Noah Somorin!

Myself (Noah Somorin) - Rituals!

Introduction!
My client is myself i feel like this is a great chance to demonstrate my skills and what i have learnt
over my time into college into one final piece, although some vocals are provided by in house
artists all of the music is made by myself. !

This a better choice than getting an outside artist or band to come and record songs as i don't
believe it would have been possible to create songs like the ones i have in the Cinematic/electronic
genre as easy due to the nature of the instrumentation in these different genres. Common
instruments found in these genres are synthesisers and string instruments such as (violins, Cellos
and violas). It would have been extremely difficult to get all these different musicians who play
lesser known instruments and to be able to book them in all at once seemed like an impossible
tasks so i decided to combine the more computer based electronic genre with your traditional
cinematic music and to put my skills to the test.!

So my Target Genre was Electro Cinematic. I chose this not only for the reason above it was also
because i have a great interest in this genre of music, not only do i appreciate cinematic and
electronic music separately but also when they are combined together, so i knew that i had to
make my album around this. I have many inspirations which made me chose this type of music
such as Hans Zimmer, Clint Mansell, Murray Gold and Martin ODonnell. I also had some more
inspiration from artists who were more electronic based such as M83, Ten Walls and Oh Wonder. !

My audience has been affected due to my choice of genre. This type of cinematic and electronic
blend of music are often found in action and sci-fi films as well as video games. My audience would
be film and game fans between the ages 15 and 30. My reasoning for this is because some of my
influences make similar types of music to the music found in my album and artists such as Hans
Zimmer who made the music not only for films such as Inception, Gladiator and the dark knight but
also made music for Games such as Crysis 2 and Call of duty Modern Warfare 2. All these
examples given have a general target audience of 15-30. The age range doesn't go any lower than
15 as a lot of cinematic music is used for suspense in films to add more effect and in action films
music is often used to add power to violent/sinister scenes. All of the examples mentioned from
Hans Zimmer all have an age restriction around 15 which also supports my target audience. !

My target audience however isn't just based off of Hans Zimmers pieces its also supported by M83
with soundtracks for the sci-fi/action film Oblivion and also some of Clint Mansells and Marty
ODonnells work. I wanted my album to be able to be suitable for use in films and video games so i
based the audience around this. Generally the demographic for action films is mostly young males
and therefore this makes sense for my music to be based on this demographic, this is also very
similar to the demographic for video games. I know this due to my own experience of being a
young male and being into action films and video games. Many of my favourite films and games
have great soundtracks which i have bought which makes me believe even more that my audience
is accurate. !

For my social media links i have chosen to use Soundcloud and Tumblr. I have chosen these 2
websites as i believe they are the most suited for promotion. Soundlcoud is the most popular music
sharing website, its devoted to just music and many artists and bands who are world known have
Soundcloud accounts. Record Labels also use Soundcloud to search for talent and new and
upcoming artists. I have also chosen tumblr as it is one of the most popular social media sites in
the world with a huge user base its great for sharing music. Here are the links: !
https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz https://www.tumblr.com/blog/noahsomorincollege !

When making this album i used many techniques which i have picked up and learnt through
college and my own experience. With music i make i try to add my own flavour to the music so it
sounds unique and different but i still try to make them sound as professional as possible and
these are some of the techniques i used to do this:!

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When recording vocals i would always use a pop shield to suppress any loud unwanted sounds
which we naturally make when singing or speaking. Examples of this could be words beginning
with P or S. This technique improves recordings and makes them sound much more
professional sounding and is extremely effective and i always use a pop shield in any of my
recordings.!
- Another trick i used when producing vocals was vocal doubling, with good compression this can
thicken your vocals and make them sound more like the centre piece of your tracks. I would
record multiple versions of Vocals and lay them over each other to add colour and variation to
tracks so it wasn't just the same old repeated sample which can be found in some modern day
electronic music. !
- In Some of the tracks i used techniques such as Side Chaining to make kick drums and the main
parts of tracks stand out more so they drive the track, this is done though compression and is
used in a large amount of the tracks. !
- Lastly i used panning to great effect in some tracks to widen the stereo field of the tracks. This
helped a lot and is honestly such a simple yet effective option when producing music and though
the making of this album i discovered how effective it can be !

