of the main backing track.
Without the Reverb it creates more of a LFO plug sound.

3. Crazy Lead

Original

Tweaked

4. 808's

I created my own 808's using the EXS24. The 808's was used as the bassline, the way I created my 808's was like this: 

As you can see here in this picture the Attack wasn't raised at all this was because I wanted to have a quick attack, as an 808 is usually a quick type of bass. This bass is actually made using only a sine wave. The release ( the tail ) is quite long so that it can have that long boomy tail at the end of the 808, the sustain is also at the same level of the release, it's at the same level because I didn't want the tail of the release to be short, the sustain is what makes the tail carry on with the sound. The decay is what stops making that awful rumble noise when playing 2 notes with the 808.

The filter was raised all the way up to create a high pass effect, and the drive was also turned all the way up to make it fat, I also turned on the Fat option to make it even more FATTER.

5. Glowy Electric Piano

The Glowy Electric piano was used as the backing track, which stands more as the background.

How I made the electric piano was that I made it more warm by raising it at full volume, only because I didn't want that tanginess I just wanted that warm feeling of the piano, to make it sound like a pad. The tanginess isn't completely gone off the piano though. I also raised the bass of it so it can act more than just a electric piano. The Tremelo effect rate was raised almost half way only because I wanted the speed of it to happen at medium level, the Tremelo Intensity is what made it go from the left to the right speaker.

The tone of the Electric piano is quite bright, as I said before this explains why the electric piano isn't completely warm like a normal synth pad.

6. FX WHOOSH

As you can see this was used in the intro... but it was also used in different sections in the track for creativity. I made a windy type of noise, as a FX.

Now on to the A.D.S.R (Attack, Decay, Sustain , Release ) 

I turned the release up because I wanted the tail of it to last long. The attack is also raised but it's almost the same level of the release 

 the chorus is raised so it could double the effect.

The overdrive is also raised almost all the way to make it fat, I wanted it to be fat so that the FX could be noticeable making it thin wouldn't give the taste that I want.

7. Warmy Pad

The warmy pad is used as the backing track since it's a synth pad. This pad is very warm but it has a lot of bass to it. The pad swirls from right to left, this is because the intensity level was raised quite a lot, I wanted to be really creative and just make a pad that goes from left to right. Just like a Tremelo type of pad. The sine level is raised, this is what caused the pad to have more bass and warmth. As you can see in the picture I used 3 router's, one for the cut off 1 which is being controlled by the filter in the middle circle box. The blend is all the way to the right because it gave me more of the warmth rather than the less warmth. The cut off is almost half way so but it's more towards the low pass to make it a bit more dark and gloomy.

The ENV 3 attack is raised quite a lot this is because I wanted the pad to have a slow attack, since it's a pad it deserves to have a slow attack. The Warmy pad has a really long tail which is a good thing because if the tail was short, the pad sound of the tail would of ended so short, that it wouldn't really be a pad.

8. Drum kit

I made my own kick by using 2 kicks together, one was the punchy kick while the other was a bass kick. They were both compressed by a little bit. I blended those kicks by using a glass type of sound which sounded really nice.

The kick I made is called the 'Slang kick' 

I also made my own snare, which I took from a sample and edited by Eq'ing.

The glass type of sound is a found sound.

9. Bottle Camp (edit no echo)

This is one of my samples which I made. How I made this is that I recorded a bottle cap dropping on the table with my phone. I then put it onto logic and edited it. I Eq'ed the bottle cap, by raising the high end to get rid of that unnecessary noises that was happening, I even chopped the beginning part of because it was unnecessary. This is used as a percussion in the demo.

10. Beep (edit)

This is the Beep. This is one of my found samples. I recorded this sound using my phone, the actual sample its from a microwave, when the timer finishes. I added some echo to it and EQ. Again I cut off the begin because there was unnecessary noises, I did the same processing with the 'Bottle Camp except this one has echo and a bit of reverb onto it. This was also used as a percussion in the track.

 

Mapping

The way I've mapped my drums is that I selected the drums and claps on each key, so they have their own key. For example the drums have their own key, if you play the note 'C' you would only be playing the kick.

As you can see for this lead I used another logic preset and tweaked it up. This original sound was a pad but I just did some changes. As you can see from down below. 

The only changes I did was that I turned on the filter and raised the cut off to create a hi pass effect, so I can take away the low end and bring up the high frequency,  afterwards I raised the drive to make it a bit more louder and fatter (as you can see the fat option is on). I then added a bit of Resonance to lose more of that low end, which I did not want.
The crazy lead was used as the main melody throughout the track.

Production Diary Three. T.Y.C - Over & Over

T.Y.C - Over & Over.
This track isn't really a dark type of track it is only a little bit. This is actually more of an old school type of track. This instrumental was also made for my mixtape 'The Keys'. The rapper T.Y.C is a rapper from London. I sent him this instrumental so he could produce this track. This track is called Bring Back The Old School the concept of this track is about his memories and the past (1996) times.

