Synthesiser Labels

 Synthesizer 

LFO - 

(Low Frequency Oscillator) provides repeating waveforms (usually between .1 and 250Hz) that may be used for control and timing in voltage-controlled modular synthesizer applications. LFO's are generally used to create slow modulations such as vibrato and tremelo in electronic music equipment.

OSCILATORS - 

Generate the basic signal. This is usually a waveform that is rich in harmonics (see Oscillators). Many synthesizers provide more than one oscillator, and almost all synthesizer oscillators can generate several waveform types.

FILTER ENVELOPE (ADSR) : 

Shapes the filters. It has 4 stages (Attack, Delay, Sustain, Release) which "Alters the way the filter behaves over time" - Steve

The 4 Filters : 

Attack : 

This filter rises the sound up to it's maximum level. When set to nothing, the sound roars straight away to a full blast, whereas if you set it quite high then the sound gradually fades.

Delay : 

This is how long the sound keeps going at the level the attack brought it up to. If it's set to the max, then it will stay at that level forever, it wont budge, if set low, it will be a very short sound. 

Sustain : 

This is the level that the sound stays at after the decay stage had passed (unless Delay is still set to the max, in which case it just keeps going...).

Release : 

This is how long the sustain level takes to quickly/slowly/etc die down to silence. It's similar to Reverb at the end of the sound. When set to nothing the effect wont react - it will be silent. 

AMPLIFIER:

an electronic device for increasing the amplitude of electrical signals, used chiefly in sound reproduction.

ARPEGGIO : 

The Arperggiator listen to the notes being played then it creates multiple intricate plucks (instead of just the one note) to create a far more complex pattern using those notes, played at a set master tempo - just hold down the notes you want or latch them.


Helpful Links! 

What is an Arpeggiator?

The Glyn Johns Technique

The Glyn Johns Technique 

A Recording Revolution

Who is Glyn Johns?   

Glyn Johns is an English musician, recording engineer and record producer. He was born in Surrey in 1942 (age 75), started a band at 17 years old called The President's, and is the author Sound Man; a memoir to mark his past 50 years in the studio and stadium.

At the beginning of his career, in 1964 he engineered the first Kinks singles “You Really Got Me” and “All Day and All of the Night”. On 14 April 2012, Glyn Johns was installed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, USA. He was honoured for musical excellence.

Glyn Johns’s extensive discography really jumps out, he worked with such names as; The Beatles, The Clash, Eric Clapton, The Steve Miller Band, Joan Armatrading, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin and many more, all of which he was either the engineer or producer.

  His Technique

The basic Glyn Johns technique uses only 4 microphones.

2 overhead mics (ideally large overhead diaphragm condensers), one kick mic (dynamic or condenser), and one snare mic (normally a dynamic).

The overhead mics are going to pick up ambient sounds, transients and an overall blend of the instruments being recorded, in this case, the drum kit.

• For the first overhead mic (placed above the kit) when testing and listening back to it you should be hearing a complete balance of kit; a nice blend of snare, toms and cymbals all smoothly combined in one mic.
• The second overhead microphone is placed low and to the right of the Floor Tom. This mic is positioned not necessarily as an “overhead mic” but more of a to-the-side mic to secure the kit’s sound from a different perspective. When placed correctly, the two mics should be working together to create a balanced and clear sound; a sharp snap from the Snare drum in the center, the brightness from the Symbols, and the low attack of your Floor Tom.
• The kick mic will either be placed inside or outside of the kick drum, there is no right or wrong way to do this, it’s wherever gives you that resonating fullness that counts in order to complement the first two mics.
• The last mic will be positioned on the snare drum in order to fill out the snare sound and to get that satisfying bite of the drum.

Instructions

To begin, here is a diagram of a drum kit:

• Place the first overhead microphone 3-4 feet directly above the snare drum, or in the middle of the kit. Make sure that the microphone’s grille is facing downwards. Some people prefer it above the front rim of the snare drum, above the inner rim or above the drummer’s knee, it depends on the sound you are looking for, so just experiment!

