Sound and PIcture

Sound and Picture

Film
A film is normally created with a large budget and has a longer run time than many other moving image forms, it typically includes multiple camera angles rather than just one. It also contains a lot of foley sound and non diegetic sound. They are created by filming a series of takes, then selecting the best and editing them together in post production. Films are created for entertainment and occasionally for documentaries. More often than not Films are produced because of the huge profits they can produce.

Television
Television is also created with normally a big budget. The length of a television programme rarely exceeds 1 hour. It will typically includes multiple camera angles rather than just one. It also contains a lot of foley sound and non diegetic sound. Similar to Films TV programmes are created as entertainment and documentaries.


Web
Web videos are normally relatively short, only featuring one camera angle and therefore 1 take.There is very little non diegetic sound or foley as typically, a web video will have little to no budget. Web videos are normally informative or are made for entertainment. They are also rarely made for profit.


Hand-held                                                                                                                                 
Moving images are created by using a hand held device such as mobile or small camera. the purpose of this type of moving image is to entertain as normally it is uploaded on to the internet. Similar to Web videos, Hand Held are normally informative or are made for entertainment. They are also rarely made for profit.        

Animation 
There are many types of animation such as hand drawn, stop motion and CGI. The film will be edited with music and voice overs using computer software.



 Audio Components

• Studio and location - A studio is a location desired for optimal sound recording as it lacks background noise due to soundproofing. This works perfectly for productions like news, as it allows for the sound to be heard more clearly, but won't be useful for productions where background ambience is required. On location refers to an outside area, that would not be typically used for  a sound recording. This would be useful for capturing ambience, but may mean that post production is required in order to hear the dialogue more clearly .
• Interviews - these will usually be mic'ed up with small microphones attached to both the interviewer and the interviewee. The recorded audio will then be added to any video footage later in production.
• Presentation -  A presenter will either have a wireless handheld mic used for live events or if the presentation is for a TV broadcast it would most likely be a small clip on mic that transmits to a sound engineer.     
• Voiceover -Voiceovers will be recorded separately in a studio after the filming has finished. The actor recording the voiceover will have the film visible so they can time the speech at the precise time.
• Drama dialogue - for a drama production, multiple voices will need to be captured.A production of a drama will therefore use large, handheld mics on poles known as Boom mics. These are held above the shot and will capture the sound of multiple people.
•  Sound effects (SFX) - These are small background details helping to enhance the mood and feel of a film. These are recorded in a process known as Foley.
• Stationary and moving sound sources - A stationary sound source refers to something being recorded that is not moving, whilst a moving sound source is. As a moving sound source moves closer then further away from you, its pitch and volume will increase and decrease.
•             

Combing audio and visuals

• Diegetic - Sound where the source is visible on screen, from characters speaking or from props. 
• Non-diegetic - Sound from outside the environment of the film,for example, the music soundtrack.
• External diegetic - Sound put into the shot at a later date but can be heard by characters, for example background noise, this is produced by foley.
• Mood - Soundtracks will often be used to portray a certain mood that fits with the footage being shown.
• Meaning - This involves adding deep emotional quality to a scene by using the music chosen to express this emotion.
• Illusion - This involves adding  background noises from objects that are not necessarily on screen to create an atmosphere to give the viewer a sense that they at a specific location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQeLT_oadrg

Unit 49: composing using Music technology

Composition



Form
form is how each section of a composition is set out in terms of chord progressions. typically in a pop song, chord progressions will follow an A-A1-B-A1 form, with each section being 4 bars long to form a 16 bar progression.

Structure
This is the layout of the different sections of a song. For example, Verse Chorus Verse Bridge Chorus.
Each part of the song has its own chord progression, by combining these sections a song is created that has a regular format but prevents it from becoming stale by repeating the same parts consistently.A chorus is usually quite repetitive and catchy in order to create a hook for the listener to remember.

Genre
Genre is the style of music that a song falls under. These include, Classical, Rock, Pop, Country. My song falls under the rock category, but it has some pop influences which gives a happier mood to the piece.

Inversions and Extensions
Not all chords used in a composition have to be in root position; it is possible to flip the order of the notes. This is known as an inversion. For example, you may want to invert a C Major chord (C-E-G) to either first inversion (E-G-C) or second inversion (G-C-E).

