Task 1 Comparing 4 commercial tracks and commenting on them:
Track 1:Isaac Hayes Ikes Rap 2:
Instrumentation:
Isaac Hayes uses specfically Piano Drums and violin in his track.
Structure
Drums start the song structuring the whole song by repeating it throughout the song
Piano is the main chords and is repeated with the drums through out the song
Violin is faded in and out and repeated when the main chords are repeated.
Tempo
Tempo of the song is slow because of the vocals and the style of music and the instruments that are used.
Rhythm
The Rhythm is slow and the drums and melody work together to then accompany the melody in a slow manner and enhances the slow feel of the song.
Melody
The melody through the song is a piano and it works well because it is company to the other instruments and is complex.
Harmony
The Harmony gives a soft nice sound and is pleasing due to the slowness of the song.
Feel
The feel of the music gives a sad feel due to the artist singing about emotional things happening to him.
Track 2 : Alessia Cara Here:
Instrumentation:
Alessia Cara uses Piano and drum also violin, specifically in her track.
Structure
Drums and Piano start the track immediately
Another Bass Piano is used in the back round to accompany the main chords of the piano.
Violin is faded in and out in the track also like Ikes Rap.
Tempo
The tempo of the track is faster because of the more modern feel and the modernised sounds.
Rhythm
The rhythm of the track is Faster than Ikes Rap The piano and Violin Accompany each other in the track and give it a deeper better sound.
Melody
The melody of the song is Piano and it works well with the other instruments used the in the song and there is another Piano used with more complex chords.
Harmony
The Harmony is fast paced and gives a relaxing Piano sound.
Feel
The feel of the song is chill and a deep meaning.
Track3 EO 1 Take:
Instrumentation
EOs track has synth ,clap and hats
Structure
A Synth starts the track
Hats then follow which create a build up for the vocals to follow in.
A Clap is used with the hats.
Tempo
The Tempo of the track is slow but then speeds up for the chorus.
Rhythm
The rhythm of the track is slower than “Here” but the hats and the clap both accompany each other to make the vocals sound more built up.
Melody
The melody of the song is Synthesizer it works well with the vocals and creates a build up for the Clap and hats.
Harmony
The Harmony is slow which gives a Relaxing Synth sound
Feel
The song gives a chill sound because of the artist singing about where he has started.
Track 4: Eminem Killshot
Instrumentation
Eminem’s track uses Piano Hi Hats and snare
Structure
Piano starts the track
Hats and clap follow in together.
Tempo
Tempo is slow throughout the track
Rhythm
The rhythm is slow but the Hats and snare and piano work together to make the vocals sound darker.
Melody
The melody of the song is the piano it works well for the build up for the chorus
Harmony
The harmony is slow and has a nice sounding piano.
Feel
The feel of the song is a deep dark and makes you listen.
Task2 Active Research
The Reason why I chose to research into pitch bend is because i wasn’t too familiar with how to pitch bend but after I watched this video it helped me practise with how to use pitch bend; as I was able to pitch bend my 808 on my track.
I had to also research into familiarising my self with how to compress, before I wasn’t able to use it but once I watched this video this helped me how to keep my track from peaking and taught me how to use the plug in compressor.
I Also had to research into EQ because I wasn’t very confident with it but after watching the video it has shown me how to cut out sound waves or increase the DB.
Task 3 Analyse the effectiveness of the research:
Pitch Bend
I felt watching a video of how to pitch bend was very effective the reason for this is because it showed me different ways of pitch bending and how to pitch bend different instruments although I wasn’t familiar on pitch bend this made me a lot more confident on doing this.
Compressing
When I watched the video of how to compress it helped me familiarise my self with it because I didn’t know how to keep my track from clipping but now I know how to keep the volume increased without making the track clip I can do this by adjusting the Threshold or the make up gain; if I adjust the make up gain it changes when the compression starts to make the track not clip. If you adjust the gain the higher the compression will actually be. the lower you have the Make up gain, the softer the track will actually become.
EQ
I am not really confident with EQ so this is why I decided to research into it more; the first one in the EQ plug in is called the hi pass filter this allows you to cut out frequency’s that are below a certain starting point it allows other frequency’s that’s why its name is hi pass filter a octave is when you either half or double a frequency. where at the other end of the EQ is a Low Pass filter which does the same as the hi pass filter but with lower frequency’s each of the 4 icons in the middle are called a band pass filter each of these allow you to adjust frequency’s you can boost or cut the frequency. the two icons before the hi pass filter and low pass filter are called low shelf filter and hi shelf filter what they allow you to do make a frequency stay cut or boosted.
Task 4 Produce a track
Here is the track I produced.
UNIT 2.2
Task 3
Evaluate the effectiveness of the track to a specified audience.
At the start I was trying to make a drill track then I when I had feed back from my college mates I turned it into a trap track because of the way the snares and 808s fitted the trap type of music I felt at the beginning when I made the track it was very successful then I started then as I finished I felt that it wasn’t as successful as I hoped it would be, I have now learnt how to use better chords for drill type songs and now If I were to go back and try to make another track I feel like it would be possible to do that personal feedback from others in my class helped me make the track better and when I mastered it I felt like the track got better because I gave the track a darker sound to it and added other things into it like choir sounds; I felt like if I were to add vocals into my track it would be able to make it a lot better.
I think the way others helped me made the track actually better because all of my class mates helped me make the snares and kicks but as well as if we were given more tracks to make I feel like more effort would of been put into everyone else’s tracks and potentially some of us could of added vocals to our tracks. The audience I had specified to was successful because the age group of my friends which are 16+ enjoyed the track so a younger audience I chose to have listen to my song was a success; if I were to go back and make changes to my track I would of changed the sound of the chords and the sound of the choir
Harry Cook 