Tech Log

This is the Roland SP-555 Sampler. I have been using this to trigger pre made sounds from any DAW as well as sounds made inside the sampler. I have been making sounds for parts of a song in reason or Logic and then if you bounce it down to a wav you can assign the file to any of the 16 buttons. Its comes with a software called SP-555 Wave Converter. This enables you to assign the files to the sampler. You simply connect the CF card to you computer then add the file to the bottom you want. Then put the CF back into the sampler and you are ready to go. Very Easy.

What are the limitations? (D1)

There a few limitation to the sampler. When assigning the files to the sampler you really need to make sure that you've got it perfect because you can't change it again after without having to go back into the computer. This could be annoying and  prevent you from making a change before a gig. If it was possible to make changes inside the sampler this would make it much easier. 

Another limitation its that when you are programming a beat inside the sampler you are only limited to using 4/4. This is something that could be fixed in a firmware update but since i have been using it for 5/4 songs you have to use 5 bars of 4/4 which makes this really confusing. This is a really bad limitation as most of what I use it for is not in 4/4. It think that if this was changed this would make a big change to the way the sampler can be applied to live and studio use.  

How could you use it effectively in performance? (D1)

This sampler has loads of ways it can be used effectively. It can be used as a sampler where one can trigger pre made or inbuilt sounds live. Using the hold button you can allow long samples to run. This is good if you wanted an extra drum part or section in your song. You can just run the sampler through the whole song. If you are working with the sampler more hands on through a performance there are so many effects and features that make this so useful to use live. Firstly the in built 1axis theremin which allows you to apply any of the effects inbuilt to the theremin and control them with your hand live to create a custom sound each time. This sampler caters for both performers who either want to just use it to run a sample or those who want to be more hands on with it and play around with the effects. Another great feature is if you want to select different samples throughout a song, when one sample is playing you can arm the next one and it will bring the next one in with a seamless changeover. This is great for people as they don't need to focus on selecting every sample perfectly in time with the next one.

Can you think of any examples of it being used already by other performers?

What is it? (P1)

RC-30- Loop pedal. This is a pedal that sits on the floor infant of you which enables you to perform multiple layers of sound together with up to 1 instrument and a microphone. It can also capture true multitrack recordings in stereo.

How have you been using it? (M1)

I have been using this pedal to loop a guitar and a bass guitar.

To do this I have been plugged my guitar into the instrument in (mono) then mono output into the amp. This means I can hear it back through the amp. I have been using this in a very basic way to what is capable on this loop but from what I have used its very easy to set up loops and be accurate while you do it. Once I had set up my loop I was able to plug in a Bass guitar and add some bass to my loop. 

There are a few limitations that might push you to stretch to the next model up. This is that there is only one instrument input. If you wanted to, like me, use guitar and bass this means you have to physically unplug the guitar and plug the bass in. It would be nice to see maybe two on this model as this would allow a huge amount of more versatility and prevents hassle during a show.

Something else I found that wasn't that great with this was that changing banks in you will to record a few set of loops wasn't that easy to change over to the next one smoothly. This is not so good if you are a one man band and you want to create all of your songs by yourself and your songs involve different loop combinations.

You can use it in many ways some are very effective and some are to get around problems such as lack of musicians. This is a way people can create a new way of performing whole songs alone and using guitars to create drum sounds and vocals to put together a song that is made up from one instrument and maybe a microphone. The main way this can be used for live apart from a one man band is if you wanted to layer different parts no matter what instrument you play whether it be a trumpet or a accordion this can still loop those instruments. This is really useful to make build ups in a song or fit in pieces that you wouldn't be a blue to recreate live as you didn't have enough instruments. This has been taken many ways. Some people like Ed Sheeran using it with a guitar and vocals, some people are taking it more down the beatbox and accapella route. it can be used in so many creative ways live that can really enhance your performance. It does need a lot of practise be make sure its really tight especially if you have other musicians.

This here is Ed Sheeran using the Boss R-30 to create his song just using a guitar and vocal. The orange microphone is the one thats plugged into the pedal as its the one that he records all the loops with. The other microphone is just to sing the main vocal lines over the top of the loops. This is very common as by having two microphones they can sing in real time over the loops they have created. Mr. Sheeran is using the guitar to create all the parts of the song including the drums. This is a very effective way to use the loop pedal and musically as well as he doesn't need to plug drum pads in to make these sounds. This is just one way that the pedal has been used effectively live but there are several ways in which you can create amazing results from the pedal.