Difference
This is used to prevent the song from becoming boring via continual repetition. This can be done by inserting unique sections within the song that do not repeat. I have done this by creating a bridge, and by altering the end verse to allow for a smooth, interesting finish.

Composer's Rights
Usually, composers will have master copies of their records owned by their record label. However, they are able to distribute their music through what is known as a publishing company. Any profits made from a third party via the song must have a portion that goes to the composer.  The composers agrees to hand control of their copyright over to the publishing company, who in return are able to:

• License usage of the composition(s) for other uses
• Collect royalties
• Monitor where compositions are used

If someone wishes to sample a section of a song, they must obtain clearance to do so, as well as lawfully obtain rights to the copyright for that song. In the past, there have been cases where artists have failed to do so, this leads to court cases where artists can lose substantial amounts of money. 

Samples and Manipulation

Many compositions are created with the help of samples, these are short clips that can be potentially be of anything, ranging from instruments to random noises. many popular bands will often take samples from other people's work, then edit them with effects to make them unrecognisable.


Sampling Techniques
Sampling is the process by which sections of songs, or audio clips of miscellaneous origin, are cut up, edited, and used within another compositional piece. This is very prominent in modern music and many artists make their songs exclusively via sampling. On cubase, samples can be heavily altered via processes which add different effects to the clips.
Waveform Structure
A waveform structure is the form of a sound wave in a physical representation.Sine waves are very common and are very sonically smooth.
Sawtooth waves drop suddenly and give very strong buzzing sound.
Square waves also give a buzzing sound but are more open.

Waveform Editing
Waveforms can be edited in order to changed the core sonic format of a sound, One program that can be used for this function in Seylenth. 



https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/final-compostiton-mix

setting up live performance and recording equipment Unit 49 brief 1

Equipment List:

• Mixer (Yamaha EMX 5016CF)
• Power amp
• Main and sub speakers (dB speakers)
• Support poles
• XLR cables
• Speakon cables
• Jack cables
• Microphone (Shure SM58)
• Power leads
• Masking tape

Steps Taken

• Take Boxes apart
• Keep lids away for safety 
• Keep mixing desk on power supply and move desk to position 
• lock wheels for safety 
• Move Base Bins to position 
• Add pillars 
• Set up main speakers on top, about same height 
• Ensure everything is secure
• Connect speakon cables to power supply 
• Make everything is taped 
• Connect desk to the amps with jack leads 
• Plug to mains 
• Flat line desk 
• add xlr cable to for mic 
• Turn on desk
• Turn on Speakers 
• Level testing.

Risk assessment

Hazard	Danger	Precautions
Live wires	Damaged/exposed wires can be dangerous electrical hazards that can cause injuries and even death via electrocution.	Avoid using any damaged wires at any time. If unavoidable ensure that the exposed/damaged section of the wire is thoroughly wrapped in electrical tape.
Liquids and electricity	If liquids are spilt then  it can cause electric shocks and equipment damages	Avoid having any liquids or drinks near the equipment at any time.
Heavy equipment	If lifted with back instead of your legs, heavy equipment can cause injury. If heavy equipment is dropped it can cause injury to those around it.	Always lift in the correct stance with your knees so that a majority of the pressure is kept away from your back. Keep lids out of way - storage box lids should not block any part of the performance space.
Tripping	Lids and loose wires can be dangerous tripping hazards. This can cause injury.	Make sure to keep wires tightly taped to the floor, and to keep lids together and out of the way of the peoples feet.
Noise	When noise levels are too high the hearing of the people in the vicinity could be damaged.	Don’t go over 107dB - the maximum noise level from a gig (within the audience) should not exceed this limit, as otherwise the law will have been broken.

Mixing and Mastering

Mixing and Mastering

Organisation: before getting into the the mixing of the track i first had to organise the file. I did this by by colour coding the instrument tracks. this meant it was easy to differentiate between instruments. i also cut the unwanted areas of the tracks out as this meant that there were no unwanted sounds in the tracks when the instruments were not playing, i took care to make sure that only unwanted sounds were cut out and not part of the song as this would take away from the quality of the track.



