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We looked inside some of the posts by officialrodrix-blog and here's what we found interesting.
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Last Seen Tumblr Blogs
Fun Fact
Tumblr was created by web developers David Karp and Marco Arment.
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The Lone Explorer
Available to stream on Spotify!
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T.R.E.K. - new single for Doven playlist
Available to stream on Spotify!
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Rainbow Woods - new single for Doven playlist
Available to stream on Spotify!
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Link
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Mastering
Digital Audio Workstation: Logic Pro X
How I prepare my mixes (once bounced/exported) is that I place each of them on their tracks in separate time periods within the project. This is for quicker access of one track to another without needing to mute and unmute; to make the mastering project look as orderly as possible; and to check the overall length of the project.
Another reason for putting all the mixes in one project is the tracks will be processed through the same plug-ins in the master output and finalise their tonality and loudness.
This process may not be the most plausible to be made as one thing, I will be the ‘mastering engineer’ for the mixes, meaning the same ears will be receiving the tracks’ sounds in which they have gotten used to hearing. One caveat with mastering my own tracks is the attachment and the experience I had accumulated from the mixes can cause to overlook any frequency masking or other ‘objective-based’ issues related to audio production (internal: unbalanced frequencies and gain levels, untamed or unsustained signals (shorter delay, gating, longer sustain)) and reproduction (external: various monitors, speakers, headphones).
Plug-ins:
EQ - Equalisation is applied to colour the tracks and shape their tonal spectrum
Compressor
Limiter
Meter (LUFS)
Masters specifications:
WAV
16-bit
Dither #1
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Mixing
To prepare the mixing stage, I exported all individual tracks from Ableton Live as stems. This will lead to exporting the master output track groups alongside the tracks within their respective groups, so I have to be careful of duplicate sounds. After importing them to Logic Pro, I decided on removing the individual tracks within the group as I have already applied processes (EQ, compression) on the group track.
The image below shows the grey regions I am deleting. The track above was the master track and the bottom two are two separate kick drum stems.
The processes used across each tracks were EQ (Channel EQ and/or Linear EQ), Compression and Phat FX. The objectives for mixing stems are to balance each element by giving them room, trim down the peaks and adding more body.
EQ in particular is used on most tracks for high-passing/low-cutting to remove the low-end frequencies and reduce the muddiness.
A high frequency roll-off is also implemented in some tracks. The lead synth for example can dominate the high-end spectrum. Cutting down the higher frequencies (around 8000-20000Hz) can help other instruments producing high end frequencies (e.g. hi-hats) to cut through.
Compression is helpful in reducing the gap between the quiet and loud parts, increasing their perceived loudness. It is also used to accentuate slightly the transients from the kicks and snares (by having a small attack time and long release).
Phat FX, perhaps the most essential plug-in in my mixing stage, is a flexible tool in Logic Pro X that lets me adjust the bandpass, select up to three distortion parameters and adjust the amount of modulation FX.
Distortion settings in particular are useful in the mix, being the closest to the saturator I can access. Soft Saturation (Soft Sat) is commonly used to beef up the sounds with analogue-like process.
Phat FX is the tool I use to add a bit more body and warmth to the instruments and increase the average loudness. Adding certain distortion to a reasonable amount may additionally resolve the problem of sounds not standing out with other sounds.
I made a couple of clips to be able to demonstrate the mixes compared to when they did not have the processes and level balancing. I have made small changes to the volume to ensure that both mixes and pre-mixes have roughly the same peak level.
1 2
The mix on the first clip may not be noticeably louder but with added weight to the bass, the mix sounds fuller. The mixed audio on the second clip has the lead melody standing out more, kick and snare sounding more polished while the zapping synths and underlying ambience are still audible.
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Industry Connections
Involvement and communications with music industry personnel will be minimal.
This course of action may be detrimental to the marketing of the playlist as it will not just become a viral success without someone picking it up.
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Managing The Spotify Artist Profile
As part of my playlist project, I will need to be able to access the RODRIX artist profile. This is so that I can manage the profile including the images (header, avatar), biography/artist information and, most importantly, public playlists.
The header image requires a minimum of 2660x1140 pixels, which is bigger than the image I have produced for the Tumblr header. The solution I came up with is to enlarge the image while retaining their aspect size until both height and width meet the minimum requirements for Spotify.
It may not be ideal to enlarge the whole image as it will become less sharp or blurrier (potentially less professional) but it will be the same image for consistency across my profile pages; in addition, I can produce a new promotional image in a bigger size to prevent requirements like these from becoming a hindrance in the future.
The image will be enlarged to 129.88% of the original, using the bicubic smoother to ensure the pixels do not look blocky.
