"Take a walk within the walls of my mind and watch my thoughts ravage the spaces between the walls"
- David Sawang
- David Sawang
Overall we did a pretty good job at time management and planning ahead so that we didn’t really have to struggle on how we were going to get things done and who was doing what roles. We as a team always made sure we were in contact through social media and addressed multiple situations using social media.
Getting into the song, we had all the instruments included in the song and made sure we included every aspect of the song to capture the essence of it. The performance issue arose when we were recording guitars as the guitarist was unable to get the exact lead of the song. Sonically speaking the guitars were ironically the closest to how it was in the song. We made sure we observed the little details within the song so we could emulate the panning of sounds to give it that stereo image of how the song really is. The vibe of our soundalike sounds a little bland because everything was done in different weeks that’s we tended to get lost in the whole scene of trying to obtain the perfect sound, that we lost the integral part of the song that didn’t make it so robotic
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Blogging Topic Week 6: Studio Roles11/9/2016 For the studio role during the drum recording session, I played the role of the runner. I was given the task of labelling all the cables and making sure they were plugged in properly into their respective slots. Additional to that, I was in charge of adjusting the microphone’s in order to cancel phase issues as well as set the mics in the proper places to avoid bleeding.
There were tiny issues here and there where there was miscommunication between the team members, including myself. But considering the fact that this wasn’t my first rodeo, we pulled through as a team and finally communicated well with each other. The only thing I could focus on doing better is being open to criticism regarding how I work in the recording space. Because I’m the runner and the producer is in the studio, I should focus on what he wants rather than assuming what I think is right and having them run helter skelter in the studio room. Blogging Topic Week 5.2: Track Analysis11/2/2016 For the soundalike project, our group decided to do Transmission by Joy Division. Right off the bat, the structure of the song and its components are as follows:
Intro: There are actually two parts to the intro, the first 4 bars consist of a bass and synth pad and a drum fill that moves us to the second part of the intro where a lead guitar riff is played along with drums playing a 16th note pattern as added instruments. Verse 1: It is an 8 bar verse where the vocals are present in the first 4 bars while the guitars are absent, and the guitars are present in the other 4 bars while the vocals are absent. The drum and bass continue with the same pattern. Verse 2: It is an 8 bar verse with vocals throughout followed by the guitar emerging in the last 4 bars. The drum and bass continue the same pattern. Chorus: It is an 8 bar chorus with backup vocals that come in after the 4th bar. What sounds like a second synth appears up the centre channel playing the same line as the other synth. Bridge: It is a 6 bar bridge with the same instrumentation that was present in the chorus. A new guitar line that is barely audible appears underneath the mix, playing a chord progression not previously heard. Chorus: Same as the previous chorus except the harmony comes in right away. Outro: Drums finish this without guitar or bass as they ring out from the chorus. The outro slows down with each bar and doesn't go for a full 4 bars. The synth pad tone from the Intro finishes the song. Blogging Topic Week 5: EMP Project10/26/2016 For my final EMP Remix, I decided to stick to more of a Hip Hop influence focusing more on the beats and structure of the song. By doing so, it gave me more opportunity to make it a catchy hook by sampling the keys and trying to change the pattern of the whole song. I’ve also used a very deep bass and a very punchy kick accompanied with a snare and hi hats with a very fast decay so it wouldn’t over power that low bass. The bass and drums are more of a trap style, while I tried to give a more atmospheric effect to the vocals at points where the beat kicks in to emphasise more on the instruments.