Equipment

The mic that was used for the vocals was the Audio Technica 2020. The advantages are its cheap. It Doesn't pick up much noise. Also It has decent quality. There's not really many advantages, Disadvantages when recording singers who are quite loud and at a close proximity the mic distorts a lot. It doesnt pick up lows well makes the vocal sound hallow it has a built in high end boost which can sometimes ruin the vocals. Comparing this to the C414, I would probably use the C414 only because the quality out of C414 is so much better, if you have a loud singer it wouldn't damage the microphone or cause any harm upon the mix however the Audio Technica has a build in high end boost which is not really good.

I used the M-Audio Midi keyboard for this production, as everything is midi and there is no live Instruments contained in this track.

The making of the Instrumental

The main elements of this track are the samples and the vocals.

I used a sample called 'Feel the fire' and chopped it up, then took away the parts I didn't like. One of the parts I used sounds like strings being chopped while the other one is a guitar. The instrumental is quite repetitive since it's an old school type of track. I used a 'Stereo Delay' on the sample to cause an echo effect but you can't hear it that much, I also used Reverb on it as well.
In the chorus I reversed a certain part of the vocal and added a pitch shifter, to change the pitch. I did this because I want the sample to be that recognisable, I also added the 'feel the fire' sample into the chorus as well but it's also pitched.

The drums I used were the drums from the logic library, I EQ'ed one drum as the punch kick and then I layered the same kick but this time I made the kick have more bass. So I could have a punchy kick and a bass kick separate. But I did add distortion onto the bass kick as a bus. These kicks were also compressed but they weren't compressed that much and I did use the same circuit type as the one on my other track 'Uriel - You'.

The bass of the track is also there except it isn't that loud, it's a simple bass played with about 2/3 notes. I got the bass instrument from the Logic library kit also.

Mixing.
When I mixed the Instrumental I turned everything low and mixed each instrument differently, I made the samples and the drum beat to stand out more, since it's the main elements of the instrumental.

Mixing the Vocals.
Although the vocals were mixed, I didn't mix it alone, my other friend producer recorded the vocals first and mixed a bit of it first as well. Then he sent it over to me to finish mixing and mastering it. When I mixed the vocals I EQ'ed it so I took some of the high end off and raised 1.5dB to 250 Hz, I then added a bit of air around 1.5k Hz to 2.5dB. But since it's a rapper there wasn't that much to do, since the frequencies of his voice wasn't that hard to mix. For the chorus (of the track) I added a plug in called the chorus which doubled the vocal and made it a bit more stereo.

Mastering.
When I was mastering I could hear that kicks (The bass kick) was clashing with vocal a bit, so I Eq'ed the bass kick around 70-80 Hz to -5.0 dB, this whipped off the bass kick a bit but not much, which sounded really nice. Afterwards I compressed it by adding a multi pressor to balance the mix out, for the kicks, snare and the vocals they all needed to be balanced.
I sent a bus for the distortion the drive wasn't up that much it was raised to about 5.5 dB and the frequency was around 900 Hz.
Afterward I added the finishing touch the 'adaptive limiter'! This turned up the whole mix, I raised the input scale to about 5.4dB and the gain to 5.5 dB. Luckily nothing didn't distorted!

Production Diary one. Stuck in a dream.

StevieBbeatz - Stuck in a dream, recording!!
For this track, my idea was to go for something dark since It fits in with my genre I'm doing (Ambient/Contemporary/Dark RnB). I also decided that I wanted to do a composition/experimental type of track so it has no song structure, it's just something you can vibe too. I did use specific sounds to make it suit the genre such as synth pads, vocals, bass and more. I got some of these sounds from Logic HOWEVER many would not be able to notice that I got it from Logic, I did loads of tweaking. The sounds I tweaked is the electric keyboard, I took the treble off so it has that soothing sound on it and I added more of the bass to it. My track does not contain any live instruments it's all midi, I decided to do it in midi because using live instruments for a dark sound like this type of track... wouldn't of suit it in my personal opinion.

Many instruments are reversed in my track, the only why is because it gives it that contemporary feeling, I wanted to add a lot of influences to this track. Not only this is a Dark/Contemporary track but it also influences a hip hop type of track as well. The 'I'm Stuck in a dream' vocal suits it so well.

Equipment & sounds

To start of with, the Equipment I used to create this track, was my keyboard (Typing keyboard) and samples (My samples)! I made this at home, to mix and master I used my headphones.  I recorded the chords by playing it on my typing keyboard, I also did the hi hats on it as well.

Natural sounds: There is some natural sounds I used such as the rustling, the bottle cap, the beep and that helicopter sound.

