#17

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
June 5th 2015

Music Production #17

My goal for this week was to export the music, add it into the video, and submit the final product. This week I took Sara's advice on the song by changing the key of the drums, it was easy to do seeing as there were a series of loops of the same beat just in different keys. It made the music way more harmonic, the drums fit into the song way more. Additionally we faded out the orchestra at some times and changed the volume so we could also focus on other parts of the track, this was all due to Shahad's feedback, it was very helpful as it made the song fluctuate at different parts in sync with the video. Now we were ready to export our song, however, there was one misfortune that was that when it was exported it wouldn't open in the film lab. In which we just exported it out as a itunes file. Unfortunately we were struck with the news that the loops weren't included into the music that was exported. Mr. Ball said that he would find a solution to this and I hope he does. My aim for next week is to study for my exams cause we are done with Music Production.

Feedback:

-"It sounds very good with the video, however it would've sounded better if the loops were included" - Raghad

Thank you Raghad hopefully the loops will be included if Mr. Ball finds a way for it to happen

-"The music sounds more in sync especially the base and the synthesizer at the end! Great job! I loved the panning the most" - Taji

Thank you for your feedback. I'm very happy you noticed the panning it's my favourite part too. 

Pic of Mr. Ball on how to export the music:

#16

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
26th May 2015

Process Journal #16

My goal for this week was to complete the background music, but everything was put on hold after we were informed that our whole project was deleted due to logic's technological difficulties. So there we were about to start a whole new project and complete it in one week. To clarify we were at a major disadvantage! We had hoped to finish the music and do the dubbing all in this week, but since this bad news was given to us we decided to ask the film group to be in charge of the dubbing. We began on our new project and decided to include loops to make our lives easier. We had a bpm of 120 and the key was C Major. At first the music started out slow then the orchestra's strings were included and the drums, which was in sync to what was happening in the film. For the dubbing part, Loay did the male's voice, while Hessa was the wife, and Raghad was the cranky old assassin. My goal for next week is to export the whole video and for the music to give the video a substantial effect. As for Habiba and Hayaan's feedback we can't really use it seeing as the whole track got deleted, this was very unfortunate. 

Feedback on the new track:

- "The orchestra is very loud and takes away from the other tracks, you should try fading it out, or lower the volume!" - Shahad

I will do that next lesson because Mr. Ball did say that we should include musical devices such as volume and panning

-"I love what you did with the panning it is absolutely incredible! You should really try and make the key of the drums C Major instead of D it'll fit in more" - Sara

There is a set of the same drums just in different keys we will change it next lesson

How to transfer music from logic into final cut pro:

#15

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production
18th May 2015

Process Journal #15

My goal for this week is to add music and complete at least have half of the video with a background soundtrack. However, what I anticipated had happened and more, by the end of the week we had completed the whole soundtrack. The problem that week was there were some instruments and loops we couldn't include because we didn't update our Logic X PRO. Moreover, in the film class they were editing the video and included the effects through sound and through the film. When we saw their final product it was very effective in simulating the feeling of horror. 

Feedback: 

- "It wasn't balanced, there was more treble then bass. You should change the EQ of the track." - Habiba

Will do! I learnt how to change the EQ thanks to Mr. Ball and hopefully I'll do it next lesson

-"It doesnt progress as it goes along. You should add in a new hook" - Hayaan

Thank you Hayaan I will tell my group to do that, we should really add a new hook for when Hessa is murdered

Playing the guitar:

#14

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
14th May 2015

Process Journal #14

Today we requested the video and we were told that they weren't done. So as a group we continued experimenting. They showed us the story board of the film, in which we could have a glimpse of what we were dealing with. The storyboard consisted of a man accusing his wife of cheating on him, she denies him and cruised to clear her mind. On her way home she picks up a hitchhiker and it turns out to be an assassin and she kills the mans wife. The plot twist is that her husband hired the hitman. This tave is the idea that our music should speed up when the assassin is introduced and when she mirrors her. We created a new sample through loops and sampled it to the film group.

