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Unit 12 (Collaborative LP) Shamans

Context

Rationale:

I am going to try apply all the skills and techniques I have learned throughout the course such as mixing, production knowledge & music business to my final major project by applying all these skills my final major project which is a collaborative LP it should be able to compete with professional LP releases already out there. I also am going to use what I learned about realising music from the Brighton Music Conference to the LP this should help it. Everyone who is featured on the LP is going to produce their own tracks and we each have various roles on the LP e.g someone will cover promotion, artwork & mixing down the tracks even though the roles are given to different people we are all gonna play those rolls because its our responsibility as a group to make sure the LP has a successful release but all the research we do will be individual research.

Project Concept:

Originally my final major project was to do a sound to picture piece with original video footage so nothing taken from the internet and I wanted to add my own sounds to the footage and create music for the it, but the person I was relying on to help me with the original footage let me down and I didn't have the time to go out and find someone else to help me with footage, so me and few others in my class decided to work together on a collaborative LP project for our final major. The final major project concept is a conceptual LP focusing on the history of psychedelic drugs and the link between them and music the project is a collaborative LP all the artist featured on the LP will create their own tracks but we also have various roles to complete on the LP such as promotion, artwork, distribution & mixing down of the tracks. The LP wont have multiple songs like normal LPs for ours we decided to go for one long track ranging from around 20-30 minutes long, this would be all our tracks put together to create one long track but each track will sound different and bring a different vibe to the track we done this to make the listeners feel like they are on a mad trip and hallucinating, also its very unique and could be a great selling point if we look to sell the LP we also want to make the music more modern so the music on the tracks will be music you hear nowadays.

Evaluation:

How my group wants to be evaluated on our final project is that after we have made the tracks we want to get feedback from students and the general public, so we thought of the idea to have a listening party inside the college were we can ask students that are about to come over and listen to our tracks on headphones and fill in a feedback sheet and let us know what they like and what could be improved on, also we will then take that set up outside the college and get feedback from the public, this is also a great idea because outside the college the feedback we will obtain would be better because outside the college there is different ages groups and a wide variety of musical tastes, we could also use platforms like sound cloud for feedback by uploading our tracks on soundcloud and seeing what the listeners have to say in the comment sections and if the like and repost the music. We also decided that after every week we will have a group meeting and evaluate what we've done on the project so far and our future plans for the LP, by doing this is helps the groups share and bring new ideas to the LP and sort out any problems we have as a team.

Research

Native Indian Cultural Influences:

The use of psychedelic drugs has been used throughout history many times in many different cultures for multiple reasons wether that be for ritual, spiritual, medical needs or just to feel the effects of the drugs. Cultures such as the Native Indians used a wide variety of psychedelics varying from different tribes for ceremonies, offerings & essentials for shamans and doctors some of the drugs that were used are tobacco, peyote, coca leafs, psilocybin, ayahuasca & many more, these psychedelics served different purposes tobacco was smoked through a pipe at ceremonies as a way to seal a deal between different tribes or a trade deal, and some tribes even used it as a way to make a living selling or trading the tobacco for other goods, some tribesmen even believed that the smoke that left their pipes would carry their prayers to the spirits. Peyote probably one of the most well known native drugs is a small cactus that flowers around march & may time, found in many parts of Mexico, Southern Texas & later moved to areas in the south west of the United Sates. It was used mainly in ceremonies the effects of this drug are so powerful that people thought it was a gateway into the world of the gods and is now branded a illegal drug. Some of the drugs used in Native Indian tribes were used for medical reasons or just for the sensation it gives the user such as coca leafs a very popular drug still used today, the coca leafs would be put into a bag then used as a chewing tobacco its said that it would numb the users mouth and give them a buzz, it was also made into a herbal tea that apparently improved the users mood & health, and was the one of the key trading items they used to make a living other than tobacco.

