Final Project

https://soundcloud.com/orionrising27/ryansong

Project Plan 2.0

Due to some technical difficulties, my project plan which I wrote up a few weeks ago was deleted and probably cannot be retrieved.  So today, I will go back and outline briefly what it said as well as make any necessary changes.

My plan was to write a song.  So, basically, as I see it, a song consists of two main parts, the lyrics and the instruments. But, I also want, of course, to record the song too, so this project will consist of three main parts, writing lyrics, writing music for the instruments, and recording.  Therefore, around the idea of those three parts coming together around a single product, this is the slightly revised version of my rubric:

	4	3	2	1
Lyrics	The lyrics are great, contain few, if any, cliches and are very interesting.	The lyrics are good, but may contain some cliches, and are at least somewhat interesting.	Lyrics are present but not very good, contain a lot of cliches, and are quite bland.	The lyrics are nonexistent or absolutely terrible, or are completely bland.
Music	The music is great, sounds sophisticated and interesting.	The music is pretty good and somewhat interesting.	There is music but it isn’t very good.  It is muddled and ugly.	There is no music or the music is just a catastrophe of sounds.
Recording	The recording is great with few to no technical flaws.	The recording is pretty good with only a couple of technical flaws.	The recording exists but is not very well done and has lots of technical flaws.	Recording is nonexistent or is very very bad, making it nearly impossible to listen too.
Final Product	The final product is a well rounded song with several dimensions.	The final product is okay and displays some features of a good song.	The final product isn’t too good and displays very few features of a good song.	The final product is not recognizable as a song.

Looking to the weeks to come, I don't have a lot of time to complete this song.  Therefore, I plan to have the music and the lyrics written by the end of the week we return from break so that I can start recording two weeks from getting off of break.  I hope, too, that by the end of break I will have a good outline of the song with lyrics and guitar so that I can try to start adding more instruments.

Stealing Bicycles

So, to start off my project I need to steal some inspiration from my favorite songs.  Since I have very little experience crafting songs I am going to "steal" ideas from the songs I like by breaking them down and analyzing certain elements of the music and lyrics.

For a start I'm going to break down one of my favorite songs, Always Like This by Bombay Bicycle Club.  

The song starts off this slight whirling sound which is soon joined by a bass line and vocals, then a few guitar strums.  Then the vocals get into this broken-record repetitiveness until the drums kick in.  Then a short instrumental piece just before the first verse.  The instrumental piece has that catchy baseline which seems to have transferred to the guitar.  As the verse comes in the bass disappears and only the drums and the guitar remain.  As it comes to the chorus the bass comes back in and there is a little bit of a "duel" between the two guitars which switches from ear to ear.  Another verse is then presented with elements similar to the first verse.  Then the chorus repeats.  Then there is a little bit of an outro and the song ends.

The instruments in this song seem to be a two guitar parts, a bass part, a drum part, and vocals.

Overall, the most interesting element of the song is definitely the guitar and bass parts.  Like how the song is just constant chord progressions.  Personally, I find the way which the two guitars layer and go back and forth in the chorus interesting and might try to do a similar thing in my song.

Weebly Wix WordPress

In music technology this week we are looking at websites which we can use to create our own websites.  We are planning to use these websites to display the work we do in music technology.  I tried out three websites to create a website: Weebly, Wix, and Wordpress.  Each of these three websites had advantages and disadvantages.

Wordpress seemed a great tool.  It was easy to use and free.  The format of Wordpress though, wasn't really a website as much as it was a blog.  Since I think that I would be better off with a website than a blog (since I already have this Blogger), I chose not to use Wordpress and instead to look at other tools which may be better for creating a website.

The next site I looked at was Wix.  It was very clear after only five minutes of looking at Wix that it was more of website creating site and less of a blogging site than Wordpress was.  Wix offered many different types of websites for me to use.   Each of them had its own design and was easily customizable.  The templates though, were, for the most part just a little bit to complicated for my purposes.  Since I am just learning and I don't expect the website I create to be overly large, I felt that the templates offered by Wix didn't quite fit my needs.  I knew though that if I didn't find anything better, Wix would suit my website creating needs just fine.

The final website creating tool I tried out was Weebly.  Weebly was great.  The first thing Weebly asked when I began creating my site was whether I was looking to create a website or a blog site.  I chose to create a website and quickly found that, like Wix, Weebly offered many different templates which I could choose from.  Also, just like Wix, some of the templates and some features of Weebly cost money, but I was able to design a site for free.  The reason I chose Weebly over Wix is that while both offer many templates for the design of my website, I liked those offered by Weebly more than those offered by Wix.  I thought that the templates offered by Weebly were simpler and better looking.