Feedback

"It sounds nice especially the snare drums" -Hessa

Thank you! I hope the snare drums made a difference in the video

"I love how the speed fluctuates at the predicted actions this creates a faster and slower heart rate" -memo

We were hoping that the music could change the heartrate of the viewers to fit the actions produced by the video, I guess we achieved it.

how to create a storyboard:

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
3rd May 2015

This week we were in week without walls !!

#12

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
April 27th 2015

Music Production #12

Today we met with our film group. We got along very well because I knew Hessa and Mariam of the vividly and we are mutual friends. We took most of the first lesson discussing the genre of the film to determine the theme of the background music. We determined that the genre would be horror, we then went back to the music studio to experiment on music that would have an aura of horror. We found a lot of useful loops under the tags "dark, intense". Yara, Anood, and I made a sample of about around 39 seconds long making it a productive session.

Feedback

"It's incredibly how unique it sounds, even though it's all loops! Great job guys!" - Shahad

Thanks! Technology can do the impossible nowadays

" it sounds like a retro 70's/80's horror movie soundtrack you should stick to the 21st century" - Jibrail

Thank you Jibrail but the movie itself isn't that 21st-century style

Mr. Ball explaining how to choose the settings:

Some of the best movie soundtracks:

#11

Wadha Al Nabti

Music Production 10

April 23rd 2015

Process Journal #11

We finally got paired up with our groups. Mr. Ball decided to choose groups for us. My group in music production consisted of Yara, Al Anoud and I. We got paired up with Raghad, Mariam, and Hessa from the Film class. And that was basically the only thing we did that week. Moreover, I had just finished my background music for the previous film. Anood and I out our blood, sweat, and tears into it for it to be harmonic. I believe it to be the best work I've ever done throughout the course.

"You should try panning the beats, it'll give off a charming effect" - Habiba

Thank you! Will do, as it sounds like a great idea

"The BPM fit the scenes perfectly, I really like the dark, monotonous theme given off through the music. You should try adding in a mode" - Yara

Thank you Yara, however I don't believe there should be a reason for a mode on our project

#10 - Part 2

Feedback:

- "Instagram is a great idea because a picture speaks a thousand words" - Samid
I chose instagram for your group because you're allowed to post videos and pictures. Also I hope you can follow it and like the pictures of yourself.

- "you're very good at communicating with the group, however you could improve on being stricter." - Kareem
Thank you Kareem, whenever I'm strict the teams aren't productive, whenever I'm laid back more work is getting done.

Here is the instagram page and a sample photo:

http://instagram.com/SMD_official4

Musical genius at work

A photo posted by SMD (Shut Me Down) (@smd_official4) on Nov 23, 2014 at 12:30am PST

If you need help with instagram please visit this page so you know how to use it.

Mr. Ball telling us about the role of an executive producer:

