BBC radio feature!
The idea of having our School of Electronic Music studio launch party from a great podcast I listen to about entrepreneurship (shout out the Six Figure Creative! FKA the Six Figure Home Studio).
It tied in with a previous idea of a gallery style exhibition of all the art, photos, videos and installations that have been created in Tonic Note’s FIVE YEAR (!) history.
So, after doing a bit of organising and set up in April, I managed to get it all booked up., with that art gallery opening vibe - Celebrating five years as a music production community and year one as a full blown School of Electronic Music.
I’m pleased to say it was also featured on BBC radio! You can read more about how it came about below.
Enjoy the video & remember, if you like this, you can register below to get your FREE, Ultimate Guide to Synths eBook!
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Somehow, Dominic King at BBC radio heard about the event on Twitter (I don’t even use Twitter, so shout out whoever shared us!), and got in touch. I was chilling on the sofa, a random un-identified number called.
I thought it was a sales call. Especially when there was loads of background noise and no voice for a few seconds. I almost hung up then, but I’m glad I didn’t because the conversation we had led to a feature on his show!
I was so happy to get the chance not only to let people know about the new courses & classes, but also shout out four other producers who have been cornerstones of Tonic Note since day 1, playing clips of their best tracks.
If you like the idea of joining our music production community or taking one of our classes, you can book a free, 20 minute 121 call with me here to chat about what you’d like to do in music production!
How To Boards of Canada
In our latest Music Maker’s Social Club (which is kind of like a live podcast X tutorial X social club about music production, hosted on Zoom), we covered all things Boards of Canada.
I thought I’d post one of my favourite tracks of theirs here, and below that, the Show Notes for the Music Maker’s Social Club session. You might like the further reading links I have included.
Hopefully you can get useful tips and facts from the show notes, and if you’d like to join in the next session, click the button below! They are on the 1st Tuesday of every month, 7.30PM-8.45PM, UK time.
Also, we have our FREE Studio Launch Party on June 10th
with loads of interactive activities,
check it out with the button below
MMSC June 2022 Show Notes - Boards of Canada Case Study & Tutorial
7.30pm - Social Catch Up
7.45pm - Featured Artist: Boards of Canada
Background
A mysterious Scottish duo, Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, originally from Cullen, Moray.
Spent some time in Canada in their childhood, hence the name, which refers to a Canadian Govt TV company producing mainly documentaries; The National Film Board of Canada.
As children they played instruments, messing around with cassettes and tapes, but the band itself was born in 1986 with some of their friends .
By 1990 the band had been reduced back to the two brothers, who took the project in a more electronic sound.
All Music described them as “"evocative, mournful, sample-laden downtempo music often sounding as though produced on malfunctioning equipment excavated from the ruins of an early-'70s computer lab.”
Music Journalist Simon Reynolds described them as “aching with nostalgia”
Their studio in the UK is called Hexagon Sun - We should all name our own studios even if it is the corner of the living room!
Attitude & Quotes
Create lots of ideas and loops
Geogaddi allegedly involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 22 were selected (possibly 23, if the final track of complete silence is included).
Strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages including references to numerology and cult figures such as David Koresh of the Branch Davidians
("[We] do actually believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural. I think you actually manipulate people with music...").
Codes and Puzzles that reveal release details to launch EPs, albums etc
“As for our percussion, it's never just a drum machine or a sample, we put a lot of real live drumming or percussion in there, woven into the rhythm tracks, and it brings a bit of chaos into the sound that you just can't achieve any other way.”
Processing all different forms of audio through samplers is really important to them, almost more than the synths
Latest Release (& my favourite at the moment!)
Tomorrow’s Harvest
“there's a deliberate VHS video-nasty element throughout the record and to get there it wasn't just a case of processing sounds through old media, which is a given with us anyway, but we even went to the extent of timing changes in the music and the composition of the pieces, in really specific ways”
Possible Gear Used - No one knows for sure and they are quite secretive about it!
Roland 101
Akai Samplers (S1000)
Yamaha AN1x
Juno 60
Yamaha CS-70m (not CS-80)
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5
Moog Memory Moog
Roland Jupiter 8
Crumar Trilogy - A rare vintage polysynth
8.05PM - Lesson -
Concept of the piece - HOWEVER they do say “We often jam something down quickly and you tend to find those things are the ones with a great instant melody.”
Get out of your DAW and record all sorts of experiments using any recording equipment you have to hand, eg an old dictaphone, boombox with built in microphone, old cassette walkman, VHS player etc. This adds the real life degradation to your audio and gives that sense of nostalgia
Warbled Analogue bass and arps
Microsampling of archive sources and recordings of their own family
Mixture of drum machines & recorded live drums
Drive the gain staging
Almost everything recorded to tape or VHS
Play as much by hand as possible. Don’t quantize anything. If you need to, do a retake rather than quantizing
Saturation & Distortion
Pitch Drift & LFO
Memory Triggers - specific sounds from the past to trigger a memory
Decomplexing - Editing out notes, sounds and other elements to reduce the track to it’s best elements and give space
Way too much compression: “ — when you get that fine line where it’s just kicking in, but it’s right on the threshold of the sound so that the compressor ends up spreading what I call ‘powder’ over the part so it sounds like it’s crumbling.”