• The second overhead mic (or the to-the-side mic) will then be placed low down to the right of the Floor Tom. Now you need to make sure that the grille of the mic is exactly the same distance from the center of the snare as the first overhead microphone. To do this, measure the first overhead mic to the center of the snare drum with a cable, and then make an arc over to the Floor Tom to see where the second mic needs to be placed.

It should look something like this:

Now for the easier part.

• Take the kick mic and place it close to the face or inside of of the kick drum, decide where gives you the right punch.
• Then grab your last mic and position it a couple of inches above the rim of the snare drum in order to fill out the sounds, angle it across the snare or wherever else sounds satisfactory.

Video walk through:

    Distinct effects, and why his technique became so famous:

Glynn John's technique became highly reputable and widely used because of the simplicity of it. Within itself, it is a quick, simple, and reliable method. Continuing with this, it's low maintenance, requiring only 4 mics (2 overheads, one kick mic, and a snare mic), because of this, it didn't take much time or expense to set up, giving it a wider appeal to a larger market.
It produces a live, punchy and natural tone from the kit, leaving out a jungle of instructions or taking up too much space. This unsurprisingly vibed with many musicians and producers.

An everlasting effect was the incredible sound it leaves behind for producers to mix with, the 4 mics provide rounded acoustics, whereas beforehand if only one mic was provided, it would have been flaccid and thin sounding, nothing like a real live sound.

More on:
Glyn Johns interview: My 50 years of producing rock classics

Helpful links!

The Glyn Johns Drum Recording Method

Recording Drums: The Glyn Johns Method

The Glyn Johns method of recording drums

Glyn Johns: My top 6 productions

The History of Sampling

                                 A Brief History Of Sampling  

What is Sampling?

Sampling is the act of reusing parts of pre-existing recordings in music to create (and/or edit) something new.

History 

Digital Sampling has been around since the 1960's, whereas beforehand musicians used tape reply keyboards which stored recordings on analog tape. Originally the Mellotron was the popular and most memorable model between the late 1960's and 1970's, the problem was that it was a expensive, heavy hardware due to the multiple tape mechanisms involved. Nonetheless the early tape relay keyboard really took over.

Nowadays, the vast majority of keyboards are based on samples, and whole genre's have blossomed from it.

1940's

Whereas the first introduction of recorded sounds that are anything like what we have today, was the genre known as Musique Moncrete. This genre originated in France and was led by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer.

Within the 1940's Musique Concrete shrugged off the usual musical etiquette and experimented with the new, instead of rehearsing the old. It used the recent commercialised tape recorder to create diverse music from various recordings (such as; instruments, the human voice, even reaching out to explore many sounds from nature and the world).

A more indepth discussion about Pierre Shaeffer's life:

Pierre Schaeffer - His Creative Agony

1948, Pierre Schaeffer's first piece of produced Musique Concrete - made entirely by the sounds of trains.

Even in recent years, Musique Concrete still lives on, is practised, and experimented with in many evolving ways; here is another example of Musique Concrete, created for a Uni project in 2013:

Although slightly creepy sounding, it is definitely a genre to look into.

1960's - 1970's

Fast forward to the 60's & 70's, and sampling is evolving. The first widespread Sampling Synthesizer was Harry Mendell's Computer Music Melodian (USA), which was released in 1976. 
The Australian company Fairlight released the C.M.I. (Computer Musical Instruments) in 1979, a Polyphonic Digital Sampling Synthesizer - the first syntheszer that was commercially available. Both samplers of which used Wavetable sample-based synthesis.

Unfortunately at the time, this hardware was only realistically available to established artists and the rich, as it generally costed around $18,000 (in many cases, this amount costed more than a house), which today is equivalent to about $58,000.

The earliest Digital Sampling was done on the EMS Musys System - created by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware & interfacing), and Peter Zinovieff (system design & operation) at their London studio C. in 1969. These ran on two 'mini' computers (Digital Equipment PDD-8's). The EMS equipment was used to control the worlds first digital studio (London, Putney). 

