soundfromlostfutures

[soundfromlostfutures]

Project Summary

- Summarise work

This will contain regular concise entries that critically evaluate your ongoing project development, with linkages to and examinations of relevant research material that is enabling you to elevate your ideas and progress.

you should include a final post that summatively reflects on the quality of the final product, measuring against your original project objectives.

how to succeed at this 

Autonomy, time management and meeting own deadlines.

Implementation of research.

Engagement in Production Showcases, peer review and supervisions.

Regular documentation of progress and quality formative reflection.

Developing product through ongoing critical analysis and quality control.

Creative, effective and professional collaboration.

Engagement with industry.

Careful consideration towards professional product delivery.

Quality summative reflection.

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22nd of May - Promotion & Project Release Plan

Project Release

This week the project is to be released on the 23rd of May. However, due to the Coronavirus impacting the UK postal service, I am still waiting to recieve the cassette tapes. Bandcds said that they would be no longer than 5-8 working days, however, it has now been over 2 weeks. In retrospect, this issue should have been anticipitated and the masters should have been sent sooner to the tape company. With that being said, the album is still on track for the proposed release date and will be released compeltely as normal, however the tapes will be available for pre-order rather than immediate buy now. This ensures that project deadlines are met. 

Marketing

The album is heavily techno influenced and consequently, techno listeners are the general target audience. In order to get the consumer interested, the sample pack is offered for free. The USP for this album is the fact that it has a sample pack featuring the sounds that are used for the creation. Exsisting networks were used to share the work including my other project ‘Traxshnn’ with 6.8K followers. Further, the Traxshnn page is aimed at the techno audience and so sharing the Warden project on there was an approrpiate way to reach the target audience. It was ensured that a range of resources were used to reach a greater number of people, so instagram techno pages with a lage following were messaged and asked to share the work. It was ensured that the information would be easy to access as people are impatient so a link was provided on each story post.

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Email from the website consultant and collaborator Owen Weeks at BJSS

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15th of May - Website Creation with Owen Weeks at BJSS tech development company

Website

This week was spent designing a website to communicate and present the Sounds From Lost Futures project in a professional form. The website functions as an electronic press kit, where the resume for Warden can be found and where ultimately, promoters, journalists and other industry professionals can go to understand who Warden is as an artist and what Warden offers.

The deadline for this project is fast approaching and time needs to also be allocated for marketing and promotion. As such, Owen weeks, technology consultatnt at BJSS, was approached to help share the workload for the website design process. Owen is an industry professional and has previous experience in website design, so his input significantly elevated the overall quality of the website design. Owen and I spent four sessions on zoom video chat coming up with designs and technology that we might use to build the website. Please refer to the following powerpoint which summarises the sessions we had:

This powerpoint was used to inform the website design, and the final website can be found at the following link: 

The home page features the project title in large font along with the cover art for the album and a link to buy, instantly giving the consumer an oppertunity to purchase the album and become aware of this project. The artist name ‘Warden’ is presented in the middle at the top of the website. Further down on the home page, the project abstract is featured which presents the aims and purpose of the project in detail. Everything is kept black as the branding for Warden is dark. Relevantt social media links are presented at the top right of the website page. There is a tabs at the top left of the website for the monoprinting session that Patrick and I had. Dedicating a full page to this session was necessary as it is a unqiue selling point for the album. The album and the sample pack also have indivudal pages where they are presented with previews of the songs and samples. The warden Bio was purposefully left out of the webpage as I wanted to maintain some mystery to who warden is. Finally, there are credits and aknoweldgements of all of the collaborators that helped to realise this project. 

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8th of May - Cassette Tape Reproduction Collaboration with BandsCds.com

Reference to decaying medium final statement the medium is degrading adding material pre-condition of tape to recordings - making it on obsolete medium aliging with themes. - tapes take 5-8 days so appropriate for deadline on 26th may - 

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24th of April - Mastering Collaboration with Pobla &  Setting up Social Media Pages.

Pobla - initally was going to go for Kamikaze space programme as his previous work has been hauntological - drum breaks from previous alias etc - however it was difficult to solidify this - i wanted full analog mastering to alling with prject however this was not possible prices were too high

Pobla were able to master the music and have mastered alot of techno making them appropriate

Warden Alias - based on the carpenter who has done hauntology themes - this is a new style for me and this is just the start - experimenting with degredation as an artistic style. (HAVE TO CHANGE STUFF THAT SAYS WARDEN BEFORE I ANNOUNCE IT) OR MOVE THIS TO EARLIER ENTRY

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Screenshots of sample pack layout and key/bpms etc

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17th April - Sample Pack Creation Process

This week was spent finalising the sample pack. Although the sample pack creation has been on going since the first experiment, it was decided that the sample pack creation would be documented in this single post to keep the journal tidy and concise. The sample pack was created following the ‘How to make a sample pack guide’ on the Native Instruments website (Bull, 2018). By adhering to industry standards, this helped to enhance the overall quality of the sample pack in a number of ways which are explained below. Further, it helps the sample pack to compete alongside other proffesional sample packs in the current market by ensuring that elements such as volume and and sample formatting are the same as other packs. 

