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Post Release

Post Release

The first week and a half succeeding the release of World Unknown has overall been a successful endeavor, considering it is debut release from a previously unestablished and unheard of artist. 

In order to gain as much traction to the various digital and physical formats, the day after release I created a short promotional video for Instagram that consisted of a still image of the album cover accompanied by the opening music of the albums first track, ‘Take Off’. I paid £17 for a three day promotion. This promotion not only garnered a decent 3,000+ views, but also garnered the attention of a prominent MC from Sheffield, Jack Danz, and a popular Lofi Hip Hop Instagram page called Viberoom. Below is an image of the aforementioned post alongside a link to the promotional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD69XW-AzaI&feature=youtu.be

At the time of writing this, World Unknown currently has had 300 plays, on Spotify, 276 plays on Bandcamp, and the video for the single ‘Kozu’ has 240 views. Additionally, 12 cassettes have been sold, amounting to £60 being made so far. 

Unfortunately, Apple Music’s ‘Music For Artists’ service is currently in its beta stage, and I am still currently going through its verification process, meaning I cannot view the statistics of any Apple Music activity.

As the data gathering from Spotify is quite in depth, allowing one to view the number of plays that have been had, the amount and location of individual listeners, alongside their age and genders. This data can be seen in the following images:

Although it’s an extremely small percentage, I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that I had listeners who considered themselves nonbinary in gender, as one of the main aspects that I appreciate in making music, and music, in general, is its ability to attract a wide diversity of listeners.

Below is the data collected from Bandcamp:

While not as detailed as Spotify's statistics, Bandcamps data allows you to see the estimated listening time of each track, alongside how they accessed your Bandcamp page, which is useful for figuring out if services such as Smarturl work as a marketing tool. 

Future Prospects

Throughout the initial promotion and release of the project, I was contacted by two MC’s who I have known for a while, asking if I had any instrumentals they could use. After some correspondence, we decided to start a collaborative project and recorded 3 tracks, one of which has already been mixed down to premaster stage. We are planning to use them for a conceptual album surrounding the phrase ‘Cellar Door’, which has been described as the most beautiful combination of words in the English language (smith, 2005). The three tracks are at various stages in terms of completion but their current iterations can be heard here:   

 www.soundcloud.com/dumbcreepr/sets/caskxclhndxcreepr/s-n3cAe

Now that the development for this project has been completed and released to the public, it feels like an appropriate time to look at future prospects, whilst also generating a larger audience for not only my album, but also my brand as a musician, and my music.

The process of developing and releasing this project has been an extremely educational and enjoyable experience, and I am looking forward to developing my artist profile and creating future releases.

References

smith, r. (2005). timeless tolkien [part 2]. English Today, [online] 21(4), pp.13-20. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-today/article/timeless-tolkien-part-2/3C4F84198B011FC2178A4A9F903DECDE [Accessed 10 May 2019].

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Release!

On Monday the 30th of April ‘World Unknown’ Officially became available for the public to purchase on Bandcamp, Apple Music, and Spotify. Due to some confusion in regards to release times on the date, the Bandcamp/cassettes were available from midnight onwards, whilst the streaming service versions of the album did not go live until 6PM that evening. In order to minimise the noticeability of this mistake, the album was not announced as being released until it was live on all online platforms.  

Once ‘World Unknown’ had been released on all platforms, a slightly more personal social media post was created, celebrating the successful completion of the project, whilst also promoting the availability of the cassettes, a few of which were sold on the release date, with some on Bandcamp and some through private messenger, and in person.

Considering this was a debut release, the reception received was incredibly positive, and receiving messages from respected peers praising the project has had a strong impact on my self-confidence as a producer, which is something that has been a struggle in the past.  

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Pre Release & Cassette Promotion

The final week preceding the albums release date was centered around promoting and building traction for the release of ‘World Unknown’ as much as possible before the 30th of April.

The decision was made to place an emphasis on the promotion of the album onto its physical format. It’s role as a tangible product serves as an enticing and useful gimmick, which can be utilised for promotion. While the word ‘gimmick’ tends to pertain a certain amount of stigma attached (Baskerville and Baskerville, 2017), it is not necessarily a negative thing, depending on its use (Fink and Fink, 1996). In this context, the ‘gimmick’ that is employed happens to also be one of the projects main unique selling points (USP’s).

The first promotional post was released exactly one week before the album’s release date. As the cassettes and J cards needed to be assembled, the idea was had to record a time lapse video of me preparing the cassettes for distribution, with the timelapse being accompanied by an instrumental crafted specifically for the video, but one that carried the sound that allowed it to potentially be a track featured in the album. Once completed the video was posted to Facebook and Instagram, alongside links to the previously released single for the album, ‘Kozu’.

Below are photos of the iMovie project, the promotional posts on social media, and a link to the full promotional video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmuuyADqSQ&feature=youtu.be

As can be seen in the above photos, the post was well received and attracted positive attention and feedback from peers and the general public, along with receiving a generous number of views. Due to people sharing, liking and commenting on the post fairly frequently, the video remained on Facebook's timeline for around half the week

On the 29th of April, the day before the album’s release, a long body of text alongside photos of the album’s cassettes were posted to my social media accounts, detailing and promoting the upcoming album. While the main focus on the post was set to the availability of cassettes, and where they could be purchased, a portion of the post announced that the project would be available on Apple Music and Spotify alongside its Bandcamp release.

While in the proposal it was originally stated that the digital format of the album would solely remain on Bandcamp, after conducting further market research I came to the conclusion that a release on major streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify would direct more traffic to the album (Thall, 2016). The aforementioned post can be seen below.

Reception

The promotion through the week appeared to have had a positive effect on gaining public attention to the album, alongside attracting interest to my production in general. Alongside receiving private messages from people I'm connected to on social media, I have had two friends who are well established Hip Hop MC’s express their interest in collaboration after hearing my single release and seeing the promotion for the album. We are currently in the process of discussing the foundations of a collaborative project.

References

Baskerville, D. and Baskerville, T. (2017). Music business handbook and career guide. 11th ed. SAGE Publications, Inc, p.178.