I recorded 3 sounds using my phone and saved it as samples on to my computer, afterwards I tweaked it by using the EQ, Filter, echo and so on. One other sound ( The helicopter one ) was recorded using a  high quality recorder, that sound is actually a dryer in the bathroom. I also tweaked that. How I used it in this track is that I added the tremelo effect to make it go from left to right in the speaker/headphones.

Drum kits: I have my own drum kits that I made from a while ago, so I used them for this track. How I made the drum kits is that I took 2 drums from one of the logic kits, did some EQ, Overdrive, filter and then bounced it as a WAV file for high quality.

But in this track there is a bass drum that I tweaked, I used the Filter, Distortion and sent it to a bus for the pitch shifter effect on the drums, to give it that dark - bass type of sound. The pitch shifter created a huge impact upon the drums, this is because pitching drums down would give it more of a boomy type of drum, and you wouldn't even realise that it's been pitched down.

Reversing: I did many reversing on instruments. The instruments I reversed was the bass drum, to make it a bit more jumpy and to make it feel like it's moving back and forward. I reversed the claps, so the claps isn't so bright. I also reversed 2 or 3 vocals, to give it that dark feeling, which suits my genre. I reversed the bottle cap instrument and the 'helicopter' sound so I can confuse the listener's, they'll hear a bottle cap that's not reversed but they'll also be hearing a bottle cap is reversed - however they wouldn't realise that the bottle cap (reversed) is the same as the bottle cap(unreversed).

Vocals: I got the vocals from Logic's library. The 'Stuck in a dream' is also from the Logic library but I added some EQ, Distortion, Compressor and then sent a bus to a pitch shifter which made the vocal a bit deeper, dark and evil. I added loads of tone to the distortion (overdrive) though. I also sent a bus to a reverb, so the vocal doesn't sound subtle and dry.

Melody & chords:
I started with the chords first, the instrument I used was a piano but I changed it to a synth pad ( a logic one ) I did edit it though so that people wouldn't recognise the sound.
There's a flute that's reversed, the flute is reversed because it suits the track more, making it reversed makes the track a bit more dark. I didn't do that much on the melody & chords.
I did add a electric piano, you probably can't recognise it because I made it into my own sound and processed it a lot. I chopped it up and put the melody parts into different orders so for example the start of the sound would be last while the end part of the sound would be first. Something like this for example ALSO it is reversed! As you can see these chopped parts are in different orders. The wave form is not accurate is what I wanted.

Mixing and mastering.

This is how I mixed all of the instruments, I mixed them low first but I did turn some things a bit more up such as the claps, drums, vocals and the main melody (the electric piano). Before turning everything into audio, it was midi at first but I decided to mix it using audio because you get a higher quality. I mixed all of the instruments Individually none of them was in groups or anything like that or a bus. They were all mixed individually and it took a lot of time to mix them like how they are now. I didn't mix this track using the studio facility I used my headphones to mix this.

After I finished mixing the track I bounced it as a WAV file so that the quality isn't lost or compressed. 

How I mastered this is that I used the Hipass plug in because the kicks were a bit too bassey. 

I then used the EQ, around 85Hz I turnt it down to -3.5dB because the bass on the kick was a bit too much as well. The MultiPressor was also used to balance out the whole mix and push the kicks a bit more to make them stand out more through out the track. I then sent it to a bus for the distortion. Now, why did I do this? I did this because I wanted the mix to be a bit more FATTER but I did not turn up the bus volume that much only a little bit. The drive of the distortion was turned up to 10.5dB. After finishing all of that I added another EQ on the output and turned down around 85 Hz to -5.0dB, then I stuck a limiter on it and turn it up briefly. 

Remixes and working outside of college + EVIDENCE

I've been working on remixes, in my spare time since I am preparing for my EP. The reason why I've been doing some remixes is because I am working on my weakness, but I'm also doing it to get some views on my work. So I've been promoting them constantly, on my Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. I also got some of my other friends to share the remixes I've done.
I've done 4 remixes, which is (In order):
1. Usher Climax
2. Beyonce Drunk In Love
3. A remix using a video's voice (source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YQY-38ich4 )
4. Frank Ocean Thinking About You
I'm currently doing another remix which is TLC - No Scrubs, I'll also be promoting that on my Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook.

Here's me promoting on my social sites.

Twitter

                                                This is where I posted a video on Instagram.

                                       This is where I posted my Picture on Facebook. To promote.

                                 

                                             I put it into a photo grid and promote on my Instagram as well.

    Here's one of my friends who posted it on his Facebook (who has about 6-12k followers on his FB)

 

I also promoted it on Youtube as well, Unfortunately I didn't get enough views. But I did get a lot of plays on my Soundcloud, In a couple of days.

I've also been working on this OUTSIDE of college - along side with my other music friends / Music group. My friend made 2 tracks for his mixtape which I produced for: