The Evolution of Visual Albums - Research Project

Proposal 

The Inspiration I got for the research project came from Beyonce's 2016 Lemonade album, because it caused so much intense feedback and conversation that it intrigued me. At first I thought I would in depth research the entire album, and then I came to the idea of researching the long evolution of visual albums, going piece by piece. Both of which were too detailed, and so instead I decided upon a middle ground. I wanted to create a brief timeline of visual albums that have caused most effect, that is easy to follow, and not too detailed to get lost in.

Within this project I will be covering a baseline of albums and some songs that have caused evolution and effect in this area. I will not be diving too deep into detail, as there is so much on this topic that it is easy to walk off track, and also I don't want this to be ten pages long, or too confusing.

As a result, I want to have a clearer understanding of visual albums, the power they have and could have over the course of coming years in the industry.

The Evolution of Visual Albums

So, to start, what is a visual album? 

                                  A visual album is a stream of videos running through each

and every song, interlacing to create a story. The musician in this case

uses visuals to dive deeper into the meaning of the individual songs,

giving the listener a better understanding of the song's point of view.

Visual albums can give us perspectives of a piece that we may 

 never have previously caught onto, whilst allowing the artist to have the 

power to express their story using visuals exactly how they want it to be seen.

On the 23rd of April 2016, Beyonce released her highly anticipated album 

"Lemonade". This, as a result, created an uproar of conversation on visual albums, and their development within the music industry of what is now 'expected' and what causes conversation. This pop culture phenomenon set an entirely new bar for legacy in the music world, but intriguingly enough, there is nothing new about it.

The spark that started a growing flame, was released in 1964 by the Beatles; 'A Hard Day's Night'.

A Hard Day's Night is a musical comedy film starring the Beatles, following the band 

for several days as they look for their lost drummer. Now, this isn't today what we would label as a visual album, more so strictly a musical but, it definitely sparked interest and momentum in the area. The Beatles's film was extremely popular at the time and has become a classic. It contradicts what a visual album would be now, as it focuses more on the fictional story of the movie, rather than the songs as a separate entity.

Moving forward to 1984, when Prince released his first motion picture; Purple Rain, an American rock-musical drama. The movie surrounds Prince as an autobiographical character, with dramatic twists and turns. The film consists of several concert sequences, and although it is still not quite the solid visual album we've more recently encountered, this musical definitely shows that it is nearing in that direction, with plot and dialogue to fit into a book.

Interestingly enough, Prince had continued to take a very visual approach for longer than just this blockbuster film, and it translated through every one of his released songs, all of which, have music videos. Although not all were necessarily intertwined with one another, Prince was definitely walking in the right direction, the music videos and songs didn't have to link, because he was already creating visual story after story with every song. Possibly, if he had still been alive today, he would have taken this technique further, and sewn many together to make a full blown visual album.

Another evolution is Daft Punk's Interstella 5555.

The Sci-Fi film was released in 2003 and followed the futuristic storyline of alien pop stars

who had been abducted by a music executive and forced to perform on Earth. This piece as a whole discards any dialogue whilst following a story line. It contains some sound effects, but closely sticks to a song-only-basis, this does create an intense focus on the songs but this possible experiment makes it less accessible for people who don't really understand the concept or lack in prior experience with this band.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West, has been called the "prototype for modern visual albums". Released in 2010, it
stands side by side to what we consider a visual album would be today, except this one set
a subtle mould for future works. The album itself indulges into a story of fame and what has been sacrificed to live in this life - expressed almost as a self reflection ritual, and by the end having to find a balance between who you are and who you have to be to make it in the music industry.
Visual albums allow space for the artist to express their hardships,
complications, and moments through connected imagery until it becomes
one big linked video, the songs come after the other to further the story.
Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy definitely does this, and eight years later, is still being put under magnification.

Beyonce's Lemonade does a similar thing, before this album was released
the duo Jay-Z and Beyonce were put under public scrutiny after allegations of Jay-Z cheating rose a the surface. Neither revealed much about it for a long time, that is until Beyonce dropped this visual album. The album itself throws us into her warfare of emotional process with Jay-Z, the helplessness, anger, and confusion that later through growth express a story of redemption, sacrifice and forgiveness. Lemonade is a work of art celebrating black culture, symbolically, visually, lyrically, and musically. This film highlighted raw police brutality, with shots of a young black boy holding has hands up in front of police, with imagery of Beyonce sitting on a police car amidst a flood, and mothers holding up pictures of the sons they lost to police brutality.
This, is self and social commentary at it's finest.
Beyonce took her message and used our addiction to television for her benefit, by broadcasting her visual album on the same level that Game Of Thrones would be showcased, on AMC.

To close, visual albums have been a long time coming, as most things do, it started as
pieces of an idea that although now have come together to make sense, when reviewing to back then, look hardly alike. Visual albums have the ability to shed light on topics on a widespread
scale, they have the ability to create conversation for years to come, it shows a naked
perspective of the artist when expressing their own hardships. Imagery and music come hand in hand, even just as a simple example of movies, a piece of music can change the entirety of just one scene, it effects the emotional outcome of the audience, and can be a help in translating more of the story, these albums take great advantage of this.
Beyonce's Lemonade album, because of it's recency and relevance to right now, has set the bar above and beyond, and in turn, reveals most other things to be shallow and lacking. Visual albums are most likely to become the norm, just like simple music videos for each song are now.
This type of in depth commentary is essential in order to give space for growth and let free expression and speech run wild in an increasingly fragmented music industry.




Links!


What Beyonce's 'Lemonade' album meant to me as a black woman

Cuepoint - The Evolution of Visual Albums

Beat Media - The Evolution of Visual Albums

Revisiting Kanye's 'Runaway' and what it means now

Is 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy still Kanye's best work?

Project Synopsis - Self Reflection

Movie Soundtrack 

Inspiration wise I listen to some of the Interstellar soundtrack, as well as 

listening to a few horror soundtrack. 

I wanted to make something that sounded unsure of itself, as if waiting for an 

unknown occurrence. 

This both worked and did not work, I went slow with the overall song, bringing in some interesting plugins to try and add atmosphere, altered the EQ here and there to lengthen or muffle sounds that I liked and forgot to save at essential moments...

Plugins used: 

• Ringing FM Lullaby 
• ES2 electronic kick drum 
• ES2 Snare 
• ES2 Toms 
• ES2 High hat 
• ES2 Cymbol 
• Bright Panning Strings 
• Chimes (Hello) 
• Signal M 1
• Signal M 2
• Needles

Creating this track was fun, but unfortunately something went wrong after bouncing 

and uploading it onto SoundCloud, not only did some of the sounds change, but 

also I found that a wavy sound had occurred after uploading it. I remember altering a plugin at one stage to give it an uncertain feel, but after uploading it the sound exaggerated until it would probably make you feel more dizzy rather than anything else. I went back onto the original track itself but by that time a glitch must have occurred or I did not save it correctly because half of the sounds had changed, and the annoying wave was nowhere to be seen.


CAUTION

Note to self 

- 

Save EVERYTHING, each time you do something new, SAVE AS

also if glitches and problems occur after, then you will have a safe stepping stone to go back to, 

instead of losing half of your hard work, thus ruining the rest. 

Next time I'm going to plan ahead instead of just 'winging it'. 

Spontaneity is essential, but so is aiming and knowing what you're doing. 

If I ever do something similar I will watch at least 3 or so movies 

around the area I want to mimic, take notes on them and then look at techniques and methods to reproduce what it is that I want. 

This could include researching the soundtracks themselves, maybe even the artists 

and and how they choose to perform and edit/record their work.

Mimic until you find your own.

History of Recording Devices

History of Recording Devises 

1877 - The Acoustic Era

The Phonograph 

Thomas Edison was the first to produce a working model and apply for a patent, 

however he is also credited for inventing the Phonograph in 1877 whilst others claimed to

have invented it even earlier. The original Phonograph involved a "rotating cylinder covered in tin foil". The recording was created by using a horn or voice cone alike to a megaphone attached to a stylus or "needle". In order to play back the recording, the stylus was then placed on the grooves that had been created as the cylinder rotated. Those vibrations were mechanically rotated by the horn (megaphone look-alike).

 In 1887 Emile Berliner patented the Gramophone. The Gramophone used a flat disc rather than a cylinder, this is what began the first format war for these devices. Berliner called this audio disc a gramophone record, but in the US it was called a phonograph record.

By 1890s, the phonograph and few other similar devices fought for the dominance on the North American market, but the innovation made by Emile Berliner ensured that his Gramophones became winners.

^^An acoustic recording session ^^

 The first magnetic sound device was made in 1898 by Valdemar Poulsen, magnetic tapes themselves first came into use.

Although extensive work on magnetic recorders began in the early 1990's, starting first with wire recorders.

In 1925, the acoustic era came to an end and the electric era began.

These used a thin steel wire, that would magnetize as it passed over the recording head.

Those recording devices had rather poor quality, were bulky and hard to take around

which were eventually replaced by magnetic tapes, however only a while later, during the 1940's did magnetic tapes surpass the sound quality of the disc recorders.

Starting in the 1950s Polyvinyl Chloride became common. Nowadays these records have been more commonly named Vinyl Records or just Vinyl.

Tape

Onwards and upwards, from the 1950's magnetic tape became the popular norm 

when recording for the radio and music industries. This lead to the first hi-fi stereo recordings for the market, and after the development of Multi-Track Tape Recording,  thus, the demise of disc music.

The first tape recorder, was not released to the public
but was developed for testing purposes.

Multitrack Tape Recorder to the left.
Finally from this recording development, the four track tape machines
allowed the engineer to record multiple things on the various track.
For example; vocals on one track, guitar on the other, and so on.
However, as time went on and recordings advanced, the 'hiss' from the tape became more and more noticeable, they did find ways to make this less noticeable, but eventually it would be overcome.

The Digital Era (Here we are)

During the 1980's, digital recording possibilities were introduced, but the real advances in digital recording took flight during the early 1990's, this was around the time when computer hard drives and CPU's increased in speed and power, soon replacing analog tape.

Digital methods completely eliminate the hiss problem that came with analog tape. Nowadays most, if not all studios hold and use digital equipment, some still even have older analog tape and multitrack tape recorders for specific purposes.

AudioHistory

SoundRecordingHistory

TheAudioTimeline

Sampling Project - Evaluation

Self Reflection 

TransposE

You can minimise your workload by making plans in advance -steve b 

I decided on the name when beginning to use the transpose tool in Logic X Pro

for my samples. 

Finding the samples themselves was fairly straight forward, 

I found lots of bits and pieces when looking through SamplePhonics, which is where the looping instruments came from and the koto sample.

Creating my own drum kit was a bit more annoying, because each time I created one 

(a total of 3 attempts), it would disappear. From this I figured out pretty quick to stay on the same computer, after the several other rage moments from this mistake.

I put those together and made a short "Snippet" track, however because I did this weeks later, the koto sample had completely vanished... so I had to make do with that I had left (drum kit, and my looping/sample instruments).

Note to self - 

you can minimise your workload by making plans in advance -steve b 

The picture

Knowing near to nothing about photoshop this took

frustratingly longer than I had hoped - that and I left it half done for weeks...

I took an image of a city and turned it upside down so that it looked as if the city 

grew from the sky.

At first I wanted to put someone walking from the front of the picture towards the

"sky-city" but the pictures I found just didn't mesh efficiently.

After coming back to it, I chose between a few panda mask photos. The one above

is the one I chose. From this I had to cut the background away including the body, luckily I had help for this.