Fink, M. and Fink, M. (1996). Inside the music industry. 2nd ed. New York: Schirmer Books, pp.76-123.

Thall, P. (2016). What they'll never tell you about the music business. 2nd ed. P.76.

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Single And Music Video Release

Early on in the development of ‘World Unknown’, I decided to release a single prior to the albums full release. Releasing a single before a feature-length project is especially important if it is the artists first release, as it not only serves as a way to promote the upcoming project but also provides the artist with information on their market viability, which in turn generates information of target audience, demographics, etc. (Robley, 2019). The single release is of the second track on the album, titled ‘Kozu’.

In order to make the release of the single a bit more engaging for the listener, I decided to make a music video to accompany the single. The idea was to have the video be comprised of edited clips from public domain vintage sci-fi movies that fit the tone of the track. The style of clip editing was inspired from various Youtube channels such as ‘peel’, ‘Tommy Toomani’, who take a lofi Hip Hop track and make edits using various, (usually obscure) movie and tv show clips, an example of this can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG8u6UktdnE

The clip editing was developed through iMovie and was a fairly simple process that comprised of cuts of different clips, and did not use any additional effects, usually utlised noticeable elements of the track such as the drumbeat as cues to cut to the next clip. The imagery used throughout the music video is meant to compliment, and represent what is being heard through the track, which is, for the most part, serene and calming, apart from a slightly menacing section about halfway through, which is accompanied by the appropriate imagery.

 Below is an image of the iMovie project

In this projects second blog post you can see the beginnings of the video’s process, although at the time the track only consisted of the introduction, so I did not know where in the album it would sit, or what the track would be called.

The music video and the Bandcamp version of the single were posted simultaneously and overall was met with a positive reception on both Facebook and Instagram, with the project being shared and commented on frequently.

On Instagram, a paid promotion was used for the announcement of the single, and music videos released in order to receive more traction and the posting of both were used to reinforce the release of ‘World Unknown’.

At the time of posting the music video currently has 224 views, while Bandcamp traffic remained at a fairly low level, with a small total of 16 plays.

 A link to the full video and Bandcamp single  can be found below:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkZ7Z8vB0D4&t=1s

https://dbcreepr.bandcamp.com/track/kozu

The next post will discuss the last piece of pre-release promotion which will be centered around the albums’ cassettes. 

References

Robley, C. (2019). Why new musicians MUST put out a single FIRST - DIY Musician Blog. [online] DIY Musician Blog. Available at: https://diymusician.cdbaby.com/music-promotion/why-musicians-must-put-out-a-single-first/ [Accessed 20 Apr. 2019].

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Cassette and J Card arrival.

J Card Artwork  

Early on in the week, I received an email letting me know that my J card artwork had been completed, and was ready to be collected

As can be seen in the above photo, the top image is of the outer J card and the bottom image is of the inlay that will be on the inside of the cassette. I was extremely happy with the final results, the prints are of high quality and the printing company provided me with extra copies. Below are images of the J card artwork inside a cassette case

The only negative aspect is that the final print does not completely cover the inside of the cassette case, but that was due to me and my designer when formatting the dimensions of the image, and fortunately, the gap is hardly noticeable.

Cassette arrival!

Later on in the week, the cassettes arrived, all in great condition with an extra two thrown in! 

I made a post about the cassette delivery on my social media accounts in order to begin promoting the upcoming physical product and  to keep the public updated on the progress of the album, 

Once I ensured the delivery was all in order, I gave the album a listening test on my cassette player, and everything sounded great. No parts of the album had been accidentally cut out, and many of the elements present within the album's tracks were complemented by the sonic qualities given off by the tape.

I also made a social media post about testing the cassettes, in order to preempt their announcement of sale sometime next week.

Below is a photo of my cassette and cassette player!

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Distribution, Cassette duplication & Promotion

This Blog post is going to be discussing the processes and correspondences that have occurred over the past week in regards to organising cassette duplication and

album distribution, along with social media promotion.

Artwork & Digital distribution

the past week has involved organising digital distribution for ‘World Unknown’. As previously mentioned, the artwork for the album had to be formatted properly in order to be accepted by digital shops such as Spotify and Apple music.

With the help of artist Lilcatgod, I formatted the artwork to the appropriate dimensions, which is between 1000x1000 - 3000x3000. The intention was to still keep the rectangular shape of the artwork as it is reminiscent of a movie poster, so to accommodate the required dimensions the rest of the area is filled with white blank space. The image can be seen below.

Once the image was completed it meant that the Album was ready to be pre uploaded to Spotify and Apple music via Distrokid. The album was uploaded to be processed on the 09/04/2019. When Pre uploading, Distrokid advise that you upload your work at least four weeks before the custom release date (DistroKid, n.d.), so there is a small chance that the Spotify and Apple music release may be delayed. With that said the album will also be going live on Bandcamp, which is also where people will be able to purchase physical copies of the album, so a delay through Distrokid will not hinder the original release date.

Tape artwork

The next step in the artwork process was to format the artwork so that it would be suitable for a cassette J card. as can be seen below The outer design is the original artwork with an area containing the title which will be used as the spine, followed by the back which contains the albums tracklist. The inside of the inlay is a simple image of a starry scenery. A photo of the cassette artworks can be seen below.  

Cassette Duplication & Physical Distribution

The next step was to find a suitable cassette duplicator. Despite looking into alternative websites, other Lofi Hip Hop artists who have put their work to cassette such as iLe Flottante heavily recommended using the UK based cassette specialists  Tapeline to arrange cassette duplication. When submitting audio for tape duplication, It is important that your masters are suitable for cassette in order to avoid any potential issues (Nardi, 2014). While Tapeline offer a mastering service in order to make your tracks suitable for duplication, as stated previously the mastering engineer I worked with sent me an additional cassette suitable master, making the process much easier.

When putting your album to cassette one of the main aspects that need to be taken into account is tape length, as picking a length that is too short would result in your project cutting off before its natural conclusion. With ‘World Unknown’’s length being approximately 33 minutes in total, in order to avoid this issue I chose the tape length C70, which can fit 35 minutes worth of audio onto it. When taking into account the 2-3 seconds of silence requested at the start and end of the Master it seems to be the perfect tape length available. Additionally, as the project is only 33 minutes long the decision was made to have the same audio copied on both A and B sides of the cassette.

An order for 50 duplications of the tape was placed with the total cost being £177.24. If sold for £5 each I should gain £72.76 profit, although that does not take into account mastering costs and other expenses. Full details of my cassette order can be seen below.

On the release date, the cassettes will be available to purchase via Bandcamp. Although they take 10% of all physical sales, having a distributor will make sales much easier to manage, and occasional exceptions can be made in terms of selling some cassettes outside of any third party 

J Cards

The last step in ordering everything needed for a cassette release was to have my artwork printed onto J cards. As I had the artwork formatted all that was needed was to find a printing company with a good quote.

I initially contacted Hounsfield printing due their close location and good reviews on Google, but after some correspondence it came to light that they only do prints in batches of 100 or more, so I had to look elsewhere

After some research I managed to find Hobs Repro Bristol, a well regarded printing service that was happy to take on the job. The type of paper chosen was a slightly thicker 160gsm with a matt finish. An order was placed costing £22.68, and is expected to be finished by next week. Full correspondence with Hobs Repro can be seen Below.

Promotion

With everything in place in terms of digital and physical distribution, I decided to post an update of the album's progress on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, primarily promoting the cassette version of ‘World Unknown’. In the same post, I also announced that I will be releasing a single taken from the album, which will be the second track, titled ‘Kozu’. This will be released next Thursday on Bandcamp and will have an accompanying music video, which is currently being edited. The reason behind a Bandcamp release for the single is due to the potential delay that could incur if uploaded Distrokid. It will also draw traction to my Bandcamp artist page, which will be important for physical sales when the Cassettes are released.

I also released a 15 second clip of the music video on my Facebook and Instagram stories for 24 hours as a teaser in order to gain some extra attention to the project.

The announcement and promotion of the project were well received by the public, and since the social media posts have gone live I have received multiple Private messages expressing interest in the project, and purchasing cassettes.

a link to the music video trailer and images of the social media posts and can be seen below.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO6fskjzzIQ&feature=youtu.be

The next blog post will be delving into the editing process of the music video, alongside a more in depth look into the projects promotion.

References

DistroKid. (n.d.). If I Specify a Custom Release Date, When Will My Album Appear in Stores?. [online] Available at: https://distrokid.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013534454 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

Nardi, C. (2014). Gateway of Sound: Reassessing the Role of Audio Mastering in the Art of Record Production. Dancecult, [online] 6(1), pp.8-25. Available at: https://dj.dancecult.net/index.php/dancecult/article/viewFile/456/454 [Accessed 5 Apr. 2019].

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Production analysis: Skits

Early on in the production process, the decision was made to utilise skits throughout the album.

The term ‘Skit’ tends to be used in reference to Hip Hop, and generally comprises of a short piece that consists of vocals, or music that can sometimes carry a comedic element to them. Skits are often associated with albums that have some type of concept attached to them (McLeod, 1999), and have also been summerised to as an ‘audio collage’ (Red Bull Music Academy, 2015). The use of skits can help drive the core of the music's concept to the listener, and due to the fact they are oftenly much shorter than the accompanying songs, the content needs to be concise, without being over concentrated.

3 full Skits can be heard throughout the entirety of World Unknown, with one skit every 3 tracks. This choice in placement  serves as a way to indicate the start of a new ‘act’, as well as provide exposition to set the tone for the following tracks. Despite there being 3 individual skits that stand on their own, many of the elements that skits consist of can be heard throughout the main tracks in the album, usually at the start or end of the song.

One of the main reasons for deciding to utilise skits in this project was to signify pivotal moments within the narrative of the album in a way that is clear to the listener.

In this context, one of the main sources of inspiration when composing the skits came from Hip Hop Producer/Rapper MF DOOM, an artist with a persona is centered around a conceptual ethos and a universe/area that the character resides in (Purdom, 2017). The majority of his songs are accompanied by skits that convey and reinforce this narrative, which has been known to span across multiple albums.

In order to examine specific examples of direct influence DOOM’s work has had when composing ‘World Unknown’, I’ll compare two of my skits against one of DOOMs, breaking down the similar elements and themes utilised by both.

Mm.. Food

A strongly appropriate example of the use of a skit in an album dealing with some type of concept can be found in the opening track of  MF DOOM'S second album, ‘Mm...Food’ (2004), titled ‘Beef Rapp’. As the title suggests, the album’s conceptual framework is based on many aspects of food, whether it be about its consumption, description of, or reference to.

The first 1.48 minutes of ‘Beef Rapp’ is comprised of a skit that not only encapsulates the core concept of the album, but also highlights the DOOM character and the surrounding mythos crafted by the artist. The skit was composed using a mix of samples containing clips from the 1980’s Spiderman cartoons ‘Dr. DOOM’ Character, the song ‘Would you Like a snack?’ by Frank Zappa, alongside the movies ‘Wildstyle’, ‘Logans Run’, and ‘Bowery at Midnight’ (Whosampled.com, n.d.). These samples are accompanied by a drum break with continuously changing patterns, providing the listener with rhythm to accompany the exposition. The setting DOOM presents the listener with contains many elements that embody Roads’ concept of a Sonic narrative, such as the use of humor and irony as a narrative strategy, with a specific example of this being the concept of music being mixed in and odd way in order to evoke a humorous reaction of sorts (Roads, 2015).

The section of the track in question can be heard here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuxHWc-ZEXw

Use in ‘World Unknown’

To present how I've utlised skits, and elements of skits in ‘World Unknown’ I will be breaking down two examples of its use in the album; The introduction of World Unknowns third track, ‘Encabulator’, and the first full length skit in the album, ‘Impact’. Both of which can be heard here: (The intro for Encabulator has been taken out of the full track in the attached link)

  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kUQT-_a3-1C--DS7poy-PwqRkuvoc1fJ?usp=sharing

Various Influences can be identified when comparing the skits and clips  taken from World Unknown, and compared to DOOMs use, such as the use of layered sampled vocals serving as a way to provide exposition to the listener, whilst also setting the tone of the song, while also layering the track with Instrumentation and drums in order to maintain rhythm that is expected with the genre.