Moving on to the technical aspect of my EMP Remix, I tried using FM synthesis and restricting it to only one note and applied a midi effect "chord" which proved to be useless since I couldn't obtain a progression with just one note playing. I also tried using a groove template but it wasn't too successful on doing anything to the drums so I will have to work on my remix again to make sure I tick all the boxes by doing it properly and make sure my exported audio file does not end with a clip at the end. For the remix itself, I’ve taken this idea of merging different types of hip hop as my previous blogs have shown a lot of variation in hip hop, mostly being swavey, trap and new school. Trying to find common ground proved to be challenging, but I eventually figured out what aspects of hip hop I wanted where, and change non hip hop song into a somewhat hip hop song. The following is a soundcloud link to my remix, have a listen to it: https://soundcloud.com/user-421459739/16t3-aud210-emp-remix Blogging Topic Week 4: Remix Plan10/19/2016 For me remix plan, I had a word with my lecturer and decided to remix a soundalke project from the previous trimesters project of “Hoops” by The Rubens. I took two stems, one of the piano and the vocals and I will hopefully build on that by adding a deep hip hop bass and a custom drum rack.
The only worry I have in remixing is the lack of knowledge I have of Ableton. Working on a new software has deemed to be difficult, nevertheless I have decided to focus more towards a Hip Hop song, something which doesn’t rely on a conventional build and drop, but rather, suspense. I wouldn’t call it a remix as such, but I would like to focus more on interpreting the song through a different genre and production, something which I haven’t done before, but I am keen on trying out so as to further improve my skills as a sound engineer. As for the song although I know my progressions and my pentatonic scales, I was nervous because I have no idea how to replicate sounds using only electronic software as my medium. This is the only drawback I have as a recording artist, but I guess my ability to want to know how to do it, and my curiosity as to how I need to learn to successfully be able to get something decent to put to the table will hopefully get me through this remix project. Blogging Topic Week 3: Sampling10/12/2016 Sampling can be a tricky aspect since it could end up having people suing you over copyrighted material, but when sampling is done correctly and with the legal rights it opens a gateway to a new experience of sound which the sample on its own might not have been able to deliver. In this blog I would like to take into consideration two artists off of whom I can draw inspiration for my EMP remix. The first artist hasn’t been around for long, but when they decided to break out, they did it with a bang. Seeb, a Norwegian production duo managed to recreate Mike Posner’s original song “I Took A Pill In Ibiza” and make it a well know club hit song at present. Original: Seeb's Remix: As you can see, all that Seeb did was sample Mike’s voice and create an insane track using Mike’s voice as the driving element. The second artist has been around for a long time but has only gotten recognition within these couple of years. Kendrick Lamar is known for his old school ways of hip hop and how he sees the need of incorporating the true sound of hip hop into modern day society. I’d like to specifically focus on his “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” which he sampled the baseline track out of “Boom Clap Bachelors” by Tiden flyver featuring Liv Lykke. Original: Kendrick: In each case we can see sampling done brilliantly with of course, rights to copyrighted material. How Seeb used Mike’s voice and changed the tempo and completely changed his voice during the drop and used his voice has more of a lead synth is amazing. And how Kendrick utilised that instrumental sample and stuck to it without tweaking it as much is also genius. These are definitely some key aspects I am going to utilise for my EMP project, and hopefully it will work together well. Blogging Topic Week 2: Synthesis10/11/2016 For the topic on Synthesis, I've chosen to stick to similar genres as my previous blog on the EMP Research. Instead of an artist, I've chosen to go with record producer, radio personality, DJ and record label executive, DJ Khaled. DJ Khaled's styles vary from song to song probably because of the artists he collaborates with, but all of his songs have a distinct similarity which causes it to either be R&B, Hip Hop or Trap but commercial at the same time. With regards to synthesis, I'd like to focus predominantly on Hold You Down by DJ Khalid featuring artists Chris Brown, August Alsina, Future and Jeremih. His use of synth in this particular sound isn't a driving force but more of an undertone to give the song a better foundation. The song provides a trap style beat accompanied with a heavy constant bass and a synth emulating the same notes as the vocals during the chorus, which clarifies the point that it allows the vocals to be more predominant in the song. A recent interview of DJ Khalid also revealed that he used to combine and edit all the vocals in a song as