#10 Part 1

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
5th December

Process Journal #10

This week the first lesson we were given to work on our roles. While on the school trip to Dubai I decided to be productive and search more on my role as an executive producer, even though Mr. Ball cleared up what we need to do. I always say knowledge is power, the more the merrier. According to my research from the video and websites I've seen, an executive producer basically the business side of things wether its funding, distribution, or promotion. In our cases its mostly distribution and promotion because we are supposed to promote our bands, while showing off their music. However it can be funding, by giving them ingenious ideas for their music, or ways to make the image of the band better, either way they are trying to make the band sell merchandise. Other than that I didn't follow the other part of Hayaan's advice because I know what a musician, producer, and songwriter is supposed to do thanks to Mr. Ball. I only followed his advice when I was supposed to search my own role because if you do your job correctly, then who you're representing is in safe hands. The only role I didn't know much about was engineer, and thank god I didn't research that because Mr. Pardy came and he used to be an engineer. He taught us how before there would be three engineers for the different functions, but now only one engineer is needed because all the dials and switches have been put into one board. Also, he told us about something called ambient tainting and that is when other sounds interfere with yours and you get background noises and static type of sound. This thing ambient tainting has been the thing that has been getting on my nerves for the last two years, thank you Mr. Pardy. He also summarised everything we learn about microphones last year, meaning phantom power, omnidirectional microphones, stuff like that. Other than that what I learnt today about the engineer is that he comes and fixes everything a musician does to make it sound better, so basically be a music critic, however you need a physics degree sometimes because you need to work on a program thats way more complex and different than Logic X Pro; it's basically like a smart technician music critic its pretty cool. After Mr. Ball told us we had to advertise our band, I decided to create an instagram for SMD, calling it SMD_Official4, while I created a vine for G.O.A.T, called GOAT7.

#9

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
28th November 2014

Process Journal #9

I wasn't here for the whole week as I was absent sunday, and wednesday I was off to a football competition from the 28-30th of November. I missed two lessons because of the football competition, and one due to a fever. 

#8

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
November 22nd 2014

Process Journal #8

Today we continued on with getting started with our real life studio experience by getting roles.To freshen up your mind, there are four roles that you could get in a real live studio and we were told that by the end of last lesson we would have our roles, albeit Taji and I didn't get one. The roles we could've secured was a producer, songwriter, musician, and engineer, but at the end of the first lesson Taji and I were executive producers. In hindsight, I wish I was a songwriter, because I really love fusing poetry with music. Furthermore, while attempting to understand our roles we realized we had to split the work, in which we decided to divide the four groups between us to in a way, manage them. I took over SMD, G.O.A.T and the little practice room in the classroom, which would later on become my office. The next lesson SMD (shut me down) and G.O.A.T (Greatest of all time) were in practice rooms to decide on a genre and name of a band. There was a lot of disagreements so the whole lesson was spent trying to get along with each other and deciding on a name. Sara, Samid, Hamad, and Basyouni decided on the name SMD (shut me down), while Darwin, Al Anoud, Kareem, and Hayaan decided on the name G.O.A.T (Greatest of all time). That was as productive as it was gonna get because these bands weren't made up by friends but by classmates, so lets just say it was a diamond in the rough, a butterfly waiting to break out of its cocoon. 

Feedback: (on role)
"I believe you should research more about your role, and others as it will help you understand what everyone is supposed to be doing in your groups, and what you're supposed to be doing obviously" - Hayaan

Thank you Hayaan, that was honestly very helpful because then I will understand what it is to be in a live studio from all perspectives. Also just the way you put it was beautiful I will know what I'm supposed to do and how to apply it to the other roles and help them understand what their doing. In this moment I realize how hard it is to be a teacher.

"you need to start advising us on our genre and try to be a mediator because I don't want to waste more time fighting in my group" - Hamad Al Mawlawi

Hamad I will try my best to advise you on your genre however that is a group decision and I believe that you need to get used to it because you will be working with them for the next two months. Albeit, I will try to find the most famous genres as they will have the most information, instruments, and lyrics to create around those genres. Also the faster you help stop the fights the faster the other group members realize they need to take the matter of the project seriously. 

Photo of my office:

#7

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
13th November 2014

Process Journal #7

Today we started a new unit based on different roles in a real live studio, bringing reality into the class we currently take to face reality.  I really dreaded the second lesson as we spent all of it trying to understand our roles on youtube; if that lesson was subrogated with one where we could try and guess our roles, then we would be shown the videos to see how wrong we were, in that way we could learn from our mistakes. I was really happy to work with this new real live studio unit because honestly I love songwriting and fixing peoples music the best. I like to call myself a music critic, so I'm not a huge musician, meaning this is my time to shine. Moreover, even though I complained about the masterclasses they really helped me understand the roles and the basic guidelines, but I still needed to touch up on some stuff. Whatever role I get I can watch the videos again as they were very useful or just read the guidelines of the roles on the white board, because there is nothing wiser than Mr. Ball. In all honesty, I wasn't being sarcastic Mr. Ball is my favourite type of teacher doesn't like to go all out and gives us all the basic and essential information needed in bullet points. He's a very productively challenged person, as in he can do the most important stuff in a short amount of time which is a quality I value highly. Anyhow, I will use the whiteboard and the videos to reference my need for knowledge on my role, which shall be chosen by the end of this week, however Taji and I still don't have a role.

There is no feedback (barely started my job)

Photo of Mr. Ball explaining to us our roles:

Wadha Al Nabti, reporting for duty!

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
1st November 2014

Report: How does music affect your workout?

Music dates back to the days of Ancient Egyptians, which was around 4000 BC. Exercise dates back to the day's of Adam. Associating music and exercise is a common practice, which is why in 1920 till today research on how music affects workouts is taking place. Fifteen years later scientists discovered a simple tempo change could change the respiration rate. Other than that researchers have found out that the faster the tempo, the greater the effort in the workout, however even with a fast tempo the participants who undertook the exercise chose to accept the pace and hard work made to match the tempo of the music. Seeing as we increase or decrease the work and pace of the workout to match the tempo of the music we listen to. Meaning the higher the bpm, the higher the effort made to the workout.

 Mostly exercise is used to tone the body, be healthy, but most importantly to lose weight. It is a hard journey to lose weight by eating healthy and exercising, therefore any boost would be most beneficial. Moreover the respiration rate changes with the tempo change, meaning the respiration rate matches the tempo of the song. Thus if the music has a high tempo more glucose is being used to create energy, resulting in slimmer bodies with higher bpm's. With this new found information I have decided to make my song to 120 bpm so the user doesn't lose a lot of glucose to be turned into energy as it is only the pre-workout, meaning I'll need that glucose for the real deal. According to Livestrong the higher the tempo of your workout music, the faster you'll fit into those jeans.

1920, until now the human race have concluded that we match our effort, respiration, heart rate to the tempo. Thus if you have a song of high tempo (BPM) while exercising you'll burn more calories than what the numbers say. This is where the numbers lie on the treadmill of how many calories burnt. Music is all around us, and there might be benefits we don't even know about, but thanks to science I've realized music could change the outcome of a workout and how it's executed than a workout without music. In conclusion music affects your workout more than one, first being mentally (accepting more effort to match tempo), physically (heart rate), and subconsciously (respiration), which all helps to create a better workout in the long run.

Works Cited

- Kravitz, Len. "Music and Exercise." Music and Exercise. The University of New Mexico, 1 Jan. 2003. Web. 1 Nov. 2014. <http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article folder/musicexercise.html>.

- Barnett, Jeff. "How Music Affects Your Workout." Breaking Muscle. Health and Fitness News. Web. 31 Oct. 2014. <http://breakingmuscle.com/sports-psychology/how-music-affects-your-workout>.

- Rosenzweig, Fara. "How Music Can Enhance Your Workout." ACTIVE.com. Active, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/how-music-can-enhance-your-workout>.

- Renolds, Gretchen. "Phys Ed: Does Music Make You Exercise Harder?" Well Phys Ed Does Music Make You Exercise Harder Comments. Nytimes, 25 Aug. 2010. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/phys-ed-does-music-make-you-exercise-harder/?_r=0>. 

- Peterson, Dan. "Music Benefits Exercise, Studies Show." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 21 Oct. 2009. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://www.livescience.com/5799-music-benefits-exercise-studies-show.html>.

- Roth, Eric. "Relationship Between Music and Heart Rate." Livestrong. LIVESTRONG, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://www.livestrong.com/article/75323-relationship-between-music-heart-rate/>.