I then placed it at the bottom of the frame and drew question marks. 

Although this picture is no work of art, let alone something real from somebody who can actually

use photoshop, it's what I came up with to convey confusion, a lack of getting-it-together-ness, and 

lost time. 

Sampling

Sample libraries, there are a ton, most however require payment or are attached to another

DAW  (which also tends to require money...). Regardless, there have been a few that 

give freebies, the one that I used the most was SamplePhonics. This is where

I found my interesting loop instruments and pitched instrument (koto).

A sampling library I wish I had explored more was EastWest, unfortunately I only just found out about it, even as big as it is.

Creating a looped instrument was frustrating, but it more had to do with

the fact that I waited for so long and forgot/lost many things along the way.

When putting the looped instrument in, I could pretty much place it wherever I

liked on the keyboard, but when creating the pitched instrument, each note had to have the right

placement on the keyboard, after a couple of attempts figuring this out it began to feel quite tedious.

Looking for the note in each individual sample was...time consuming.

There was placement for the drumkit as well, but finding each piece was easier for this one as

usually it comes as a labelled package when downloaded, whereas the koto was missing a lot

of notes.

Overall it was an interesting project, and after this I'm going to aim

to get things done as soon as possible, or at least make a clear and precise plan to do so on another date.

I learnt more about sampling and how to translate it from the internet onto my

DAW, and a few ways to edit and change them. I look forward to playing around with this more.

Samplers - What's available today?

What's available?

Here are a few that are in circulation today -

Native Instruments Kontakt 5

Komplete

Around £300

It can either be a stand-alone app or a full DAW

preferred by those who can flow with ready-rolled sample libraries and soundsets

MOTU MachFive 3

MATCHFIVE3

Around £200

Smoothly walks the line between sampler and synth

 17 stereo outputs, unlimited track counts and 45GB of content

Ableton Sampler

ABLETON

Ranges from £50-£500

Thorough and powerful sampler

Extensive multisampling capabilities 

Apple EXS24 mkII

Logic X Pro

£200

+ needing to buy an AppleMac (£1800)

This sampler comes with Apple's DAW, hence why both come together

Intuitive layout - straightforward approach

Widely used, leading to lots of tutorials, third party libraries and soundsets within reach

Links! 
~
MusicRadar
Best Samplers for Beginners
5 of the best Samplers

Sample Libraries - 

LoopMasters

SamplePhonics

Zero-G Sounds of the 70's

Evaluation of my 3 Composition Clips

Evaluation of my 3 Composition Clips 

So, we all had to choose 3 clips. 

They were all labelled as either 'Action' or 'Emotion'

I chose two from Emotion, and one from Actions. 

Sadness, Panic, & Chase

Action/Chase Clip

For this I looked at multiple Car Chase scenes, such as:

Baby Driver

007 Spectre 

Drive 

The music for a lot of these car chase clips had suspense and full on chase music.

Because my clip was pretty much just the full on chase, I skipped any suspense stage. 

I found the Action clip to be the hardest, I found it difficult to have a constant continuation of a beat, possibly another reason why I found it harder than the others was because it is fast paced, and I usually write/sing/compose slow songs. 

Overall it was a good challenge that as brought to my attention I'm lacking in the skill to compose fast paced songs, which now means I can focus on this weakness and improve.

Panic Clip

For this clip I took most of my inspiration off of the (amazing) movie Interstellar, most songs where I can I take inspiration from this soundtrack as it has an incredible effect on me and is so intoxicatingly beautiful. 

For instance, there is a ticking in the song Mountains

It causes suspense, and it meshes so well with the organ that, as the song goes on, 

It translates suspense, and it meshes incredibly with the organ so that, as the song goes on, the both combined intensely heighten tension.

I decided to try this technique, using a ticking plugin and experimenting with various organs and cello.

I tried out a melody that reminded me of this soundtrack, but no matter how I tried to fix it in it just didn't go, Steve listened to it and said it was missing the panic aspect, which he was right about, so I decided to cut it out and possibly use it somewhere else. 