My production goal was to create 8 tracks within the time given and to be able to finish all the
songs. This means, writing, producing, editing, mixing and mastering all of the songs which i had
made. I wanted mostly software instruments but with a little element of recorded instruments in
some tracks too. I didn't want to record too many instruments as i wanted to have an electronic feel
to my album and too many Basses or guitars would effect that in my opinion so i decided on a
lower amount of recorded instruments and a higher amount of software instruments. One big goal
was to mainly have electronic drums in these songs and not have to record any live drum parts. !

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Album Art and JPEG!

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Track 1 - No one else !

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/no-one-else!

1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, PROGRAMMED DRUMS/PERCUSSION, SYNTH SAW, SYNTH PAD AND (RECORDED)
VOCALS!

2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
MASSIVE ATTACK - TEARDROP !
HANS ZIMMER - TIME !
MARTIN ODONELL- FINISH THE FIGHT!
SOHN - TREMORS !

3.TARGET SOUND!

When making this song i had to incorporate some of my chosen genres requirements such as
there has to be a solid structure in place so that parts of the song can build in suspense whereas
other parts will do the opposite and tone down to the basics of the song. So for this i made sure i
had a solid chord progression to use which stays the same though out the song. Some may think
this is a bad thing and it can be seen as repetitive but in music like this it benefits the track as
although you can still hear the piano in most parts of the track sometimes when the later
instruments join, suspense and a rise builds and its good to go back to the basics of the track as a
sort of recurring theme. !

This happens at 2 points in this song around 1:00 and around 2:00. However other parts build like
at 1:15 and 2:00. The build in this song is created by two main parts which are the riser and the
filtered drums. The Riser is essentially a synth that has been made so that it seems like the synth
is getting louder when actually i have just automated the cut-off so that more of the synths
frequency range can be heard as it moves throughout the build. This is a very effective technique
and is used in a lot of electronic music. I used effects such as tremolo and overdrive to increase
the intensity of the sound as it rises and builds suspense. The Tremolo helps it not crowd the mix
and gives the mix more of an atmosphere and stereo field as the sound shifts from the left to the
right. !

The Second way i build the song up is by the

filtered drums. Its the same sort of concept
as the last technique but it has a slight
variation, with this ascendance of the
automated cut-off there is also Bitcrusher
which is giving the drums this video game
vibe which makes it sound more dominant
and powerful in the song. So as the cut-off
goes up so does the mix of the Bitcrusher,
this makes for much more bigger build of
suspense and helps drive the song into the
coming sections. My idea for the drums was
to make them like the percussion in Martin
ODonells Finish the fight in which there is
a similar drum sequence used but where
mine differences is that i applied Distortion
and Bitcrusher to create the sinister effect
that i was talking about earlier. To see an
example of how the bit crusher affected my
work visit my tumblr page linked at the top of this journal. !

My use of microphone placement is probably my favourite technique used in this song however,
when i positioned the microphone in front of the singer i made sure it was a distance away creating
an almost atmospheric vocal track. To neaten the track up, i also made sure that they were
compressed correctly and that i had added a bit more reverb to give it that big sounding effect
which made it fit in well to the rest of the song. On some of the vocal tracks i even used delay so
when i doubled the tracks it sounded like they were playing in different timings which made for a
great artistic tool which i then used in other
parts of the song and the album. I also put an
amplifier simulation onto one of the vocals to
give the vocals a better dynamic and tone so
that it didn't all sound the same.!

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In this particular song i was inspired by SOHN

in particular as i used a pitch shifter and made
the song sound much more futuristic and
electronic, i automated it so that it built up
suspense just like the filtered drums did. I got
very experimental with this track and i chopped
up the vocals and created this little loop of a
sample that the vocalist recorded so it
sounded almost robotic which made for a great
ending and added more variation to the track. !

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4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION

TECHNIQUES!