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkvgl3Kv8pQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfw4OYNuNCg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqJFq-xTs0U

Types Of Psychedelic Drugs & The Effects:

Most psychedelic drugs are naturally grown and come from the earth its self mainly found in seeds, leaves, roots or flowers of flowering plants in exotic or indigenous locations, but now can be made in laboratories all over the world The most common modern day psychedelics are morning glory, DMT, LSD, 2C-1 & methoxetamine these drugs can cause the user to have visual, mental, auditory & hallucinations that can leave the user feeling happy or for scared depending on the mood they are in when they took the drugs, this is called a trip there are two types of trips, trips & bad trips good trips can leave the user feeling happy and make them feel like they have a heightened understanding and bad trips can be very serious and make the user see things that would usually frighten and make them feel unsafe it can also cause anxiety, depression and in the worst case lead to death. These drugs can be very dangerous while the user is under the influence because they can make the user hear, feel and see things that are not actually there and this can lead to the user harming themselves or other around them, some even have serious after effects on the user after the drugs have worn of such as LSD it can make the user build up a tolerance of the drug making them want to take bigger dosages of the drug to feel the same effect as when the first took it or move on to harder drugs. Many of the psychedelics have long term effects that can cause the user to have/feel disorganized, paranoia, visual/mood disturbances, hallucinations and can lead to strokes & brain tumors. (Images of Some of the Drugs Above)

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG5JyorwYPo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyyNptkafBc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIfk6M7k77U

Rise Of Psychedelic Drugs:

Psychedelic drugs have been around and used for years but made a huge rise in the early 1960s - 70s as this was a time of change when peoples musical and artistic views changed because of the use of psychedelics, many people felt that the psychedelics was a way of breaking boundaries, heightening their awareness on politics and everyday life situations but the main thing that the psychedelics created was unity especially through young people of all different backgrounds during that time, and because of this many new things came from this such has the hippie culture, psychedelic art, the rave movement, acid rock & many other forms of psychedelic music. The hippie culture was most popular amongst young people mainly from the United States & United Kingdom but later on spread across the globe, their shared interest in counterculture values protesting for women rights, civil rights, sexual revolutions and general clashes with the government brought them much closer as culture because in that time their was a lot of division from race, sexuality & religion not only that but their shared interest in psychedelics helped them form tighter bonds, hippies mainly used marijuana, LSD, peyote & mushrooms as their go to psychedelics of choice. Many hippies used psychedelics for heightening their senses to enter new realms or for spiritual reasons a lot of hippies went on to practise different religions and ways of life from Buddhism, Hinduism & Unitarian most of the religions and ways of life they practised were indigenous this was probably because of the links to psychedelics from indigenous tribes and plants. Many forms of music were created in the early 1960s through psychedelia such as acid rock, acid house, acid trance, chillwave & many more the use of different drugs opened up peoples minds and sent them on crazy trips where they would be able to see, hear and feel things that only psychedelics would let them do, this lead to new creative styles of music that were very popular back in the early 1960s and changed the way people see and hear music a lot of artist now say that they can see and feel music and thats what helps them create unique music, not just that but elements of psychedelic music has found its way into many forms of popular music even up to this very day. Psychedelic drugs not only changed music but it also changed art & fashion peoples dress sense and perception on what is art changed people started wearing funky colourful clothes that stood out and some even refused to abide by the norm and wear no clothes. (Images Above)

Video Links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4irPG5o9X5A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zekWDKZlmgc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHq_VuyENa4

How My Research Links In With The LP:

From what I have gathered from the research I am going to link what a user of psychedelics sees & hears to the LPs music and artwork for the music Im going to take what I got from the research about the trips and hallucinations and try to apply it to the music by using funky, spacey & atmospheric sounds that make listeners feel like they are on a mind trip and seeing things but through their imagination and music. For the artwork I am going to take what I learned from the 1960s about psychedelic art and hippies and apply it to the LPs cover art, so that the LP can have a psychedelic artwork feel to it with the bright colours and weird curved shapes this way it makes my research link with the concept of the LP.

