Do You Live Your Own Life? (Or In The Shadow Of Others), Jacaranda Foundation + Future Projects!

It seems each and every time I start to write a new post it just strikes me how much has happened within the duration of the note I am writing and the previous written note! So this will be an update around essentially what has been going on in my life within that duration!

Something I have been thinking quite a lot about is the notion of living your life in the shadow of others; to be living your life in accordance to social norms or to expectations. One of the biggest concerns I was faced with when starting my college course was “If I study music I will be academically bound to this one area, whereas if I study A Levels it could allow be to branch out.” What I came to realise when declaring my decision was that it would be a decision I would live to regret if I chose to do A Levels, and here is why. I believe everyone has a forte, something they succeed in but most importantly something they enjoy. This very profession, whether it is to become a candle maker, an engineer or a freelance worker, is the profession that particular person is destined to persue, and to give up on that would be a waste of a life in my eyes. So in terms of music, it being something I love, I enjoy and ultimately makes me happy, I don’t think I should have taken the route of ‘playing it safe’ by doing what ‘you should do’. Anyone with more than half a gram of brain matter should know that within any sector of work right now their are cuts, less job opportunities and carrying on into further education does not necessarily secure you a job. So with this point in mind, no matter what area of work you go into, you are equally as screwed. So why not go for something you do well in and enjoy, right?

Apart from this point, which I think will have a few brains thinking, a lot has happened since my last blog post and since I put the two tracks up on Soundcloud (relevant links provided at the end). First of all, I have got in contact with my auntie who runs a charity called Jacaranda which is based in my deceased Great Grandma’s home in Malawi. Her charity provides educational resources, available accommodation and food for orphans and AIDS victims. Hopefully, after I have built up a decent amount of music, a few of the tracks I will be releasing will be available to down as an MP3/FLAC file for a minimal price, but with all of the proceeds going to the Jacaranda Foundation.

Also, I think it will be the right time to say this, but I will not just be releasing music under my name (even that might change). I will be running two projects; the music that I have been putting out as of recent (created as part of college assignments, made in spare time etc) being one project, the other being based around synthesis techniques and replicating drums/bass/guitar all live; on the spot. This will be under an alias, which I will announce, but essentially it will just be the name I go under when playing gigs and the more serious music I make. Ultimately, it’s what I want to be known for!

It’s great to be able to get back into writing, I really enjoy doing this! I think it gives everyone an insight towards the progress I am making and also the creative process I sometimes go through when making my music. As long as you guys keep supporting them, I will keep them coming! As always, all the links including a link to the Jacaranda Foundation webpage and my Soundcloud will be below, so if you have some spare time hopefully you could check them out! Thanks guys.

http://www.jacarandafoundation.org/

http://www.facebook.com/ParisSounds

http://www.twitter.com/ParisSounds

Atmosphere – The Breakdown

It’s here! The second track I have put onto my Soundcloud, called ‘Atmosphere’.

This was a bunch of fun to create; at first there was a lot of stopping and starting, deleting project files and restarting, but eventually after adapted my musical style to the samples the sampler ‘Sample Tank’ gave me, I made this! It was a stress inducing time as I said initially as I started this project as the sounds audible in my composition are essentially the factory settings given to you by the ‘Sample Tank 2’. What I really think stands out for me anyway is how I was able to transform these factory presets into sounds of my own, to change the poorly recorded audio into something that is usable and works well. I did this with the three note progression that starts at 1:02. I used the ‘Bitcrusher’ insert  in Logic which essentially decreased the bit rate and downgrades the sampling rate of the audio the insert is applied to, which creates a distorted effect but often results in a audibly pleasing ‘crunch’ in the high end frequencies. With some added  reverb to replicate how sound interacts within an artificial environment and some EQ to remove frequencies I did not want to hear this changes what was once an organ into a sound of my own! Once I had that sound at my disposal the melody came near enough instantly; I think that is generally a good rule of thumb in music to keep in mind, work with the sounds you like and do not settle for ones that don’t suit your tastes!

Again a lot of the composition really flourished during the mixing stages; bouncing the file down and listening to the track through my stereo system really gave me a feel to how people would perceive my track, and often highlighted any previous mixing errors. The transition between headphones to speakers is extremely noticeable for me now, so sometimes after I have spent hours making something sound how I want it to sound I then have to make it compliment with the other elements within the track!  It’s a long approach to mixing my tracks, going back and forth between my college and home set up, but until I get a mac I guess I will have to continue to work this way!

I really would like to say thanks to Karl from Spotlight Kid again, by mastering this track it really made the low frequencies shine and have more kick with a low end bite to them and really brought out the tone in mid-to- frequencies, I was honestly astonished how the composition could transform in just a matter of days! Once his website is up during the months of January-February I will link it below!