This was hard at first but eventually really helped with my creative flow.

Note to self: Scrapping ideas you're attached to can actually fix everything.

My main problem  is that I got excited with the amount of interesting plugins I found for the Space Clip to try out...so I ended up with over 15 channel strips in order to not forget where I found anything that I liked the sound of. 

Note to self, calm the heck down with the amount of plugins, I know it's exciting, but chill the heck out and choose a sound one at a time, or think of another way. Plonker.

Sad Clip 

This is clip was a little different from the others, in the beginning it has a man (Johnney Depp) and a child sitting together on a bench, after a few seconds the child asks "but why did she have to die?".

I wanted to use this because if I kept this small part it could give even more emotion to the composition. 

This one was the easiest to compose, I really enjoyed creating it, I know that with sad songs it's more common to use piano and maybe even violins etc, so instead I decided to experiment around with a harp and cello, this gave a really great airy, reminiscent feeling, which I wanted.

Sad songs are usually quite slow and progressive, this for me is easier since I have had more practice with slower songs, so it was quite fun. 

Again, I wanted to take inspiration from interstellar, I had a feeling it might fit. 

There was a melody I mentioned before that sounded quite interstellar-y, I liked it but it just didn't fit in with Panic clip. I saved the idea for later on the off chance I would need it again, and surprise surprise it fits perfectly. The melody itself is subtle, so unless you're looking for it it's easy to miss, I didn't want it to be at the forefront as otherwise it would be too much and repetitive, so I'm really happy with the end result on this one.

After this assignment, I learnt more of where my weaknesses and strengths stood, which are:

Weaknesses:

Fast paced songs 

Editing (EQ, Compression etc)

Letting go of ideas I'm set on

Strengths:

Slower, intense songs

Letting go, can be the answer to a recurring block/problem

New ideas

This has caused an improvement in these areas.

Sweet.

History of Synths

History of Synths

So, first off, what's a synth? Synth is short for synthesizer, which is a keyboard instrument, programmed to play any number and type of sound. Commonly they are programmed to sound like electric keyboards, but overall have the capacity for any sound, the options now are almost limitless.

A typical synthesizer contains three most basic modules: 

• The Oscillator - the module that produces initial sound. 
• The Keyboard - the module that is used to control the sound in the musical way.
• The Filters and Effects to change the nature of the sound.

There's a lot of history to it, so I'll give a short review of some of the most important 

moments.

19th Century

Early on, in the 19th century (1896/1897) an American inventor called Thaddeus Cahill decided to apply for a patent in order to protect the principle behind an instrument called the Telharmonium, or Dynamophone. 

In 1906 it was presented to the public during multiple concerts, renamed the Telharmony. 

Late 1960's

Fast forward to 1969, the EMS VCS3 was released.

This synthesizer was designed to be remarkably more accessible to a wider audience. Created to be cheap, portable and easy to program, it was the first synthesizer that was truly available to the general public.

An artist for instance, who used this synthesizer: 

White Noise ‘Love Without Sound’ 1969

1970's

The Moog Minimoog, was properly released in 1971, this synthesizer was the first to be fully intergrated into the music industry. Sold as a “professional audio equipment” rather than an instrument, and was pretty out of reach for even most studios and musicians. 

You can hear it on the track Kraftwerk ‘Autobahn’

Yamaha CS-80 1976

This instrument was known to be ridiculously luxurious, unfortunately due to the high price, it couldn’t keep up with the cheaper competition from Sequential circuits Prophet V and Moog’s Polymog.

Roland System 1978

This synth skipped modulars and general bulk entirely, focusing on general consumers first with devices such as the Minikorg 700, Yamaha SY-1 and Roland SH-1000

1990's

Max/MSP 1996

Home computers started to grow in consumption around the 1980’s, which meant the number of musicians wanting software and equipment also rose.

