Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Song 2 Production


We first started by choosing which song we were going to record, what instruments we were going to use. The song we decided to do was 'Future Father' which is an original song by one of the people in my group Harry and we also asked him which instruments he wanted and he decided he wanted piano playing the main melody, a electric guitar doing some picking and vocals.
Before we started doing any recording of his song we needed to set up all the equipments such as condenser, dynamic microphones, the instruments, DI box for the guitar and bass and putting the microphone stands in the right place.

Piano - With the Titan
Condenser Microphone (Above)
We decided that the first instrument we were going to start recording was the piano and Demver was the one playing it. Even though in the original piece the starting instrument is a acoustic guitar, Harry decided he wanted a piano instead so what me and my group did first was to lift the lid of the piano to get a better quality sound of it, then we got one of the mic stand for the Titan condenser microphone and then we set up the position of the microphone facing the string on the piano.

Piano - With SM57 Dynamic
Microphone (Underneath)
After setting up the first microphone for the piano we set up another one underneath the Piano was the SM57 Dynamic Microphone, and the reason why we decided to use two is because we wanted to see which of the mic and which angle/position is better to get a good sound quality of the piano.

JamHub
After setting up all the microphones for the recording of the piano we started setting up the headphones for the people who were recording so they could hear us in the studio and we could communicate with each other.
What we did after was to get the XLR (Female), we then plugged the jack into the input of the headphones port in the JamHub and plugged the XLR (Female) into the A input. After doing that we got the headphone we were going to use for the recording and plugged them into the JamHub headphone port.


After that we got the XLR (Male) cable of the SM57 Dynamic microphone and plugged it into input one and the for the Titan condenser microphone we plugged into input two. We were making notes of every input so we knew what was what, and to save time.
SM57 microphone for the
electric guitar.
Then the next thing we started doing was to set up the Electric guitar for me. Because I was just doing picking on the guitar, the group decided to get a DI Box, plug the electric guitar into it. The input is used for the electric guitar was input number 3.
Again we decided to record in two different ways, so we added the SM57 dynamic microphone facing the body of the electric guitar so we could get natural sound of the picking of the strings. Then we plugged the dynamic microphone into input four.

After discussing what song to do, which instruments to use, who to play, what microphones to use, where they should be and plugging them all into the right input. we started the recording of the instruments. 
The first one who started recording was Demver on the piano. Because we didn't know the song really well, we asked Harry what the tempo of the song was, which was 90bpm and to sing along while Demver was playing so we knew the structure of the song and by doing that we had to pushed down the button on the mixing desk which allowed him to hear us in the other room and Harry singing.
We tried about 3-4 times before we were actually comfortable with the song and when we got the right recording of the piano.
Next thing we started recording was me playing the guitar. The process of the recording of the electric guitar was the same as the piano. Took me about 5 minutes to start recording because I didn't know the song really well and I was trying to find the right sound on the amp to fit the track. After spending few minutes working out on the chords and notes we started the recording of the guitar, but the other people in the other room where the mixing desk was they had a few problems with no hearing the microphone but the problem was on the output on Logic but after sorting it out we started the recording of the guitar and after two tries it was done.


After recording the instruments, we started setting up everything for Harry to record his vocals.
The microphones we used were the Titan condenser microphone facing directly to him and the D6 just standing on the right side of the Titan. 
The Titan condenser microphone was plugged into input five and the other microphone was plugged into input six.
We didn't take too long to record Harry's vocals because it was his song so he knew the lyrics and the structure of it, and we recorded his vocals perfectly on the first try and the song was completed.

Thursday, 13 March 2014

The Joy Of Disco

The Joy Of Disco

Disco

In the United States, Disco wasn't really accepted or taken seriously because it brought every gays,
lesbians, bisexuals and Africans together. It was not easy for these people back then when Disco came up because it was seen from the society as a mental illness. In their heads, people who liked disco weren't right in the head so they discriminated and judged them.

Disco came up in the 70's after the stonewall riots and Americans, Latinos, Africans and the LGBT community were the only ones back then that enjoyed Disco and they are the reason why Disco got so much fan based/popularity. Most of the underground clubs in American were all about Disco, people didn't care if the space were small. Because of its
energetic atmosphere and funky/groovy dance floor people fell in love with it and also because that was the only thing people who weren't treated equally could all relate to without worrying and enjoy themselves.
Disco music is also the reason why gay, lesbians and bisexuals have the freedom they have today, not having to worry about going to jail or not for enjoying it.


The reason why the stonewall riots happened is because homosexual people had enough of being treated like nothing, having no right to speak to defend themselves. being discriminated because they liked someone from the same sex and having to worry about going to jail or not, because if you were seen dancing with someone from the same sex would be put in jail.


the Gay community had a local underground club that was owned by Mafia who provided drugs, alcoholic drinks, and freedom for the homosexuals and black people to be who they are without worrying about people judging them.
The stonewall riots brought up Gay and Lesbians,  Transsexuals and Drag queens all in one place to fight for their freedom and equality. It happened in June 28th, 1969 in New York.



http://www.ehow.com/about_4571817_disco-facts.html
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8F-sfxQHEyCbjZRNHhGNVZMeU0/edit