#5

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
30th October 2014

Process Journal #5

This week we continued working on our songs, but not every purpose of a thought, or product is the only use of it. That is why I didn't work on my songs, instead I worked on my report, seeing as my LOGIC X kept on crashing. After attempting to try to work on my report I decided to work on viewing youtube videos on different people using kaossilator, and how to hook it up by myself so I could hook it up for my next lesson so I don't waste Mr. Ball's time. This lesson was very unproductive seeing as all the videos on kaossilators were covers of Swedish House Mafia songs! The next lesson I used the computer so I could work on some tracks there, and then add on my own tracks, however just when I decided to put effort and time into my work logic crashed. That is literally the best definition of my life and how whenever I try to do work something will go wrong, it's as if the universe is telling me I shouldn't do anything at all. Any who after 30 minutes of trying to repair it, Mr. Ball allowed me to use the administrator account, which gave me 15 minutes to add in my own drum line and weird synthesizer thing. I think I'll need more time to work on my song honestly, because I feel like it's such an unfair advantage to use your laptop, but then crash because the memory is too weak. Puts down my self-esteem and confidence, and whenever I try to listen to the song it'll crash and then I'd open it again and it'll download additional content, which resulted into MY DECISION OF HATING LOGIC X PRO 10!!!!

"I really like the melody of the subby bass" - Ahmed El Namoury

Thank you Ahmed with your vague comment maybe you could provide why you like it next time :D (so I can learn what my audience enjoys if I were to create a real song for everyone)

"You should create a mode, by adding in a scale and then changing the first key of the scale, it'll make it sound very tropical" - Habiba

That seems like a very smart idea I'll print some scales on the piano today so I can add it in because I want my song to be quality work

"Seems as if the drum doesn't quite go in line with the subby bass, which could be a turn off." -Hadi

I'll try to quanta-size it so I can see what is the issue because I, myself heard a little gap between the songs.

Photo of my drum line and Subby bass, which sounds like a weird synthesizer:

#4

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
14th October 2014

Process Journal #4

My aim for this week was to add drums to my song, which is why I jammed out using drums in the practice room. I started off with the drums because I've the easiest thing to do is find a drum beat first then add on synthesizers, guitars, piano, etc. Mr. Ball had suggested that idea to me a year back and that is when I found that it is the easiest and most inspirational way to create a song. Later on I listened to some music with the same bpm as mine to find out that if I were to use this song, where would it be on my gym playlist? What would I be doing that best suits this song? This has lead me with the idea of using my song as the warmup song, seeing as I have a fast bpm, which I need to get my heart rate up in the beginning so I can get accustomed to the rest of the workout. I then listened to some music that was widely popular in the everyday gym user community and I chose the ones that were best to be used as a heart rate raising, warmup song. Moreover I recognised that my song's genre was very different to the songs that I listened to, which is why I've decided to change it into hip hop/ r&b type of song, as it is the only genre I like to listen to when I personally hit the gym. 

Feedback: (on my drum part)

- "it's very simple and catchy, would definitely want me to listen to the tracks you're going to add" - Darwin

Thank you, when I upload my real song onto sound cloud I'll make sure you can download it. 

-"Make it more sophisticated because for now it sounds very cliche" - Shahad 

I'll try to make it more sophisticated, but it'll take time as I'm not very advanced on working with the drums

-"I like the idea of creating an r&b/hiphop song because thats what is mainly being produced currently so you'll have a lot of influences" - Samid

Thank you Samid, I chose it because it's the genre I mainly listen to and I'm very used to it by now and know how to make a nice song.