During the 1990’s, the JD-800, M-1, Juno 106 but also Analog synths from back in the 80’s were still also in use.

Now

Throughout history the number of synthesizers had sky rocketed, even now there are thousands of options. Synthesizers have changed the way we perceive and create music for years, it helped mold the hip hop during the 1990’s , and holds a forefront in music for techno music, as well as countless other genre’s that now exist in our time.

An Interactive Timeline

Synthesizers and Samplers

Production Analysis 1970's - Now

       

1970's

Fleetwood Mac 'The Chain' 

The Chain by Fleetwood Mac was released in 1977 from the album Rumours. 

• Drums (lots of kick)
• Electric Guitars
• Lead Vocals
• Harmony Vocals
• (Fretless) Bass
• Tambourine

drums ( a lot of kick), electric guitars, lead vocals and harmony vocals (fretless) bass guitar, tambourine, 

Listening to The Chain, the instruments sound quite rounded, a kick drums sets the tempo with the high, consistent clean pluck of a guitar before the the vocal harmonies start up. 

The vocals themselves sound like they could have been layered to give a more of an ‘echo’ effect to the already distorted vocals. The song is actually formed of multiple takes that have been meshed together, creating an emotional, punchy vibe.

The overall feeling that the song portrays to the listener is rather nostalgic to me, the song was written by Stevie Nicks as his relationship with Lindsey Buckingham was falling apart. It feels somewhat reminiscent of what has been and could’ve been, but ultimately ‘The Chain’ is breaking before them.

The Life of a Song: Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain'

1990's - 2000's

Gangsta's Paradise 

Gangsta's Paradise was released in 1995 

by Coolio for the album Dangerous Minds.

Although this song is actually the reworking of Stevie Wonder's 1976 song

"Pastime Paradise". 

• Vocals (rap and singing)
• Choir
• Kick (centre) 
• Cowbell
• Sampled high hats (panned to the left)
• Synth strings

The synth strings are one of the most notable parts of the song with a continues hip hop bass line. It’s on a 4/4 beat and a hard kick is played on the first beat of every bar, the kick sounds really centred within this song. 

Along with the rapping, the introduction of the choir adds interesting layers, it adds a church feeling to the song as the main vocals perform social commentary on the then current circumstances.

The lyrics are haunting and thoughtful, after it was released it gained major popularity, clutching the listener between a funky production beat, and gospel wails.

The song gives a feeling of circumstantial distress, and an ongoing battle with an unfair disadvantage. It's no wonder it got so popular, as the sincere flow Coolio has is infectious when used to express a message.

Production Analysis of "Gangsta's Paradise"

Now

Billie Eilish & Khalid - Lovely 

The vocals sound intense and in your face,

 the distorted hand in hand with a rough overall sound. Billie's haunting, 'whispy' vocals send you sinking in quicksand, until Khalid's full, raw voice brings you back above the surface. Between the two, give beautiful harmonics that send you afloat.

Her husky, soft vocals mix so well with his strong and clear notes. The duo bring an uplifting and falling to the table. 

• Piano
• Violins 
• Vocals
• Rumbling sounds (synth) 
• Whistle effect

The song itself is fairly simple sounding, with a light piano melody leading directly into the violins and Billie's vocals. There are echo effects throughout the song, for the chorus, the two artists vocals are layered together, this creates a surrounding sound, the violins sound right sounded whereas the piano sits in the front, and occasionally the back.

Synth and editing the mix send subtle rumbling sounds as the song grows in strength before dropping back down.

Once in the song I heard a whistle effect that gave the song an eerie feeling.

Trapped in "Lovely"

Group 5 Keane 'Everybody's Changing' Recording & Mix

Recording

This was our first recording session, we have never collaborated with a band before.

So, we set up all the mics and linked the cables to the board, we used
this sheet as a helpful reference: 

 (Thank you Emma)...

Funnily enough, two ports were broken! (5 & 6 for reference).

