These have been a stressful but exciting,
sneering but exacting past 11 weeks and I'm about to sum up exactly what went down inside this town.
The aim of the project as a whole:
This project was a collaboration project where each student had the freedom of choosing what they would like to produce by the end of the 11 weeks. It was to "provide us with the opportunity to make use of the skills, knowledge and understanding developed through the previous projects"
Some students chose to create a band that covered songs of their choice, this band was called "Desire". Some chose to form a different band where they would have originals and covers, this band was called "The Exits". One student decided to organise an event where these bands could play. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEorAIb2exM
“Come Together.” Www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEorAIb2exM. Accessed 27 May 2021.
👆👆link to the event👆👆
Introducing my project:
The students that didn't want to collaborate as a band; such as my self, decided to create an ep. The ep I have created is called "Letting it Out". Letting it Out is an ep that consists of 3 original songs. Although this ep only has 3 songs; these songs conveyed different emotions across to the audience such as: relaxing, aggressive and sexual desire. Don't worry, these songs aren't completely true. What I mean by that is that I play a character for the most part, just so I can truly express the emotion I am trying to let out. I would also say I over exaggerate my lyrics which puts extra effect of the emotion I am "letting out" (pun intended).
Here are the songs I have produced:
1. Chilled Times
2. Find my Sound
3. Skitzflow
Who I collaborated with and why:
For this project, I have collaborated with Connor, Matthias, Georgia, Caitlin and even my lecturers Billy and Andrew.
I collaborated with Connor because I have observed his development throughout the years he has been creating beats. The reason I chose to utilize Connor's beat production skills is because I know that he is capable to produce instrumentals which convey different sensations. This was essential for the beats as my role was to let out emotion.
Chilled Times beat (demo)
Find My Sound beat (demo):
SkitzFlow beat (demo):
The way I collaborated with Matthias is by having him feature in 2 of my songs "SkitzFlow and "FMS". The reason I wanted Matthias to be a feature in them two songs is because he raps in a different style and is way more aggressive which is shown by the song "SkitzFlow".
However, in "FMS", Matthias went for a different approach. This approach was rather relaxed and laid back for Matthias.
The reason he done more of a laid back verse is becuase the beat in this song manipulated his flow as the guitar gives of an imperturbable sensation.
I collaborated with Georgia by asking her to feature in "Chilled Times". The reason I wanted Georgia to do this collaboration was because her voice complements the beat as it is rather soothing and relaxing. My lecturer Billy was the reason for this songs achievement. This was because as I was playing him the track, he mentioned some constructive comments such as "I think it would sound a lot tighter if there was a hook included to give the structure of the song more life". This is how the hook was originally:
Billy came to listen to it again after that repetitive hook was recorded. He asked what I was trying to convey and asked if it would be a good idea to try and include a verse for Georgia, I took this into consideration and asked Georgia if she was okay with doing that. We sat and listened to the verses to see how we could get Georgia's verse to contradict my verse. She done this by saying that "you don't need drugs to have a good time". Here is the finished verse.
The way Georgia's verse contradicts my verse is becuase in my verse, I include "man I might even spark up a blunt". This shows the contrast between our two verses.
I collaborated with Caitlin becuase she was the designer of my ep cover, she sent me across a design that she thought would work really well as a cover for a music project called "letting it out".
After she sent over this picture, it instantly caught my eye becuase each little doodle drawing has it's own story just like each tack on the ep. I really like how it represents a mind that has a lot of thoughts running through it. These thoughts need to be let out and that is the reason for "Letting it Out". For this cover, I done 7 different edits. I wanted to edit more than 1 because I didn't know what type of edit to go for and I knew if I done more than 1, I would be able to get better at them and at editing in general. Here is each edit that I have produced (in order from first to last):
The way Billy took part in my project was by embedding a bass line into "FMS":
This was done becuase I let Billy listen to "FMS" and he mentioned that the structure wasn't too easy to hear. By that he meant it was hard to understand when the chorus comes in as there was no changed aspect at this point. When Billy was jamming along with my track on the bass; we decided to record it in. We listened back to it and came to the conclusion that the included bass line added a great amount of movement to the track. After the recording, I decided to execute a bit of editing with the bass line. What I done was:
1. Firstly, I Duplicated the track and kept the original in
2. Then, I Researched how to properly duplicate a section from a track
“Pro Tools - How to Trim to Selection FAST! LIKE a BOSS!” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsa5w9OhvuI.
3. After I duplicated that section; I duplicated the end 2 notes from it and stuck them together.
Original:
Edit:
I collaborated with Andrew becuase he is one of the technicians and has an experienced background around audio and mixing. The way Andrew was brought into this project was by mixing my song "Chilled Times". First thing we done was sat and listened to the track. We then listened to the beat on it's own and felt that there was a progressive build up throughout it so we decided to experiment with different effects. Andrew mentioned what the low-pass filter does:
This shows that the filter, cuts out unwanted high frequencies causing a "fade" to form.We utilized this on Georgia's repeated hook in order for her vocals to complement the build up in the beat.