Overall, it would be fair to argue that the use of skits is a helpful tool in this context. It is genre appropriate and is useful when trying to convey a concept, or some sort of exposition to the listener, hence its use to some extent throughout many of the tracks in ‘World Unknown’.

References

McLeod, K. (1999). Authenticity Within Hip-Hop and Other Cultures Threatened with Assimilation. Journal of Communication, [online] 49(4), pp.134-150. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1999.tb02821.x [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

Purdom, C. (2017). [online] Music.avclub.com. Available at: https://music.avclub.com/meet-the-many-faces-and-masks-of-mf-doom-in-60-minute-1798262804 [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

YouTube. (2015). DOOM Lecture (Madrid 2011) | Red Bull Music Academy. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGu0ao_rdAk [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

Roads, C. (2015). Composing electronic music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.333.

Whosampled.com. (n.d.). [online] Available at: https://www.whosampled.com/MF-DOOM/Beef-Rapp/ [Accessed 13 Apr. 2019].

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Mastering Update & Distribution

Mastering Update

Despite being informed that my tracks would take approximately two and a half weeks to be mastered, Dave from Imperial mastering contacted me three days later with a finished product for me to listen to.

After receiving an MP3 of the masters to test the quality of the final product, they were listened to in three separate environments in order to gain a better perspective into how the album sounds, and if this sound is consistent (Katz, 2015). These environments consisted of Studio 5, a sound treated room with a pair of Adam A5x’s, Sennheiser Headphones, and KRK Rokit 6’s in my bedroom. In each setting, the album sounded great, and for the most part encapsulated what was hoping to be gained  through the mastering process, whilst still retaining the sonic details that defined the characteristics of the project. 

The only noticable downside is that some unwanted distortion has come from some of the vocal samples used, but this is due to the samples that were taken from low quality MP4’s of old movies, meaning that these issues were more than likely already present and just became noticeable after the mastering process. This element should have been addressed and explored further. during the mixing process.

After I confirmed I was happy with the work, and did not see any need for revisions, Dave sent my the entirety of my project which consisted of the MP3’s, Wavs suitable  for cassette duplication and wavs for digital release. 

Dealing with Dave was an easy and friendly process, and his offer to share my project once it’s released was a nice gesture. He will definitely be considered in mastering future projects 

The reason for these slightly alternative versions of the masters is due to certain requirements in and restrictions presented by streaming services such as Apple Music & Spotify (Schorah and Inglis, 2017). There are similar factors that also need to be taken into account when mastering music for an analogue format such as tape (Katz, 2015).

Distribution

Although in the original proposal it was stated that the digital release of Wolrd Unknown would be solely on Bandcamp, the decision was made to distribute the project on all major platforms, due to the additional exposure that this is likely to provide.

Taking the advice from friends who distribute their music on large streaming platforms, alongside comparing various distributors such as Tunecore, and DittoMusic, I came to the conclusion to use the website Distrokid. It allows you to distribute your music across all major streaming platforms, and costs $39.00 a year, letting the artist keep 100% of any royalties made.

I signed up for a ‘Musician Plus’  account, which allows me to pre upload music and set a release date along with a list of other benefits that can be seen below 

In order to begin organising distribution, I  have planned to meet up with Lilcattgod, the artist who helped design the artwork for World Unknown, and reformat the albums artwork into dimensions that are suitable for digital distribution, which is approximately 1500x1500 pixels (ReverbNation Blog, 2014) , alongside a format that is suitable for the  cassette prints, which consists of at least 300 pixels per inch  (Duplication.ca, n.d.)

References

Duplication.ca. (n.d.). AUDIO CASSETTE COVER TEMPLATE DOWNLOADS. [online] Available at: https://www.duplication.ca/printspecs/cassette-cover-templates.htm [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Katz, R. (2015). Mastering audio. 4th ed. Burlington: Focal Press, pp.263-271.

Katz, R. (2015). Mastering audio. 4th ed. Burlington: Focal Press, pp.197-211.

ReverbNation Blog. (2014). Digital Distribution Checklist: Getting Your Release Ready for iTunes, Spotify, and More | ReverbNation Blog. [online] Available at: https://blog.reverbnation.com/2014/11/14/digital-distribution-checklist-getting-your-release-ready-for-itunes-spotify-and-more-3/ [Accessed 7 Apr. 2019].

Schorah, J. and Inglis, S. (2017). Mastering For Streaming Services |. [online] Soundonsound.com. Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/mastering-streaming-services [Accessed 7 April. 2019].

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Mixing & Mastering

Since the previous post, the focus of the project has consisted of adding finishing touches to each track and mixing the project down in order to be sent off to Dave at Imperial Beats for mastering. I contacted Dave last week in order to confirm that he was still happy, and available to master the project at the date agreed in our original conversation. His reply and following correspondence can be seen below.

After I received confirmation from Dave, the main priority consisted of mixing down the album, a process that did not prove to be too challenging, as not only was the sound of each tracks mix kept in mind throughout the production of the project, but the Lofi aspect to the album encourages certain elements that would often be tackled in a mix such as Hisses and pops remain, and in some cases, exemplified. The practice of mixing the project primarily comprised of ensuring each element flowed properly and sat comfortably within the confines of each song. The process of mixing the album took approximately a week, with the pre masters ready to be sent off by 01/04/2019. I then sent an Email to Dave letting him know that the pre masters were ready to be sent. 

As seen in the above photos, we identified and discussed some requirements that were needed for the job, alongside with a  helpful suggestions on Daves end to make sure each track blends in to one another. The tracks were named and numbered as per request from Dave, and the final pre masters were sent, with an estimated 1-2 weeks turnaround time.

The extra window of free time that is a result of waiting for the album to be mastered will be utilised by working on promoting the album and editing a music video to the songs second track, which will release prior to the albums release date.