Problem Solving

For my unit 12 I had todo a lot of problem solving my first major problem was changing my unit 12 project, originally I was going todo a sound to picture piece and use original footage that I had filmed or acquired from collaborating with someone who creates visuals, but I had to change my project because the person I was relying on to help me with the footage left me waiting and as time drew closer they had told me they couldn't help so I had to think of a new project idea quickly, at first I thought of filming footage myself but I have no knowledge of video editing so I would of struggled at that point so I decided to leave the sound to picture piece and think of a new final major project idea, thats when me and a few others from my class decided to collaborate together and work on a conceptual LP for our unit 12. The first problem that popped up during the conceptual LP was when we first went to the synth lab to start recording sounds that we was gonna use for our tracks, the problem was the computer in the synth lab would not let us log in so we couldn't use the DAW on the computer, so to get around this we took pictures of the sound presets (Down Below) we wanted to use so if the problem got fixed we could come back and get straight into laying down the tracks we also told the teachers to let them know about our problem but it was not solved. To get around the synth lab problem we asked our teacher and studio technician if could safely take the equipment we needed into a studio and record there, we was granted permission to move the equipment from the synth lab so we took the instruments out of the synth lab into a studio and set them up and started recording some of the tracks inside the studio we also left the equipment in that studio so we didn't have to go through the problem of taking it out and setting it up every time we wanted to use it. But we ran into another major problem weeks later the tracks we had made in the studio suddenly corrupted some wouldn't open when we clicked on the project & some opened but the audio files were missing we could of solved this problem if we had saved all the tracks to USBs but we just left them on the computer because we was using that computer frequently even on our days off. We reacted quickly and tried to recreate the tracks one the day they corrupted but because it was during the end of the day we didn't have enough time to re-create them so we decided to take samples of the instruments whilst everything was still set up and take the samples home and make tracks in our own free time, we all went home and made tracks for the LP I didn't use any of the sound samples we took in my tracks I just used sounds and instruments I had already. Because of the lack of tracks we had due to losing some and not being able to make more in the short time we had because they deadline was approaching we decided to get rid of the one long track idea I mentioned in the context section of unit 12 and just make a normal track listing with multiple tracks. After those problems we had a few more ones that were easier to fix such as catching up on past units, that was a problem because it took focus off of polishing up unit 12 but I sorted that out by just spending a day on my unit 11 and getting that out the way, other problem we had was members of the group not showing up or not participating with the project, we solved this by informing the members that weren't present on what we have done in the sessions while they were away and filling them in with what they need to have do or have done for the next session via phone & email, and for the members not participating we sat down and had a group meeting and just explained to them that we all needed to pull our socks up and put full attention into the final major project, I think that was the best way todo it because it doesn't start arguments and it motivates the whole group to push a little bit harder. The final problem that I know of that the group ran into was another track had gone missing but we don't know how, after getting the tracks back from being the mastered we noticed that one was missing we had sent off 8 to be mastered but got 7 back, we decided as a group that the missing track that didn't not get mastered will be added on to the LP as bonus tracks on the bandcamp version but we will put (Bonus Track - Unmastered) in the title to let the listeners know because they will be able to hear the difference between the mastered and unmastered tracks.

Planning & Production

Project Plan:

This is a brief plan of what we hope to achieve while making the LP for the first week we are just gonna lay down ideas for the LP e.g what genre music are we making for the LP, will it have a concept, are we planning on playing it live, name of LP & who's the target audience, after that we hope to have the genres and concept of the LP down and move onto creating music for the LP in the weeks to follow, after that we will see about making artwork and getting it distributed to multiple platforms so that we can get a audience. To help us with the project we are going to make a weekly planner to help guide us on what we have done, what needs to be done & what resources we will need to help us in those weeks. (Down Below)

Weekly Planner:

Week 1

Activity - We sat down as a group & talked about what genre of music we wanted to make, who's it aimed at, is it gonna have vocalist & what the concept behind our final project would be we basically just llaid down ideas of what we are going/try to achive with the project.

