Wrapping up loose ends

Made a list of all the bits and pieces I need to do in order to fully complete the creative sound production course.

Project nearing completion

The project is now in it's closing stages with the dissertation nearing first draft completion. As discussed in the meeting diaries which will be posted up soon, the testing stage has been completed and the results proved the project and its methods to be successful. Now all that is left to do is tie up loose ends for the module deliverables, produce the requirements for the exhibition and prepare for the end of year presentation. There has not been much to blog about over the last two months as the practical artefacts were completed and all research completed. In this time, I have largely been writing up the dissertation and working through the tasks agreed with my project supervisor (which are detailed in the research diary.)

Evolution Example

Below is a side by side comparison of a late disco record and a modern remix of the same track. This shows clearly how the music has evolved.

Progress update

The last month has been spent working on the tasks specified in my supervisor meeting diaries. All tasks have been completed and I have also continued my research on the latest trends in house music.
Below are some examples of a trend towards house music which uses samples and groove from traditional Balkan music which show how different musical styles can be blended with house music to create new ones:



I am analysing this music in order to inform my final mixes before I start the testing phase.

Formal Musical Analysis Technique

After much reading, I have only found one serious approach to a musicological analysis of house music. The link proved below shows a plausible and robust method of structural analysis of a house track:

http://cdh.sc.edu/~bhawk/readings/hawkins.pdf 

Understanding the process of evolution

In an oddly analogous way, this documentary about evolution by Richard Dawkins has helped me understand certain aspects of my project such as the step by step nature of musical evolution:

Punk, Hip Hop and disco history

Emerging Music Scenes

Producer and record label boss Jack Dunning talks about a new style of dubstep




 The main artists of Sweden's "Skweee" scene talk about the musical style they have created:

Kraftwerk and the electronic revolution

Today I watched a three hour documentary on Kraftwerk and the development of electronic music. I found this documentary highly relevant and I have written a lot of notes which I can use in my dissertation and also for further research.



Kraftwerk And The Electronic Revolution by crazedigitalmovies

Pitch Recap

Following my pitch, I have a few suggestions from Kenny. Think about my project in the wider context of creativity and musical expression . Repackage my rationale into something along the lines of: Modern technology has made music production accessible to anybody. This has created a problem where amateur producers attempt to emulate a style of music and end up making poorly executed, generic clones, without any understanding of the underpinning historical, technical, social and musical philosophy. The aim of the project is to address this issue by laying out a set of methods, which encourage and guide the amateur producer to approach their productions with the underlying ethos behind their chosen style of music, while expressing themselves in a unique and experimental way. Ask Laurie and Michael to have a go at working though my methods and then test the results Prepare a list of questions for Colin. Looking to find out: Are the tracks any good. This determines whether subject will be negatively affected by the tracks. Find out what genre of music they play to determine if they would have any bias against playing tracks out. Would they play it out? Do they recognise the stylistic origins of the track? If so, have they been used in a unique way? If not, does the track sound unique to them?

Defining House Music

My mission this week has been to put together a definition of house music. My method has been to read the relevant literature which has so far been fairly consistent in its description. Another important task is to find house tracks that could be considered definitive of the genre.

The following videos has some short definitions by major house artists:

Untitled House Music Documentary Extended Trailer - 3:45 from 32Thirteen on Vimeo.

Learning Contract Revision

I have elected to revise my learning contract. I will be removing the fifth learning outcome and instead focusing on developing the evolutionary DJ mix which will be incorporated into learning outcome two. My main reason for dropping the fifth learning outcome is that the interactive timeline is not necessary for the successful completion of my project. Learning to use flash properly just for the purposes of aesthetics would be a poor use of time and would dilute the rest of my work.  

Music Technology

One of the important sounds of funk music was the Wah Wah peddle and so today I am researching information on how the wah wah affected music.



Cry Baby: The Pedal That Rocks The World from Jimmy Dunlop on Vimeo.

From this documentary, I found some excellent examples of the wah wah effect in action:





Following this, I have been researching the history of the loudspeaker, the guitar, synthesisers and DJ technology. Using the data collected from this research, I can work toward fulfilling myaims and objectives for outcome two in my learning contract.