 Discussion on further promotion, the process of editing the music video and further analysis of some of the projects themes will begin in next week's post.  

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Artwork Development, Project Announcement & Marketing

Part 1: Artwork Development & Project Announcement.

The past week was initially dedicated to completing artwork for the project, so that promotion can officially begin. While there has been a been mild teaser in the form of a promo video that was posted around a month ago, The name and release date of the project had not been publicly announced.

As stated previously, the decision was made to collaborate with a friend on designing the albums Artwork alongside an artist logo, both of which were completed in a weekend. The design and assembly of the artworks images were done in person, which allowed both of us to communicate creative decisions and ideas as work was being done.

The artwork was made by combining a mix of various public domain Retro futuristic and sci-fi images, and putting them together in photoshop.

Below is an example of some of the images used: 

The process only took a few hours, as the workflow was incredibly smooth, we both listened to some tracks of the album while designing the cover in order to maintain a clear image of what we felt was needed, the final product can be seen below.

Designing the artist logo was a simple process  that combined by my own face with the famous hijacker D.B. Cooper’s, which can be seen below: 

I was very pleased with the end results of the album artwork and artist logo. 

Trailer

To announce the project, I made a trailer by putting a 1 minute skit from the album over the albums cover art in iMovie. As the project has not yet been mastered I ran the premaster through an ozone mastering preset. As the only format the trailer will be in is an MP4 on Facebook and Instagram, It seemed suitable considering both websites compression rates (Bossetta, 2018). The trailer can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEbkK4w8yxA&feature=youtu.be

Album announcement

The trailer was uploaded to Facebook and Instagram  and The project was announced on Thursday the 21/03/2019 at around 5.30pm. The choice of date was based on the day being a Thursday a day that studies have shown Facebook engagement rates are 18% higher on (Pagoto et al., 2016). I applied the same logic to Instagram due to the face of them being owned by Facebook

While the Facebook Post was posted on my private profile, and the video was set to ‘public’, the  Instagram video was uploaded to on my artist page alongside a higher resolution image of the album artwork as a seperate post.  and I made the decision to implement paid promotion on Instagram for 48 hours, which cost just over £15. The promotion was fairly successful, with the post garnering 150 likes and over 9,000 views. Screenshots of Facebook and Instagram Posts can be seen below: 

The reception of the announcement of the album has been extremely positive At the time of this post, the Facebook video has almost 600 views whilst the Instagram Video has almost 9,100. Two artists who are rappers and producers have also reached out to me asking to collaborate once the album has been released. 

Over the next month until release promotion will involve the release of a music video, and other teasers that will be made from material that won't make into the full album, and will be posted to Facebook and Instagram.

Production Analysis 3: Sampling

Although Sampling is often utilised and associated within the Hip Hop scene, Its practice is an often divisive in the music industry in regards its use as production technique throughout the music industry, and its integrity has often come into question (Behr, Negus and Street, 2017). Due to some of these concerns, the samples implemented throughout the album are heavily manipulated in order to greatly differentiate from the original sound. 

In this post I will be breaking down how I utilise sampling in two examples, displaying the original sample, then discussing the processes that lead to its use in the end product. One will focus on vocal manipulation whilst the other will focus on the use of a melodic sample. 

The chorus of the track First Contact is comprised of a distorted and manipulated vocal sample which was taken from a short excerpt of a song called ‘This Guys In love With You’. the clip was then pitched down by 6 semitones and the audio was chopped up and rearranged in in Ableton, resulting in a sample with a disjointed uncomfortable feel, when compared to its original format.

After I was happy of how the sample now sounded, I routed the audio through my SP and used its vinyl sim and pitch effects. The Wet audio then had sidechain compression to the drums applied. Its evolution from dry sample to i implementation into the chorus of  the track can be heard here:      

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zww5Kl0FAcs99v_-4sI-BFupgDJuInLy/view?usp=sharing

The use of vocal manipulation  in this example took partial inspiration from how  Flying Lotus implements into his tracks, by ‘chopping’ the samples up drastically, and then using heavy sidechain compression to cause the vocals to duck under the kick drum every time it hits, providing the track with additional dynamic edge that is intended to complement the overall head bopping sound associated with Hip hop (Hodgson, 2011)

The main melody heard throughout the track solace is of a Rhodes sounding instrument, consisting of a two bar loop playing a few keys. While on a superficial level it may seem like a relatively simple melodic implementation, the tone the sample relays thoroughly reflect where the journey of the album is at, as this is the last full length track before the album's final skit. Once the sample was edited into a two bar loop it was routed through the SP-404’s Compressor and Vinyl Sim, which consisted of flutter and vinyl crackle sound effects, the timbre of which added a considerable difference to the original sample. The stages of the samples processing can be heard here:   

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1iQOQ6NizrXD03K4jjVLHMMotUJewWNVb?usp=sharing

The warmth and texture of the sample after it was processed can be seen within the DAW, when both images are compared:

The role of this melodic sample is to serve as a focal point for the rest of the composition to build upon, and work around in various ways for example adding progressive elements throughout that accompany the original melody in a way that adds to the intended atmosphere of the song, which will be heard in the full track.

The next step in the progress of the project is getting each track finished and mixed down so that the pre-masters can be sent off to Imperial.  As the pre-masters for the album have been agreed to be ready by the end of March/start of April. The rest week and a half will be solely focused on finishing the project. Once the pre-masters have been sent future posts will be discussing putting the album onto tape, promotional activity and further analysis of techniques used throughout production, alongside how some of the main concepts have been realised. 

References

Behr, A., Negus, K. and Street, J. (2017). The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production. Journal for Cultural Research, [online] 21(3), pp.223-240. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14797585.2017.1338277 [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].

Bossetta, M. (2018). The Digital Architectures of Social Media: Comparing Political Campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. Election. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, [online] 95(2), p.484. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1077699018763307 [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Hodgson, J. (2011). Lateral Dynamics Processing In Experimental Hip Hop: Flying Lotus, Madlib, Oh No, J-Dilla And Prefuse 73. Journal on the Art of Record Production, [online] 1(5). Available at: http://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/lateral-dynamics-processing-in-experimental-hip-hop-flying-lotus-madlib-oh-no-j-dilla-and-prefuse-73/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2019].