NAMING THE SITE

So I spent a long time trying to figure out a name for my website but I couldn't figure out one.  I looked all over the web to find a tool to help me come up with a creative name but in the end I couldn't find one which was at all useful.  I did however find this nice resource which told about domain names: Tips on Domain Names

In the end I just looked around my desk and added "Sound" and "Record company" to the end of just about everything I saw.  I came up with Folder Recording, Pencil Sounds, Eraser Recording Company, but finally settled on Two Dollar Sound when I saw a two dollar bill sitting on my desk.  Its possible I might change this name.

Here is the link to my website and production company: Two Dollar Sound

Project 2

This semester we are starting a new project so I'm going to try something different.  Using the program Popplet I created this layout of my plan for this semesters project.

The yellow box is the central goal/final product of the project around which I constructed my ideas.

A Personal Learning Network

So the second semester has started and we're putting together Personal Learning Networks using the tools on the internet.  I have created a Twitter account, a Feedly, and a Delicious account.  These websites help me to find and organize new and intersting information on the internet.

At first I was skeptical of Twitter, but now I see that it is a great way to stay on top of things.  I have followed several people and groups on twitter now.  Here are just a few of the groups I have started following, some of them are for this class and some of them are for fun:


Tweets by @LogicStudio


Tweets by @LogicProHelp


Tweets by @CoolMusicDaily

I can be followed on twitter at

@ryanspencer27

The next site I started using is Delicious.  This site helps you organize bookmarks by using tags instead of putting them in folders.   I have found this site useful and I have started to use it all the time.  A few of the links which I have added using Delicious are:

Logic Pro X Instrument Manual

http://www.apple.com/support/logicpro/

http://www.logicprohelp.com/

I also have started using Feedly which helps me personalize news to my tastes as well as keep me on top of the latest news. On Feedly I have added things such as:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/

http://www.djtechtools.com/

http://www.rollingstone.com/news

Looking Back...

Well, the first semester of music technology is over.  Lucky for me though, I am signed up to take the class again next semester also.  Anyways, I will use this time now to look back at the semester, critique my work from the semester, discuss what I liked about what I've done, discuss what I want to change, and discuss what I want to do next semester.

So, this semester I decided to work with Logic Pro X to create digital music using the library of software instruments and the tools provided by logic.  Here are the two songs which I created:

Overall I wasn't particularly pleased with either of my works.  I found that I didn't really like using the software instruments on Logic Pro X because they didn't really fit the style of music which I wanted to create and because nearly all of them sounded artificial and a tad too high pitched and squeaky.  They seemed to lack the natural roundness and wholesomeness which real instruments or even better quality software instruments may have.  Not to mention they aren't fitting of the rock-ish, alternative-ish, indie-ish music which I am interested in creating.  I had a horrible time creating drum beats fitting of a rock song (or any song for that matter) because the only way to use the drum kits was with the piano keyboard layout where each key was assigned a different drum.  I had a lot more luck creating more intricate beats with the program FL Studios (shown in image below) which I downloaded on my home computer. Sadly though, because I only have a demo of FL studios, I am not able to save my work.  Overall Logic just didn't have the sounds or the tools I was looking for so next semester I will attempt to do something different.

FL Studio Drum Layout

(http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/How-To-Make-A-House-Beat-In-FL-Studio.png)

Looking back on the first song I created (Where I Begin), I am not disappointed even though I do not actually like the song that much.  The only thing which I am disappointed about is not quitting earlier.  The first song took me a long, long time to finish and even though it never came out very good, I did learn a lot about my style as well as well as Logic.  As I explained above, I found that I didn't not particularly enjoy using Logic.  However, with the time I spent on it, I did learn a lot about it.  The thing I liked the most about it was messing with the ES2 interface where you can customize the sound of the software instruments.  This helped me regain a little bit of the sound which I wanted to create.  Working with Logic every day really got me thinking about the type of music I wanted to create.  Furthermore, trying to use Logic to create that sound got me thinking about what really defines the sound I want to create.  I realized after a long time trying to create this song that it wasn't really my style and that is why I was having trouble progressing into and adding to the song.  So eventually I just found a good place to end it and I tried again with a different song.

ES2 interface used for changing the sound of many software instruments in Logic.