[EDIT]

An example of the latest DJ technology

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yrZPZe3wbdY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Updated project action plan

In order to get started again this year, I have attempted to create a new list of things I need to do to get my project completed.

Project action plan

Investigate the evolutionary history of electronic dance music, particularly house music and to use this information to help inform the continual development of the genre.

1.1 - Maintain Blog

1.2.1 - Gather more data on the technological & social development of the music

1.2.2 - Gather definitions of each genre

1.2.3 - Make literature review more comprehensive

2.1.1 - Use literature to identify techniques for each genre

2.1.2 - Find examples of techniques

2.1.3 - Find music which shows how the genres have developed

2.1.4 - Create continuous evolutionary DJ mix

3.1 - Create concept mind maps

3.2 - come up with two more concepts through literature

3.3 - Continue working on music

3.4 - Formulate guidance notes for creating new music

4.1 - Plan experiment

4.2 - Design questionnaire

4.3 - Analyse results

4.4 - Write up evaluation 

Asking an Expert

I have been thinking of using a piece of software called max msp to create an interface for an evolutionary dj mix which would have my work at the end of it. I had got speaking to a developer of Ableton Live which has a version of Max called Max for Live. Knowing from speaking to him previously, he has an in depth knowledge of the software so I decided to ask him about my idea:

• Ross Watson

  • Hi Ian, could I ask you a question about max msp?
• 
  

  31 December 2011

  Ian Hobson

  • No problem.
• 
  

  34 minutes ago

  Ross Watson

  • Okay yeah, sorry about the delayed response. Basically, I am studying Creative Sound Production at University and I am working on my honours project. I am studying the evolutionary history of house music and using the knowledge I gain from this to inform my own productions.
    
    I want to create an evolutionary mix of tracks starting from the early funk tracks through to modern house, with my own tracks at the end. I want to build a simple interface for this so I can make it look like a timeline, with information about the music's evolutionary progression.
    
    I thought perhaps Max MSP might be a good option for this and I am wondering if you think it would be possible and if so, how would I go about making it happen?
    
    Cheers
    
    
    Ross
    
    
    

    Ian Hobson

    • It depends how interactive you want the music to be? If it's a prerecorded mix + visual timeline then maybe something like flash would be a better option?
      
      If you want an interactive mix then yeah maybe Max/MSP could be a good way to go.

    
    

    
    

Progress Update

The last month has very much been about organising all the hand-ins for January. A large portion of my time has been spent experimenting and building my portfolio for the Pre-Production module. Rather than post on my main blog, I have been focusing on the pre production blog. My last months work can be found here:

http://rwatsonpreprod.blogspot.com/

Good Dubstep Article

Accurate acrticle about the development of dubstep: http://liquido.dk/index.php/12-secret-selector-selections/54-who-killed-dubstep

Pre Production Blog

I have now added my pre-Production Blog, which can be found underneath the main title bar. I will use this blog to chart the continual conceptual development of my project.

Practice Based Research: Collaboration

Yesterday my research focused around collaboration. I invited a drummer to come round to the studio and punch some midi patterns into my digital audio workstation. I found this to be a very productive method of working as it allowed me to focus more on the production side of things. It made a massive difference having another person to bounce ideas off and he had a lot of interesting ideas that I was able to translate using my technical skills. The following is the result: The Darwin XP feat. Boney - Hardcore Researchers by The Darwin Experience

2 Hour Production Challenge

Had a go at the 2 hour production challenge which, as the name suggests, is where a producer has to do as much work as possible within 2 hours and then post it on Soundcloud. Taking part in the challenge is an excellent way of improving work flow. Here is where I got to:


2 Hour Challenge by The Darwin Experience

Objective Change

I have decided to change my fifth objective which was essentially to create an interactive tool using flash. After spending the last few days working through tutorials on Max MSP, I feel this would be a more appropriate piece of software to work with due to the fact that it is built for designing audio applications and so makes it more suitable for my purposes.