Resources - All member of the group, pen & paper so we can write down concepts and ideas for our final project.

Week 2

Activity - After the planning of our LP we planned to use the equipment in the synth lab to jam out and get ideas of what sounds and instruments we would use for our final project and lay down a base track to get us started with the practical side of things, the session was going very well everyone was jamming out on the different instruments we felt like a actual band, but we ran into a problem when we tried to record what we was playing the computer in the synth lab would not let us log in so we couldn't record anything from our jam session, so took photos of the sound presets we wanted to use so if the problem was fixed we would know what sounds we was using and we also took videos of the session. (Down Below)

Resources - The equipment/resources we needed this week was permission from our teacher to use the synth lab, Korg X5, MPC, V-Synth, Moog, MIDI keyboard, mixing console & computer (Which did not work) mobile phones to take pictures and videos of the session.

Week 3

Activity - Because of the synth lab problem last week which we hoped would be sorted this week had not been fixed we decided to use a studio to lay down the base track because the computer in the synth lab was still not working & we needed to get some tracks & ideas ready for the LP, we took the Korg X5 from the synth lab into the studio with us because we all liked the sounds it had and they would fit the type of sounds we was looking for on our LP, at this time we wasn't able to take all the equipment because the studio we got was quite full already so we just settled for the Korg X5 for this week. We was able to create one base track and it has been saved on USB so we can work on it at a later date.

Resources - A studio so we can start creating the tracks, Korg X5 for the sounds it has, MIDI keyboard to play other instruments, USB to save the track, a computer so we can log in and use the DAW & all members of the group so we can share ideas.

Week 4

Activity - We wasn't able to use the studio for 2 weeks due to the technician being away and not being able to use studios until other units were finished, so during this time the group just decide we will catch up on the theory side of the project and get our individual research and weekly planners updated and take the opportunity create some of the tracks at home since we want table to use the synth lab or studios.

Resources - We only needed a computer to type up our album concept research and fill in our weekly planners on our blogs. Computers & DAW to make tracks at home.

Week 5

Activity - Week 5 we just focused on making tracks and finishing up on essentials for the LP we had most of the written work done so we agreed to spend this week in the studio making tracks we took all the instruments we was using in the synth lab and set them up in the studio and started laying down tracks for the project for the rest of the day, we even came in early and on our days off to finish up the practical work on the other days of the week but we ran into a problem at the end of the week, the tracks we had made got corrupted and we lost them, this could of been avoided if he had just saved them on a USB. We tried to re-create the tracks but didn't have enough time so we decided to go home and make more tracks at home and use them for our final unit. We also made a soundcloud and bandcamp so we can release our LP on those platforms.

Resources - A studio and mixing desk to record the instruments, computer to use the logic x software, cables to connect the instruments to the mixing desk and studio matrix, V-Synth, Korg X5, MPC, Moogs for record the sounds, USB to save the tracks we made at home & log in details to the soundcloud and bandcamp.

Week 6

Activity - For week 6 we brought in the tracks we made at home and put them onto one USB so that our teacher can master the tracks for us and get them professional ready so they can be played on radio and other music streaming services and compete with other professional releases. We also printed out a bunch of artwork covers and placed them inside CD cases so after the tracks have been mastered we can burn them onto the CDs and hand them out to record shops. Our plan at the end of the week is to visit record shops and try set up a sale or return deal with our EP at the record shops.

Resources - We need all our tracks we had created, a USB to put them all on, our teacher to master our tracks, CD cases and print outs of the LP artwork to put inside the CD cases to make the EP look more professional & a computer to burn the tracks on to the CDs.