Pagoto, S., Waring, M., May, C., Ding, E., Kunz, W., Hayes, R. and Oleski, J. (2016). Adapting Behavioral Interventions for Social Media Delivery. Journal of Medical Internet Research, [online] 18(1), p.e24. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4752690/ [Accessed 25 Mar. 2019].

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Further Collaboration and Production Development

In the previous post, I was reaching out to the artist Rolly Rocket in order to design artwork for the album. unfortunately, despite sending multiple emails there has been no response, indicating that he is either busy with other work or does not want to collaborate on this project, which has made me look into other options.

After some research into finding an illustrator I stumbled upon the website Hire an Illustrator, which specialises in finding clients who need specified commissioned work. A form (which can be seen below) was filled out and submitted to be reviewed by one of the sites moderators.  

An artist called Zgraphics was also contacted as much his work also contains retro futuristic elements, although from looking at his previous work it appears to be much more centered around a 1980’s aesthetic, which is not really what is being looked for in this project. Despite this, In order to explore as many options as possible, short inquiry about the project was sent as seen below:

Hire an Illustrator got back to me in a short time frame with a list of their artists they feel would be suitable for their project, however the correspondent did pre warn that my set budget of £250 or under will probably not be enough for what I am looking for

While looking through the list of illustrators I noticed that while many of the artists are extremely talented, they have also been involved in some very high profile previous work, an example of which being an illustrator for Marvel Comics, indicating that the budget needed for these artists would most likely be much more than I can afford.

Zgraphics swiftly got back to me with a friendly message expressing interest in the project, asking for an example of some of the music involved. However, his email indicates he may not be able to start on the artwork as soon as possible, which is what I need of in order to begin marketing the album. Also, his approximated rate is around £200, which would be preferably avoidable due to budget constraints.

As I ideally would like to begin promotion of the album by the end of next week, I have resorted to a backup plan. A good friend of mine is well versed in photoshop and has helped design, and format artwork into a cassette suitable format for Hip Hop producers in the past, an example of which being London based producer Morriachi, with his albums Restbyte and Brainwave Canavas, examples of which can be seen below.

Through a phone conversation, we have arranged to spend a weekend working on an album cover, alongside an artist logo by using public domain retro futuristic images and manipulating them through photoshop. While we haven’t discussed an exact price as of yet, I have explained that I am more than happy to pay for her time and the cost will be considerably less than my other options. My friend has also agreed to help format the artwork into a cassette suitable  format.

It also can be argued that designing a cover this way suits the albums concept in multiple ways. The practice of taking elements from different photos and manipulating them into its own product arguably contains an artistic parallels to the practice of sampling (Behr, Negus and Street, 2017), while the DIY aspect of the planned artwork creation fits into the concept of a lofi aesthetic (Taylor, 2009)

Production progress

As of writing this, a draft for every track on the album has been created in some form, with completion between tracks varying between being almost and completely finished, to a mix of ideas and loops that need to be refined and put into action.  Each track has been listed in chronological order and it has been decided  where it will sit on the album tracklist.

In order to gather reference material, vocal samples to use, alongside general inspiration I have also been downloading downloading public domain sci fi films clips from archive.com.

Production Analysis part  2: Setting an emotional tone

Due to the film writing inspired three act structure that serves as one of the albums main themes, it is easy to break down the project into providing the listener with three types of emotional tones throughout. These can best be described as Hope/anticipation, (Act 1) Fear/conflict/, (Act 2) and excitement/relief. (Act 3). While choosing these emotional tones take inspiration from classic film writing tropes (Broderick, 1993), (Cutting, 2016), and putting them into practice alongside various production concepts such as Roads (2015), sonic narrative. In order to explore how this was accomplished some sonic elements of the first track in each ‘act’ will be broken down and and explored in how each of these tracks differentiates  in emotional content.

Act 1: the example used for the first act is its first track, which was made with the intention to represent the start of the adventure and  crews spacecraft taking off  into space.

A draft of the track can be heard here for context:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LgkFrGJrsrcLtbXqzMlQ28P_OG9-iEHE?usp=sharing

While the countdown to the takeoff is suspenseful, once the aircraft is in orbit the music is intended to project a feeling of wonder and serenity, which is a stark contrast to the loud, almost noise like sounds emitted during the crafts takeoff. This serene tone is for the most part continued throughout the tracks in the first act, with the exception of the first acts final skit, which is meant to serve as a way to guide the listener into the second act.

Act 2: From the offset, the second act projects a feeling of uncertainty and uneasiness, using the suspense building sounds that were discussed in the previous entry. This is continued by the use of heavily processed Sub Phatty sounds, and chopped up, pitched down vocal sampled that contain an other worldly, alien sound. An example of this can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JXWLjP3ZqxWHtu48rbdf_VS3nx_-jnfg?usp=sharing

The employment of these techniques were heavily inspired from artists such as flying Lotus and Knxlwedge, who use sample manipulation in unique ways in order to produce an ‘original sound’. This element to production will be discussed in more detail in the blogs next entry.

Act 3: The tone of the third act is the most relaxed in comparison to the rest of the album, with a lot of soft melodic elements accompanied by subtle drums, a lack of tension, and partially through use of ambient sounds. These elements are  meant to represent the feeling of relief, success of escape, and reinsertion into a freeing space.  An example of the emotional tone of the third act can be heard below.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/136cnMY3IATwxwlSeMzLP3ACVaMQjfCjH?usp=sharing

The production analysis of the next entry will center its focus on the use of samples and sample manipulation, delving into some of the techniques utilised in order to construct some of the sounds heard throughout the project.

References

Behr, A., Negus, K. and Street, J. (2017). The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production. Journal for Cultural Research, [online] 21(3), pp.223-240. Available at: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/142520/1/142520.pdf [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].

