One of the DJ’s who has had a heavy influence on me is Gilles Peterson. This is because Gilles Peterson is one of the few, if not, one of the only DJ’s who do not conform to the idea of genres so much, and has managed to be successful as he has had a radio show on the BBC since 1998. His main genres of music are acid jazz, funk and latin, however he isn’t very restrictive on his taste and what he plays. A lot of people who are fans of those kinds of genres have a tendency to dismiss other music altogether, and even look down on other music. Gilles Peterson on the other hand has an open mind to music, and has never really seen genre as a barrier to what he plays. He also isn’t very restrictive on where around the world the music is coming from. All the music he plays though has a link to acid jazz, funk or latin one way or another. This means that he has played other genres too such as hip hop, R&B, Dubstep, Drum & Bass, House, Reggae, Soul and more. He has been strongly associated with artists such as Roni Size, Four Tet, Mala, Erykah Badu, Jamiroquai and many more. He owns multiple record labels, including; Talkin’ Loud, Brownswood Recordings, Acid Jazz Records; all of which have featured artists from a variety of backgrounds
Uncategorized
DJ Performance
Genre: Jungle/Drum N Bass
Time Played + Tracklist:
(0:00-4:00) :Fernanda Porto – Sambassim (DJ Patife Remix)
(4:00-6:00) :High Contrast – Passion
(6:00-9:00) :Forces Of Nature – Cool Spot (PFM Remix)
(9:00-11:00) :Calibre ft. MC Fats – Drop It Down
(11:00-14:00) :London Elektricity – Cum Dancing
(14:00-16:00) :Q Project – Nation 2 Nation
(16:00-19:00) :Higher Sense – Cold Fresh Air (Cyantific Remix)
(19:00-20:00) :Artificial Intelligence – Stand Alone
Equipment Used:
– Technics 1210 Turntable (x2)
– Standard Needles (x2)
– Pioneer DJM-800 Pro Mixer (x1)
– Active Speakers (x2)
– Speaker Stands (x2)
– 1/4″ Jack Cable (x3)
– Deck Stand (x1)
– Monitor Speaker (x1)
– Headphones (x1)
– Power Cables (Kettle) (x3)
– 2.5mm To 1/4″ Jack Converter (x1)
The Purpose of the turntables is to play a record that you put on it. To use it, you must position your record onto the platter, then gently pick up the needle and tone-arm, and position it so that it the needle is touching the outer corner of the record, then you switch the turntable on, select the correct RPM (33 or 45) and press play. The turntable also includes a pitch fader. The pitch fader can speed up or slow down the platter spin speed by up to 8%; this feature is used to sync two tracks when mixing two different tracks with different BPM’s.
Techniques used for mixing include putting your thumb gently against the record on the edge of the platter to slightly pull the track back, or to ensure that the BPM doesn’t increase too drastically while increasing the pitch on the pitch fader. Another technique is to gently push the record clockwise while playing to push the track further ahead. You can do this while decreasing the pitch on the pitch fader to insure that the BPM doesn’t decrease too much.
The purpose of a mixer is to process the electrical signals for the sound being inputted into the mixer from a source such as turntables, CDJ or Audio Flies from a computer. These sound sources are sent to their individual channels on the mixer. On each of these channels, there is a fader which affects how much of the overall frequencies are being outputted to this mix, 3 knobs which control which frequencies are boosted/cut, an overall channel volume knob at the top, and a visual LED display which indicates whether or not the channel’s frequencies are distorted or not (if the display has red LED’s, then the track on the channel is distorted). At the bottom of the mixer, there is a cross fader which allows you to sweep across different channels to include or remove them. On the right-bottom corner of the mixer, there are numerous effects such as delay or echo which can be included on a channel by pressing the large amber button next to the effect selector. At the end of a process, there is a master volume which controls the overall volume for all channels before being sent to the master output where you connect an amplifier or active speakers.
The purpose of needles are to detect the the vibrations when riding across the groove of a record and convert them into electrical signals via a transducer in the cartridge. This signal is then sent along the tone-arm and out the turntable into the mixer in the form of a channel.