This song starts off with 3 instruments playing

which are 2 pianos and a synth pad. The first
piano which is playing at a lower octave is
using the songs main chord progression which
is E,C,D,A followed by a melodic scale which
goes up and down around the G note. The
melody switches up after 0:15 which then is
followed by a harsh sounding piano to add a
drive to the mix and then finally the drums in
the first chorus at 0:30. !
There is not much variation other than some
switches in octaves from the synths until the
bridge of the song.!

The First chorus i made short as i wanted it to be almost a taster

of what is to come later on in the track, i didn't want to give
everything away and not have any variation later in the song, this
was a good move by me as now it doesn't get repetitive and it still
has elements which can be added in later on in the track.
However i did not put any vocals in this chorus and kept them to
the verse and bridge of the song. You may be wondering why i
did this, Choruses are the most powerful and sometimes catchy
part of a song so why would i not include the vocals into the
chorus. Well i wanted the l vocals to be almost a juxtaposition to
the drums. The Vocals being chilled and peaceful and then the
drums being loud and aggressive, this ties in with the lyrics i wrote for the song. !

In the Bridge section after 2:22 there is a big change and new melodies and vocals come in and all
of a sudden there are multiple vocals playing at once. All the melodies in this part of the song are
limited to around 40-50 velocity meaning that they are played very softly as i wanted this part of the
song to be delicate and build up without and use of harsh drums, all of the instruments then return
apart from the drums for a final chorus and then the song ends with a piano fading and the vocals
carrying on for a couple of bars and then fading out. The melodies i used in this song were
intentionally simple and soft as it adds to the diversity of the songs different sections most of the
melodies follow the same chord progression with one more progression being added just before
the chorus. !

This difference in velocities in the choruses and the bridge

is a technique/requirement which a lot of classical
composers as well as cinematic artists use were they
change the temperament of the song as they go along
through the song, this again builds suspense and makes
for a great ending. This is a very effective technique but i
applied this technique in a slightly different manor. By
using the different sections of the song to manipulate the
velocity of the instruments you create a certain dynamic
which is quite satisfying to listen to as the different parts of
the song seem to connect and flow into each other very
cleanly. You can see this change of temperament in some
cinematic and classical music like Hans Zimmers Time
which was again another influence of this album. !

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5.MY MIX!

For the mixing process of my song i first began

with EQ cutting out the lower frequencies
below 60Hz to get rid of any low bass sounds
which are not needed. I also boosted the high
end of the track around the 2k mark by 3dB so
add some brightness to the song and make it
sound a bit more complete in the mix as i
thought it was missing some high end. I
checked this by using the multi-meter which is
a very useful tool for mapping your frequencies
and gives a much more in depth view than just
a regular EQ gives you. However I then began
to use compression and i didn't compress the
overall mix much as i didn't think it needed much
compression due to the fact that the headroom in
the mix that i had left was around -3.5dB which
was around were I wanted but i tweaked around
with the settings and ended up boosting the gain
up and the threshold up so that there was around
1dB added. This Mix helped glue all of the
components together and made for a great end
product. The Mix really improved the song as the
dynamics were in two extremes in the song but the
compression balanced it out and made sure that
the song was much more generally the same level.
This gave the song a much cleaner sound along with the EQ which brighten up the frequencies
which were missing and gave the song more of a complete piece. !

6.EVALUATION !

For my first song i believe that it was a good success it sounded what i wanted it to sound like, i
had inspiration tracks which helped me but one thing id dint want to do was make it sound too
much like my inspiration tracks and i didn't do that which was good. Instead i added my own
stylistic choices to the piece which paid off well and with the help of cinematic techniques and
electronic production requirements i was able to blend the two together in what i call a success.!

There were some negative parts such as originally the mix was very muddy due to the drums
drowning most of the song out and even thought i turned them down in the mix they still stand out
quite a lot which is a good thing in some ways but it didn't sound as clean as it could have been
and also i spent a long time on the mix to get it to sound better as i had a lot of instruments at the
same frequencies such as the wide range of vocals, the 2 piano progressions as well as the higher
up melodies. However i did solve the problem slightly by using EQ in all of the tracks to get rid of
some of the unwanted noise which made the mix less muddy. !

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Track 2 -The shifted!