EQ: The next step that i took was to EQ each track. I did this by opening the EQ tab and then dragging the frequencies to different volume levels which i thought fitted the specific instrument. The first instrument I used the EQ for was the Kick drum. for the EQ of the Kick drum i wanted it to have more clarity, to do this i used a high pass filter below 50Hz to make the drum tight while cleaning up unnecessary low end. For the bass guitar I increased the volume around 100 Hz to highlight the bass sound and decrease the higher frequencies as this would make the bass sound clearer and would give more room in the mix for other instruments with higher frequencies. When editing the EQ on the snare drum I slightly increase the mid range but then decreased the high end sounds to stop the track from sounding tinny.

Compression: Compression is an electronic effect unit that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds by narrowing or "compressing" an audio signal's dynamic range. To use this effect I added compression effect to the inputs of the channel I then edited the threshold and ratio of the compression until i found the best sound of that specific instrument.


Reverb: Is an electronically produced echo effect in recorded music, To add this effect to my tracks I used the Roomworks input on the track, I then edited the reverb time, size and pre-delay level until I was happy with the sound of the track.

Using effects channels/sends

Whilst Mixing the track I used channel sends to group specific instruments together. this allowed me to add effects such as compression and reverb and also edit the EQ. By putting these effects through an channel send I was able to apply an effect to to a group of instruments instead of just individually editing each track. The instruments I grouped together were the two acoustic guitar tracks, the vocal tracks and the brass instruments.

Track List

Lead and backing vocals: On the vocals I used the compression effect and reverb. I also edited the EQ levels to decrease the low frequencies.

Bass Guitar : I added compression to the bass line to make the quieter sounds of the bass the same level of volume. I also used the EQ to increase bass frequencies and decrease the very high frequencies. 

Lead guitar and Rhythm Guitar: I used the Amp Simulator effect on both the effects to give the sound some Distortion. I also used reverb to give the sound some ambiance.

Trumpet and Trombone: I edited the Eq to boost the mid range frequencies and slightly decrease the low frequencies.
Kick Drum: I used the EQ to increase the low to Medium frequencies.

Snare Drum: I edited the EQ to slightly increase the Mid ranges and decrease some of the Higher frequencies to tighten up the sound.

https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/stick-together-final-master - stick together 
https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/lewis-yellow-full-track  Yellow

Creative arrangement Unit 49

Nirvana- Smells Like teen spirit cover in the style of House Music


https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/nirvana-house-music-cover


In this assignment i chose the song, Smells like teen spirit By Nirvana to be recreated into another genre.  the genre I chose was House Music. I therefore carried out some research on the House music genre to give me inspiration on what to do to make the cover sound like a genuine House music song. For research, I looked at artists such as Calvin Harris. I found that in his music the song gradually builds up to the chorus, he also implements a lot of synth, However instruments such as Trumpets and Violins were also used often. I also learned that a big aspect of the genre was full to floor bass drum. This was used on most of the songs i listened to. i therefore decided i was going to implement this in my track.

The first track i made was the Drum Track. To make this i used the groove Agent Input. I made sure I made the bass drum very prominent as this is very common within the house genre. later on in the track a snare drum is added to accentuate the beat drop i was trying to achieve, i did this by making the snare gradually get faster until it climaxed into the chorus. This made the beat drop more powerful and also adds to the effect of it being a house type genre.

The second track i made was a small intro synth track at the start of the song. to do this i used the Halion Sonic SE input. at the start of the track i edited the volume to gradually fade in the synth . i didthis to give the effect of it all gradually becoming louder as this is a common aspect of House music. I also used EQ to make the track have more bass as at first it was quite twangy.

The next track I inputed was a trumpet lead melody. To make this I listened to original song by nirvana and recreated the guitar solo in the song to fit in with my house style . I therefore used the sound of a trumpet instead of a guitar, as artists i had researched, such as Calvin Harris also used similar instruments for there lead part. I used this track in the chorus section of my song as repetitiveness is a big aspect of house music. However in the chorus section I doubled it with a track exactly the same just  2 octaves lower, this gave the main melody a feel of more power in the chorus. In this track i used the EQ to to make some of the very highest sounds to be quieter and to accentuate more of the mid to high sounds.

the next few tracks I used was an arpeggio type synth melody for the chorus. to create this i used Sylenth. I first picked a base sound and then edited it to make it be an arpeggio. I then proceeded to change like the timing of the arpeggio and the amount of octave it switched between. I also used the effect of distortion and reverb to give it the feel of the House music genre.

The next tracks I used were a selection of sylenth sounds to add into the chorus to give it some punch. i noticed in the house music genre that the chorus had many different sections a parts with differing sounds . I therefore implemented sounds like buzzing and and an underling bass line in my song to try and make it an authentic house music song.