Moombahton

A fairly recent new genre of dance is moombahton which features a tempo of around 108bpm but with similarities to Dutch house. 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moombahton

Progress Update

I borrowed three books from the library today:

• The Dance Music Manual by Rick Snowman
• George Clinton and P-Funk by David Mills, Larry Alexander, Thomas Stanley and Aris Wilson
• Emotion and Meaning in Music by Leonard B. Meyer

Having identified a lack of knowledge in music theory, I have spent the best part of today reading The Dance Music Manual which has taught me a lot about dance music theory and the underlying principles of basic music theory such as scales, notation, chords, relationship between notes, tempo and time signatures, creating melodies and motifs and so on. I have taught myself all the major chords on a piano today using this book. I expect that by reading this book, I will be able to improve the results of my production work by a significant margin.

Sample Frequencies & Bit Depths

In order to maximise audio quality with the most minimal amount of degradation possible, it is important to be well informed about sample frequencies and bit depths. the following article from the Garnish School of sound has some important considerations.

http://www.musicproductioncourses.net/sampling-frequencies-bit-rates-96-v-44-1khz-24-v-16bit/

Practice Research: Ableton Tutorials

For the rest of the day and perhaps tomorrow, I will be focusing my time on working through the built-in lessons within Ableton Live. The lessons are very comprehensive and not only cover the basics but also intermediate and advanced ways to operate the software. If am to be successful in my project and as a producer in general, I will need to be aware of the full potential of my tools.

Research: Caribbean Music

This week I have been working on my literature review. Currently I am reading a book called 'Cut 'N'N Mix' by Dick Hebdige. The book is about how Caribbean music came about from the struggle of slavery. I have learned how the slaves kept their traditions alive by drumming and how they combined drumming with their masters music. This book is especially relevant to my studies as it highlights how great music is borne out of struggle and oppression which is a great example of societal effects on music.

IDM Forum Moderator Endorsement

Just receieved a glowing endorsement for my first piece of experimentation work from one of the forum moderators along with great feedback from 2 other elite status members on the IDM Electronic Music Production Forum.This is certainly a step in the right direction as IDM is a well established production forum and members of the board are not shy to level criticism at tracks, even if they sound great but have a slight flaw. Probably the closest my music will ever come to being "peer reviewed" is on forums such as these.

http://www.idmforums.com/

History of Acid House blog

Stumbled across this, perhaps a useful resource for music/house culture research: http://acidhousehistory.blogspot.com/

Experimentation: Euphoria

Back in the 90s and early noughties, euphoric trance was a driving force in mainstream dance music. However, after the first few years of the underground sound, the sound largely became contrived and diluted by  "marketable products" such as Tiesto and Judge Jules. It is possible that the time for euphoric music will come round again but in a more reformed and modern package. Perhaps some kind of positive social revolution will occur and the market will be ripe for an outburst of emotive music. For instance, trance was popular in the nineties when everybody had plenty of money and the country was not in recession. The following is my initial interpretation of how this might sound:

Lift Us UP by The Darwin Experience

Mutant Bass Blog

One of the most current sounds in dance music is mutant bass. Found a comprehensive blog keeping up to date with the latest in mutant bass featuring exclusive mixes from DJs from the scene.

Disco Research: More Early Disco Records

According to the book "Saturday Night Fever" by Alan Jones & Jussi Kantonen, these records are considered to be the early mould of disco: The Tom Moulton remix of Al Dowling's "I'll be Holding on" is considered to be the first disco track designed specifically for a club setting:

Practice Based Research

The last two days I have been working on a new musical concept. I have recently purchased an AKAI APC40 and with this in mind, I have an opportunity to look at how new technology can have an impact on my work. I have been asked to play a half hour live performance of my own music at the Reading Rooms in February. I expect this gig to be a showcase of my practice based research that has come out of my project. this presents a chance to test my hypothesis in the correct social context. Perhaps I will record a video of this event for evidence. Experimental data to follow

Research: Modern Classics

Highly respected DJ magazine, Resident Advisor ran a poll to determine what their expert DJs thought were the top 100 tracks from the 00's. Resident Advisor has a massive following worldwide. According to their About Us section, they have over 1 million readers per month and won the People's Voice Webby Awards for music in 2008. This gives RA some weight as research source. This is what they came up with:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1145

In another poll, resident advisor picked out the top 50 tracks of 2010:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1220

An interesting development in the top 50 from 2010 is how strikingly old school some of the tracks sound. It is as if house music has gone completely full circle. This adds some credence to a conversation Colin and I had the other day where we discussed how in lean financial times, music often goes back to its roots. It will be interesting to find out if there is any research done in this area already and what the reasons are for this phenomenon.