To publicise a playlist on my Spotify profile, I have to create a playlist under my Spotify account (which I have set up beforehand using my custom e-mail address). After this I can start adding to the Artist profile using the playlist URL (from the Spotify desktop app) anytime, preferably on the later time after all the singles have been released. The release date is shown as a reminder of the publish day and the final release date of all singles to complete the initial playlist tracklist.
Being able to manage my Spotify profile also offer an opportunity to send and provide info on my tracks for playlist curation and personalisation. How this works to a basic level is that Spotify has been working an algorithm that makes some playlists more personalised to each user/listener.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282549/spotify-personalized-playlists-curation-more-songs
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A Role Choice: One-man Label/Imprint or Unsigned?
A long-term goal during and after this project, would it be advisable to be a label or unsigned?
This could be an important decision in releasing music in later time as RODRIX or in a different name/alias. The potential opportunities with naming a label name is increasing professionalism in image, creating what could be perceived as a ‘team’ or a ‘family’.
Another is if an online portfolio is to be built, it helps for visitors to see a more coherent
But disadvantage to this is that there might be even more pressures in dealing with the business side. Plus, setting up, owning and managing a record label is a responsibility that may not suit every musician, whether for the time being or because the music can be brought in by a label or company.
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Soundtrack Playlist Plan
The main idea planned is to release music as a playlist, rather an an album or an EP. This is to be able to adjust the content of the project and expand from time to time. With ‘fixed’ releases (albums, EPs, 2-track singles), there is almost no returning to change after release; and even if it is possible, it can be very costly and time consuming (in physical distribution particularly), not to mention it can confuse someone who is browsing through an album or collection of music and see two versions of the official tracklist (”which one is correct?”).
A playlist will allow room for flexibility and improvement in the track order or the flow and I can add more tracks in the future.
The image above is a rough sketch of what the playlist will look like; edited for replacement of track and album title and artist name, and personal information shown originally. As shown (all titles are tentative), the Track 1 is taken from Track 1, Track 2 from Track 2, coming from separate releases.
As a potential threat to the consistency of my playlist, the playing order do not necessary have to be from top to bottom. Shuffling or picking is a common course of action among listeners (partly why the playlist was planned instead of an EP or album). To deal with the shuffling nature, I may consider not splitting songs/compositions to 2 or more tracks (one tracks transcends to the next track without silence), and take an action of having two compositions within one track.
The order of playlist shown will be for its flow from top to bottom but I also ought to consider how the playlist may sound when shuffled or played not in the order I established.
Post-release (screenshots added on 26th June):
Soundcloud:
Spotify:
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Factors Contributing To Track Production
Technical Limitations
Using inexpensive/free and/or built-in software plug-ins limits the sound manipulation possibilities to mostly manual (and sometimes long and painstaking) work that could’ve been made quicker with certain tools.
Examples:
A lack of time-based LFO signal shaping plug-ins or features makes it longer to apply low pass filter sweep in each beat or bar, and I have to do it by hand by automation.
Not having any glitch FX tools prevents me from morphing the sound signal of drums and other instruments to make sweeps, freezes or loops.
Another perspective to take is the computer used to produce and how many processes it can handle. Having many plug-ins operating, MIDI tracks and notes playing can cause the CPU to reach max capacity and cause slowdowns or stoppage in playback. To prevent this in the production process, I freeze the tracks (tend to be MIDI tracks) to create a reversible/temporary audio track to stop certain plug-ins and MIDI note sample triggering bumping up the CPU usage.
Resources (Samples)
Related to technical limitations is the lack of samples to choose for kicks, snares and even foley. This affects the direction of the music and the vision I have for the sound arrangement.
Musical Skill/Theory
Basic music theory knowledge is beneficial for composition and structure of intervals between notes. The less common/conventional keys and scales have been difficult to remember in the long term. Knowledge of music theory may have affected the creative process, however, it can be argued the concept focuses more on feel and tone than technicality.
Environment
Production work has been often within a room. Occasionally outside almost composing at a whim.
Mental State
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Music Styles/Genres/Directions
The short summary of the musical content of the tracks: It’s electronic at times, situational, generally soundtrack-inspired and varies in terms of genre.
The long, detailed descriptions of tracks:
One track to be released will be acoustic-focused and has no foreground drums; it also contains sweeping guitars and soft background reverberated drums. It is inspired by busking on streets and potential platonic or romantic moments.
There is a location in Devon called Start Point Lighthouse and the track is planned to be placed as the opener for the playlist. The composition has a small touch on future bass, pop and dance genres.
One composition has an influence of Jamaican and Latino pop and dance, but sounding more ambient and inward; representing the sounds from his or her conscience.