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/the-shifted!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, PROGRAMMED DRUMS/PERCUSSION, MULTIPLE SYNTHS AND STRINGS. !
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
TEN WALLS - GOTHAM!
TEN WALLS - REQUIEM !
MARTIN ODONELL - FLAWED LEGACY!

3.TARGET SOUND!

For this track when making it i wanted to incorporate a certain type of electronic music. I wanted to
be a bit more experimental and go for something a bit more minimal and house orientated.
Something which gradually builds as it goes a long like in the 2 tracks chosen as my inspiration
tracks. As you can hear in both tracks they start of with a simple baseline or melody and as time
passes another layer gets added into the mix for example in the Gotham track after 30 seconds a
synth is added and gradually the drums start to develop after 1:35 and after 2:40 the track changes
a lot and a new pattern is added. I tried to replicate this style of layout in this track. !

For instance the track starts of with 2 instruments but after 1 minute 5 instruments have been
added but its still the same section of the song, i wanted the chorus to have some variation and
stand out from the rest as although progressive music
is very nice to listen to sometimes if not done
properly it can get boring due to the repetition. I was
wary of this whilst making the song so i tried to
make sure that in the song there isn't a point where
the same section or instruments go on for too long.
However whilst i did want to implement some
aspects of the progressive house/minimal music
genres into this album i wanted to make sure that it
still had the main cinematic element to the track. So
i made sure it had plenty of synths, strings, pianos
and just general elements which fit the genres
requirements. !

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So the way i did this was by using plenty of

effects to make the song sound somewhat
unique and different to those found in my
inspiration tracks. I did this by experimenting
with plug-ins such as phase distortion, tremolo,
tape delay, stereo delay and Ringshifter. I also
used a lot of reverb on some of the
instruments such as the percussion elements
of the drums to make them stand out in the
mix as in a genre such as minimal, electronic
drums and percussion are a vital part of the
song due to the amount of variation that is
needed so often a standard recorded drum kit
beat may have not been enough so this is why
i preferred using electronic drums to make my
goal more achievable. This was one of the
tracks that didn't have any recorded elements
in, as you'll often find with this type of music
there isn't anything natural its all computerised
and simulated mostly. To see an example of
how Phase distortion affected my work visit my
tumblr page linked at the top of this journal.!

As i mentioned previously i used many effects

and one of them that i used to great effect was
phase distortion. Now in this track there are actually 2 sets of strings but one of the sets is made to
sound like a distorted synth through the use of Phase distortion. It adds to the electronic element of
the song and without it the instrument would sound completely different to what it is now. There
were many uses of effects especially in this song. !

4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

In this song ,and in most songs of its genre in fact, the programmed drums are key and i made
sure that the beat wasn't just a simple pop 4x4 beat. I wanted to vary it up and almost emulate
something like Ten walls had made in the song Gotham i used different types of drum samples
but the pattern is fairly similar. Also i took inspiration from the cinematic game music song Flawed
Legacy which is from the video game Halo 2. Upon listening to the song there isn't too much
similarities between this song and Flawed Legacy however its more like an idea that this song
gave me. You can hear in parts of the Halo 2 Track that the string instruments have 1 octave of
strings playing and then suddenly another one is added and then taken away again. This gave me
the idea to have violins that follow the track along but stop and start to create the progressive flow
of my electronic inspired track. !

Composition for this song was probably the simplest out of all the tracks that i made but for good
reason. i wanted to keep the melodies and chord progressions simple and have them all link to one
another in each way. for example there is no real chord progression until the pre chorus section at
around 1:28 in the song which starts at an E then
moves down to a C then an A. with some chords
being held like the strings for a certain period of
time in the song with an E chord. Its a simple but
effective combination and with the production and
the mixing sounds exactly like i wanted it to sound
like. There aren't really any true melodies as such
more just variation on the same notes for the
majority of the song leading up to the choruses
which builds up tension gradually. !