(http://cdn.tutsplus.com/audio/uploads/legacy/239_hoovers/02.jpg)

As for the 2nd song (Again, Again), I like it better than Where I Begin.  I feel that although this song doesn't really reflect what I want my music to reflect, it is a good representation of what I learned to do using Logic.  It was put together in under 2 weeks and is several seconds longer than the first song which took me all but the last two weeks of the semester.  Overall I think that it sounds much better than the first song because, from the start, I knew how to use Logic.  When I started with the first song, I had no idea how to use Logic but when working with the second song I was had a much clearer idea of what I was doing and what I wanted to do with the song.

Although this semester had very few physical results, I hope next semester I have more to show for may work.  I know that next semester I will shy away from creating music with Logic and hopefully try recording music and maybe even work with a few of my classmates to help create a song or two.  I don't think using software instruments or creating electronic/digital music is what I want to do anymore and while it was fun and interesting to try, I feel it ultimately proved as a failure.  I can't wait to try something new next semester.

Finishing the Project

Its January 10th, 2014 now so we are nearly done with our projects.  We have only one more week to work on them.  I have found using Logic Pro X to create music much more challenging than I thought it would be at first.  Despite having some trouble with Logic, I have learned a lot about the program and I am getting much better with it.

When we first started the project I planned to create 4-5 songs.  I'd say I was a little overambitious though, because so far, I was only able to create one, very short song which I have posted below.  One of the biggest problems I had so far this year was with this song.  I started it right at the beginning, just after being assigned project and I had little idea of how to use Logic.  So, naturally, I was just experimenting.  After being a few weeks into the project I found though, that I didn't really have any plans for the song.  However, I also did not want to quit working because I had spent a good amount of time working on it already.  So I just kept working, which, looking back, turned out to be a bit of a waste of time.  For weeks worth of work, I came up with only a one minute song.  However, I do actually feel accomplished because while working on the song I learned so much about both Logic and just writing music in general-- but thats not what I'm going to talk about right now.



This was my project plan when we started the project back in October.

Week 10/28/13: Begin working on creating first song.  Spend extra time researching how to use logic properly.

Week 11/4/13: Continue working on first song.

Week 11/11/13: Wrap up the first song, try to finish it by the end of the week.

Week 11/18/13: Start working on second song.

Week 11/25/13: Continue working on second song.

Week 12/2/13: Wrap up the second song, attempt to finish by the end of the week.

Week 12/9/13: Start working on third song.

Week 12/16/13: Continue working on third song.

Week 12/23/13 Christmas! (Wrap up third song?)

Week 12/30/13 Christmas! (Wrap up third song?)

Week 1/6/14 Have 3rd song finished and begin 4th song.

Week 1/13/14 Continue working on 4th song.

Week 1/20/14 Finish 4th song and make final touches on other songs.

Looking at it, it was pretty ambitious.  I gave myself about 3 weeks per song, which, when you think of it, is not really a lot of time, especially since when I began I was unfamiliar with Logic Pro X.  It ended up taking me several more weeks to finish my first song than I thought it would.  I ended up finishing it just before Christmas break.  Then, when I shared my work with the class, I got a really great piece of advice back.  It needed more of a melody.  The lack of a melody went unnoticed by me, but as soon as it was pointed out, I realized why I was having so much trouble creating a song.  Immediately after break I began a new song and this time added a melody.  With a melody I find it so much easier to make my song change from part to part unlike before when I found it always sounded the same throughout the song.  With this new discovery I hope to be able to create at least one more song before the semester is over.

At the beginning of the project I said that I will use the following to assess my project:

-Step 1: Define the Products for the project.  What will you assess?

• Early in the project I will be learning how to use Logic Pro X to create music.  I must spend a good amount of time researching how to use Logic and I have to make sure that I learn to use everything properly.
• During the project I will be creating the songs.  For each song I must spend a good amount of time creating and fleshing out the ideas for the song.  I must also make sure that these ideas are creative and original.
• Towards the end of the project I will be editing and revising the song.  I have to make sure to spend the proper time editing the song to make it sound good.  I also have  to use the Logic tools properly in order to make sure the song is edited well.

-Step 2: State the Criteria for exemplary performance for each product.  

      Product: Music Creation with software instruments

      Criteria: With the beat, creative, interesting.

      Product: Recording

      Criteria: Sounds good, properly done

      Product: Editing

      Criteria: Quantized properly, does not have mistakes

However, now, looking this over it is clear you can  remove the product "Recording" because I never recorded anything.  I think I will try that next semester.  Also, I think that while assessing my final song which I have yet to finish, one must be generous in assessing how I edited and revised it in the end, since, with only a week left, I will not have much time to edit or revise it.

Now... time to get back to using Logic.