Bull stated that all sounds should be 100% royalty-free to avoid legal complications and I followed this advice from the start of the project. For example, all of the vocals are my own voice, all of the sound design and synthesis is generated from scratch and the vinyl that was sampled is one of my own EPs from another project. Alinging with Bull’s recommendation, I supplied the samples in 44.1kHz 24-bit WAV format (Bull, 2018) to ensure that the user had access to broadcast standard sounds, even if the sounds were inherently low fidelity. The file formatting is shown in the ‘file formatting’ screenshot above this post. Bull also stated that samples should be normalised to 0dB to maintain a consistent volume as this helps to make the sample pack sound cohesive and ulitmately, more professional. All of the samples within the present sample pack were normalised and this process is documented in a short video above this post. All loop points were checked to ensure that there were zero crossings and no undesirable clicks so that the samples were not hindered by these and could be widely used (Bull, 2018). Bull suggested that file-naming conventions should include tempo and key information (Bull, 2018). However, I deviated from this by simply naming each sample and including no other information other than the experiment that it was generated from. In doing so, I believe that this inspires creativity as it encourages producers to think more about the texture and timbre of the sounds they are using, rather than being guided by the bpm and key. 

Alinign with the project objectives, the sample pack was created entirely out of sounds from obsolete technology and most of the sounds are heavily degraded. As such, the concept of hauntology is engrained into the sample pack as sounds are extracted from obsolete technology from the past back to the present in the form of a new sample pack. Rather than being arranged by instrument, for example drum, synth, bass etc. (Bull, 2018), the sample pack was arranged by experiment, for example lock-in amplifier, function generator etc. This was necessary as the experimental process with obsolete technology is something that is unique to this project and noting this in the file naming conventions helps to set this sample pack apart from other packs in the market. Finally, the sample pack will be made available for free, alinging with the project objectives, to spread this experimental sound pallette as widely as possible and spread elements from the past widely into the present.

dbs brief says 16bit audio 

but sample pack is 24bit

Reference List:

Bull, R. (2018). How to make a sample pack. Retrieved May 17, 2020, from Native Instruments Blog website: https://blog.native-instruments.com/how-to-make-a-sample-pack/

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Track 8 - Metaphysics of Presence 

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Failed CD Glitch Experiment with CD Preamp Saturation Alternative

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10th of April -  Failed CD experiment With Preamp Saturation Alternative & Track 8 - Metaphysics of Presence

This week the final experiment was conducted and the last track on the album was created in order to ensure that there was a sufficient amount of time for the mastering process to commence before the deadline. The experiment was initially inspired by Oval’s album Systemisch (1994) which features hundreds of samples that were created from scratched and written-on compact discs that would skip and fail (Richardson, 2015). Oval would then edit these samples into glitchy, rhytmic grooves during post-production (Young, 2016).

As I followed Oval’s CD glitching process an unexpected issue emerged when the CD player would not play the CDs that I had drawn on. After mutliple efforts to get the CD player to read the disc, it became evident that following Oval’s approach would not be possible. Discarding this experiment entirely would have had a detrimental effect on the overall quality of this project as the sample pack would have featured less sounds. To counteract this issue and maintain the quality of the project, an alternative approach to experimentation was adopted. This approach involved processing a CD preloaded with samples, documented in the video above, through the preamp on the mixing console. Further, a parallel distortion channel to increase the amount of distortion was added, resulting in harsh and extreme textures. This process was informed by the Caretaker who is well known for his hauntological music in which he distorts 1930′s tearoom pop (Fisher, 2012). Applying distortion adds texture and crackle to the recording and crackle is a signature trait of Hauntological music as it renders time as an audible material as the material pre-condition of the sound is evident (Fisher, 2012). 

Track 8 - Metaphysics of Presence 

This week the final track on the album, Metaphysics of Presence, was created. The track features sounds from all of the experiments to represent the presence of elements from the past. These include the ‘ ‘ lead from function generator, textures from the lock-in amplifier and CD distortion experiment, hi hats ‘ ‘ from the broken vinyl experiment, textures from the no input mixing and finally, vocals from the telephone experiment. The track is designed to be slightly different to all the other tracks in the album stylistically in order to leave the listener with a sense of uncertainty as the past has prevailed.