Practical Skills

Choice of Sounds & Effects:

The sound I selected in the tracks I made played a big role in fitting in with the concept of the LP because its easy to make music for a genre but if its got to have a certain vibe to it the sounds you use have to be spot on to give the track that vibe, I used a lot of wide, spacey ambient sounds in my tracks to give that psychedelic hallucination vibe to the track but I still wanted to keep elements of the genre which was rap so I added 808 basses and rap style drum patterns to the psychedelic melodies. To make the tracks sound more trippy I used reverb & delay plugins to make the sounds more weird so when the listener closes their eyes and uses their imagination they can feel like their mind is opening up.

Track Preview:

For our tracks we wanted them to represent a trip or make the music sound like the listeners are under the influence of the psychedelics. For the track I'm previewing I wanted it to sound like the effects of the psychedelic had just kicked in thats what the smashing glass and the build up in the intro represent, its the users mind being taken over by the psychedelics and making them think they have reached a new place, to make it sound like the listener mind has been affected by the drugs I added reverb and delays to most the sounds to give it a spacey trippy vibe. (Preview Below)

https://soundcloud.com/user-103735435-173869626/warp-shamans/s-JDIsw

Releasing The LP:

We all agreed on releasing the LP digitally and physically we was originally gonna distribute the LP on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon & Soundcloud but we decided to just release it on Soundcloud and Bandcamp due to the fact we don't have a huge fan base yet to be putting it on major platforms, so releasing clips onto soundcloud would help us slowly grow our fans because its a site dedicated to just music and its a great way for other artists to check out and share your work, we also went with Bnadcamp because its a great site for independent artist to sell their music on and the money earned goes straight to the artist. We also made CDs to take to record shops so that we can set up a sell or return agreement. (Image Of CD Above)

Presentation

Artwork:

(See Above)

LP Name:

We went with the name Shamans for our LP because during research we found out that people believed that shamans had spiritual connections with the gods and the use of psychedelics during healing & ceremonies tied in with the concept of the LP so we thought it would be a good title name for the LP plus it ties in with the historical side of psychedelics.

Bedford Gig:

We had a opportunity to perform 2 of our tracks off the LP at the Bedford in Balham this was a great opportunity to showcase and receive feedback from the audience that attended the event. We got a DJ to present our tracks he played our 2 tracks during his mix at the end of the event but the audience slowly decreased in numbers nearing the end so we couldn't really receive the amount of feedback we wanted, but from what we saw looking down on the crowd they was enjoying the music so that shows us that the two tracks we played was a hit with the audience this was also good because the audience had a mix of different age groups this let us know people of different age groups can listen to our music. (Videos & Images Above)

Link to Shamans LP:

https://soundcloud.com/user-103735435-173869626

Evaluation & Reflection

Video Evidence Of Feedback:

We wanted to get first hand feedback from someone about the tracks on our LP since we couldn't get first hand feedback from the audience at the Bedford gig so we asked one of our teachers to listen to 2 tracks and let us know what they thought, I was able to capture the feedback for one of the tracks on video. (See Above) For the feedback on the other track our teacher basically said he liked the music it was very atmospheric, unusual and original and that would make it a good selling point and that if we get the opportunity we should try play it live, he also congratulated us on the group effort that we put into the LP. I also took this as a opportunity to ask him a question about the track I asked “What was your favourite part of the track” and he just explained how the tracks have depth and deep sounds to them and how they would sound great at a festival or warehouse event. We was pleased with the feedback we received because it lets us know that our music was interesting and not dull it also reflects back onto our ideas of having spacey atmospheric sounds that made listeners feel like they our on a trip.

Context:

The context section really helped bring this project to life it was basically the base of the project it had our ideas of what we wanted todo for the LP and how we wanted execute them all we had todo was carry them out which I think we done very well even though we ran into a few problems but thats whats expected when you creating any time of project.