More on:
E.M.S Ltd London

Peter Zinovieff in the studio.

The first Digital Sampling was done on the EMS system during 1971 - 1972 for Harrison Birtwistle's "Chonometer" (released in 1975). - Also known as probably one of the most terrifying things I have ever researched and sat through... All 28 minutes.

1980's

The first PCM ( Pulse-Code Modulation ) Digital Sampler was Toshiba's LMD-649 (1981) by engineer Kenji Murata ( 村田健二 ) for the Japanese electronic music band 'Yellow Magic Orchestra'.

After, the E-mu SP-1200 Percussion Sampler was released in August 1987, starting the fire as it more openly commercialised the use of digital samplers within Hip Hop music.

Eventually as the product itself gained popularity, cheaper and more accessible samplers began to appear in the mid-to-late 1980s.

During the late 1980's the Japanese companyAkai caught onto the success of E-mu's creation and began creating an original method which applied new techniques such as crossfade looping and time stretch.

In 1988, the Akai MPC60 was released.
Thus born the icon of products.

It detonated the music industry into a new era of musical production and become the most influential sampler of Hip Hop music.

An icon of samplers, 

Akai evolved the product, got it recognised and used across the board more than any other brand.

"Hip Hop was the first genre to explore 

the sampler's ability to recycle musical ideas

 and put them into entirely new contexts" - Musicradar.com

1990's - Now

With the modern way of creating and mixing both new and old samples (from other artists), the prickly issue of copyright basically stands infront of you and the other artists (including their lawyers) - if you sample another persons work, obvious or otherwise without gaining their permission beforehand (and agreeing on a large cut of the deal) then you will probably be taken down to court. Sometimes people get away with it (subtlety is key), but the more popular the piece the more likely it will be caught out.

A notable high-profile case is when Black Box sampled a Loleatta Holloway 
acapella for their international megahit Ride On Time.

Regardless, throughout the 1990's Sampling continued to remain at the forefront in Hip Hop, the foreign feel of Samplers had evaporated, it fuelled the brilliant charge of Hip Hop and has become the normal practice of today.

How strange things would be if it never existed... 

Helpful Links!

A Brief History Of Sampling - MusicRadar

A Brief History of Sampling - UniversityObserver

18 Landmark Sampling Moments in Music History

The Sampler - A History In 5 Landmarks

What are the best hardware samplers in the world?

Run through:

write up a short acount about hitory of sampling

what is a sample
def
how they're stored (instrument zones and groups how you might get a sample into a sample
emu first one <<

same price as house -- first sampler, emulator
couple of first sampler ££

what is a sample how you migt get a sample into a sampler

modern samplers, what available
and these are the samplers that are availabvrweigfew today
list
write up about hwat sample libaries are available (orchestral sounds etc)
start collection of samples
collect three different types of samples
drum kit (multi output)
pitched instrument
looped instrument
make them yourself out of the collection
make some midi patches

create apple loops
create some artwork for package

Sequencing - Voice Leading

What Is Voice Leading?

Beginners Addition 

Voice Leading (American) or Part-Writing (British) refers (or in my case; brings light) to the steady motion of notes, as we switch between chords in a progression.

/ Also known as the Linear Progression of melodic lines and their interaction with one another to create harmonies - for instance; keeping a familiar note fixed whilst moving around with other notes.

It is the interlacing movement of notes (and/or voices) from one chord to the next, which forms a pleasing sound to the brain. Voice Leading is the smoothest manner possible to connect chords, and it applies to any type of voicing.

Linear Progression? ~ In which a state of something changes or progresses straight from one >>mark<< to the other. It is a starting point, and an ending point.

Melodic Lines? ~ A succession of notes forming a distinctive sequence or, stand-out voice.

>>Voice << Leading? ~ Doesn't always mean vocal parts!