Feedback from Industry Contacts

Initally, the track didnt feature a lead melody. It was sent to an industry contact Demetae who produces experimental techno. He advised me that the track may benefit from a melodic lead sound which inspired the use of the lead and I feel that this elevated the quality of the track as it made it more interesting.

Reference List:

Fisher, M. (2012). What Is Hauntology? Film Quarterly, 66(1), 16–24. doi:10.1525/fq.2012.66.1.16 

Richardson, M. (2015). A Glitch in Time: How Oval’s 1995 Ambient Masterpiece Predicted Our Digital Present. Retrieved May 19, 2020, from @pitchfork website: https://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/9730-a-glitch-in-time-how-ovals-1995-ambient-masterpiece-predicted-our-digital-present/

Young, J. (2016). Compact Discs as Expanded Instruments: Pioneers of Hacked CD Sound Art – Soundfly. Retrieved May 18, 2020, from Soundfly website: https://flypaper.soundfly.com/features/compact-discs-instruments-pioneers-cd-sound-art/

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Track 3 - The Manner of the Ghost

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The final sample pack artwork and album artwork created by Future Tragedy

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Cassette Tape Artwork - Created by Future Tragedy

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Future Tragedy’s Previous Work

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3rd of April - Eneko Artwork Design Collaboration - Track 3 - The Manner of The Ghost

Future Tragedy Artwork Collaboration

This week was spent collaborating with graphic designer Eneko Belamendia, professionally known as Future Tragedy. Eneko was approached to format the monoprint artwork that I created with Patrick into a size that would fit onto the cassette tape cover. Initally this collaboration was going to take place face to face, however, following the Corona Virus lockdown this was not possible. Instead, the collaborative process with Eneko took place via facebook messenger. This collaboration process is briefly documented in the screenshots above. A concious effort was made to be polite and respond quickly to Enekos messages to ensure that he felt happy and comfortable working with me which would utimately optomise the final outcome of the collaborative process. Although face-to-face collaboration may have enhanced the quality of the artwork as my input may have been more clear, I was very happy with the final cassette tape design which is shown above. 

Eneko was approached as his previous work aligns with the conceptual goals of this project as he has previously made a lot of dark, textural and eerie designs which are shown in the ‘previous work’ photo above this entry. This helped with project quality assurance felt that Enekos input would reflect the hauntological conceptual goal of this project hauntology appropriately based on his previous work. After I recieved the cassette tape design, I felt that the overall visual aesthetic of the project could be improved if Eneko reworked the album and sample pack cover, that I designed with Patrick, in a similar way to the cassette tape design. Eneko’s album cover and sample pack cover designs are shown above. I felt that there was a discrepancy between the album cover that I designed with Patrick and Eneko’s tape design and so Eneko desigining the album cover and sample pack cover helped the project to look more visually cohesive and proffesional. Further, Eneko’s work has a very high quality rendered quality to it which helps it to compete along side other high quality artwork in the modern music market. Regarding social and ethcial dimensions, Patrick’s signature is included on the artwork for the album and sample pack artwork. It is imperative that Patrick’s input is recognised as largely contirbuted towards the monotype creation and I really appreciated this. Further, Eneko and Patrick’s input will be specifically noted in the project description along with their contact details to ensure that their hard work is recognised and others can contact Eneko or Patrick if they want to collaborate with them.  The last track title was decided before it was created to ensure artwork was generated quickly.

Further, the album cover features both mine and Patricks signatures as it is imperative that the creative input of the collaborators are noticed. All of the collaborators are credited in the write up and description.

crediting collaborators for social / ethical standards making sure their work is noticed.

Track 3 - The Manner of the Ghost 

This week Track 3 - The Manner of the Ghost was created. The drum programming is very straight without any swing to represent the militant march of the ghost of the past returning to the present. Overall the track is extremely dark to convey a sense of dread as the ghost returns. The pads are dissonant and noisy to depict a sense of unease and apprehension as the present moment is unsettled by the spectres of the past. Further, dissonance is slightly unsettling to the ear, similar to how the past is unsettling the present. Drawing reference to Moore’s sonic descriptors, reverb is added to the lead bass to make it sound hollow representing the fluid and hollow form of the ghost. Eerie vocals are added from the telephone experiment to submerge the listener in the the ghosts and spectres as the prevail. 

Reference List:

Moore Sonic Descriptors - https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NZ7DCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=sonic+art+descriptors+moore&source=bl&ots=W0FJ75rabS&sig=ACfU3U0PCLgTosJESmXXj9z2MF66X45X0A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4l77l5rbpAhWmTxUIHdeKBYAQ6AEwDXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=sonic%20art%20descriptors%20moore&f=false

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Track 4 - Unsettled