LCM Year One is Over!

The past month or so has been hectic! So much coursework to do - I've not had time to update here but it wasn't just laziness! My bad.

So my first year at Uni is over. Mental. I feel like i've only been here a few months. Time's gone too quick, its crazy to think im a third of the way through Uni already. It's dawned on me that I've wasted a lot of time this year, and I could have used the time a lot better and got a lot more done. I mean, i've still done quite a bit of music, but not nearly as much as i could have. I live in a city with an amazing music scene but i've still not started any bands or got any gigs or anything, which is what i really wanted to do! I now have close to 4 months with not a lot to do, so im going to make sure i get a decent bit of music made. A quick recap of what I've recorded or helped with recording this year..


Revenge


This was the first bit of coursework I did! I took an old piece that i'd done months ago, and took all the MIDI files and put them into logic, and did a lot of work on it. I extended it, added new parts, used better samples, mixed it all better. It sounds a hell of a lot better than the original.


Lots and Lots of Bedroom Recordings


Lots of bored nights in with my flatmate resulted in these. 5 songs recorded for Tom, 1 recorded with Tom and his mate for his LCM Audition (which he passed), and then 3 songs with me on guitar and Tom singing. Probably a lot more of these to come.


Crimestoppers Dub


I recorded this for the Crimestoppers assignment at LCM - this is the first of 2 pieces. This is one of my favourite pieces i've produced this year - It sounds great and I'm really wanting to make some reggae/dub kinda music soon. Its one of the projects that im hoping to start over the next 4 months.


Mugging


This was the second piece i produced for the Crimestoppers assignment. This came from an idea I had when listening to a song The Prodigy did with Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. I had this little guitar riff in Logic on a distorted guitar with a wah pedal, and some drums, and that developed into this.

Safari


This is a more recent one that I haven't shared on this blog yet! I had to create a 4 minute piece of music and write a 2000 word essay about it (and transcribe it!) This is what I made. I wanted to do music for a certain purpose so I had more i could write about in the essay. My dad suggested doing music for a David Attenborough programme which gave me the idea to use African instruments, however this is what came. It isnt actually for a nature programme, it just kinda.. tells a kind of story. There's a theme representing a herd of gazelle at the beginning which is repeated in a minor key later to show that something has happened to the herd, theres another theme to represent a predator.. it's all explained much better in the essay!


Babies


One of my studio assignments was to record a cover of a song as a group, and it had to fit into a certain category. Then we all had to do an individual remix. It had to:
Only use the original vocal track.
Use Found Sound Drums (the version i've posted doesnt use these).
Use a synth that we have made from scratch.
Write and Record 2 original instrumental parts.

I did another reggae style remix which I think turned out pretty well! It was pretty hard to do cos the acapella tempo fluctuates from 150 bpm to 160bpm. It sounds pretty good though, I think. I never recorded 2 instrumental parts, which I could lose marks on. But there is different instrumental lines on this so they could count, i'm not sure. For the Found Sound Drums, which I didn't use on this version as it sounds better with the proper kit, I used quite a few weird things around my room. The Hi-Hat was just me ripping up a takeaway menu, then I added a bit of noise, and a lot of reverb. The Snare was me hitting the bottom of a metal bucket, layered up with me hitting a bottle of salt. I added lots of reverb and delay onto to bucket sound so as to create the typical dub sound. The kick was me slamming a cardboard box over my knee, layered up with me punching myself in the stomach. I EQ'd these and raised the low ends so it was thumpier. One thing I didn't do which i didnt think of till after, was pitch shifting the sounds so they were lower. Still, it sounded ok.



So, that's pretty much all the music i've made in my first year at Uni. Expect some more coming over the next few months as I have a lot of free time! I've just bought a melodica, so I'm hoping to use that for a couple of acoustic recordings. I'm also gonna go acoustic guitar hunting this week, so I can record some much better songs. I'm also finally gonna get my electric guitar fixed and get it restrung so I can record some reggae vibes with that! Hoping to do some kind of Skints covers!

Thanks for reading - I'll be posting more regular again from now!

Uni Assigments!

Just a short post today - I got some feedback from 2 of my Uni assignments!!

This first was a group project, where we had to get together and record a song in the studio. We had to produce it all, so we were doing all the mic techniques, the patching, the desk work. We did a cover of 'A Message to you Rudy' by The Specials. We got 62/100, which is a 2:1 - not bad!!

The other assignment is the Crimestoppers one that I've talked about a lot on here - where I had to produce 2 30 second long pieces of music in Logic to go along with these Crimestoppers adverts. I got 72/100 - thats a first!! I'm so proud!!

This week i'm concentrating on another assignment - I have a 2000 word essay to be in next monday, and also a Theory and Aural assignment - I've been given a piece of music and I have to transcribe it. Harder than it sounds, trust me!! It's a long and stressful week this week so I probably won't blog this week - and hopefully I'm going home next week which means ill be quite busy then too. So.. i don't know if i'll be blogging for a while!!

ALTHOUGH.. been working on a track with my flatmate. It's nowhere near finished yet, but it's a cover of the XX track 'Angels'. Hoping to get some massive psychadelic guitar solo in there. I'll update on that when its starting to come together a bit.

New Music: Alumni Records 'Freshers EP'

It's been nearly 2 weeks since my last post - i've not found a lot of time, sorry!