When the band came in, I asked for their names -

Rob told me to write them down asap, which makes sense, considering

I can barely remember what I did five minutes ago, let alone new names.

Note to self

Half-haphazardly scribbling unintelligible names down after five minutes

of already hearing them doesn't work - Write down immediately.

The band were really cool and considering it was our first time the set up was fairly

smooth. We went through a couple of sound checks, and then the band played some run-throughs to practice.

From what I could tell, this band was somewhat rather shy or timid, this is fine,

but could use some more productive encouragement.
The Bass guitarist made a few mistakes, but these can be fixed
fairly quickly over the mix...just need to figure out how to actually do that.
I talked to the vocalist about some good vocal techniques and attempted to make them all feel comfortable - smiles and humour can work folks.
Unfortunately the vocalist was still somewhat reserved in her singing, possibly there are communication skills I'm missing or could improve on?

Note to self
Rob commented on bringing drinks and such for the band's, this can help with 
a more comfortable environment to play in, also hydration is always necessary for a vocalist.

Remember to get more involved, don't panic if problems occur and try to work them out together accordingly, there's always something you can help out with. 


Thinking back there were definitely some obstacles; forgetting how to set particular parts up within Logic or the studio, remembering specific microphones and what they go with genre/instrument wise.

Points for next time!

Bring a pen and paper (always).

                                                          Make a checklist!                                                                - Things to remember to do, or something you forgot to do last time can also be added to the list
 (just do it).

                                                   Bring all guide sheets!                                                    
~ These were the sheets given to us throughout the year, guitar & drum guides, mic identification sheets etc.

Take more pictures!!!
- This looks so empty... :(

Reference Track -  Ref Soundcloud

Mix

During this session I explored mixing. 

I learnt how to zoom in and out of my tracks and how to use the cut & fader tool etc:

Here we had two takes of the vocals, one with noise (talking) at the beginning and one without.
Here I was taught how to take the noisy section from take 2 and replace it with the quieter version in take 1. I then cut out all remaining noise.

Before the piano begun on the piano recording, I heard the drummer's 4 clicks to signal everybody. I decided to get rid of them from both the front and the back microphones to get rid of any distractions and give it a more in-your-face approach.

Before:

After:

This is where I heard static at the end of the bass recording, so I cut the end out but for some reason heard a click sound at the end where I had cut. I was then taught how to use the Fade tool located on the Tool Menu button above the recordings. The I held command and dragged the fade in as far as I wanted to, which removed the click and gave it a really nice fade out effect.

During the Bass Mic recording and D.I. box there was a loud out of time chord aggressively struck - just a bit overkill. 

So I Solo'd the Bass track, zoomed in, went to the S tool and selected which area I wanted to cut (the overkill bass strum). Remember to select from the start of the wrong note, to the beginning of the next note.  There have to be repeating notes in order for this to work. So cut bad note, copy the one you want, paste it in the place where the dysfunctional note once was - select tracks effected and use the fader tool, press command and drag.

And there you have identical strums that you want. 

Tried experimenting with the EQ Vocals for a bit without really knowing what I'm doing.

When the vocalist sung, some of her 'S' and 'T' words sounded very sharp ("so", "little"), I tried changing them via EQ but nothing worked...

Tried out the Adaptive Limiter without much prevail...

Played around with Reverb to try and soften out the overkill S & T's...still didn't work but overall made the sound a lot nicer and well rounded.

Bounced and put up to soundcloud. 

Things to consider: 

• Ask Rob about the 'S' & 'T' words

• Learn more about EQ 

• Learn more about Reverb

• Why did the backing vocals practically disappear after adding effects?
• 
  

So, here's my first finished mix! ~ Finished Soundcloud

                                          Lemonade 

Within my proposal I will be covering Beyonce's high-concept visual album; Lemonade. 

I will be researching the impact that the 'Pop culture phenomenon' had on the music industry and what Lemonade could tell us about the limiting attributes connected with labelling genres.

