My Music Project

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My Music Project
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My Musical Project
Create a piece of music for a coffee
advertisement Length of music to be 1 min 48
seconds Music must be royalty free Output is to
be stereo, WAV format
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Plan, Plan, Plan

• Approach your projects with a plan.
  Chaos has a place after you have tamed
  planning.
• Capture your creative ideas on a
  writing pad and/or in a Word file.
  Always carry a pad and pen or PDA Keep
  one by your bedside.
• Create your own templates and quick reference
  sheets for efficiency

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Purpose Audience
What are the goals for your project? What are the
expected outcomes? Why are you doing it? What
do you need to complete it? Who do you need to
complete it? How much time is it going to
take? When are you going to have time to do
it? Where are you going to do all the
tasks? Where are you going to find all the
resources?
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Feeling and Style

• Visual and aural senses must align
• They should also align with goal(s)
• Initially use sound references, ie.
• something familiar that might suit,
• might evoke the experience you picture
• from your memory or music collection
• from radio, TV, film, public library
• Use of Speech, music, sounds

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Feeling and Style

• Use your own keywords to describe the feel
• light, happy, cruising, busy, bright, frantic
• dark, sad, moody, slow, melancholy, lazy
• If relevant think of a music style
• - rock, reggae, blues, classical, Celtic
• Then consider the tempo to match
• heartbeat, walking pace, jogging pace
• fast, very fast

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Sources Output

• Microphones
• Vocals ? Omni-directional eg. Shure SM58
• Instrument/Amp ? Unidirectional, eg. Shure SM57
• Direct (plug directly into your PC soundcard)
• Watch those volume levels and glitches!!
• Preamp or mixer (4-1 or 6-1)
• Low noise
• Acts as safety buffer between inputs and
  soundcard
• Usually provides headphone (for input
  monitoring!)

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Tools

• MIDI sequencers
• Allow you to
• Sequence MIDI events controls
• Import/export in MIDI format not audio
• Minimal effects/no plug-ins
• Audio editors
• Used for cleaning and processing WAV files
• Popular products
• Cool Edit
• Sound Forge
• Wave Lab
• Gold Wave (Freeware)

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Tools

• Composing Software
• Allows you to
• Sequence Audio MIDI
• Create, edit, produce and master audio
• Utilise plug-ins
• Popular products
• Steinberg Cubase
• Adobe Audition
• MAGIX Music Studio
• Cakewalk
• Digidesign Pro Tools

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Tools

• Composing Software
• Other types
• Audio sample loop sequencer, eg. FruityLoops
• Algorithmic composers, ie, computer generated
  music, eg. Soundscape, FractMus 2000, AC
• Auto backing bands eg, Band In A Box, Jammer
  Hit Session
• Can be used to generate royalty free music

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Tools
Audio file converters The primary audio file
format used by audio editors and sequencers is
WAV Other formats include MP3, AU, RM, WMA,
AIFF Converters can be used to create WAV files
from these other formats, eg. dBpowerAMP,
CDex Streaming audio can be captured via
soundcard and audio editor or audio
recorder Rippers Used to extract CD tracks to
WAV or other formats, eg. Cdex, FreeRip
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Tools

• Plug-ins
• Audio processing and production
• Equalisation (EQ)
• Compression
• Limiting
• Effects
• Time Delay Reverberation, Echo, Tremolo,
  Vibrato
• Distortion, Overdrive
• Filtering Chorus, Flanging, Phasing, Vocoder
• Instruments
• Drums, keyboards, brass, woodwind, strings, etc

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Tools
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Recording
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Recording
Capture the cleanest, strongest sound Check your
signal and noise levels Noise is your enemy
check your environment Power surges, filters
Washing machines, air conditioners,
drills Electrical fields near audio
cables Cable joints are ok dont bend cables
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Processing

• The four MOST important processing functions
• 1 Equalisation
• Can be used to add clarity and/or presence to
• an audio sound
• Graphic or parametric equalisation
• 2 Compression
• Used to create presence and/or evenness in an
  audio sound
• 3 Mute used to clean silent parts, remove
  breathing
• 4 Fade-in and Fade-out

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Processing - EQ
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Processing - Compression
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Processing
Audio is heard in spaces Panning Left ??
Centre ?? Right Proximity/Room size Dry
close Reverb depth Plugins There are many
be selective, not greedy Apply individually
Insert Apply across multiple sounds Send
Effect Listen to the results in your
headphones and car and room
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Resources
General computer music http//www.harmony-central.
com/Computer http//www.computermusic.co.uk/main.a
sp http//www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/ Drums http
//www.softpedia.com/public/cat//11/1/ http//www.s
ynthzone.com/drums.htm http//media.afromix.org/mu
sic/midi/drum_patterns/ Plugins
(VST/DX) http//www.synthzone.com/cubase.htm
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Resources
Royalty free music http//www.musicbakery.com/TabM
usicDownloads01.htm http//www.freeplaymusic.com/
http//www.amclassical.com/ http//www.whisperaudi
o.com/frameset.htm http//www.incompetech.com/m/c/
royalty-free/ http//www.koumis.com/music.htm Sea
rch royalty free music CD CDs CDs
buy Record streaming audio via soundcard (ie.
What You Hear mode)
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Glossary

• Audio format disk space (stereo)WAV
  10MB/min MP3 1MB/min WMA 500KB/min
• MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A
  standard for interconnecting synthesisers,
  sequencers, PCs and other equipment. Also
  specifies events, eg. Note on, note off,
  controller change.
• Plug-in a software program used by a sequencer
  that emulates an musical processor or instrument
  
• Sample a small piece of digitally recorded
  sound
• Sampler A device that digitally records sounds
  for later performance. It can usually manipulate
  these sounds in a variety of ways.
• Sequencer - Anything that stores performance
  information
• Virtual Studio Technology (VST) a plug-in
  standard
• WAV (aka Microsoft RIFF wave) format 16 bit,
  44.1KHz, mono or stereo,

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• How I built my project
• Internet to search for royalty free African
  music
• CDex to convert African MP3 file to WAV
• Cubase VST/32 Music production
• Import the African audio file
• Record two guitar samples
• Copy, paste and align the guitar samples
• Create the MIDI drum tracks
• Convert the MIDI drum tracks to audio (WAV)
• Mix level, EQ, compression, left/right pan
• Add reverberation and tremolo FX
• Export whole composition to audio WAV file
• Sound Forge Final editing
• Fade out at end of audio
• Shorten audio length (157 to 148 mins)