Broderick, M. (1993). Surviving Armageddon: Beyond the Imagination of Disaster. Science Fiction Studies, [online] 20(3). Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4240277?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].

Cutting, J. (2016). The evolution of pace in popular movies. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, [online] 1(1). Available at: http://people.psych.cornell.edu/~jec7/pubs/CreepyFilm.pdf [Accessed 17 Mar. 2019].

Roads, C. (2015). Composing electronic music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.335.

Taylor P (2009) The Lo-Fi Phenomenon - Analogue versus Digital in the Creative Process. Future Places – Digital Media and Local Cultures, Porto, 2009. http://futureplaces.org/fp2009/ http://futureplaces.up.pt/2009/doku.php?id=exhib ition_200

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Collaboration progress & Production analysis

Collaboration

Early on in the week, I Had a response from Imperial Mastering, who made an offer to master the entire 12 tracks of the project for £200. When compared to his based rate,  this would essentially mean that he would be mastering the 4 skits for free, which is the best quote I've had so far, and based some research undertaken, the current rate appears to be much higher. Below are screenshots of our correspondence.

As seen in the above photos it was stated that the pre-masters will be ready to be sent within a month. This was a purposeful way of setting out a goal that not only fits into the pre-planned schedule made for the proposal, but also serves as a way to motivate me to meet a self set deadline that will highly benefit the overall project. The search for an appropriate illustrator is still an ongoing process, I recently got in touch with Rolly Rocket who is an illustrator and a graphic designer who specialises in Retro-Futuristic artwork. Some examples of his work below.  

The typography in the first example is what caught my initial interest. The positioning and font of the text is reminiscent of an old 1950’s era movie poster, a time period where the typography in a movie poster became a vessel to not only relay the title of the project, but to also set the tone of the film itself through positioning, font size and colour use, a practice that can be in large be due to Saul Bass, who has been credited for making a films title in line with its identity. (Yu, 2008). As recreating the ‘feel’ of a vintage Sci-Fi movie poster is one of the main elements that is required for my projects artwork, this alongside other aesthetic choices and a noticeable versatility in his work has made Rolly Rocket my main choice to work with if possible. I drafted a brief message describing my project as seen below.

As of writing this, it has only been 24 hours since the message was sent, so a reply is still being waited on. If the rates fit into the budget, Rolly Rocket will be my first choice but in the meantime, other avenues will also be explored.

Production analysis, Part 1. This will be the first in a series of posts spanning across the next few of weeks detailing some of the sound design choices and techniques that have been applied in order to achieve the retro-futuristic, lofi sound that is the conceptual root of this project This week the introduction to a track from the second act of the album will be discussed.  

As this particular track represents the first contact and initial conflict with a hostile alien force, the main aim when beginning composition was to emphasise tension and uncertainty. A building suspense sound was composed by mixing a sample of tense strings, layering it with a couple of separate sounds from the Sub Phatty, which was then subsequently resampled into one recording.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bVYIk75vy6Des9cg89XMWK6h3bs1cNY0/view?usp=sharing

As heard in the above example the sample was a little quiet, and lacked presence. In order to overcome this, I processed and resampled the clip using the SP-404’s Compressor and Vinyl Sim effects, the comparative results can be seen and heard below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pzQXhyWxpNWqa5FHDx_h7CZdDsJtZoez/view?usp=sharing

As this track will most likely be the first one following the end of act 1, the aim was to present a little bit of vocal dialogue to illustrate where the second act was heading sonically, also setting the tense uncertain tone that this part of the album will be comprised of. In order to do this a selection of vocal clips from the movie ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’ (1955), and were chopped up and presented in a way that shows the crew encountering an alien signal, whilst tackling problems within the spaceship. These vocals were layered over the suspenseful build up which resulted in a segment that could be used as the introduction of the track. A draft of this can be heard below.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pC9ddr6pRD8aiRPrRT7oZ9s4_hNmkTa4/view?usp=sharing Elements of lofi and retro-futurism can be distinctly heard in this segment. In reference to lofi there is an underlying vinyl crackle playing throughout, and the use of the Vinyl Sims ‘flutter’ parameter adds an unpredictable tone that moves softly alongside the various hisses that were present in the initial sample. These are all characteristics that are associated with lofi music (Supper, 2018). The sampling  of the strings, and vocal interactions from a 1950’s sci fi movie worked as a strong part of helping craft a retro-futuristic feel to this particular segment.

Some of these elements are reintroduced later in the track, a few of which will be further explored in next week's entry, which will delve into how various emotional tones will be established and presented throughout the album.

References

Supper, A. (2018). Listening for the hiss: lo-fi liner notes as curatorial practices. Popular Music, [online] 37(2), pp.253-270. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/popular-music/article/listening-for-the-hiss-lofi-liner-notes-as-curatorial-practices/6BD7476E537B63017D99B7167DFDFE7B [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019].

Yu, Li, "Typography in film title sequence design" (2008). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11366. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11366

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Mastering Inquiries

One of the main aims throughout the production of this project is to ensure that the collaborative connections within the industry are well established in order to ensure the final release of the album is up to a professional industry standard when compared to its contemporaries, which in hand will help build and strengthen a brand  that can be carried out into future projects (Stanley, Snell and Edgar, 2013). The first steps towards this were taken this week in the form of looking for a suitable mastering engineer.

During correspondence with various industry professionals, last semester a mastering engineer named Steve Kich was recommended to me by an artist based in the US called Richard E,  Who used to run the Jazz/Breaks label   Further Out Recordings http://www.furtherout.co.uk/

This week I drafted and sent a message to Kich enquiring about his services, with the subjects primarily involving pricing and if a deal could be agreed in regards to  mastering 8 full tracks alongside the 4  skits that will be present within the album, a screenshot of the original message along with Kitch’s reply can be seen below

While the recommendation from Richard E., and the quality of some of Kitchs’ example work seems promising, the price that has been quoted feels a little outside of the preferred budget. Due to this, I have also reached out to Imperial Beats, a Cambridge based Hip Hop producer/Mastering engineer to inquire about his mastering services, sending him a similar message that has been slightly altered, and I am still awaiting a reply.

