SMART TARGETS | PHIL ROBINSON | FEBRUARY 2014

SMART TARGETS REVISED FEBRUARY 2014

SPECIFIC

MESURABLE

ACHIEVABLE

REALISTIC

TIME-BOUND

DJ
1) Mixed together 4 songs of my own music using Traktor by christmas.
This target really helped my to get a MERIT in DJing because it helped to get started on mixing songs so I could get the idea of mixing songs. This really helped and I came out with a MERIT in DJing. This is a completely new subject to me so it was good to have a target. 

2) Develop my DJing Skills to later move my MERIT to a DISTINCTION.
Work on technique, music choice, and tricks to improve my performance.

THEORY
1) Learn 5 NEW scales by christmas.
Learning scales is helping get along in theory and helps me understand more of what Philip is talking about. I think knowing scales is the basis of what all of the theory is so its good to have the basic knowledge.

2) Improve my knowledge on notation and become more confident on reading the notes on the stave.

COMPOSING
1) Compose a new track using multiple time signatures.
2) Write something that I am proud of. 

INDUSTRY
1)  FIND & Read a book on industry including, live performance, publishing, record deals and management by christmas.

SEQUENCING
1)  Learn 40 shortcuts in Logic Pro 9 by Easter. 

STUDIO

1) Have recorded a full drum kit by Easter.

Case Studies and Professional Bodies - Luke Toms

Case Study -


As I want to be a Live Recording Sound Engineer this is a job that you wont find at every show you see. This guy will usually be at larger shows or one off shows recording live audio for a live concert film or just a live album.

Marc Carolan

The engineer that I have chosen to do a case study on is 'Marc Carolan'. He is the FOH engineer for Snow Patrol, Muse, Aleko, Delorentos, The Rags, Josh Ritter, The Cure, Royseven, Turn, JJ72 to name a few. He is the full time front of house (FOH) engineer for Muse since 2001. A front of house engineer is the person who is in charge of the mixing desk and all things to do with sound at a live show. They will have to manage all the microphones and all the instruments and balancing the according to many factors such as genre, artist and size of venue. This is a very tricky job because it relies on your own ears and nothing is by the book. When his talent was scouted by the Muse while in Sweden Marc was engineering for JJ72. He is a world class FOH engineer and also live recording engineer. He has produced some of my favourite artist in the studio and live. He started out as a normal engineer who’s talent was spotted by Muse. Now he is a full time sound engineer and works with bands like muse full time. Marc was in the right place at the right time when scouted by Muse but there would have been thing that he would have done to be in the right place at the right time. He would not be where he is today without getting him self on tour with JJ72. He was working in recording studios when he was in his early days but he would have to have got him self out into the world to get a live engineer job. Being in the right place at the right time is where everyone wants to be but you need to be prepared and organised for when the moment comes. 

Marc Carolan works as a freelance engineer from Dundalk, Ireland, he started out as a engineer in the Dublin underground music scene in 1995. This was the Hip-Hop era in Dublin. Marc experience with working with electronic sound back in his early days really effects and shows how he is a master laster when he works with bands like Muse wheere they use huge amounts of electronic instruments. This is a good reason why he is such a pro because he is diverse across the different genres which will help him in any situation. During this time he worked with JJ72, Mary Coughlan, and The Pogues. He later moved on to international acts such as The Cure, Snow Patrol and Josh Groban. Marc spent a lot of time perfecting his skill as a sound engineer, familiarising himself with as much gear as possible and learned as many of the skill as he could before he could start doing it a profession. This gear would include analogue mixing desks and all sorts of out board gear such as EQ, noise gates, compressors and limiters. This contributes to his sucsess because he is so versatile and when working with Muse thats exactly what is needed because their sound is always changing and becoming more and more diverse. Marc's knowledge of this equipment is what got him noticed and why he has been so successful.   

I like this job role in the music industry because I am also very into film and have my own production company where I am trying to produce small concert shows but move onto larger venues and eventually stadiums and arenas in the future.
Contacting companies such as 'Serpent Productions' and other film production companies is always a great idea because you never know when they might be looking to take on an apprentice or hire someone young who is going to be beneficial to their business. You never know when you might hit a break so it's important to keep letting people know you exist and places where they can see your talent. as well as this you need to know your stuff and be good at what you do. People will always want someone good and a safe pair of hands.
This is something that I am working on and am getting better and better at. I think it's easy to think a large company doesn't want to hear from young people but if you are interested in their work I'm sure they will be more than happy to talk to you. Having your contact information, business cards and our online CV's is a great position to be in because when you start getting your name out you need to be contactable and discoverable.