Create a track in another genre, make it sound vintage. Bounce it at a ridiculous low quality setting. Then sample a small loop from it. You are faking sampling an old tune, but it’s actually yours. This gives a mysterious and dislocated quality to it.
Music outdoors - Use very little reverb effects if you want it to sound natural and outdoors. For an echoey outdoors sound, it’s counter intuitive but you actually make the low frequencies echo!!!
Reverse full tracks and mix them together with your forward played tracks.
Sources
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/06/boards-of-canada-become-more-nihilistic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards_of_Canada
https://larslentzaudio.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/synth-vst-plugins-that-sound-like-boards-of-canada/
https://flypaper.soundfly.com/produce/emulating-boards-of-canadas-classic-synth-sound-without-breaking-your-bank-or-brain/
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Music Maker’s Social Club
Normally these rewatch catch up’s are exclusive videos for our Music Maker’s Social Club members, but I wanted to extend the invite to watch this one to our entire clan!
Because the MMSC is in it’s early days in 2022, I thought this would be a great taster of how things run!
Next one is on Tuesday the 7th June, and you can sign up below.
Enjoy the video!
Also, we have our FREE Studio Launch Party on June 10th
with loads of interactive activities,
check it out with the button below
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
A full track on the Korg Kaossilator?!
I’ve had this gadget for almost FOURTEEN years now!!! You can probably pick one up on eBay for the price of a Boots Meal Deal (other meal deals are available).
I’d never seen anything like it at the time, and when we used it in our band at a working mens club in the Highlands, it pretty much felt like the future was here for us and the audience! So it’s safe to say I have a soft spot for this bit of equipment.
In this video, I give you a full demo of the Kaossilator, and also challenge myself to make a full tune on it. Enjoy!
Also, we have our FREE Studio Launch Party on June 10th
Institute Studios, Margate,
with loads of interactive activities,
check it out with the button below
Register below to get your FREE “Ultimate Guide to Synths” eBook
Electronic Music School Launch Party!
On Friday the 10th June, we will have our Open Studio Party in collaboration with Institute Studios, who are the incredible venue for our Music Production Courses!
This FREE event will run from 8PM - 10PM, but to be guaranteed entry, please register interest below
The event includes
- Interactive Music Making installation guests can play on
- Live Electronic Music Performances & DJs
-Spoken word with ambient electronic music
- Music Production Challenges to watch
- Music Production Networking
- Projections showing art and video captured from our 5 year history
and most importantly...
- Free cookies from the artisan cookie shop that is next door!
Register Interest for the Event, and get your FREE Ultimate Guide to Synths eBook
Interested in what the Music Making Installation looks like? Take a look at it’s prototype, from 2018.
This was debuted at Soma Records, all day festival called Soma Skool. Since then it has been improved and people have enjoyed playing on it at Paradigm Electronic Arts Festival and The National Gallery of Scotland’s Family Days event!
The video below shows how you too can configure a game pad to work with Ableton!
Want to check out a good video/ visualiser plugin for Ableton for visuals like you see in the installation? Check the image to check it out
Field Recordings in Your Music Production
There are loads of good reasons to add field recordings in your music production! In this free training video, I detail 7 of my favourite field recording tips.
If you scroll past the video, I’ve also written a mini blog that has more tips on sounds to look out for.
One main thing to remember you don’t have to have a fancy field recorder device to do this - you can use the recorder in your smart phone, or buy a cheap dictaphone off eBay to get yourself going!
Also, remember we have our FREE Launch Party on June 10th, at Institute Studios, Margate, with loads of interactive activities, check it out with the button below
Register below to get your FREE “Guide to Synths” eBook
I hope you enjoyed the above video about adding field recordings to your music.
The main benefit of doing this is to add unique sounds to your music, that only you have. This will also make your music more personal and tell your story, because it is you who has got these sounds from your environment.
One problem with field recordings can be wind noise. The worst of the rumble you get from wind (and passing lorries etc) lies in the low frequency range. So if you use EQ to cut away the lower frequencies below 150Hz approx, that should help reduce the negative impact of the sounds you don’t want in your mix.
If you have already started working on a track, It’s good to listen out for sounds that match the vibe of the music you’ve started. Usually a more industrial track will suit urban and machinery sounds. But if you’ve started an ambient piece, possibly sounds from nature and the seaside would suit it better.
Some producers actually start with capturing the field recording, and then use that as inspiration for the entire track. For example, as well as capturing ambient sounds, you can deliberately clang or whack or drop things to make sounds that you can then put into a sampler to create percussive sounds from.
