jackwindsor96

[jackwindsor96]

Drones- A Different perspective Evaluation

The original plan for this EP was to make it 5.1 surround sound but due to national lockdowns and access to dubbing theatres and facilities to help that become accomplished unfortunately could not be met especially with a deadline to meet. In terms of making and releasing  Drone visuals to Drone music was a new and exciting experience that I would happily do again. Looking at the landscapes that I know from the back of my hand at a birdseye view. Throughout my academic year capturing footage of seasonal change in my hometown and the outskirts where I spent my free time exploring. 

My project's target market is really aimed at ambient music listeners and anyone who is looking at artistic and creative ways of looking at the world at a different angle. 

The original plan was to release this EP as a binaural piece for Tidal and Deezer but with the time I had remaining on this project I had to substitute it for a stereo mix and continue with the visual recordings and make it accessible via Soundcloud and Youtube and post links on my Facebook artist page and advertise using Instagram.  

The project run down 

For this project, my good friend William Ho helped me capture footage of woodland areas that I grew up exploring. Using a Drone with a 4k camera Will was able to capture all the textures of nature and urban landscapes at a 90-degree angle. The difficulties we face on the days of filming were down to weather and how strong the wind is when the drone is up 80 to 100 meters in the sky. the legal limit to fly the drone is 120 meters without a commercial license and luckily the drone displays any area we cannot fly the drone in. 

The music was a reflection of the elements that we face during the seasons with pitch harmonics being used for the track "Hibernal" as steel-string harmonics usually have cold sharp tones. Drone music is mostly aimed to make you feel immersed and can help towards mental health. The Direction I took to make my EP was the exploration of guitars and using mostly clean tones with Harmonics and the use of reverb to blend the melodies with the droning bass notation. 

For the piece "Seasons Substitution" I wanted to aim what Autumn was about, The season of change. I recorded in 3 different sections to reflect the transition of summer to winter but display the variation of colours to then those colours fading away.  

For the Winter track "Hibernal",  I wanted to capture footage of the woodlands where my grandparents used to live. I always remember how the snow days were so much better than the ones back home. this location was perfect for capturing the leafless trees and thick snow. another location that was used as the common on top of Cleeve hill, where you can see all across Cheltenham and due to horses and dog walkers using the common they ended up leaving patterns in the snow on the face of the hill. The music I wanted to keep it minimal and use a variety of tuning for the droning bass, the tuning I used was Drop D, Drop C and E Flat. In parts of the track, I reversed the guitar recordings and as adlibs used harmonics and also hit the bridge of my guitar with an open hand. this was to fill out the track in places I felt needed a change and to make the track spatualised and airy. 

In the process of making "Odyssey Of Complexion", the one thing I aimed for was to make the piece feel like spring and to have warm tones with the guitar for this I set the guitar pickups to hum-buckers and play low-end strings in Drop D tuning. I then recorded some arpeggios over-laying the Droning and then added reverb, EQ and a Bandpass Filter to prevent the higher frequencies from dominating the drone but to blend in. 

What would I do If I had to do the project again?  

If I had to repeat this project again I would look more into expanding instrumentation and also incorporate distortion for the guitar to give it a wall of guitar effect possibly for a different theme or towards "Hibernal". 

In terms of footage, I would probably start off the project focussing more on the urban landscapes as there is a lot of interesting visuals to capture. 

The weather was one of the biggest obstacles alongside the pandemic with national lockdowns it was unfortunate obstacles that couldn't be avoided but with Covid-19 restrictions currently being relieved by the government the potential to go to other locations to film will soon become available. allowing more Ideas and visuals to capture.

[jackwindsor96]

This is my all new release EP “Drones- A Different Perspective”  

Film Footage Done by William Ho 

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Final major research 5 Pink Floyd 

Droning background with sustained notation and flanged guitar playing over and blues style guitar soloing adjacent. 

Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond [Official Music Video] 

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Final Major Project Research 4

Yngwie Malmsteen 

Yngwie Malmsteen the Swedish solo guitarist holds the reputation of the “Arpeggio King”. With classical influence and slick speed he creates a phasing effect with a Fender Stratocaster ,delay, overdrive and reverb pedals.

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Final Major Project Research 3

Joe Satriani  

in terms of getting different sounds from a guitar Joe Satriani is recognised as the Alien for his outlandish guitar solos, high pitched harmonic pinches and whammy bar techniques. 

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Final Major Project Research 2

Jimmy Page 

The Lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin Jimmy page was the first to use a violin bow on a Gibson Les Paul live on stage to create a droning and haunting sound with visual effect of classical meets rock music.

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Final Major Project Research

Robert Fripp 

Robert Fripp is known for being the guitarist in King crimson back in the 60′s to the 70′s he then continued to write and release experimental and ambient music with other artists for example “No pussy footing”- Robert Fripp, Brian Eno - 1973 

R.Fripp uses a wide range of pedals to create his own wall of guitar sounds, his standard setup is Dunlop crybaby wah pedal,MXR Dynacomp,Robotalk (Envelope follower/Filter) Big Muff Fuzz pedal, Pro Co “The Rat” Distortion pedal and lastly a Fender Blender (vintage Fuzz pedal 1974).  

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Here is a trailer I made for my final major project.

I recorded my guitar and layered it to create a Droning guitar texture and then record more guitar parts to add subtle sounds to the track.

The aim for this project is to record drone footage of scenery that changes through the seasons and create compositions that reflects the seasonal change and make these compositions available in surround sound.

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(LivingStone_Official)

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(LivingStone_Official)

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MD5351Jack Windsor S1809136 Music production techniques Technical report 

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Jack Windsor- KO PAD -Hero video