Muse - Plug in Baby - Live at Olympic Stadium Rome

Sound recorded by Marc Carolan, There were 120 audio tracks for this concert recording. This means that all the audio channels that were going into the mixing desk for the live performance were being recorded separately with the addition of ambient microphones and several different channels that will make the live recording much more realistic. This is an incredibly hard job to handle as well as the live sound on the night because a normal show with your average band with probably use 20 audio track maximum so that puts this show into perspective and how hard Marc's job is. This is what I want to be doing and learning to manage huge systems with lots of audio tracks for live recordings as well as the sound on the night as a FOH engineer.

Although I am still a musician now and do wish to be in the future but I want to follow the career path of a music engineer more specifically a live recording engineer. One who is in charge of the audio side of a large concert production. Marc Carolan is a great person to look into and research because he does exactly what I want to do.
Along side engineering the live sound my main goal is to be involved in large concert production and concert films which will include recording live shows. Along side of running a show, recording the whole production then working with film production companies to create a whole
To be successful in the ways that Marc Carolan has I would need to familiarise myself with as much gear and as much knowledge as I can on the topic of engineering and live sound. This would include things such as sound desks, microphones, speakers, instruments, physical sound, compressors, EQ and really understanding music and the musicians that you work with.
If I can do this I will have a better chance of being recognised by higher bodies and artist that would want to use my knowledge for their benefit.
Going on courses run by sound production and finding any excuse to do some live engineering would be a great way for my get meet people and to perfect my skills. You just never know when someone important is going to ask you to come on tour with them and get yourself into the industry.



Marc Carolan engineers live sound for Muse. To give you an idea of there sound, their tours only consist of stadium and arenas to no less than 50,000 people on every continent on the planet.
Muse have a very big sound, a huge sounding drum kit which can be heard in the video below.
They have very strange but large sound bass and electric guitars including lots of distortion and effects to give their signature sound. This is then contrasted with Matt Bellamy's vocals that are quite high especially when he sings falsetto which is quite often.

Marc Carolan is in charge of a huge sound set up when it comes to Muse's shows with over 120 channels of audio for each show.
Marc chooses to mic the drums and all the cymbals separately using a whole range of top end microphones using close miking techniques to pick up each drum individually to get a lot of control over the drums to give the large sound. he will use outboard gear such as compression, EQ, noise gaits and reverb maybe. All this combined gives such a fantastic HUGE drum sound.  This is also effected by the drums being used, the heads, the player the sticks everything together accumulates to give the sound that he achieves. This will have been achieved after years of trial and error and different gear before they have achieved the sound they have now.
He uses a analogue Midas XL4 as personal. He says he doesn't detest digital and he will use it from time to time depending on the job but the Midas is his personal favourite.
Carolan will also use a huge amount of hardware rack systems for the guitars and the vocals.
Muse have recently added more to there live shows not only in size but they also include more electronic instruments such as midi controllers, kitara, synths and various other midi and electronic instruments. This means that Marc needs to and does have an extensive knowledge on all different kinds of audio sound.
This shows that Marc need to be versatile in his engineering to be able to get a good sound with acoustic instruments and electronic instruments. This relates back to where Marc started out when he was learning engineering with the hop hop industry. This would have been useful to Marx and it's time like this that show his professionalism.

Marc has also said that in the early days he would be on tour with Muse in Europe and be playing to 15,000 + people but when they played in USA they wouldbe playing to 200cap theatres. This shows that Marc has to be diverse and know his gear well enought to know what he can scale down in need that won't effect the sound. The sound set up is going to quite different for a small venue not only going from a 400K system to a 4K system and scaling down dramatically but also with a large system you have delay your 2nd and 3rd + set of speakers  because the time that sound has travelled from the stage speakers the speakers that are near you at the back will have got to you first so you would get a delay. He may have to think about adding more reverb to the instruments because of the lack in natural reverb.

If I apply thins information I need to know the equipment that I am working with very well and also know a lot about the science of sound because as an engineer you do need to know the scientific reason sound is going to sound the way it does. The more understanding you have the better yu will be.