Personally, I love a combination of these methods combined with other music production techniques. However, it is possible to make an entire track only using found sounds, and this is a challenge I want to set myself!
My own project, Last of the Free, heavily relies on samples and sounds from archive Scottish recordings (which I mostly got from YouTube!). However, for the next two EPs, my plan is to take a trip around the Highlands, recording many sounds along the way.
This will include interviews with family, friends and people in the community. Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada have recorded their families to add a personal touch to their music. They have warped the audio so much you might not recognise it, but because the sounds are in there, it adds a very personal touch to their music.
I’d like to try this out as well as adding full clips of poems, speeches, and interviews. A lot of the music has been started already, but I am going to let the field recordings inform the process for the other tracks too.
One main tip I want to leave you with is to do with organising your sounds…. Very quickly you can get overwhelmed with hundreds of recordings and not use any of them! Here are 2 quick strategies to combat this.
Rather than record everything cool you hear, if you are purposeful when you set out to record, chances are you might record less, but the stuff you capture will be more appropriate and useful for your project.
Also, if you quickly say what it is and where you are recording into the recorder, at the start of the recording, you can use this snippet to quickly skim through your files and immediately know what it is, rather than trying to listen hard and unravel the mystery of what sound is that again?
I hope this video and blog has helped you get inspired to use some more field recordings in your music!
Live Electronic Music Performance
I love making live electronic music! When I ran events for the Tonic Note label, live electronic music is what we focussed on. Rather than DJing, it helped us build a unique style of event, where it was almost exclusively original music you were listening to.
Below is my first full live set as my new act, Last of the Free, and also my first live set since April 2019 when I was on tour in Scotland!
I’m excited to share it with you, and if you have any questions how it all came together, or need tips yourself, just email me and I’ll get back to you!
I’ve also included a second bonus video that shows a run down of my set up. And further down I’ve written a mini blog on a whole bunch of tips about Live Performance you might find helpful. Enjoy!
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In the below video, I give you a quick run down of how my set up is put together! Click the thumbnail to watch.
Top Tips for Live Electronic Music Performance
Here are some of my tips in a stream of consciousness style orderless fashion ha ha!
Take time to build up your library of material to work with.
If you have just finished painstakingly crafting a collection of tracks, give it some time before you build your live set. It feels weird to immediately deconstruct something you’ve worked on for so long, and then try and rebuild it live.
Choose what you’d like to do in your live set. Do you mainly want to play an instrument and play the songs true to their original arrangement? Do you want to use loads of small loops and launch them live, with FX, remixing the arrangements and improvising as you go? Or a hybrid of this with some songs like plan A and some songs like plan B?
Watch lots of live sets on youtube for inspiration. Artists I recommend to check out are:
Giorgia Angiuli
KiNK
Rachel K Collier
Legowelt
Bad Snacks
Look Mum No Computer
Ela Minus
Marie Davidson
Saytek
If you are just starting out, I would recommend using Ableton live, building your live set in there. A Midi controller will be very useful for controlling FX (I like one with lots of faders and knobs). And then slowly you can add external gear like a drum machine, or synth. But be sure to learn the equipment you have inside out so you can get the most out of it!
Try and avoid “Shiny object syndrome” of always looking for new gear or plug ins and really learn well the ones you have. It can be good to have a one in, one out policy when you buy gear. EG if you already have a mono synth… if you are going to get another similar one, you have to sell the first one unless you can really justify it!
Try not to overcomplicate your live set, it is good for it to be easy to understand and get into a flow in a noisy, low light, and distracting environment (eg club or festival)
Pack the cables relating to a bit of equipment with that piece of equipment when transporting it. Rather than a huge bundle of all the cables this allows a quicker set up and less tangles to untangle.
REHEARSE A LOT. I mean every day if you have a gig coming up. You want your set up to become muscle memory, so you can play it like an instrument and really feel the flow of the music.
This rehearsal doesn’t need to feel like a chore - I mean you got into this to play music right? So enjoy that time and dont pressure yourself for results straight away.
Once you get a bit better, if you can, record your rehearsals! Having a good example of your live mix online can help convince people to give you gigs, and you can even make it into a live ep or album.
That’s it for now, although there is plenty more advice I could probably give on this I need my pasta for lunch and to go a skate.
Follow on instagram , youtube etc for frequent content and I’ll definitely be posting more about this subject as it’s one of my favourites
Thanks!
David
Need help mixing and arranging? Watch this then…
In this free video tutorial, I share an in depth tutorial of how I arranged and mixed my track for our latest compilation. This is taken from our monthly Music Maker’s Social Club webinars.
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Case Study: Noir Synth Pop tips & inspiration
In this free video tutorial, I share a case study of past student Andrew, and how he went from making rough bedroom demos to a fully released EP!
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