The purpose of active speakers is to output the signal as sound so that we can hear the music. They amplify the signal internally, as opposed to ‘standard’ passive speakers which require an external amplifier to amplify the signal for the speaker before it’s played. This means that this speaker can be connected directly to the mixer’s master output.
The speaker stands sustain the speakers off the ground. They stand approximately 5-6 feet tall which means the sound clarity is optimal at standing level.
The 1/4″ jack cables are used to connect the mixer output to the speakers. Their purpose is to transfer sound signals from a source to an output.
The deck stands purpose is to sustain the decks, mixer and other equipment at a usable height while standing.
The monitor speaker’s purpose is to aim the sound towards the DJ so that they can hear what they are playing clearly.
The purpose of the headphones are to output the track the DJ is cueing and any other selected channels so that only the DJ can hear it, and not the audience.
The kettle power cables purpose is to power the speakers and mixer via socket to input.
2.5mm to 1/4″ jack converter is used for connecting the headphone jack to the mixer, as they have different connection types.
The purpose of turntables is to play the record and transfer its signal to the mixer.
The mixers purpose is to process all of the input signals from turntables, CDJs and audio files and to allow the user to control those signals.
The Pioneer DJM-800 Pro mixer is an advanced mixer. It has 4 channels so we didn’t have to keep switching the channel inputs between CDJ’s and turntables as different DJ’s went on the decks. The knobs that control the frequency cut/boost snap when near the centre, which is both a positive and a negative, as it does help you know for sure if your knobs are centred if playing in the dark, however it slightly reduces the accuracy and control you have over where you want the knobs to be. Mixers such as the Rodec BX9 (my personal mixer at home) do not have this snap feature, and also has higher-resistance knobs making movements more accurate and smoother. The faders on the Rodec BX9 also have more resistance but also longer travel length (approximately double the length of the Pioneer faders) which make for much smoother and progressive movements. The faders on the Rodec BX9 have a rounded, ribbed dips so that your thumb can fit comfortably in them without sliding out. I find this type of fader better than the narrow trapezium shape of the pioneer faders. On the other hand, the Rodec BX9 is a basic mixer, and as a result, it does not have the special effects and live editing features such as reverb, echo, LFO and more. This is where the Pioneer DJM-800 stands out as a mixer. The Pioneer DJM-800 Pro is a mixer that allows you to edit tracks live which can help in building up energy for the crowd and using some creativity. These effects compensate for the Pioneer DJM-800 Pro’s lesser build quality.
For my rehearsal and practice mixes, I experimented around with mixing various different tracks together to see which tracks do and don’t blend well together so I know which ones to bring on the performance date. Generally speaking, when mixing two tracks together, you want them to have certain similar characteristics. These characteristics include BPM, drum pattern, mood, energy and vocals. BPM’s of two tracks should be the same, if not very similar to each other to ensure that it is possible to beat match them with the pitch range of a turntable without risk of having an issue where you mixed your 1st track of the two to a fast track, meaning it is now impossible to mix the second track in with your 1st one you mixed in. Drum patterns should have the same ‘core’ pattern. This means having a kick or a snare in the same place as each other in at least one point in the bar’s of the two tracks, with all other drum types (hi hat, rimshot etc) revolving around that kick and snare pattern. This ensures that the two tracks can blend well together, and even trick the audience into thinking there was only ever one track playing depending on how good your mixing skills are. Moods of the two tracks should be similar to each other so that it makes sense to the audience and keep the ‘vibe’ ‘flowing’. For example, the audience may be overwhelmed if you mix a a track with a dark and heavy vibe into an easy-going, feel-good type of track. All the tracks that I played were dance-orientated with a soul/funk-influenced vibe. You can change the vibe progressively so that it makes sense to the audience, however it would be difficult to do so within the 20 minute time limit I was given, so I chose not to do this unless I had a sense that the audience would prefer something with a different mood. The energy levels of two tracks being mixed together should be similar, as it helps them blend well, and prevents one from either sounding overpowering or dull. All the tracks I played had high energy which made them more dance orientated. If mixing a track with vocals, you should ensure that your first track doesn’t have vocals so that they do not clash.