A lot of 'progressive words'. I was very confused on this in the beginning, so as not to bombard myself (and you) with a tsunami of information, I watched this: 

Voice Leading - A Beginner Piano Lesson in Smooth Chord Progressions

 This became somewhat of a lifesaver 

^^^ Basically, voice leading  can "make your chord progressions sound a lot smoother". ^^^

" We want the music to have coherence, not just harmonically, but also in the melodic dimension (the horizontal dimension) and Voice Leading, is how we achieve that".

- Kendall Kennison

The 4 types of Relative Motion 

Relative Motion meaning the way the parts move against each other. 

• Contrary 
• Parallel
• Similar 
• Oblique 

This video perfectly explains these types of motion: 

^^   2:38 minutes in.   ^^

Getting more in depth...

The Traditional Rules for Voice Leading

1. Registral Compass Rule. 
2. Textured Density Rule.
3. Chord Spacing Rule. 
4. Avoid Unisons Rule. 
5. Common Tone Rule.
6. Nearest Chordal Tone Rule. 
7. Conjuct Motion Rule.
8. Avoid Leaps Rule. 
9. Part-Crossing Rule.
10. Part Overlap Rule.
11. Parallel Unisons, Fifths & Octaves Rule.
12. Consecutive Unisons, Fifths & Octaves Rule.
13. Exposed (or hidden or direct) Octaves & Fifths Rule.

For the detailed explanation, click on the link below: 

Tone & Voice

For an introduction to Voice Leading, that should cover it.

Helpful Links! 

Voice Leading Made Easy

Secrets of Singing Harmonies: Voice Leading

Recording Electric Guitar

                                           Electric Guitar 

For the electric guitar we placed the microphones in front of the amp, facing away from the guitar.

 For the amp it's good to experiment by moving it around the room or even placing it in a different room to achieve a desired sound.
However, remember to avoid placing the amp beside the wall or in a corner as this disrupts the sound as it intrusively bounces off the walls.


MIC PLACEMENT is very important.
The sound relies heavily on the position of the mic to the amp's speaker. Depending on the placing of your mic(s), the sound will be changed from bright to dark.

• Dead Centre - The brightest tone ~ Right on the dust cap.
• From centre to edge of the speaker, the tone will progressively turn darker.

By placing the microphone close to the amp, it will capture the sound in acute detail, expressing attack and detail.
The more you move the mic away, the more you'll capture the room's reflection, adding ambience and depth to the sound.

In class, we chose the Fender FM65 DSP for our amp and began to set up three individual mics to compare and decide which sound worked best for us. 

During this we had to consider and set up a tone that would fit the style/genre of our chosen song (Superstition by Stevie Wonder).  

• Ribbon
• Dynamic 
• Condenser

During this we decided to to connect the guitar up to a D.I. Box (Direct Injection Box).

This was so we could edit the signal's tone and sounds that were coming through to us at the mixing desk from guitar - if we felt that our sound wasn't quite hitting what we were going for.

~ Simply put, D.I. Box's main functions are to convert "unbalanced signals to balanced signals" - Why Use A D.I. Box?

( no background noise and easier editing etc etc).

Afterwards we plugged in all of the mics into Audience 1, 2, & 3, following up by fitting the D.I. Box into Focusrite 1.

^^^

The final steps were to set up Logic Pro, get the guitarist in the room and ready, did some checks and last run-throughs before beginning our recording session.

Helpful Links!

How to record and Electric Guitar Amp

Mic Techniques to get great Electric Guitar sounds

Sequencing - Cadences

                                     What Is A Cadence? 

A Cadence is a - Melodic, or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of resolution.

Basically this encompasses at least 2 notes or chords which are extremely common on music from the Baroque and the Classical Periods, but from time to time you will hear Cadences in modern music.

It's musical punctuation, and is often used to identify the end of a phase/section or imply to what might happen next.

What types of Cadence are there? 

• Perfect Cadence - A cadence that moves from the Dominant to the Tonic. Often compositions are finished with this type of cadence giving it a satisfying end to the song, it gives a resolute closure to the piece. 
• Interrupted Cadence - A 'surprise attack' cadence. You expect to hear a perfect cadence here, but instead given a Minor Chord. 
• Imperfect Cadence - An imperfect cadence end on chord V.  This cadence sounds unfinished, as if it had been cut short from continuing in order to complete the music.
• Plagal Cadence - Formed by the chords IV - I. It sounds quite completed, but not as final as the Perfect Cadence. 