In this song the structure is much different to any other

structures used in my album. For one there is a very
short introduction section of 8 seconds which then
increasingly builds up layer by layer going into the verse
which then ends after 1:28. This is where the pre chorus
starts and after 2 bars it leads into the chorus. The
same structure repeats with minor changes to the way in
which the verses build up and then the same sequence
of pre chorus and chorus continue until the track begins
to round up at 4:30. This structure is similar to the
structure in Ten Walls song Gotham however i have
just made the track shorter and more easy to listen to in
short periods of time, which is just a preference of mine.
This structure being applied to my song definitely reflects
the electronic genre more in my album. !

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5.MY MIX!

I had no troubles mixing with this song, there wasn't really any issues of muddiness or too many
instruments at the same frequency range due to my previous EQ applied to the majority of the
tracks. I simply added an low cut EQ to eliminate and unwanted low frequencies which you cant
hear in the mix. I also used to compression to make sure that there was enough headroom on the
track and to make sure that the tracks volume was well balanced in each section of the song. I
added a little high end in the EQ to make the track
slightly brighter but as i mentioned before due to the
nature and genre of this track there wasn't anything
major that needed to be heavily processed into the mix.
I did however use a lot of panning and tremolo in this
track though out the song and it definitely made the mix
feel very wide and stereo orientated. For most of the
songs my aim was to be getting a final overall mix which
was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me
a decent amount of headroom in the track. !

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6.EVALUATION!

For my second song i believe that my effort succeed.

There wasn't many complications whilst making this track
and my inspiration tracks helped me greatly as a sort of guide to minimal music. They taught me
that the percussion elements and structure of electronic music is important. Often it has to be
progressive to make the production requirements effective by adding each different instrument to
your track at a time. Like the last song i added my own stylistic choices to my track which went and
with the combination of that and the added elements to make the track electronic and cinematically
based turned the track into a success. !

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Track 3 -Redemption!
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/redemption!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, PROGRAMMED DRUMS/PERCUSSION AND STRINGS. !
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
CLINT MANSELL: AN END, ONCE AND FOR ALL!
3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound in this song was to create something more traditionally cinematic, with more
emphasis on chords, melodies, string instruments and pianos. I wanted to be able to portray a
more sad and emotional tone in this song due to the pervious track being more experimental.
Cinematic music often conveys a story though a movie and acts as a support to any plots and
characters through the use of leitmotifs. So to try and make this album truly cinematic there has to
be a wide range of not just dark songs but also more sad or upbeat songs to give a range of
different stories, twists and turns which could be in a film or game. I also want my album to be
varied but with the same cinematic electronic vibe. To achieve my target sound in this song i had to
focus on building up a track slowly. !

There was a number of effects and techniques which i used in this song to convey that sad tone
such as the velocity of the melodies, i wanted them to be more gentle to show the mood of the
song, this is better than having a high velocity as that could be seen as a very aggressive tone in
music and it wouldn't of suited my target for this song. I also tried to obtain a more realistic string
sound by creating my own preset and editing it to my preferences. For instance a lot of the
standard logic strings have a quick attack which isn't realistic as strings due to the nature of how
they are played don't always have a quick attack so i made the attack much longer as well as the
release.!

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4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

The key instruments in this song were the strings and piano for certain. The piano provided the sad
tone to the track and with the many melodies which i wrote for the piano they seem to glide
throughout the choruses and the rest of the song and with the self made string software instrument
it helped keep the pace of the song slow
and steady with the chord progression
which i had chosen. My inspiration track
(Clint Mansell - An end, once and for all)
helped greatly with the making of this
track, as you can hear when listening to
the track it has the same low velocity
piano idea which i have also used in my
track and similar to my track it builds up
by adding several other instruments
slowly. Clint Mansell uses effects such
as reverb to his advantage to support the
sad piano he uses which is something i
noticed and i decided to add some but
not to the extent that he has used, due to
in my track there being so many
instruments i wanted the piano to fit into
the mix well. !

The chord progression i used in this

song was AGFD and the melodies were
mainly based around this, i came up with
them by writing them down as i was
playing on my keyboard and i decided to
put them into a song. I used slower and
more piano roll like melodies which
again supported the sad vibe of the
track. This is again in a similar style to
Clint Mansells track, as you can hear
there are not arpeggios in both songs
and the melodies are more simplistic.!