This was by far the most fun I have had with creating a track; it became little less than a full time job – it completely captured me and I felt compelled to spend every hour of every day for two weeks to work on it! I hope this shows throughout the track, I think I have jumped over leaps and boundaries since creating this, but I feel by putting this out it will allow people who enjoy music to contrast between what I was doing back then and the music I am intending to release! It’s like watching my progression! If there was no room for improvement then I would be doing something wrong, so for now check out the track below and all of the appropriate links and I hope you enjoyed either reading this or listening to the track! Thanks!

http://www.soundcloud.com/paris_sounds/atmosphere

http://www.facebook.com/ParisSounds

http://www.twitter.com/ParisSounds

8-Bit Trip – The Breakdown

I am finally at this point; the point where I let my baby go, for the whole world to hear and for them to be the critics of my work rather than my biased self! It’s a really big moment for me, it will help me find out where  I am in terms of creating music and where I can advance from this point. Since creating these four tracks that I am releasing I have already noticed massive improvements in creating and analysing my music, so it’s exciting to think of the prospect of releasing my next batch of tracks! This is a dreaded cycle for an artist; creating music and by the time you are ready to release it you are either sick to death of hearing it or think you can make something better! But hey if we did that there would be no audible music! So the purpose of this post is to explain what was going on inside of my head when creating this track, what kind of sounds I used and what effect I was going for; so let’s get into it!

This track was created for the sole purpose of meeting the requirements for a Logic sampling assignment I was set. It was my very first assignment set on the course I am studying. I have had no sequencing experience up until this point, just knowledge on the subject, so this was the first time I could implement techniques I have learnt over the years and programme MIDI effectively. The very first step in sequencing and sampling music is to find sounds you are comfortable with, sounds that coincide with your taste. I spent around an hour and a half or so searching through sample CDs to find sounds that are interesting and have a different timbre about them; that’s when I came across an 8-bit collection. In basic terms, the old sounds of an early Nintendo gaming system. I inserted EQ at around maybe 1.5-2khz to remove the annoying ‘edge’ that some of the sounds had to them and from there I had a sound I could manipulate by changing playback parameters of the sample and by adding effects such as reverb! Logic has a function within it’s factory EXS24 sampler that allows you to map a particular audio file/sample across the whole keyboard with the pitch of the samples playback is directly related to the key that is pressed, so this allowed me to create melodies with sounds that are audibly completely different to what they originally were! I did this with probably all the samples that were not one shot, so the organ at the beginning of the track for example! I did use a lot of other elements too, including my own one shot drum samples and even time stretched audio!

The most time consuming and tedious work was after I had actually created the composition and it was time to make all of the present elements compliment each other. It took around 2 weeks of bouncing the file down, listening to the track through your standard stereo system, writing down the problems, attempting to rectify them and then rinse and repeat. As this was my first real attempt and having made around 10+ tracks since this one, I have definitely realised the importance of EQ! Every musical element occupies a specific frequency range within the spectrum; a kick drum will be around 20-100hz with high frequencies starting from around 1.5khz onwards. So a good example being that the kick drum will often clash with the bass present in the track, so you could use an EQ or HPF to remove low frequencies from the bass to give that newly created space to the kick drum. Techniques like this help create the separation between the elements present in this track!

Hopefully this explains how I created a few of the sounds and a few techniques I used to express the ideas in my head at the time! Thanks to Karl from Spotlight Kid for mastering all four tracks, he did a great job and I will link his mastering website once it is up and running. I cannot wait for everyone to hear my future tracks, as always all the appropriate links will be down below including a link to my Soundcloud where you can hear the track! I hope you enjoyed the track and reading this little summary, thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/ParisSounds

http://www.twitter.com/ParisSounds

Mixing, Mixing and More Mixing… Did I Forget to Mention, Even More Mixing?!

So this is hopefully one of the many successful attempts at trying to keep on top of writing these posts. In this post I will cover what I am currently doing with my music and a bit of history about my time studying Music Technology! If you don’t want a lecture about my first few weeks on the course, skip to the second paragraph where I will talk about my tracks I am putting on my Soundcloud!

So if you wasn’t already aware, I study BTEC Extended Diploma in Music Technology Level 3 at Clarendon College, and as part of my very first assignments I have had to create music to meet up the criteria I have been set towards these assignments. The assignments I have been set so far are sampling in both Logic and Ableton but also sequencing in Logic and a live performance demonstrating sampling techniques in Ableton. To say this was essentially an introduction to sampling and sequencing, which I have had no experience with before apart from having ideas in my head, it went better than expected. Actually, within 7 weeks on the course it changed the way I analyse music and my own ideas have developed and are continuing to develop. Having prior experience with recording audio and playing instruments definitely was an advantage when starting sequencing, because there were a lot of ideas that I had that I was unable to create due to their being no instruments that can replicate that particular sound, but with sampling/sequencing/programmable music, as cliche as it sounds, the possibilities are endless!