• Tierce De Picardie - Is when the final cadence of a piece of music in a Minor ends with a Major chord instead of the anticipated Minor chord.

What does Dominant and Tonic mean?

• TONIC - It is the 1st number/roman numeral/scale of degree of a diatonic scale and it's the tone on which the song is based, it is the tonal centre. It is the most important out of all of them. 
• DOMINANT - It is the fifth scale degree of the diatonic scale, called 'Dominant' because it is next in importance to the Tonic chord. The Dominant's function is to create an instability that requires the Tonic to resolve and bring closure to.

So, the chords (numbers) translate to Roman Numerals, that of which are important to remember:

Why Is The Perfect Cadence So Significant? 

For starters, just in general Cadences are significantly important because they give the ability to cause many different emotions and expectations within even one piece of music, to be able to 'Surprise' or 'Give Closure' to your audience with just a few finishing notes is a truly beautiful thing. Even just to add a pause where it is needed, all brings more depth to the finished piece.

Helpful Links!

What is a Cadence? The Basics:

Different Types Of Cadences

Tonic & Dominant Functions:

Sequencing - Triads

           

                                                   Triads

      What is a Triad?

Straightaway Traids = A 3 note chord.

It is a group, or set of three notes on a scale.

The first note is called the Root Note.

How to create them?

To begin, there are instructions and formulas to remember!

So, you need to write out a C Major Scale (or use your imagination...) to find the triads within it. It's a good scale to begin with as there are no initially confusing sharps or flats to consider.

For your C Major Scale, you will start at C (logically) and work your way up the scale until you run straight into another C note, repeating the cycle. As above ^^

The same goes for if you wanted to create a D Major Chord, you've got to get up the D Major Scale in order to do so.

So, from here you can clearly see the; C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C, notes. For the method, you can number them just above. 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 

C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C

Not perfect looking but will have do to. 

Tones and Semitones

Tones - Whole Steps 

Semitones - Half Steps

On the piano, these notes are slowly going up!

From the 12 notes of the Western scale ( C, C#, D, D# etc etc) this formula gives us the ability to connect the scale as long as you start on the letter/note you want.
So a tone up from C is D and so on.
For example: Imagine each key is a Semitone, and together they make a tone (two halves make a whole). So,  Semitone from C to C# (the small black key between C and D), and then another Semitone from C# to D, indicating that together this is going up a full Tone.

The reason for the labelled semi tones between E and F and B and C is because there is no black key in between, making it just one half ~ one Semitone.

The Formula's 

Major Formula : 1, 3, 5

The first note is always called the Root Note.

Going back to the numbered notes, you can see that note 1 is C, note 3 is E and note 5 is G.

C, E, G =  C Major Chord

It slightly changes around for other formula's, such as for the Minor and Diminished chords, but it always starts from the Major Scale, everything you do is an alteration of the Major Scale! These are instructions are always based on the Major Scale.

Use this picture in order to put this in perspective. ~

Here you can clearly see the C Major Scale, how the Tones and Semitones link, the numbered letters, and the formula's for Major, Minor and Diminished, regarding how to find and create your Major, Minor and Diminished chords.

Something to keep in mind: 

All triads are chords, but not all chords are triads. A triad is a chord with only three notes, and is built on thirds. To make a triad, we take a note, add the note a third higher, and then add another note a third higher again. A chord contains at least two notes; it can have 3, 4, 5 or even more!   - Triads & Chords

Diatonic Scale - A seven note musical scale of five Tones and two Semitones.


Helpful Links!

Major Scales Using Tones & Semitones - A Full Walkthrough

What Is A Triad Chord? Lesson ~

The Chord Formula For The Major Chord - 1, 3, 5 - What Do These Numbers Represent?