Evaluation Of My Track
The aim of the track I was creating was to create a track that would be suitable for a particular record label. This particular record label was Metalheadz. Refer to the submission I had that explains what the Metalheadz record label is and what kind of music they are about. In short, the type of music released on Metalheadz is dark and heavy, yet is somewhat melancholic. This type of vibe that tracks from the Metalheadz label have are often created by using high-energy drums, powerful sub-bass frequencies, but also long-stretching synths, and a small amount of melodic keys or typical jazz instruments but used in such a way that they sound moody. To make my track sound like something that would be released on Metalheadz, I tried to use the methods stated previously on my track to give off the same effect. Overall, I would say that despite using the same ideas and methods used by artists that have released on the Metalheadz record label, my track wouldn’t blend in well with a typical Metalheadz track. This is because my track seemed to have lacked consistency, in the sense that I had several entirely different instruments, compositions and melodies in this track, which makes it sound as if it is a short DJ mix rather than one full track. However, I need to understand more editing and effects techniques to avoid my track from sounding like an 8 minute loop. Also, I need to learn how to ‘evolve’ a melody so that it sounds like it’s progressing rather than changing entirely. For this, I need to understand music theory better.
Questions For Guests
How did you start out your career?
What were the first actions you made towards your career?
Were there any obstacles when signing any record deals?
What did you have to avoid regarding record deals?
What was the key actions that helped further your career?
MPC Guides
Music Business
The music industry has several different types of jobs other than the artists themselves. One of the roles which makes the artists pay is the promotional role. Promoters are people who promote artists to the public via several mediums such as posters, adverts, social media pages and more. Without promoters, artists would struggle to become known to the public and as a result, not make as much sales of their music as they potentially could. The promoter also works to get the artist’s music heard on mediums such as radio, TV, adverts and so forth.
Another role in the music industry is a sound engineer. A sound engineer works to ensure all the equipment in the studio is working properly and set up ready for the artists to use. When an artist reaches the point where they no longer record their performance at home on basic equipment, they upgrade to using studios to record their songs. Without the sound engineer, music wouldn’t be able to be recorded professionally and music wouldn’t have a clean, vibrant sound.
Another role in the music industry is an A&R coordinator. An A&R Coordinator is a member of a record label who searches for new artists to sign. A&R Coordinators would have to consider several variables before signing an artist on to the label. These variables would mostly regard the specific genre and style of the artist’s work. The A&R coordinator would specifically pay attention to the artist’s influences, themes, moods and approaches to music. If they are the same or virtually the same as the label, then the artist would likely be signed.
Another role in the music industry is the booking agent. The booking agent’s job is to work for an artist to find venues and negotiate with the people who run the venue to allow their artist to play there. For small artists, the booking agent would have to go out of their way to search for a venue that would accept the requests for the artists to play there. On the contrary, well known artist’s booking agent would have to filter out requests from venues for their artist to play there. This type of booking agent would have to find the most profitable venue to play at, as well as the venue that brings in the most fan turn out.
The landscape in the music industry in 2015 has been strongly influenced by the emergence of 360 deals in the 21st century. These deals started to appear because pirating music became a lot easier when internet access had become widespread, thus resulting in the profits from recorded music falling. The 360 deal is where a record label agrees to manage all of the financial support necessary for the artist, as well as managing the marketing, PR and gigging. This however gives the record label a lot of power over the artist, and as a result has caused a lot of controversy. Generally speaking, 360 deals result in artists being invested heavily on by record labels, but have to do so many shows that it has a lot of stress on the artist, and causes the public to get bored of the artist once the contract has ended, and sees them as ‘the past’ and ‘no longer relevant’. This is why a lot of modern artists who break through to the charts are often forgotten quickly.