So yeah. Some folks at my college have started their own label, known as Alumni Records. It's all run by people from the College, and will promote artists also at the College. They've just released their first EP, called 'Freshers EP'. It consists of 5 tracks of varying genre, that they've all produced themselves.

Track 01 - Zeitgeist - 'Sacrificial T-shirt'

This is an 8 minute Jazz piece by a college band called Zeitgeist. I'm not a big fan of this kind of Jazz, but it's still a pretty good piece. I really like the bass solo that starts around the 5 minute mark.

https://soundcloud.com/zeitgeist-band
https://www.facebook.com/ZeitgeistUK

Track 02 - Patrick Craig - 'Listen to Me'

I saw Patrick Craig play about a month ago at this Bavarian pub in Leeds, at their 'Bierkellers Got Talent' competition they had, and he was really good. He definitely reminds me of Frank Turner, kinda folky stuff with that massive voice.

https://www.facebook.com/pcraiguk

Track 03 - Tom Harris - 'Ekomat'

Ekomat is a pretty atmospheric electronic piece, which is different to everything else on the EP so far. I'm not really sure what genre to call it - it's kind of Drum n Bass, Garage-y - but it's really relaxed, even with the uptempo drums. I really like this one, I wanna hear more from him.

https://soundcloud.com/tomharris - I really recommend listening to his song 'Tears' - I love that one too.

Track 04 - Emma Dockaray - 'One Woman Show'

This is another great acoustic song from the EP. She's got a great voice and I love the chord progression. She reminds me of another artist I've already heard before but I can't for the life of me remember. Either way, I still really like this.

https://soundcloud.com/emma-dockeray
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Emma-Dockeray/158703740881360

Track 05 - Dengar - 'New Beginnings'


Another electronic track from the EP, this one is much more up-beat. There's constant driving drums, completely different the Ekomat from earlier in the EP. Definitely more dance-able, this one.


So yeah, that's the Alumni Records Freshers EP. You can find Alumni on Facebook and Soundcloud. I'm looking forward to their next release, as there's some real talented people at LCM, and I can't wait to hear more of their stuff.

https://soundcloud.com/alumnirecords
https://www.facebook.com/alumnirecordsuk

LCM Crimestoppers Coursework

The past couple of weeks I have been working on as assignment for Uni. I've been given 2 crimestoppers videos, each about 30 seconds long, and have had to produce 2 seperate pieces of music to go with them. They had to be produced in Logic, and had to have at least 8 voices. I've done 2 very different tracks - one started out as a project from ages ago that was supposed to be some kind of Rage Against The Machine meets Dubstep track. Because I only had 30 seconds it didnt really have time to develop into this, but I'll post what I came up with.



The other piece is the one I prefer. I think it sounds a lot better. It started off as a rip off of the 'You wouldn't steal a handbag' film that plays before DVDs. Its ended up completely different, a reggae/dub style track.



I'll post the feedback I get when I get it - I have to hand it in tomorrow! Which means I'll probably get feedback in about a month from now. Any feedback on these tracks would be appreciated :)

Leeds College of Music

If you follow my blog or know me, you may or may not know that I am applying to Uni, and for the past few months, I have had Hertfordshire University firmed. However, last week, after a trip to the pub (which wasnt the best time for them to ring as I was slightly pissed), I got a call from Leeds College of Music. They initially rejected me, after I made it through 2 phases of the application process - I fell at the final interview stage. The first stage was just applying and they approved me. The second stage left me with a task to complete - I was given 6 little sound bites. I had to use these in my own creative way - Loop them, chop them, add effects etc, and incorporate them into a piece. Here is the piece I produced..



(wtf, not been on my soundcloud in a while, I've just discovered people from Australia, Germany, America and Indonesia listen to my music!)

That track, which I am very proud of, got me through the second stage. I failed at the third stage - I had an interview, where I had to take 3 pieces of my own along that displayed my talent. They only listened to 2, which was a bummer. The third one was really good and I had a lot to say about it. But yeah. I failed.

ANYWAY. I got this call from LCM, and they said they were pleased to inform me that places had become available, and they could offer me a place! I'm absolutely ecstatic. Such a good, prestigious place wants me to study there! And they really do want me. Everytime I call them, they ask if I'm still interested and seem very happy when I say yes, repeating 'Oh, Excellent Raven, Fabulous' and things to that effect. The only only bad thing, is that I have to ring every Uni that I have accepted a place at, and ask to be released from my offer. So LCM really is my only hope once i've done this. By the sounds of it though.. i'm pretty much guaranteed a place there!

I'm a bit annoyed that I have to apply through clearing, which means I can't get anything sorted until results day. I have to redo part of finance, look into and reapply for accommodation. But i suppose i can't complain - I'm almost guaranteed a place at a GREAT conservatoire. I'm a bit nervous however.. it's a specialist place, so everyone there is gonna be great. and seen as i initially got rejected.. i'm only just good enough. I'm a bit intimidated by the fact that everyone there is gonna be really talented.. but I suppose being around more talented musicians can only rub off on me! And the staff there will be better as its a specialist place, so it's definitely gonna be a better place for me. Also I'm a bit dismayed about being closer to home, although when I think about it, it's not a bad thing. I was looking forward to being close to the capital, and I have a mate down there who I was looking forward to seeing haha. But it's easier being this close to home. If i'm skint or need help or owt, i can go scrounge off me parents!!