SYNTHS

Roland Juno Stage Digital, This is a synth that is used more as a digital piano. Its features are used mainly for realistic piano sounds but there are synth type feature too.

I have been using it with the basic in built sounds. I have also been working with the envelopes. The basic piano sounds are very realistic and can really be used for a lot of live performances, especially when a great piano is not available or practical. I have also been trying it out as a working interface where you can plug in a microphone and also connect as a midi controller.

There were a few limitations of the synth firstly, the very limited amount of filters didn't enable you to manipulate the sounds you have to well. Compared to a lot of more dedicated synths where its all about the LFOs and Filters this doesn't have no much available of this is what you want from it. This could be a problem if you were planing to use this keyboard live to create some sounds that were more synth like, you don't have the feature that you do on other synths.

This can be used effectively live by having the features to play such great sounds piano sounds as well as having the synth features too. This enables versatility which you need as a piano player because you might need the extra sounds from the digital piano. This keyboard also had a usb port which it really useful if you wanted to load up tracks to play along with live. This would be effective if you were at a wedding and maybe you wanted sound rhythm and bass to play along too. Due to the great features of this piano its enables great live performance capabilities which other synths don't give you. Depending on what your style is, you might prefer this if you don't use the keyboard just for the synth sounds. Another way this is very effective for live performance is that the keyboard has a microphone input so you would be able to have a microphone to sing without having to add a mixer before you could send it out to a loud speaker. This makes the set up portable and easy to use/move around.

Bibliography:

Images from

www.roland.co.uk
www.bossus.com

History of Electronic Music PLAN

For my 'History of Electronic Music' I have chosen to look at Matthew Bellamy from Muse who uses a Kaoss pad controlling a midi controller thats built into his guitar.

I am very interested in the sound that he makes and I am a long time Muse fan.

I am going to talk about the history of Kaoss pads and the history of the electric guitar then I will write about how he combines the two sounds into his music and who this may influence. I will also talk about who may have influenced Mr. Bellamy to create these sounds.

Defining Events - Chloe

The event that I am looking at is the EP release show that I planned for this summer which never went ahead for many reasons.

The gig was at the Wallis Centre in East Grinstead. There are many good things about this venue but there are a few reasons why this might not have been a good choice. This venue is in the town centre and its a know place by people in the local area, easy access and free parking in the hours of the gig. These are all things that would attract people and makes it easily accessible to the public. In terms of the size its quite small which is what we wanted for this event so we could squeeze lots of people into a small room. There are a few things that are not so good with this venue choice as its not normally a music venue. This means its not set up for regular music with lights and a PA system. This venue could only supply staging and power. This meant that we had to pay people to come and supply and run the lights and sound equipment at the show. This may have been easier to hire a venue that included this as it could have saved money. Although we were getting the venue very cheep so it worked out better and cheaper.  We booked the gig on Saturday 16th August as Saturday is a good day for an event, people are usually around. Although the bad thing it a lot of people tend to go away in the middle of August. This might result in the crowds that we might get if we held the event in set ember or October might not be there. This is something to consider but it depends on the gig and your audience.
The supports that we have booked are 3 bands and 1 solo artist. Although the bands are similar, 1 band were a post hardcore and the headliners are not as heavy. This may have been a poor choice for support acts and lost interest in the crowd. This could also have been a bad choice to have a solo artist play alongside a hardcore band. Realistically we were using bands that were friends and we didn't think to much about whether the bands where appropriate for each other.The duration of the gig was 3 1/2 hours from 7:30 - 10:30/11:00pm this is a very common timing for events like this where 4 bands will pay. This was effective for the type of show we were putting on as it fitted within the licence we had and anyone coming from afar would have been able to get the last train home and not miss any of the event. Compared to a club night where the event goes on all night through 6am this event is purely in the evening and finishes at a good time. If we were to have kept the event going until 6am we would have been kicked out during the gig and it would have been a massive let down for the audience. By having the event finish at this time it also stops any complaints from near by houses that it may disrupted if the event was to go on. We would have more complaints if the event had gone on into the night. This planning was good as it worked within our rights with the licence we had.
We were restricted to 150 people at this venue due to size and although the TEN gives us permission for 499 people including staff and artist this was much more than we could have.  The numbers were also realistic for the size of the town we were in and how many people we thought we could attract. This became a problem because we didn't leave enough time before the event to get ticket sales to a point where we know that we will sell out. We didn't even get tickets ready for purchase until 3 weeks before the event which was much too late. This was part of the reason why the event was postponed. The promotion we had was limited to Facebook, Mailing Lists and Twitter announcements. We planned on selling most of the tickets before the night of the gig but we would have needed to turn people away if there was any over 150 people. All our tickets were available before and on the door for the same price £5. When the tickets were available we made them available in several places online. The people who purchased online would have been placed on a list and gained access to the venue immediately. This was a good feature. This was a release show for an EP therefore it was just a one off show. As we were not trying to make money from putting shows we were not fussed about trying to put a few nights together. This was more about getting people together to support the band when releasing the new music as it would also be on sale. if we had put on a few nights or event just one more we would have had trouble getting enough people together to fill the venue for 2 nights. This would have made more money in the long run. I think it was a good decision to only show the event for one night as it was a night to release new music and worked better making it a one off thing.
The venue only supplied power and staging. Both of these are important because they would have costed more money if we had to buy a generator or hire staging. The problems with this would be that generators are very noisy and wouldn't work to well. We probably wouldn't have used this venue if there wasn't any power. The staging would also be a problem as the bands would be at the same hight as the crowd this would be a problem because people at the back wouldn't be able to see the band.