The main structure of this song starts of

with a 30 second introduction which
moves straight into chorus which adds
multiple pianos, strings and drums. After listening to the track i made some alterations to the layout
and held the drums back in the first chorus further to help add variation later in the song. This helps
the song get less repetitive. Then around 1:20 it transitions into a verse where the song dies down
a little and the dynamics change until the chorus comes back in with the drums straight away this
time around 2:23. Finally the chorus ends around 3:12 and the song slowly descends to the end of
the track. To see the effect of the velocity talked about earlier visit my tumblr page linked at the top. !

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5.MY MIX!

For Redemption I tried to recreate a

large atmosphere i wanted the track to
sound big like it was being played in an
arena. So i generally added reverb to
most things through the master
channel, this was a stylistic choice
more than anything, however it did
result in a much better end result as
before the track had reverb on it, the
track sounded a bit to dead and it had
no atmosphere but with the reverb it
adds some life into the mix and makes
it sound more dramatic when elements
like the drums come into play. I used
EQ to eliminate any low bass
frequencies that were coming from the
drums and i boosted the high end so
that the pianos and some of the violins
would benefit and be louder in the mix
subsequently.!

Talking of the drums i used overdrive to make the sound much more aggressive and present in the
mix, i wanted them to have impact and really drive the song along. Before adding overdrive they
sounded a bit dull in the mix and with the help of echo making them sound more psychedelic. I also
used enveloper on the drums to again make it as if they were being played from a distance which
also supports the idea of adding reverb to the track so it worked at well and in the process made
the drums sound more punchy due to the attack that i altered. I generally comprised every track to
a suitable level which restricts distortion and clipping but has enough headroom to be heard in the
mix. !

6.EVALUATION!

I was really happy with the outcome of Redemption it was a great demonstration of how i can use
my skills to make cinematic music, i would have liked to of made the track slightly longer and
added a few other elements to make it sound more electronic based. Even though it does have
elements of that in like for instance the drums i would have like to experimented with synths or
some form of programmed instrument looking back on my time making the track. There wasn't too
many complications whilst making this track but however just a couple of issues making the track
sound clean and like it was played in an open space. This idea caused a couple of issues but just
experimenting with different types of reverb and compression soon lead me to the right fit. They
taught me that the percussion elements and structure of electronic music is important. My
inspiration track was also a good help in sourcing ideas from and then innovating upon them to
then put them into the song.I again added my own stylistic choices to my track which went and with
the combination of that and the added elements to make the track electronic and cinematically
based turned the track into a success.!

Track 4 -Ascendance !
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/ascendance!
1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PROGRAMMED DRUMS, SYNTH PADS/STRINGS, BELLS AND
PERCUSSION, VOCALS (SAMPLE). !

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2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
TOURIST - YOUR GIRL !
3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound in this song was to make something more

electronically based sort of along the same route as The
Shifted but instead more house based. As the album is
electronic cinematic i wanted to make sure i incorporated a
good few genres of electronic music so that it wasn't just purely
cinematic, i wanted a range of different styles and techniques i
could add and experiment with. So for making house music, in
this particular instance Deep house, i wanted to make a more
chilled song for the album. I wanted Something that still resembles
a film like aspect with strings but turned them truly electronic with
synth strings and this was the result. Generally in house music you
will have a lead synth which is the main centre piece of the song.
You often have things such as pitch shifted vocals as well as bells
and percussion which i made sure were all included in
Ascendance. !

As i previously mentioned pitched vocals are often a frequent

assurance in this genre so i decided to add them into the song by
using pitch shifter. As you can see in the image to the right this
vocal channel has been set to pitch vocals a whole 2 octaves
down to create a much lower pitched voice in some of the sections
of the song. I used a range of other effects to manipulate sounds to what i wanted them to be. For
example i used tremolo and echo on the sub bass of the song to create and almost psychedelic
motion when listening to the songs. I also added reverb to some tracks to bring them out more in
the mix and i also used enveloper on the drums to adjust the attack and release times to make the
kick more punchy and the rest of the kit seem more distant. Pitched vocals are part of my
inspiration track which is Your Girl by tourist. Tourist uses this technique a lot more than i did in
my song as i still wanted to obtain the cinematic elements to my song but as you can hear in Your
Girl Tourist uses this in multiple instances all over the song with different pitches which is
something i tried to do by using 2 different pitches for the vocals in one song. !