a source of inspiration for his synth sounds, which is a definite inspiration for me on making a good Remix. Blogging Topic Week 1: EMP Research10/10/2016 For my EMP Research, I have decided to focus on an artist who I personally love, Tory Lanez. The thing which caused me to be hooked on to Tory Lanez is because of his relevance to the modern day youth and his expression of how he lives his life being a predominant hip hop artist of todays generation. Although everyones perception of hip hop can be a little preconceived, Tory Lanez's type of hip hop is more of a commercial standpoint in comparison to the everyday rappers mainly because of his singing abilities and catchy hooks. Personally for me his single "LUV" has the most effect on me at an emotional level because he writes of truth and experience. He allows the viewers a view into a glimpse of his live through a personal song he wrote, which is not just lyrically amazing, but extremely catchy as well. The use of effects on his vocals really suits the song, changing the whole dynamics of the song just being a hip hop song to giving it a bit more of a groove and rhythm to is which is one of the main aspects of which I would like to draw out from this blog post. Ultimately, I have a clear source from where I can draw inspiration from for my EMP Remix. Portraying Yourself5/31/2016 In week 6 we looked at how we can use Social Media for out career and what are the various strategies one can use to successfully launch yourself as an individual into this whirlpool of social networking. Since this is my blog, I will tell you a thing or two about the things I am going to implement into getting my music up there for everyone to listen to. It all starts by creating a medium through which people can find you, and this must represent what you want them to see about yourself. I started off by creating a Facebook profile for myself. Facebook provides a great platform since it has so many people already on it, so reaching out to these people has never been easier as an artist. Also, Facebook has the ability to accept money and run ads for you, so it is easier for you to showcase your content to like minded people and potentially get more people to notice you. You don’t have to just end there, you can also use social media applications such as Instagram, where you can apply the same concept of the exchange of money for either likes, follows or views, whichever you prefer to boost. Ultimately, everything depends on how good you are as an artist because even if you boost your posts using money to the public, there’s no point if your music isn’t good enough. If you have great content, then boosting your page/profile/account would be more efficient because people would genuinely listen to what you have to portray out on Social Media. Facebook : www.facebook.com/davidsawangmusic Instagram : www.instagram.com/dsawang Diversity In Design5/30/2016 Diversity in design In week 5 we discussed the various impacts our projects would have if we made them more inclusive of a range of people. The concept of unity in diversity has always been beneficial to the public eye, but it could also be hypocritical at the same time. People look at this as eradicating race and helping people live as one, but on the other hand what it’s really doing is accepting the existence of all people of all race and considering them as equals. At the end of the day, it is the designers who subconsciously feed into the minds of people, the concept of race. I myself am a victim to racial stereotype. At first glance, the assumption in people’s minds is that I’m automatically “Asian” because of my looks. Maybe Malaysian? Filipino? Indonesian? I can go on, but this directly results into racial profiling. I am Indian, and because I don’t look like your stereotypical “Indian”, I suddenly become a person from a different country? How do we classify what Indians look like? My parents belong to the North Eastern region of India, which is why I inherit these “Asian” features, and just because the people of North East India look “Asian” that doesn’t mean we segregate them from the rest of India. We can’t just decide not to involve 45.6 Million Indians who ‘look Asian’ into the Indian history. But where does this mindset come from? It comes from day to day life. Seriously The Australian? Although this might not look racist, the problem arises when a person of a different race takes a jab at illustrating the problems of another one. Bill Leak, as a cartoon designer has always looked to make the masses think about relevant topics, in this case he was simply mocking the Paris deal for spending aid on climate instead of reducing poverty. But why India is the question?
As designers, it is good to tackle down current issues, but at the same time be compassionate to everyone around you. Ultimately the only way to encourage change is to encourage the people who need the change, to change themselves. That is by far the most important of all. Gandhi didn’t fight alone for the Indian people, no, he changed them and they realised what they needed to do. Pearlman, Jonathan. "Australian 'Racist' Cartoon Shows Starving Indians Trying To Eat Solar Panels". Telegraph.co.uk. N.p., 2015. Web. 31 May 2016. |