1) Shotgun Mic 2) Cardioid Mic 3) Omnidirectional Mic 4) Hypercardioid Mic
History of Soundsystems
Soundsystems originated in Jamaica during the 1950s. People would load a vehicle with equipment needed to play music remotely. This included generators, amplifiers, turntables, speakers, mics and cables needed to put it together. People would gather in the streets around where the soundsystem was at and have a party there. Originally, the type of music played was R&B imported from the United States, but soon local music styles such as Ska, Reggae and Dub was played on these soundsystems. There would be a selector (DJ) who would choose what music to play, and the MC/toaster who would introduce the songs. As time progressed, the technology also progressed, with louder speakers with heavier sub-frequencies with higher wattage ratings.
In the 60s and 70s, politicians took advantage of the people who owned the soundsystems with the large crowds they were gathering, and used people’s soundsystems to promote their political parties.
During the 70s, soundsystems were being made and used for parties in the UK, and the selectors would usually only want to play imported music from Jamaica and not play the music that was being made by locals, so locals specifically requested to the label designers to not print ‘Made In England’ on the records label to fool the selectors into thinking that the music was from Jamaica. This then formed the UK soundsystem culture to soon become mostly independent from the Jamaican soundsystem culture.
Concerts and songs that changed the world
Concert 1
Fantazia – Donnington Park – 25th July 1992
Fantazia at Donnington Park is renowned for being the largest rave ever to take place in the UK, with the largest attendance estimated to be at least 25,000 with tickets and at least another 3,000 who had broken in. This rave was considered to have taken place at the peak of the rave scene in the UK before new laws had been implemented to prevent illegal raves from taking place (Fantazia was a legal event, but the rave culture as a whole thrived off of the illegal raves, which were commonplace from 1988 – 1993).
The DJ’s at Fantazia were the pioneers at the time such as Fabio & Grooverider, Carl Cox, Nicky Blackmarket, Mickey Finn, Pete Tong, Slipmatt, A Guy Called Gerald, Paul Oakenfold and many more. The music played was Hardcore (Not to be confused with Rock’s Hardcore), which had come off the back of Acid House in the early UK rave scene in the late 80s. UK Electronic music was rapidly evolving at the time, and all UK Electronic music since then has been influenced by events such as Fantazia, whether directly or indirectly, hence why it is a significant event in history.
One of the key things that made raves like Fantazia special was diversity. People from several backgrounds were there raving together, unified, in the same era with events such as the Brixton riots, the Stephen Lawrence murder and constitutional racism were happening in the UK, which made it seem like an unlikely event. Soon there was anti rave agendas in newspapers, choosing to focus on the commonplace of ecstacy and other illegal substance use at raves, and generally giving the whole rave scene a bad name. The following link shows some footage of Fantazia at Donnington Park 1992.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZjICj8pkpE
Song 1
The Future Sound Of London – Papua New Guinea (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAvHjoLxxh8
This track stood out in it’s era and is loved by virtually everyone into electronic music. Among all of the rough Hardcore and ‘acid’ sounds at the time, this had a lot of emotion and feeling in it with it’s beautiful sounding chants, ambient sounds, chimes, arpeggiated chords, and it’s tribal-sounding wind instrument; a combination which hadnt really been used at the time. These beautiful sounds combined with break beats and slight use of ‘acid’ sounds resulted in an incredible track that was a hit in electronic music. In it’s day, it was unlike anything released at the time. A lot of people thought that electronic music wasn’t ‘real music’ in this era just because its not very melodic, but this track proves otherwise, as it feels really ‘organic’.
Concert 2
Rock Against Racism – Victoria Park – 30th April 1978
Rock Against Racism was an event that took place in Victoria Park in East London as a stand against the rising presence of fascist political ideologies of the National Front; a fundamentally racist political party. Rock Against Racism helped raise awareness of what was happening in the UK to young people to discourage them from embracing racism. It was also to point out the hypocrisy of a small amount of white artists at the time such as Eric Clapton who were outspoken racists, despite making living off of music which was originally written and pioneered by predominantly black musicians (Eric Clapton in particular rose to fame for covering Bob Marley’s ‘I Shot The Sherriff’). This event was very influential in discouraging far-right wing beliefs which made it a success. Around 100,000 people turned up to the event. The event featured The Clash, Buzzcocks, Steel Pulse, Xray Spex, The Ruts, Sham 69, Generation X and The Tom Robinson Band and more. The style of music played there would have been Punk Rock and Reggae.