Marc mid discussion about about some vocal compression

Here Marc is rigging the out board gear for a Muse show

I could happily rant on about Matt Bellamy's guitars and the distorted wah pedals he has attached to his piano but i'll save that for a rainy day.




I have already used the information that I have obtained from doing my case study on Marc Carolan and I have been in contact with some friends and I have been put forward to be an assistant sound engineer at 'The End Of The Road Festival 2014' on one of the stages. This would be a fantastic opportunity to work with some incredible engineers and musicians. Last year Sigur Ros were the headliners.
Something else I can exercise and will do after reading up on Marc Carolan is to build my own knowledge on live sound equipment and know as many different techniques and a repertoire of skills that I have picked up from working with different musicians and artist. I will find my own ways and techniques that work and I can build my own set of skills that I can become successful from. Studying Music Production if defiantly good for this as it gives me lots of skills I need at a good young age that people are going to want you to know and they make you more hireable and well respected. Knowledge is what people will pay for, if they can't do it themselves or don't want to they will hire you. Contacting engineers via email and business cards is great to get your name into the circuit, you never know when someone might call your name so I think it's important to be ready.
____________________________________________________________
HOW CAN PROFESSIONAL BODIES HELP ME ACHIEVE WHAT I WANT TO DO?


As a musician and an engineer I think it's important to join different unions and companies that are going to help you be successful. Such as the Music Union.

This union will help all musicians get lawyers if they need them, get insurance in their gear, which is very important. This will save you so much money and time because when you are a musician especially in the early days you don't have money to throw away,

PRS (Performing Rights Society) help musicians and song writers get the royalties and credit for when something they have written has been played either by them live or played on the radio. This is good because an artist is not necessarily going to know where there music is being played once is has been released into the world so PRS do this for you and then put together your entitled royalties for each month. If you have a publishing deal your amount of royalties should be higher because you have people pushing your music on TV and other mediums.

http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/

http://www.aes.org/

I have researched into different unions and bodies that can help me as a sound engineer and the AES (Audio Engineer Society) are a group that get engineers studio and live together and get them networking and promoting their services to musicians, festivals and venues. This is a great starting place for me because I can use these bodies to help me build contacts and other means of promotion.

The way you will get spotted is by being professional, know what you are talking about and take an interest in other peoples work. I have found from experience that I tent to collaborate more with someone who takes an interest in something that I have an interest for. Having business cards at the ready and a place to be found online and contacted by are so important.



Hedley Marks

Grant Mix Assignment February 2014

5 Styles (Listening) - Philip Collins

REGGAE
1)
The melody on the trumpet at the start begins with Bb - F - Eb. This Is quite a slow melody that matches the slow rate of harmonic change within the chords.

2) I would say that the first song is Reggae because it holds a lot of the features that a classic reggae song would normally have. It has a lot of the characteristics such as a slow rhythm accompanied by a steady bass line that doesn't really vary. This track also contains the snare beat hitting on beat 3 of the bar which is very common too. I think that this track contains more stereotypical reggae components than the second track. 
This track does include a few elements that are not classic reggae such as echoed vocals. I didn't think this was completely in the reggae style because reggae was more about the groove and relaxed chilled vibe that the slow rhythms and bass line created for the vocalist to tell a story while because thought about what they were saying.

The Second track I feel is a more electronic type of track. I still feel the reggae vibe but I don't think it includes as much reggae flavour, if you will, like the other one does. The bass-line variates a lot more. This one does also include the echoed vocals which is what makes me feel that the track is a little more electronic. This track also doesn't have the main vocal part like the other one did and I feel that reggae is highly down to the main vocals and the story the the vocalist is trying to say. I would also say that this track is highly lead by the bass line which a good reggae track needs but because of the lack in vox which I feel reggae is all about this track doesn't have the reggae heart behind it like track one.