Update 3

We are well into our project in music technology right now and it is going much slower than I thought it would.  I have found several times that I don't really have any ideas for what comes next in the song I created.  When I first began to create this song I didn't really know what I was doing.  Now though I have a much better idea of how to use Logic Pro X.  So, I am hoping to wrap up this piece soon and begin on a new piece.  Hopefully, I will move through my next song at a faster pace.  I hope to get 2-3 songs done by the end of semester.  This song will pretty short, seeing as it is hardly a minute long right now.  However, I think that if I start my next few pieces with more of  a plan in mind I will be able to get through them faster, especially now that I have a better understanding of how to use Logic.

Update 2

Progress Week 1

We began our project last week and so far I am finding it a bit more difficult than I first thought.  The real problem is that it is really slow to create music.  Even after a little less than two weeks of work, I only have a few seconds.  While I don't have any trouble coming up with new ideas for the song, I do have trouble applying my ideas because I am not familiar with Logic.  I'm sure as I get better and more familiar with Logic things will speed up.  I might need to change my plan though.  It does not look like I will be able to create 3-4 songs so I'm going to lower that number to 2-3 songs.  Hopefully this process will begin to speed up as I learn.

The Project Planz

http://a4.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple4/v4/e2/a6/70/e2a6709a-a66d-71f7-4fda-c10ec78f1236/LogicProX.png

For this project in music technology I plan to create 4 to 5 original songs using Logic Pro X.  I hope to do a bit of recording but I plan on mainly working only with the tools provided in Logic.  I hope that this project will help me get a better understanding of music and technology.  I hope that by the end of this project I will be able to use Logic more precisely.  Some of the key skills I will be using to create this project are using technology, recording, and thinking creatively.  I hope to develop these skills throughout the course of this project.

Driving Question:

How do I use logic to create original pieces of music?

Plan the Assessment:

-Step 1: Define the Products for the project.  What will you assess?

• Early in the project I will be learning how to use Logic Pro X to create music.  I must spend a good amount of time researching how to use Logic and I have to make sure that I learn to use everything properly.
• During the project I will be creating the songs.  For each song I must spend a good amount of time creating and fleshing out the ideas for the song.  I must also make sure that these ideas are creative and original.
• Towards the end of the project I will be editing and revising the song.  I have to make sure to spend the proper time editing the song to make it sound good.  I also have  to use the Logic tools properly in order to make sure the song is edited well.

-Step 2: State the Criteria for exemplary performance for each product.  

      Product: Music Creation with software instruments

      Criteria: With the beat, creative, interesting.

      Product: Recording

      Criteria: Sounds good, properly done

      Product: Editing

      Criteria: Quantized properly, does not have mistakes

Map the Project

Skills and Knowledge Needed for this Project:

• Logic Pro X: For this project I need to have a general understanding of Logic.  Previous to the project I spent a bit of time learning how to use Logic but throughout the course of the project I will have to refine my skills with using Logic.
• Recording Skills: Also, I hope to do a little bit of recording throughout the project. At the beginning of the Music Tech class we learned a little bit about recording and about microphones but during the project I will need to spend time to learn how to record better.
• Editing Skills: While, I need to be able to understand and use Logic in general, I will also need to be able to use Logic in order to edit my songs.  During the project I will need to learn more about how to edit songs properly and how to use the proper tools in Logic.

Throughout the project I will use this blog as a journal in order to share my ideas as well as to organize them.

Key Dates and Important Milestones:

Week 10/28/13: Begin working on creating first song.  Spend extra time researching how to use logic properly.

Week 11/4/13: Continue working on first song.

Week 11/11/13: Wrap up the first song, try to finish it by the end of the week.

Week 11/18/13: Start working on second song.

Week 11/25/13: Continue working on second song.

Week 12/2/13: Wrap up the second song, attempt to finish by the end of the week.

Week 12/9/13: Start working on third song.

Week 12/16/13: Continue working on third song.

Week 12/23/13 Christmas! (Wrap up third song?)

Week 12/30/13 Christmas! (Wrap up third song?)

Week 1/6/14 Have 3rd song finished and begin 4th song.

Week 1/13/14 Continue working on 4th song.

Week 1/20/14 Finish 4th song and make final touches on other songs.

http://images.apple.com/logic-pro/images/index_hero_gallery_intro.png

The 8-Track Tape

Eight-Track Tape

(http://wgeneration.com/image/70/fidelipac.gif)

The eight-track tape was invented by William Powell Lear, an inventor who, before creating the eight-track tape, created instruments and communications equipment for airplanes at the Learjet Corporation.  Lear first began working with the components used to make the Eight-Track Tape in 1946 while working at the Armour Research Foundation as a licensee.  At the Armour Research Foundation, he was introduced to wire recording technology and began experimenting.  However, he eventually went back to working with planes.  In his absence, the endless loop technology changed from wire to tape.  Then, in 1965 Lear returned to the endless loop technology with the invention of the eight-track tape.