Song 2
Lennie De Ice – We Are I.E (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQGmsQ2_Fa0
This track is incredibly important to the UK electronic music scene, as it has influenced virtually everything made in the UK since, and has defined UK electronic music. It may not be the most well known track of all time, but this track epitomises the UK electronic music scene both past and present. At the time, electronic music across the world wasn’t really distinctive to where it came from; a track could’ve been from Chicago, London, Amsterdam, Germany etc and nobody would really be able to tell.
The track starts out with a ‘standard’ House track intro of the era. Soon after, bassline reminiscent of Dub is dropped in, along with a “ragga” style vocal. Also, there are gunshot sound effects; something that hadn’t been done at the time, but is common in newer genres such as Grime and Trap. This hadn’t really been done before at the time, and these features are highly prominent together in UK music the present day. Eventually, the standard 4/4 beat is dropped and a breakbeat (Amen break) replaces it. This track was one of the first few electronic music tracks to not use standard beats from Roland 303/808/909 systems. This track also played a huge influence in Jungle a later in late 1992 and 1993. Allegedly, Lennie De Ice produced it as early as 1988 (the year it was produced isn’t officially known) but it was turned down by multiple record labels, and eventually released on Lennie De Ice’s own label (which was a sublabel of ‘De Underground Records’ which was ran by Randall (who would become on of the biggest jungle and drum n bass DJ’s a few years later) and Uncle22.
Links:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov06/articles/classictracks_1106.htm
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/apr/20/popandrock.race
http://abasschronicle.co.uk/record-retrospect-lennie-de-ice-we-are-i-e/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantazia_(dance)
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Live Sound
Week 1 – How to set up the mixing desk
– Make sure all of the knobs are flattened off (default settings).
– Switch on the line signal on a channel
– Route the signal from the channel to the master fader
– turn up master fader to optimum sound level
– Adjust pan to balance L/R audio
– Adjust auxilary to balance low, mid and high frequencies on the channel you are sending from
– ensure that the gain is below 0 dB (not in the red zone)
– Switch on the line signal on a channel
– Route the signal from the channel to the master fader
– turn up master fader to optimum sound level
– Adjust pan to balance L/R audio
– Adjust auxilary to balance low, mid and high frequencies on the channel you are sending from
– ensure that the gain is below 0 dB (not in the red zone)
Week 2 – Setting up Mics
– Cardiode mic must receive sound from correct side (marked side), for use with single audio source applications (e.g single singer)
– Omnidirectional mics are for applications where sound is wanted from all directions
– Bidirectional mics are for applications where sound is only wanted from polar opposite sides
– Hypercardiode is a more sensitive version of a cardiode mic but allows a small amount of sound to come through from the polar opposite side
– Shotgun mics are useful when used close up to its application and has very high sensitivity
– Mics use XLR cables that plug into a a mic amplifier, which then connects to an XLR wall socket which transfers the sound to a channel on the mixer
– De-esser is used to filter some of the high frequencies so it’s not overwhelming
Week 3 – Soundsystems
– 3 types of speakers; Subs, mids and tops
– Subs are for frequencies 0-100Hz
– Mids are for frequencies 100Hz-1KHz
– Tops are for frequencies 1KHz-20KHz
– Each type of speaker has its own amplifier
– Amplifier volume must be muted before unplugging equipment or switching anything off
– 3 way setups are setups where one output go’s to 3 different amplifiers (for all 3 types of speakers)
– 1 way setups are setups where the output only go’s to 1 amplifier
Veill Presents: Music Production & Performance Level 3 Coursework 