House Music Musicology

One of the tasks I will have to work on is identifying representative house music tracks. One method I will be using is musicology. Although musicology has largely ignored modern music such as house, there are still some good academic articles available which will be of use.

http://biblio.ugent.be/input/download?func=downloadFile&fileOId=450736

http://cdh.sc.edu/~bhawk/readings/hawkins.pdf

Progress Update/Proposal

Due to the concept development blog and working on my proposal, my main blog has been rather neglected for the last few weeks. However I have now added the concept development blog as a page which can be found at the top of this blog. The work found in the concept development blog and the proposal document below should more than account for a lack of activity on this blog.

AG1064A: Professional Practice – Project Proposal

 

Project Title:	An investigation of electronic dance music's evolutionary  history and its impact on new genre creation
Proposer:	Ross Watson
Student Number:	1000618
Programme:	Creative Sound Production
Specialism(s):	Electronic Music Production, Synthesis, DJing, Dance Music, Adobe Flash

Project Description

The total project proposal, including the Abstract, should not exceed 2,500 words. Please read the Project Proposal Guidelines and Project Proposal Example in the Learning Resources before writing your own proposal.

1. Abstract (Approx 250 words)

This project attempts to exemplify how the historical development of house music can be used to gain an insight into creativity and the development of new musical concepts. Music is presently one of the United Kingdom's top exports. The recording, live and music tourism industries play an important role in today's economy. An estimated 7.7 million music tourists travel from national and international destinations to attend music concerts, festivals and attractions across the United Kingdom, spending a total of £1.4 Billion in the process. Electronic dance music now occupies a significant stronghold within modern music, with an increasing amount of dance tracks now appearing in the top 40 sales and large volumes of consumers travelling to specialist dance festivals such as Glade, Global Gathering, Rockness, Creamfields and so forth. The proposer concludes that it is therefore important to aid the continual development of electronic music. One of the fundamental philosophies of techno production is conceptual progression, the idea that producers should constantly be pushing the boundaries, creating the music of the future. Techno is a derivative of house music, which similarly demands innovation, although not quite so aggressively. The latest sounds from the two genres often intertwine, generating new hybrids. However, there can at times appear to be a lack of originality in dance music, as similar sounding tracks are mass produced by bedroom producers attempting to recreate the successes of talented professional artists. By exploring key areas of genre development from the past, it is hoped that a methodology can be devised to aid producers in the development of new concepts in dance music.

2. Project Aim and Objectives

The aim of this research is to investigate the evolutionary history of electronic dance music, particularly house music and how this information can be used to enhance creativity. The objectives are as follows: 1.0 Review and discuss the evolutionary development house music and the key elements which brought about change. 2.0 Examine the links between genres and identify the technological and  performance techniques which were fundamental to each genre. 3.0 Conduct practice based research in to the creation of new genres by applying knowledge gained from research in objectives 1.0 & 2.0 to devise new musical concepts. 4.0 Develop an interactive evolutionary timeline which illustrates the transformation of genres over a period of time.