Research:

I think the research I did really helped with the practical & presentational side of the project because the research helped me understand what a user sees, feels & hears whilst under the influence of a psychedelic drug, this helped me relate it back to the choice of sounds, effects and instruments I used when making the tracks, also when deciding on ideas of what the artwork should be from the knowledge I gathered from the research I linked psychedelic art and hallucinations to ideas for the artwork.

Problem Solving:

We had a lot problems whilst making the LP but we managed to find ways to solve these problems as a group and I think thats a good thing instead of leaving one person to resolve the problems or cutting something from the LP because we couldn't sort the problem out we worked as a team to think of solutuons and didn't let obstacles get in our way.

Planning & Production:

The weekly planner I have in the planning and production section really helped keep track of what was going on during the making of the LP, by filling in what went down each week I was able to keep track on what I had todo that week and plan ahead for what I'm going todo in the weeks to come. This helped organise the whole group so instead of us discussing every week about what we should do that week and taking away time from the project we could just look at our planners and see what needed to be done with no fuss.

Pratical Skills:

The particle skill I put into the LP with the help from the research and skills I have learned from being on this course really helped me and the group flow during making the tracks and playing our individual roles. We was able to apply the knowledge we've learnt into the project for example the mixing & production lessons with our teacher helped us with sound selections, arrangement, effect choice and the mixing down of our tracks, also the Brighton Music Conference helped with the LP we took what we learnt from the conference about creating your own labels and releasing music and applied what we learnt into our project this helped with the release of the LP. We will be releasing it on Soundcloud as clips but if you want the full LP it will be available for purchase on Bandcamp and we plan give physical copies to record stores. (Links Below)

https://soundcloud.com/user-103735435-173869626

Presentation:

I think the overall presentation of the LP is very professional especially since this is our first release and first collaborative release, we was able to get a high quality artwork for the cover that links to the concept of the LP and from just looking at the cover people would already have a understanding of what type of music to expect on the LP, not only that but the artwork is also very eye catching and thats a key point when choosing cover art because if it don't grab peoples attention it will most likely not be selected so I think we done a great job on that. Our presentation at the Bedford gig also got a good reposes from the audience even though we never got to chat to them to ask if they liked the music from what we saw we could tell they enjoyed it so that was a good response for us.

Overall:

Overall I am very happy with how the LP turned out and how the group managed to stay on track even when problems occurred, we sorted out the problems very quickly without having to cut anything from the project so I am pleased with that, we made digital and physical copies of the LP so we can get our music out to a wider audience and build a fan base. I think we played the individuals roles we set for ourselves really well and operated at a great team to get the whole LP up to a professional level so we can compete with other releases.

Research Sources

bpwriter. (28/11/2013). 7 CRAZY NATIVE AMERICAN DRUGS. Available: https://bpwriter22.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/7-crazy-native-american-drugs/. Last accessed 13/06/2017.

Cultural Survival, Inc.. (December 1985). HALLUCINOGENIC PLANTS AND THEIR USE IN TRADITIONAL SOCIETIES - AN OVERVIEW. Available: https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/hallucinogenic-plants-and-their-use-traditional-societies. Last accessed 13/06/17.

Psychedelics.com. (13/06/17). Psychedelic Drug List. Available: http://psychedelics.com/psychedelics-definition/psychedelic-drug-list/. Last accessed 13/06/17.

NIH (National Institute on Drug Abuse). (February 2015). How Do Hallucinogens (LSD, Psilocybin, Peyote, DMT, and Ayahuasca) Affect the Brain and Body?. Available: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/hallucinogens-dissociative-drugs/how-do-hallucinogens-lsd-psilocybin-peyote-dmt-ayahuasca-affect-brain-body. Last accessed 13/06/17.

Wikipedia. (07/05/17). Psychedelic Era. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_era. Last accessed 16/06/17.

Wikipedia. (14/06/17). Psychedelic Music. Available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_music. Last accessed 16/06/17.

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