FUNK

1)
This track has been mixed to fit the genre of funk and help to create the funk style by positioning the instruments in a different part of the stereo spectrum. The most obvious and prominent instrument is the bass. The bass guitar in this track has been mixed louder than the other instruments and its placed at the front of the mix. I think that they have chosen to mix the bass at the front is because the groove of funk is based around the bass and the rhythm and percussion. The mix engineer would have wanted to capture this in the mix making the bass is the main underlying structure of the song accompanied by the drums.
Funk is all about the groove and how all the simple harmonies mix together to make something that make you want to just get up and dance. Primarily the bass and its funky scales and passing notes and little licks just give the track and foundation to the entire genre. The mix does this complete justice. As the bass has its steady position down the center of the mix it allows the horns vocals and guitars to sit around it and create the wonderful harmonies. The drums are at the front of the mix, or just behind the bass. This is because the snare and kick drum are accompanying the bass-line in keeping the groove bopping along.
I feel that the vocals have purposely be placed slightly behind the bass and lower frequencies because unlike reggae funk is about the groove and how the song bounces along with the bass line and how the horns and guitars incorporate this simple yet catchy harmony. This is why the vocals have been made quite unclear. 

The guitars have been panned left and right to widen the sound and bring out the mids and make the shape of the track much wider and fulfilling. In contrast the horns and the clav (electric piano) have been panned to the right. This gives a live production concert feel and vibe to it as funk is mainly for live shows where people can dance. Having the horns and the mid freq instruments panned to the sides widens the track and gives it a sense of depth. The Keys are panned to the left towards the back as this is another instrument that is there to fill the mix up and add more dynamics.
The synths have been placed at the front as they are playing the main melody lines and need to sit with the bass to accompany the low frequencies.

2)
The way I think of funk personally is 'Play that funky music' by Wild Cherry. I would say that is just has every element of a funk song in it and I think it's a good one to compare to.
The main thing that I would say this track doesn't have that could suggest that it's not a funk track it that it  doesn't have a prominent guitar riff that the drums and bass accompany. This track does have a bass line but I think that the guitar was a very important feature in a classic funk track. 
Another thing I think of is that it doesn't have a section for a guitar solo which i think at this time was quite the thing. Funk tracks were known for having a large gap in the middle for the guitarist to improvise a solo or to improvise a jam with the other band members. funk is a very live based genre and it was very important to put on a great live show and this would include guitar solos and lot of room in the rhythm and root chords to allow a guitar solo or maybe even some call and response.


LATIN
1)
The vocals in this track are very clear and pronounced, because of Amy Winehouse's higher pitch voice than the original. You could say that her voice may of had some effects added as compared to her other tracks this track seems like maybe her voice has been pitched up a little as it sound thinner. This has allowed the drum kit, the snare more specifically a space to fit so far forward in the mix. I think Amy has added some of her jazz type style of singing into the recording and improvised some of the vocal melodies and mixed them up a little. This is quite common in jazz singing. I think it works very will in the Latin track. I like the higher pitched vocals for this track I think it fits the genre nicely and the slight influence of jazz works well with the style of singing that Amy is known for.

2)
This track defiantly has a different feel. The most obvious change is that the Amy Winehouse track is faster and more percussive. This really changes the vibe and groove of the track. As the snare is much more prominent in Amy's version I feel that it gives the more Latin feel although she does add the element of Jazz. Personally the first track is more laid back and more about the music. It's an easier listen and more likely to be played in a cafe. Amy Winehouse has made her version more about the vocals and the groove of the track is quite similar all the way through where as the first one has the sax line to create some interest away from the vocals.

BLUES 
1)
The chords are constantly changing. This song has a fast rate of harmonic change. This song does follow the I -  IV - V pattern. The chords are kept very simple to allow in the interest to be in vocals and the story in the lyrics.

2)
I would say that this song is a blues song. The term 'blues' in blues music doesn't always refer to the type of music. The dictionary definition says 'feelings of melancholy, sadness, or depression. "she's got the blues" This often what blues singers sing about. It's an emotion usually rather than the genre. This song does contain many characteristics that make up a blues track. Such as the chord progression.The '12 bar blues' structure can be heard in this song. The Acoustic guitar with the slide on the guitar is very common in blues as it evolved from the country music.
I would probably say that the style of vocal melody isn't quite your stereotypical blues vocal melody but it is does work really well with this song and the speed that the chords change.   

ELECTRO

Q1: Give as clear as possible an account of all the different sounds and instruments in the first 3 minutes and 35 seconds. You probably won't know exactly how each sound is made but you should be able to make an educated guess whether something is sampled, synthesized or actually recorded in.

The very prominent kick drum sound would have been created on a drum machine. 
Q2: What is this song about? How do the electronic instruments / sounds help to create the mood?

This song has quite a negative mood to it. Clearly about someone who has been let down by their lover or what not and he is writing about how sad he is.