3. Rationale

With the advent of computer music, anybody can now become an amateur producer for a low cost. The amateur producer can easily output his or her work on to the internet on music streaming websites or online record distributers such as Beatport or iTunes. This has lead to the market being overwhelmed with music produced without the necessary skills to accomplish creative mastery. This can often lead to a lack of originality as bedroom producers attempt to emulate the sounds of their favourite artists rather than create their own ideas, using online tutorials which teach specific production techniques relevant to the chosen genre. The proposer attempts to address the issue of creativity by focusing on genre creation in the past. By taking a close look at music which is representative of its genre, including technical, technological and societal considerations; it is expected that, by pulling all this information together and articulating it, an insight into creativity can be acquired. The output from this project could be used by academics as research into creativity, perhaps for lesson plans. This information would also be useful for those bedroom producers hoping to further the creative aspect of their production skills. However, as Newton did not did not quantify what we should do with the laws of gravity, the proposer will not be developing lesson plans or tutorials as part of the honours project.   The history of house music has been chosen because house music was the original form of popular dance music. Tracing it back to funk and even blues, the evolution is clearly audible. House music still uses structural techniques borrowed from funk, including the snare on the back backbeat and emphasis on the downbeat. Funk records are often samples, as are disco records which is a direct descendant of funk. In order to provide contrast, techno and electro house will also be analyzed. Both genres have some roots in house music but retain different aesthetic philosophies. Perhaps there are parallels which exist between house, techno and electro which may be useful to understand.  The most logical approach to achieve these gain is by first gathering material which points to the revolutionary songs of each genre leading up to modern day house music. Following this, information about how these songs were created, what the inspirations were and how much did technological advancements and society have to do with these songs. Essentially, the hypothesis is that, by understanding how these ideas come about, this understanding can be applied to one's own creative approach. This hypothesis comes from the idea that lessons can be learned from the past. Otherwise, there would be no need for schools to teach history. Following the gathering and review of historical data, the proposer will attempt to apply the knowledge gained into a series of experimental productions, each relating to specific ideas and objectives formed from the data. The final productions will then be played back to an audience in order to test for perceived originality or freshness of concept. The tests shall be co-organised by the proposer and a third year psychology student who has a good record of achievement. This should indicate whether or not the knowledge gained has been useful in providing inspiration for creativity. Following success, it would be fair to expect that other producers should also be able to pick up this knowledge and use it as inspiration, provided they have a rudimentary knowledge of their tools for production. Another approach would be to develop a plan for other producers to work through and test the efficacy of their experimentation but this would require reliance on other producers to write music for the project and so appears an unrealistic goal.  The interactive timeline will be used to illustrate the development of house music from funk until the present day. The proposers work will be the final destination in the timeline and would be an effective way to present the work as it audibly illustrates where the work has developed from.

4. Project Methodology

The proposer intends to achieve the above objectives by taking a practice based approach followed by scientific method/s in order to provide conclusive evidence of the success or failure of the practical output in relation to the original hypothesis. Initially, all information gathered will be inputted into an electronic blog and publically hosted online. This stage of research will focus on identifying key moments in the musical progression of each genre. Initial research suggests house is derived from disco which is a direct descendant of funk. Using this knowledge, a systematic approach will taken in gathering information, beginning with literature focused on the history of funk followed by the history of disco and then house. Contemporary house, techno and electro will be studied along with the music theory and production techniques behind each genre. Once all this information has been gathered, a literature review will take place. Using the information gathered in stage one and two, practice-based studio experiments shall be conducted, tested and reviewed as part of an iterative process. The proposer will experiment with a wide variety of production techniques in order to devise new musical concepts. A series of science based tests shall be run in order to assess the strength of the proposer's hypothesis. The results shall be analysed and evaluation will take place. In order to add context to the project, an evolutionary timeline will be developed to showcase how music has developed over time and where the proposers work fits in the bigger picture.

5. Outcomes and Deliverables

The following deliverables shall be provided as evidence of having achieved the four objectives: 1.1 Research Diary §  Diary in the form of an electronic blog, detailing research activities engaged in 1.2 Review and Discuss §  Literature review documenting the evolutionary history of EDM 2.1 Links and Techniques §  Digital Interactive document audibly illustrating the links between genres and highlighting techniques used 3.1 Experimentation §  Concept mind maps §  Documentation of concept development §  Audio examples of experimentation §  Run tests in order to help determine experimentation efficacy §  Evaluative report detailing results of experimentation  4.1 Practice §  Completed Interactive Evolutionary timeline §  Final musical compositions

6. Expertise and Experience of Project Proposer The project proposer has approximately 5 years experience working with Ableton Live and over 10 years as a DJ. The proposer is particularly adept at maintaining energy on a dance floor and understands the principles behind good dance music. Previously, the proposer worked as a sound engineer for a successful club night and completed several electronic music tracks as part of university coursework.  However, it has been identified that the proposer requires further skills in advanced production techniques in order to develop cutting edge music. the proposer must also acquire an in depth knowledge of Adobe Flash. Taking this in to consideration, the proposer shall attempt to develop his skills in these areas. This skill development will occur mainly in semester 1.