Samples of my inspiration:

1) Eye of the tiger - Survivor

2) We cant stop - Miley Cyrus

#3

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
1st October 2014

Process Journal #3

My aim for this week is to start on a song for my playlist. This week we were asked to submit our playlists and its BPM's also to submit a link to our blog. Moreover we were introduced to a discussion tab on the moodle, where you submit a problem that has happened to your work station so Mr. Ball can work on it all after class so it can be ready for next class. Otherwise a whole lesson is spent wasted while Mr. Ball runs around trying to fix each computer in the workstation.What didn't work this lesson was the start of a song for my playlist because I didn't really know what genre I wanted it to be I was very lost throughout the lesson. Sometimes people have spurts of genius ideas and I get that right before I go to bed, which is the biggest problem there is because I never seem to remember those genius ideas when I'm awake. Anyhow this week I wasn't able to complete my goals, but I was able to submit my bpm playlist. Back to the complaint box on moodle I feel like we should have one lesson every two months focusing on how to fix common mistakes revolving around the workshop so we can be independant and help ourselves. Or Mr. ball could create and afterschool club focusing on how to be a technician for your workshop and it would count as c&s because the people attending the club would help their class mates instead of waiting the whole lesson for Mr. Ball.

Video on how to remove the most annoying thing ever on logic: (VERY HELPFUL)

#1

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
15/9 

Process Journal #1

My aim for this week is to create a playlist on itunes and be proud of it. This week we were asked to create a workout playlist, leaving some slots open to add in our own music for some parts of the playlist. Minimally 10% of the playlist must be made from logic by yourself. My aim is to create a workout that goes along with the bpm formula that Mr. Ball had shown us, called the Karvonen formula. It helps give you a guideline of the bpm you need for the capacity of the heart being used. In the end of the class I got my workout playlist and we were asked to gather the bpm's of each song so we could find the Karvonen formula and see if it matches with the exercise you'd do with that song. I honestly feel like the Karvonen formula is very helpful sometimes, it honestly comes down to what type of person you are because I could only be exercising to release stress and in that case I would listen to music or I could exercise because its a daily routine meaning I'd be thinking about what comes after this. In the end the Karvonen formula will only work if the person themselves are only focused on the workout and the song being played. After I gathered my playlist I went on to get the BPM of the songs which took more than I realised. 

My playlist: (some songs have been taken out due to explicit content)

Link to Karvonen formula: http://exercise.about.com/cs/fitnesstools/g/karvonen.htm 

Samid explaining to Jibrail how to get the bpm of a song:

#2

Wadha Al Nabti
Music Production 10
26th September 2014

Process Journal #2

My aim for this week is to get all the bpm's of the songs on my playlist and categorise each song into a section of my workout. Today we were taught about some rad new tools to use in our songs, this includes a drum machine, a vocorecorder/piano, a dj mixer and a machine which you create a loop and continue to add in loops to unfortunately I forgot what its called. This lesson was very flexible as we had half of it to check out the new equipment and the other half to find the bpm's of our song. What didn't work this lesson was that it was very loud sometimes it would be hard to concentrate and when we asked mr.ball if we could go into separate rooms he kindly said no. I found some problems trying to get the bpm because I was focusing on the drums and not on the beat of the whole song, which may have been evident in the results of my bpm's for some songs. Then thankfully Reem Abdulmajid came to the rescue and helped me find my rhythm and find the bpm.

Feedback: 

- " I like your playlist, however there are some content you should be aware of " Habiba

Thank you Habiba, I've decided to remove some of the songs 

- " You should focus on the beat in the overall song, not the on the bass" Reem

This has to be the greatest advice I've gotten today, thank you Reem.

- " I really like your style in music and might just use some songs" Hayaan

That is very kind of you and feel free to use as many songs as you like.

Part of my playlist and the bpm's:

Elastic Heart  4:18 (125)

Its on again alicia keys kendrick lamar 3:50 110

Bugatti ace hood (clean) 4:30 131

Apologize One republic 3:29 59

Stronger Kanye West 106

Survivor Destinys child 90

jenny from the block 100

Heartbeat (clean) childish gambino 120

All I ever wanted basshunter 145

Lost in paradise rihanna 150