Temporary Events Notice

For this Gig we had to purchase a Temporary Events Notice (TEN). This enabled us to legally put on this event. We stayed well within our rights with the licence. This costed £21 and we had to get it through the council of the area in which the venue was located. This was great as it gave us permission we needed to do everything we wanted in site. There were problems such as you have to be 18 to buy this. I couldn't buy this myself. This wont always be a problem but could be for near future events if I need one but for people organising an event under 18 may cause undated stress to get this licence. Although we had a TEN licence the venue were not letting us sell alcohol at the event which may have effected the turn out. If there was any alcohol seen on the premises they threatened to shut the event down. This was a perfect venue for the event but this may have caused a few problems. Having in a venue that is specifically for live music could have been better option this may have costed more but also would have included some technical equipment and permission to sell alcohol.

Promotion

We wanted to make the tickets as available as possible but because we didn't make them available early enough so there wasn't enough demand for us to be confident that we would sell enough. To prevent this we could have piece by piece announced new information but  made sure that tickets were made available on a particular day. Maybe a discount could have been applied for people who bought early, much like festivals.

All the other equipment we had to provide ourselves including the PA, lights, monitors, microphones, backline and drums. This all cost money to have someone come and run the lights and sound which is something we might not have had to pay for if we hired a venue that had these things included. This would have given us more time when setting up if we didn't have to set lights and sound systems up. We encountered a few problems that our lighting company closed down 2 weeks before the gig this is something that we didn't expect and if we had the agreement in writing then this wouldn't have happened. We wanted to make the tickets as available as possible but because we didn't make them available early enough there wasn't enough demand for us to be confident that we would sell enough. To prevent this we would have piece by piece announced new information but  made sure that tickets were made available on a particular day. Maybe a discount could have been applied for people who bought early. much like festivals.

In terms of staff we had Door Staff, Merch Staff, Stage Crew, Front of House Engineer, Lighting Engineer. Some of these people were being paid and some were friends who wanted to help. We saved money here which was good.

Costing

Here is a breakdown of the costing that we worked out to put on this show.

Venue - £12ph =£108

Lights = £50

Sound = £125

Bands - £50 (£25 each)

Tickets & Promotion - FREE

TEN Licence - £21

Total = £354.00 +/-

Tickets Sales for 150 people at £5 per ticket - £750

Sell out of CD’s £5 x 30 = £150

Gross Profit = £900

Profit = £546.00 +/-

Problems are unless you sell out completely on the tickets before hand you don't really know how much you will make this links back to why the event became unsuccessful and didn't go ahead.

At this venue/event there is, wheelchair ramp access to the venue, no dedicated area for wheelchair users and no signing for the deaf. This probably isn't the type of gig where this is needed but its something that you need consider when putting a show on. Maybe a venue that has these facilities would be better. This depends on your audience and if you are planning on having people there that you need to provide for. Heath and safety things that you need to think about as well is if you are using strobe lighting, you need to have signs that say you will be. Another thing is controlling the crowd with either body guards or barriers or both depending on the lay out and gig type.  

All the things I have spoken about combined are reasons why it didn’t go ahead and there are many things I can do to make sure it goes smooth next time.