7. Timetable

To assist in completion of the project artefact and dissertation, the following timetable shall be used as a guideline and shall be followed from approximately late October 2011 until May 2012. Methods and associated activities Start Date End Date 1.1 Research Diary 24/10/2011 10/12/2011 1.1.1 Review literature to identify genre evolution 24/10/2011 05/11/2011 1.1.2 Review Literature to identify technological impacts on genre development 05/11/2011 13/11/2011 1.1.3 Review Literature to identify social impacts on genre development 14/11/2011 20/11/2011 1.1.4 Update blog with summary of research findings and examples of influential music 20/11/2011 21/11/2011 1.2 Literature Review 21/11/2011 10/12/2011 1.2.1 Write a review of the literature researched in outcome 1.1 21/11/2011 10/12/2011 2.1 Links and Techniques 10/12/2011 29/01/2012 2.1.1 Identify links between genres using literature 10/12/2011 01/01/2012 2.1.2 Collect examples of links between genres 10/12/2011 01/01/2012 2.1.3 Identify influential techniques using literature 01/01/2012 29/01/2012 2.1.4 Collect examples of techniques 01/01/2012 29/01/2012 2.1.4 Collate data on to blog 29/01/2012 31/01/2012 2.1.4 Write a critical evaluation of findings for dissertation 29/01/2012 14/02/2012 3.1 Experimentation 15/11/2011 01/03/2012 3.1.1 Develop ideas through mind map 15/11/2011 20/11/2011 3.1.1 Produce music concept 1 using ideas developed in mind map 20/11/2011 14/12/2011 3.1.2 Produce music concept 2 using ideas developed in mind map 14/12/2011 7/01/2012 3.1.3 Produce music concept 3 using ideas developed in mind map 7/01/2012 21/01/2012 3.1.4 Master completed tracks 24/01/2012 25/01/2012 3.1.5 Arrange survey/experiment 25/01/2012 08/03/2012 3.1.6 Conduct survey/experiment 09/03/2012 10/03/2012 3.1.7 Analyse and interpret results 10/03/2012 14/03/2012 3.1.8 Produce documentation of concept development 20/11/2011 25/01/2012 3.1.9 Critically evaluate musical concepts and detail whether experimentation results matched hypothesis 10/03/2012 17/03/2012 4.1 Practice 24/10/2011 05/05/2012 4.1.1 Gain proficiency in Adobe Flash 24/10/2011 07/01/2012 4.1.2 Choose appropriate music for evolutionary timeline 20/12/2011 07/01/2012 4.1.3 Prepare assets for timeline 07/01/2012 01/02/2012 4.1.4 Construct timeline 01/02/2012 01/04/2012 4.1.5 Refine timeline 01/04/2012 01/05/2012 4.1.6 Write a critical evaluation of the timeline for dissertation 01/04/2012 03/05/2012

8. Ethics and Risk Assessment

There may be participants used in this study for evaluation purposes. The participants will operate primarily in the recording studio and will be subjected to electronic music played back at a safe listening volume. The proposer and the participants will not encounter any substantial risks to health and safety during the evaluation process. Failure to grasp Adobe Flash would result in non completion of task objective 4. A backup plan will be implemented which would involve using publically available flash assets or enlisting the help of an expert in this field. There may be a lack of information in certain research areas where evidence is required.  As such,  a plan will be set in motion to come at the project from a slightly different angle without fundamentally changing what the project hopes to achieve.

9. Resources

The following resources will be required in order to complete the project proposed: §  Ableton Live §  Appropriate VST instruments and effects §  Adobe Flash §  Adobe Illustrator