4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

Key instruments in this song where definitely the synth strings and synth as well as the sub bass.
The synth strings built up in the chorus sections of the song, through the use of automation. I
automated cut-offs on both the synths and also automated some overdrive for a more aggressive
and dominant rise. The Sub bass glued all of my work together and with the tremolo and echo
added to it, it was the most manipulated instrument in the whole track which made for some great
variation. !

The songs structure starts of with a short 15 second introduction with the kick drum and a synth
which then slowly develops from the pre chorus section into the main chorus around 0:48. The
Verse starts at 1:20 and introduces the bells and it slowly builds into the pre chorus which contains
just Hi-hats and the 2 main synths. Then the chorus comes back into play and gradually more and
more elements are added into the chorus until the end of the song. I used this structure as i wanted
the choruses to be progressive, not just the same thing over and over straight away i wanted some
form of layering in the song so that there was plenty of variation which would make the song
pleasant to listen to. !

The chord progression as you can see above

was a CEAC but with a couple of variations in
octave and order The main melodies of this
track are arpeggios. When making the settings
for the arpeggiator i wanted to make sure that
the timings would suit the track its self, as a
arpeggio that was too slow or fast may not fit
properly with the chilled vibe of the track so i
set the arpeggio to 1/8. This suited the track
well and i used this arpeggio on the bells
which you can hear in the verse and second
chorus. !

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Most songs of this genre like my inspiration track have buildups

were the cutoff is set at a low position of a synth or any other
type of riser. Then is gradually automated until the cutoff is 100%
open. In my instance i used overdrive to make the rises seem
more punchy as this way they stand out much more in the mix.
Tourist uses this technique multiple times in the song Your girl,
in fact right from the start of the track around 0:15 seconds in
you can hear the beginnings of a rise happening where the
cutoff is slowly rising on the vocals. This Cuttoff rise allows more
and more frequencies to pass through the filter and in this case
its slowly filtering in the higher frequencies in of the vocals. In
my case however its doing the same thing but with the main lead
parts of my song. To see the effects of the automated cutoff and
the pitched vocal samples, visit the Tumblr at the top of this
journal.!

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5.MY MIX!

I had no troubles mixing with this song, there wasn't really any issues of muddiness or too many
instruments at the same frequency range due to my previous EQ applied to the majority of the
tracks. I simply added an low cut EQ to eliminate and unwanted low frequencies which you cant

hear in the mix around 100Hz.I also used to compression to make sure that there was enough
headroom on the track and to make sure that the tracks volume was well balanced in each section
of the song. I added a little high end in the EQ to make the track slightly brighter but as i mentioned
before due to the nature and genre of this track there wasn't anything major that needed to be
heavily processed into the mix. For most of the songs my aim was to be getting a final overall mix
which was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me a decent amount of headroom in the
track.!

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6.EVALUATION!

For this song i believe that my effort succeed. There wasn't many complications whilst making this
track and my inspiration tracks helped me greatly. I learnt techniques and requirements of
electronic music through my inspiration track which i then applied to my track. I learnt that
progression and filters are important in this type of music. Like the last song i added my own
stylistic choices to my track which went and with the combination of that and the added elements to
make the track electronic and cinematically based turned the track into a success.!

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Track 5 -Devoid!
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/devoid!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, PROGRAMMED DRUMS/PERCUSSION, SYNTHS AND STRINGS. !
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
LEAVING EARTH - CLINT MANSELL !
3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound for this song was to be able to

make it sound as epic and dramatic as possible. I
wanted to use the idea of building the song up
slowly and then transitioning into a hard hitting
chorus. I made sure in certain points in the song
that there were sudden silences and sudden
impacts to make it sound more unexpected and
suspenseful. To make this song a combination of
cinematic and electronic i had to incorporate more
synths and experimental effects such as tremolo
which you can hear in the opening 30 seconds of
the track. There are two main synths in this track,
one is in the introduction and verse sections of the
song which eventually builds up into the chorus and
the other synth is during the chorus which has an
automated cutoff which changes the way it sounds
after every 4 bars which is great for variation.
Tremolo was widely used in this song to continue
the running theme and to make this song sound
more futuristic and fit with the genres. To see the
effects of the tremolo,visit the Tumblr at the top of this journal.!