A mid-tempo track with background strings, synths and percussive elements, initially replicates the music from a scene of a movie or TV show, but eventually evolves into a more commercial sounding composition.
Non-stop kick drum thumping pervade the whole track. Elements heard in the track are slightly derived from video game soundtracks.
Each track is not directly connected to each other but they may be interpreted take place within a single timeframe or multiple time periods.
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Concept and Theme
The project being worked on has a particular concept and/or theme that may glue the tracks and visuals together or provide clarity on the effect and experience through visual-audio.
Visual Concept
The visual side of concept concerns a fictional universe based on the existing region of Devon, England, United Kingdom. The photos shown will be shot from various places around Devon.
The word “fiction” according to Britannica (https://www.britannica.com/art/fiction-literature) is defined as "literature created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation”.
The ways fictionalisation of Devon can be implemented:
Through the use of post-processing, editing and adding effects which go against realistic perceptions of locations.
Made-up stories or events based (or otherwise) on true stories.
A universe that explains the happenings; but they do not have to tie in to make one whole narrative.
Themes of magic, sorcery, otherworldly (parallel or alternative worlds) and supernatural.
Changing the names of existing places. e.g. Kingskerswell to Queenskerswell.
Theme(s):
The overall theme of the project deals with the perspective of an explorer who gains various experiences through the areas he or she appears. This is established in one of the project files which I named ‘Lone Explorer’. The idea of this theme is that anyone can be in the shoes of the explorer or adventurer. And as such, the experiences can be magical and the imagination of the world around the person is limitless.
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Release Strategy
Marketing (Promotion + Exposure) / Pre-Release
Radio Play (Local Radio Stations (BBC Introducing))
Primary promotion will rely on radio stations. One of the way to go for this is to send the track to contact e-mails of local stations.
Once the tracks have been completed, I will be creating a BBC account so that I can upload two tracks on my choosing to BBC Introducing.
Public Relations (PR)
PR will be costly and beyond the budget for the project release.
Release Date Plans + Distribution
Aggregator: Amuse - free to use
4 or more singles are planned to be released by May - Masters to be sent 3 weeks prior due to distribution process
Services and Focus
Spotify is my main promotional platform for the playlist project.
Reasons are its popularity and accessibility, with reports that there were 207 million active users in 2018.(https://s22.q4cdn.com/540910603/files/doc_financials/quarterly/2018/q4/Shareholder-Letter-Q4-2018.pdf)
Spotify also does not require a paid subscription to be able to stream tracks in full length.
My Soundcloud page is where I will post track previews/snippets and test my playlist tracklist (a playlist can be created on Soundcloud containing my uploads). Previews are posted instead of full tracks because my Soundcloud is a free account, without a subscription.
The Soundcloud profile will also contain exclusive ‘interlude’ tracks that are placed in between (more details at Post-Release).
Post-Release
After posting the playlist on 31st of May, I am planning to release additional tracks left incomplete.
Additionally, with my choice of Amuse as the distributor, short tracks are not being approved. Interlude tracks are essential parts of the soundtrack (as a means of a break, experimental snippets or an immersion to a sonic environment).
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Music Creation Process
DAW
Arrangement / Production: Ableton Live
I use Ableton Live for base sound and audio production.
Common tools used:
Drum Rack - A type of sampler with the focus on drum samples, letting the user place samples in each slot (organised by MIDI notes). Advantages of using this instrument are the ability to adjust its articulation (1-shot option, fade, transposition) and apply processing to each individual slot, not affecting the whole rack (or other slots containing samples).
Wavetable - Software instrument - Synthesiser that allows two oscillators to be operated and adjustments in their signal shape.
Operator - Software instrument - Similar to Wavetable, this is a synthesiser. This is generally used for bassline gliding as I had difficulties doing it on the Wavetable instrument.
Mixing / Additional Production: Logic Pro X
Mastering: Logic Pro X
Artefact specifics:
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Social Networking Channels
What will be the use and purpose of the social networking channels?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RODRIXmusix
For personal use and communicating with other people.
Tumblr
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/officialrodrix
Instagram
For images - can be a gallery of official imagery
Soundcloud
Snippets of upcoming releases.
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Visual Process (Draft Images)
One of the duties of the project is the visuals to accompany the audio.
The images below make use of various styles and processes. They can be considered ‘drafts’ before deciding on a specific direction in visuals.
The images used in the graphical productions are photos taken from various places within the Devon region.
Experiments
I tried overlaying one image (of tree branches) to another (park).
I mirrored this image vertically and inverted to look more nightly.
Final styles and artworks will be on a separate blog post.
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