Imperial Beats appears to be a promising potential collaborative partner, as specializes in working with Hip Hop, and Hip Hop artists. Although the project is still in early stages it is arguably important to establish a dialogue between potential collaborators as soon as possible. A draft of a message that will be sent out to potential illustrators is also currently being worked on, and is planned to be completed by next week.

While the content for this week's blog has been relatively scarce in content, the next entry will be delving more in-depth into track development alongside discussing and analysing critical production techniques that will play an important role throughout the production of the album.  

Reference

Stanley, A., Snell, A. and Edgar, S. (2013). Collaboration as Effective Music Professional Development. Journal of Music Teacher Education, [online] 24(1), pp.76-88. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1057083713502731?journalCode=jmta [Accessed 22 Feb. 2019].

[dbcreepr-blog]

Project Organisation & Promotion

Part 1: Project Organisation

Over the past two months a multitude of track ideas, drafts and sounds have been created and minorly developed. However, an often occurrence is being distracted by other ideas for the album, a process that has been repeated a multitude of times throughout the planning and production of the album.This disjointed workflow has been an issue in productivity since the start of my production career, and is one of the main obstacles that is hoped to be overcome throughout the duration of the projects development. Over the past week, the beginning stages to combat this have consisted of sifting through Ableton projects, finding tracks and ideas that are relevant to this album, and placing them in named folders, where they can be further worked on from there. After much time doing so, all the WAV files and Ableton projects that are related to the album have been organised into two main folders, which can be seen below.

This streamlined process of locating and labeling album material  has not only made finding track ideas and works in progress a much simpler task, but it has also made approaching the production of the album a much less daunting task, as one can visibly see the progress that is being made track by track. Part 2: Promotion

The rest of the time this week was allocated to creating a small piece of promotional content in the form of a video to post on social media. Promotion via social media is strong strategic marketing choice that utilises the process of communication in order to bring the attention of the product at hand to as many people as possible (Garcia Medina and Correia Pereira, 2012).

The aim of this was not only to gain public traction for the upcoming project, but to also serve as a way to motivate my own progress on the album by creating an expectation from a potential audience to deliver a product. The process for this video began by selecting the introductory 8 bars of what will be the second track for the album, and then editing it with footage from the public domain 1950’s Sci-Fi film titled ‘Destination Moon’.

The editing for the video was done in iMovie, a free video editing software that can be found built into Apple Mac computers. In order to provide an engaging experience in the video, the transition of clips dynamically flow with the content of the music being played, and the clips that were used were chosen for their depiction of the feeling of awe and uncertainty that the accompanying music is attempting to provide the listener with. The visual and audio content of the video was set to reflect the aesthetics of not only the track at hand but also the album itself, representing elements of retro-futurism and lo-fi throughout, such as film distortion, vinyl crackle, cheap set design, props, and microphones. (Harper, A. 2014), (Sharp, 2011). Below is a photo of the iMovie project, showing the various cuts and edits that went into creating the video

Once completed, the video was then posted to Facebook and Instagram. As I do not have an artist page for Facebook the video was posted on my personal page. The reason for doing so was due to the fact the personal page has more reach when it comes to exposing the video to as many potential listeners as possible.

Screenshots of the social media posts below:

Public access to the video can be found on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-CnTAjaX7s

In order to gain some initial traction to the Instagram post, A small fee was paid for a two-day promotion, although it may be extended for an additional week due to the fact that both posts have been gaining an increasing positive reception. Although the original intent for the short video was to serve purely as a way to pique people's interest in the upcoming album, the editing process was a surprisingly enjoyable experience, which led to the idea to further develop the video and release it as a full version of the track that is featured in it, serving as a release of a single

References 

Garcia Medina, I. and Correia Pereira, P. (2012). The Importance of Social Media for Commerce. A Case Study in Madeira (Portugal). International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), [online] 6(1). Available at: https://online-journals.org/index.php//i-jim/article/view/1825 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].

Harper, A. (2014). Lo-Fi Aesthetics in Popular Music Discourse. Dphil Thesis. University of Oxford. pp. 345-346

Sharp, S. (2011). Nostalgia for the future: Retrofuturism in Enterprise. Science Fiction Film & Television, [online] 4(1), pp.25-26. Available at: https://sci-hub.tw/10.3828/sfftv.2011.2 [Accessed 2 Jan. 2019].

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Experimenting with sound design

The first and foremost part of building a perceivable  world for this project is its sound design. Elements of Sound design that were achieved this week were composed from of two sample gathering and synthesis. The purpose of this exercise was to find and develop sounds that fit into the retro-futuristic, sci fi aesthetic of the album, along with providing inspiration for track development, as experimentation can help guide the creative process and lead to unexpected, fulfilling results (Boss, 2014)

Many of the Samples that were found came from the original soundtracks of vintage Sci fi movies that are available for public domain use in order to avoid any potential copyright issues (Behr, Negus and Street, 2017). Some of the samples were then recorded onto the SP-404 in order to allow for further processing, some  examples of which can be found below. Recording the samples onto the SP-404 serves as an engaging way to play around with track ideas with its built in effects, and in this instance the practice resulted in multiple ideas for composition

short video of some of the samples on the SP-404

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkzmDDcT7PE

Synthesis consisted experimenting with the Moog Sub Phatty,  of creating and saving various patches on the Moog Sub Phatty synthesiser and recording melodies and keys into Ableton, which can either be placed directly into tracks in development, or to be further manipulated via the SP 404 Sampler and Ableton.

Below a video of some patches that have been developed.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OzQnqyrWdw&feature=youtu.be

Overall this exercise proved to plant the seeds of multiple ideas for this project, and for the most part will be repeated over the course of the albums production.

References

Behr, A., Negus, K. and Street, J. (2017). The sampling continuum: musical aesthetics and ethics in the age of digital production. Journal for Cultural Research, [online] 21(3), pp.223-240. Available at: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/142520/1/142520.pdf [Accessed 6 Feb. 2019].

Boss, J. (2014). Schoenberg's twelve-tone music. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.25.