This proposal will explore how Beyonce raised her voice regarding police brutality, body image, and what it means to be a black woman.

Beyonce used her platform to address her image, her relationships and the outdated prejudice that still plagues society.

By researching deeply within this topic, I hope to understand the true depth of what her work currently means to us today, and what it could mean when regarding the future of an increasingly fragmented music industry.


**
Within my proposal I will be covering Beyonce's high-concept visual album; Lemonade.  I will be researching the impact that the 'Pop culture phenomenon' had on the music industry and what Lemonade could tell us about the limiting attributes connected with labelling genres. 

This proposal will explore the history of visual albums, and how they have evolved from The Beatles - A Hard Days Night (1964), to 2016's Lemonade. It will evaluate the changes from there till now, and how her album will further impact an increasingly fragmented music industry. 

Within my proposal I will be covering a brief transition of 

• History - 1964 ~ 2016 
• The changes
• Possible outcomes

>>>"With both Lemonade and the last album [2013's Beyoncé ], all the tracks were released at the same time and all of them had video clips. But this feels very different. This is a movie, and it was launched as such with a HBO spot. <<<


- not the first visual album. 2013's 'Beyonce' all had video clips. 

https://www.fuse.tv/2016/04/beyonce-genre-lemonade

http://time.com/4631309/beyonce-lemonade-impact/

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/26/beyonce-lemonade-jay-z-becky-pop-culture

https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-history-and-evolution-of-visual-albums-77592e14304 - evolution of visual albums

^^

https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-history-and-evolution-of-visual-albums-77592e14304

https://www.romper.com/p/what-do-beyonces-freedom-lyrics-mean-the-song-makes-a-powerful-statement-9450

Recording Vocals

Vocals

During this recording session, we learn about the the voice, 

vocal techniques (whats good for the throat, what isn't, vocal excersises etc). 

The vocals commonly are the lead of the piece, they translate and convey the emotion, direction, and the melody, it tends to be the main focus within a song. The vocals can be seen as the storyteller of the story.

The vocal melody of a song is at a higher pitch than the harmony of the song, which would be the main singing part.

Vocal excercises for reference: 

Opening up the voice: 

Increasing vocal range:

Screaming without damaging your voice: 

Microphones :

 Microphones picks to keep in mind for vocals:

Dynamic Shure SM58 

This microphone is known worldwide as " The Most Popular Vocal Mic in the World"

for a very long time.  This mic is only around £100 and yet 90% of the time is 

used from the stage across to the studio. 

This is because of its robust nature, resistance to feedback, rugged casing, and ergonomic capsule that makes it one of the first choices for the stage or the studio.

Oh look it's Rihanna shockingly with one: 💓💓💓

Condenser Rode NT1A

The accessible mid-priced mic, is a favourite among home studios throughout the world.

 This mic has great sound quality and a high rep.

It is a wide ranged mic, with a gold plated diaphragm. It's dynamic range can pick up

almost anything from blaring symbols to a breath a while away.

In class, we learn that there is no one precise type of micrpphone 

to use every time for vocals, different mics work well with different 

genres in many different situations.

For this instance, we decided that using a condenser microphone 

would be the best fit for out two vocalists within the group, this was because their

voices were soft and a condenser would be able to pick their voices up

properly and do there performance justice.

Along with this, it was explained how to use a Pop Filter which is used as 

a noise protection filter for microphones. Normally used in studios, it keeps of moisture

from the mic narrowing down the chance of any mold growth.

It clips onto the microphone stand and can then be adjusted, or it can 

stand alone so that if the microphone stand is held or moved

it doesn't effect the quality of the audio.

Pop filters reduce the chance of any unnecessary/extra audio or popping sounds  

which can be caused from the mechanical impact it has on fast moving air 

on the microphone while vocals are being recorded.

This allowing less editing to be needed to make the voice sound smoother.

Helpful Links! 

31 of the best microphones for recording vocals

7 Best Microphones for Recording Vocals (all under $700)