So the music I wish everyone to hear are essentially these four tracks. If you have been keeping on top of my news, you should know that they were supposed to have been on my Soundcloud page last Friday. So what has happened?! Mixing. That’s what. I go to college, work on other assignments, then after class during my break, I mix. It was my day off today, I went into college, to mix. I go back home, listen to the errors in my music, write them down, then rectify them the next day. It is an endless cycle of noticing things that can really annoy you, like a high hat that is too loud, or a compositional error. When working with music, the transition between listening to your music through your headphones in a DAW then comparing the mix with the bounce file being played through your standard stereo system is unbelievable, it sounds completely different. So essentially the reason why things aren’t out now is due to me finding errors listening back through my home monitors, then having to edit at college!

Anyone familiar with Nottingham’s music scene should know of a band called ‘Spotlight Kid’, and a member from this band has offered to master these four tracks! So hopefully tomorrow, I hope, the tracks should be fully mixed and then I can send them off to be mastered hopefully in a couple of days! I will obviously link his website etc once the tracks are up on my page!

That should be pretty much it for this post; the next time you should hear from me will be when at least one of my tracks are out! I will provide links below to my Facebook page and my twitter page. Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/ParisSounds

http://www.twitter.com/ParisSounds

So The Time Has Arrived!

It feels like it has taken a life time to get to the point where I am at now; to finally be releasing material to which people can listen to, criticise, praise – to give me general feedback. I think for the most part it’s mostly hesitancy that has prevented in me from putting my music out there for the world to hear. Questions enter your mind as a musician, “Have I done this right?”, “Will people like this?”, “How will I combat criticism?”. I think it would be wrong if I were to gloss over these questions, let’s get straight into it!

First of all, there is no right way of ‘doing it’. ‘Doing’ is the essential word; if there was a set way in which to manipulate people into liking your music then there would be no competition among artists as there would be a strategy to making it in the industry. There are certain boundaries that will be apparent along the way, for example, making the decision between whether to cater your music for other people or to satisfy your own needs. This is a battle I have just recently fought and I think this plays an essential part in whether you are ‘doing it’ right. I absolutely despise the word ‘sell out’ but it’s something I have began to understand why people often use this terminology. It’s definitions change, but for the most part I have seen it used to describe when a content creator changes their ways in order to receive more attention and to cater for the current trend. This could be as a musician creating music of a particular genre that is popular at the time purely for the sake of joining a trend. All of these beliefs are of my own, but I personally think of a trend as a signal to do something completely different from that particular trend. It shows that a large majority of people have the same thoughts, the same beliefs and as individuals I believe we should be doing things according to how we want our lives to plan out for the future. So, at least in my books anyway, as long as you stick to the path of doing what you want to do and to not cater for other people then you are doing it right! Obviously if you deviate too far from the road, at least in music, you just become a part of a group of people who don’t want to be like everyone else, which is just as pointless as being a part of a group that is like everyone else! There is a fine line.

Similar to the points I have been talking about, people will like your content, whether it’s music, art, dance etc, if you like it yourself. This point is similar to the saying “If you don’t believe in yourself, who will?”. If you create things that are slightly different to most people’s creations, some people might feel like they haven’t got a reference point to your material because it’s out of the ordinary, but I think that in time that will create your own brand, your own identity, and soon people will begin to expect the unexpected from you!  I have honestly never been more happy than I am right now, and I think that’s down to me enjoying my own music, how it sounds audibly but also the process of creating it. It’s great. I will talk about how that has been going in another post!

Finally, how to combat criticism. The first step is being able to differentiate between positive and negative criticism. Something I am notably unable to separate at times. I have started to get into hearing other people’s opinions on the things I do, because I always feel there is room for improvement. When mixing the tracks I have been working on, I have asked people “Do you think this snare is too loud?”, “Does this high hat need EQ? It sounds like it has too much top end”. The feedback I have got from this is usually reaffirms what I have already noticed within my tracks, but I believe the feedback I get back from this can benefit the sound of my tracks, so I would say this is positive criticism. If someone is to say “I don’t like the sound of your music” then there is an extremely simple to respond to that… Okay. It’s a matter of opinion, again, if everyone liked the same music then there would be no competition  because there would be a set way to achieve a person’s praise.

I have enjoyed writing this, I will try and stay on top of writing on here when I have time, if you haven’t already check out the links below if you are interested in my music! Thanks!

http://www.facebook.com/ParisSounds

http://www.twitter.com/ParisSounds

– Paris