In 1963 Lear had become a distributor for Muntz Electronics but was not satisfied with the technology they offered so he eventually quit and began contacting the suppliers.  With a few changes Lear created a endless loop recorder with smaller pole pieces and which held eight-tracks. In 1964, after producing a couple hundred of these eight-track tapes, he began distributing them to executives at auto companies.  Eventually, in 1965, he gained the backing of Ford and, in 1966, they began to put eight-track tape players into the dashboard of their cars.  Just as Muntz's four track tapes were becoming popular, Lear cut in with his eight-track tapes which were cheaper and could be played in several car models.

Eight-Track Player in Ford

(http://www.recording-history.org/images/8track1.jpg)

From the 1960s into part of the 1970s, eight-track tapes flourished and became one of the first mass-marketed tapes.  The eight-track tape was also very important in the car business.  In 1966, the first year they were offered in Fords, 65,000 of the eight-track players were installed.  Soon, eight-track players began showing up in other cars also.  However, while originally they were manufactured in the USA, almost the entire production of eight-track tapes moved to Japan by 1970 and by the late 1970s the eight-track player was becoming more and more obsolete due to new innovations.  It was not long until eight-track tapes were replaced by cassette tapes.

While many people regard the eight-track tape as a failure, it actually played a big role in the advancement of music and technology.  The eight-track tape led the way when it came to in-car listening and although it didn't last long, for almost a decade it, was one of the primary tapes found around the world.  I believe that the eight-track tape played an important role in the history of music and technology.

Lincoln Continental with Eight-Track Tape Player

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MqewX8Ix7-4)

Sources:

http://www.recording-history.org/HTML/8track4.php

http://www.wgeneration.com/70f4.html

http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/8track.html

How does sound affect the world?

From the roar of a lion to the slight whisper of the wind as it blows, the world is a place of millions upon millions of unique sounds.  In our daily lives, we are surrounded by sound.  Rarely, if ever, do we witness complete silence.  However, despite the thousands of sounds surrounding at any given time, most of us use our sense of hearing for little more than communication and listening.  The sounds which you hear in every day life are often forgotten or overlooked.  We live in a culture dominated mostly by the use of sight.  As students of music technology though, we should have a higher appreciation of sound.  To become better musicians and we should embrace the idea of "sonological competence" and learn at least the basics of a field of study known as acoustic ecology.

Scientist R Murray Schafer is one of the most important figures when it comes to acoustic ecology.  Schafer was a writer, composer, educator, and environmentalist.  Schafer was concerned with the dangers which technological sound had for humans and the environment.  Noise pollution from factories or transportation vehicles such as jet planes can increase stress levels, aggression, and cause lack of sleep and cause hearing loss in humans.  Furthermore, noise pollution can effect the environment.  Loud noises created by humans can cause animals to have trouble or be unable to communicate or navigate using sound properly.  Schafer worked hard to get governments to pass legislation to limit sound pollution.  In his project known as World Soundscape, Schafer attempted to raise awareness for acoustic ecology.

As musicians, it is important for us to understand and appreciate sound and the effects of sound.  The natural sounds of the world are beautiful and should be preserved rather than cloaked by the sounds of industry and human life.  I hope that after reading this everyone will raise their awareness for the sounds around them and listen more carefully to better understand sound and its effects in our world.

                                                                 R.  Murray Schafer

References:
"The World Soundscape Project." WORLD SOUNDSCAPE PROJECT. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

"R. Murray Schafer." - The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.

Wrightson, Kendall. "An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology." N.p., n.d. Web.

Beat

The First Days of Technology

We started our music technology class Wednesday last week.  I can hardly wait to get started.  I already have many goals and hopes for the class.  First of all, I hope to learn how to use all the technology available.  I can't wait to begin messing with the music making programs on the computers.  I hope to learn to use them all fluently and skillfully.  Secondly I really hope to put together at least one entire, good-sounding song.  I think it would be really cool to be able to listen to something which I made myself.  I hope to create a piece which I can be proud of.  Lastly, I hope to share my work with my classmates and hear their work.  I am looking forward to seeing what kinds of music my classmates will create.

Though I have very little musical training or experience, I took this class in order to gain more experience.  I have played guitar for a few years now but only had a few lessons.  Although this class doesn't have much guitar I hope to become more familiar with music itself.  I can't wait to get started.