Here is an image of the other effects we experimented with:
Why I chose to do an ep:
The way I decided to create an ep for my project was because I knew I could create a single song because that is what I done for project 3 and wanted to push to see how many I could have produced within the 11 week time limit. What gave me the inspiration for the theme of this ep was, listening to other rappers that express different emotion and sensations via their music. I know I have mentioned this in one of my weekly blogs but the main inspirations have been "SuperDuperKyle", "NF" and "Eminem" This is because of:
Kyle's album"Little Light of Mine" https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngZraXIAMxfP7BYQXawMPBxDsm3CSVG5
“Light of Mine (Deluxe) - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngZraXIAMxfP7BYQXawMPBxDsm3CSVG5. Accessed 27 May 2021.
NF's album " Therapy session" https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlHv2_0xmZFSFguMzwrcj4kpha9rJYg64
“NF | Therapy Session (Official Full Album Playlist) - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlHv2_0xmZFSFguMzwrcj4kpha9rJYg64. Accessed 27 May 2021.
Eminem's album "The Slim Shady LP" https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mTB-TXTlxs3LhvCz24ob3Cq3RUOW-PVR4
“The Slim Shady LP - YouTube.” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mTB-TXTlxs3LhvCz24ob3Cq3RUOW-PVR4. Accessed 27 May 2021.
"Little Light of Mine" had an impact on my decision because during this full album, Kyle shows a lot of emotion towards: women, general life and fame. This gave me the idea to included an emotional feel to my ep because I wanted to be able to connect to the audience as these topics are a few of the most common topics to utilize in a rap song. https://rhymemakers.com/topics-to-rap-about/.9 Most Searched Topics to Rap about - Rhymemakers. 2018, rhymemakers.com/topics-to-rap-about/. Accessed 27 May 2021.
This link shows that these topics that I have stated are manoeuvred within modern rap songs.
The way NF's album "Therapy Session" has helped me to decide on my decisions is because as I listened through his album, I distinguished aspects which made his music undeniably emotional. Listening to his song "Intro 2",
“NF - Intro 2.” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/watch?v=zzcOPNpKvRY&list=PLlHv2_0xmZFSFguMzwrcj4kpha9rJYg64&index=1. Accessed 27 May 2021. has had an impact on my decision becuase as soon as I listened to it, I could already feel the aggression just by the tone of his voice. Due to the tone of his voice, I didn't need to understand the story behind the lyrics before I could tell the emotion he was expressing. This helped me while I was recording my "SkitzFlow" verse because I could then avail myself of this inspiration.
Eminem's album showed me how to convey arrogance in a fun way. Listening to the song "My name is" (which is on this album):
“My Name Is.” Www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com/watch?v=D7oEoza3zOo&list=PLuIv_B1DKbFWtZmctxtPx91PgYwkesdJK&index=2. Accessed 27 May 2021.
Made me really think about how I could have fun and just let what ever is on my mind out. He does this by putting on a youthful character which represents himself. He starts his first verse off with:
Just by these lyrics, we see that Slim is acting rather "insane". When listening to the lyrics you can hear how the tone of his voice manipulates these lyrics to make them sound "fun". This impacted my lyrics on "FMS" because in this song, I just let my mind go free with no regrets.
How I have improved throughout my projects:
Through out all 5 projects, I have most definitely noticed improvements. I would start by saying my biggest improvement as a person is my dedication and commitment. By that I mean, at the start I wasn't putting as much thought into my work because I just focused on getting it complete. Therefore, it was not at a standard which I would aim for now. I really feel that I have improved as a musician because in project 3, I wrote a song about my friend that had sadly past away. I created a beat over "Soundtrap" on the college iPads and then after I recorded my vocals in and the song was complete, I asked a media student if they could help me out with the video, recording and editing side of things as this was more his speciality than mine:
“Rest Easy - Jack Linstead.” Www.youtube.com, youtu.be/w2vQ88bCNd8. Accessed 27 May 2021.
This is a link to the end product. In total, I do like the video and the lyrics but the beat and vocals could have had some improvement. I could have improved this by utilizing the college studio and equipment. If I recorded my vocals over the studio microphone instead of recording them over some Marshall amp headphones, I would have had a lot better quality. The reason I didn't is because for the music production; for the most part, I was stuck in due to lockdown.
Looking back on project 3 then 5, has made me realise how much I have improved on these issues and how I have improved even more than them issues.
“LilLin.” SoundCloud, soundcloud.app.goo.gl/341YS. Accessed 27 May 2021.
Here is a link to my soundcloud where I have put the ep together. For starters, I have never missed a day (even days I'm not supposed to be in). You can see this by my timetable which implies the times I have been in the studio or in college in general:
These images show that each day has been signed by a lecturer to indicate that I'm in.
WWW: What went well was my reflection upon the constructive criticism I had received about vocals.
EBI: This could have went better if I was able to produce more than 3 songs like I was originally supposed to.
HTI: The way I could improve this is by keeping all of my other work upto date so I would only have songs to make when in the studio.
Comentarios