Throughout the verse I used a riff which was used in the original song. I did this to make it so there is more of a feel of the original song in the cover. I used a sound from Sylenth which i then aded a small amount of delay, this gave it good sound because as the riff only consisted of two notes it made it sound more complex. I used the effect of compression to accentuate more of the mid to bass sounds as I learnt from my research, that bass was very prominent feature in house music. I was very happy with this track as it used a melody from the original track but changed it to fit a house music genre.


In conclusion I am happy with the track as it for filled the requirements of the track needing to be in the style of House. To improve this song I would have added more parts to the track and maybe increased the tempo to fit the genre. I would have also edited some of the sounds using Sylenth. This is because I thought some of the sounds were not as House music sounding as I would have wanted, For example, in the chorus I thought it could be perceived as being more electro than a House music song.

Sequencing A Pop song Unit 49

Sequencing 'Rather Be' 

https://soundcloud.com/beatenyoualready/clean-bandit-sequencing-task
How to set up a project 

DAW is a digital audio workstation is a computer program that is exclusively designed for the recording, editing and playing of digital audio files. It allows you to edit and mix multiple audio sources simultaneously on a musical timing grid and to visually see how they line up over time. In this sequencing task i used the software Cubase 6. To input the sequencing notes I the HAlion sonic SE key editor was used. To complete this sequencing task i used a mac with the osX update throughout the course, this was a very reliable computer which rarely crashed and was easy to operate Cubase on.




Setting a track up with HAlion SE 

To set up a track I used the HAlion SE to choose an appropriate sound for instruments such as the string section and the bass guitar. The tracks were therefore Midi. MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. The development of the MIDI system has been a major catalyst in the recent unprecedented explosion of music technology. MIDI has put powerful computer instrument networks and software in the hands of less technically versed musicians and amateurs and has provided new and time-saving tools for computer musicians. The system first appeared in 1982 following an agreement among manufacturers and developers of electronic musical instruments to include a common set of hardware connectors and digital codes in their instrument design. MIDI itself does not make sound, it is just a series of messages like "note on," "note off," "note/pitch," "pitch bend,".

General Midi is the standard specification for music synthesisers that respond to midi messages.

Using Groove Agent for Drums 



To input the drum track I added a groove Agent track onto cubase. i then used the Media bay to assign the right sounds of a specific drum or symbol. To do this i would have to search through lots of sounds and find one that was similar to what was used in the original rather be. I would then assign the samples to specific notes on the key editor. I  found a drum key on the internet so i was able to work out what the stave meant. this meant i was  therefore able to input the beats into the key editor.

Using the key editor to input notes

The way i would input the notes of the song would be using the HAlion SE Key editor.To do this i would Add a Halion Track. then i would have to search for an appropriate sound which was similar to instrument on the original Rather be . When I found a relevant sound i would double click on the track and then input one note at a time whilst also setting how long the note would last for. To do this i would have to read the stave and figure out what to input into the key editor. This was very simple and easy to use even with little music knowledge.



Types of MIDI connections 

MIDI cables connect instruments by means of MIDI IN, MIDI OUT, and MIDI THRU jacks.
The MIDI IN port receives incoming MIDI messages, the MIDI OUT port transmits actions of the keyboard to other keyboards or a computer. The MIDI THRU jack provides a direct copy of data coming into the MIDI IN jack, providing the ability to "daisy chain" several instruments and devices together. Any action on an instrument that corresponds to a particular MIDI code (such as a key depressed, or a program button changed) will normally transmit that action's code to the MIDI OUT, but not to the MIDI THRU. Many more recent instruments have a switch that changes the function of a MIDI THRU port to a MIDI OUT port.


Examples of MIDI controllers 
MIDI controller refers to any hardware or software that generates and transmits MIDI data to MIDI-enabled devices.

Electronic musical instruments, including synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and electronic drums, which are used to perform music in real time and are inherently able to transmit a MIDI data stream of the performance.

Pitch-to-MIDI converters including guitar/synthesizers analyse a pitch and convert it into a MIDI signal. There are several devices which do this for the human voice and for monophonic instruments such as flutes, for example.

Sequencers, which store and retrieve MIDI data and send the data to MIDI enabled instruments in order to reproduce a performance.