4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

Key instruments in this song where definitely the filtered synth and piano as well as the drums. The
synth varied in the chorus sections of the song, through the use of automation. I automated cutoff
on the synth. The chord Progression i used as you can see in the picture to below is an EGCA and
the melodies surrounding it are mostly arpeggios from notes used in the chord progression. !

In this song the structure is probably the most strangest as i have an introduction that lasts over a
minute until any form of chorus comes into play which then lasts until 2:08 and then switches back
to a verse with the same sort of style as the introduction just with some minor variation. The
second chorus appears at 3:43 and then the song begins to fade out around 5:00. I wanted to be
experimental with the structure in this song, i wanted to form the structure around the music and i
felt that this structure did this well. !

It allows for great progression and tension builds and still doesn't get too repetitive after 5 minutes
due to the variations that i have made. This gradual progression which starts with a piano is a
typical technique which many cinematic artists use and Clint Mansell is one of them. In the song
Leaving Earth He starts of with a chord
progression played by a piano which is then
briefly interrupted by loud low horn like
instruments. I heard this idea from Clint
Mansell and saw it as a juxtaposition from the
quiet and lovely played piano which then
switches to a scary horn which is undoubtedly
used as a leitmotif in the video game Mass
Effect 3. I used this technique in my song with
the Juxtaposition of the quiet piano to the loud
and harsh sounding drums. !

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5.MY MIX!

My mix for this song was fairly tricky due to the

fact that there was essentially 2 different songs
between the choruses and the other parts of
the song due to the difference in volume and temperament. I had to use a lot of compression to get
the different parts maintaining similar loudnesses. I added a low cut EQ to eliminate and unwanted
low frequencies which you cant hear in the mix around 100Hz. I added a little high end in the EQ to
make the track slightly brighter and for most of the songs my aim was to be getting a final overall
mix which was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me a decent amount of headroom
in the track.!

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6.EVALUATION!

For this song i believe that my effort succeed. There were some complications in terms of mixing
and also i found it quite a challenge to create more variation in the song. Some may say its a bit
repetitive and this is probably why because i couldn't fit as much variation into the track as i would
have like however i still believe that this song was a success. My creativity with effects and my
openness to experiment manipulating sounds and plugins leaded me to this as my end result and
I'm very happy with my end result. My inspiration track helped me a lot which gave me ideas to add
such as the harsh drum impact and the softly played piano chord progression and it came out
sounding around the place i wanted it to sound like. !

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Track 6 - Surveillance !
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/surveillance!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, XYLOPHONE, PROGRAMMED DRUMS, STRINGS AND SYNTHS!
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
TEN WALLS - NOCHNOY DOZOR!
TEN WALLS - ANKARIS!
CARIBOU - ODESSA!

3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound for this song was to make a more dark and creepy song which had some
electronic elements tied in to the main cinematic base of the song. I wanted to use instruments
which arent ordinarily used like the Xylophone to create something erie. I did this by creating a
atmosphere filled with reverb to make the song sound big and mysterious and then i began to
manipulate synths to sound like wind so that it would add more to this effect. Like in the song
Nochnoy Dozor by ten walls you can hear that the song sounds very dark and uses many
experimental synths and effects just like me to achieve this such as the big atmosphere created by
reverb that i was just talking about. In the image below you can see one of the reverb settings
which i used in this track.!

4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

The Key instruments in this song were definitely the piano

and the Xylophone but the atmosphere created by some of
the synths was really crucial to the song as well. The
structure of the song is a bit unusual, i thought for such a
weird and creepy song it needed to be different in terms of
structure as there is not really a definitive chorus as such.
The song starts of with a long introduction with just drums
and a violin but then escalates into a piano. The chorus in
this song comes in at around 1:37 but the reason why i say
there isn't a real chorus is because all of this song is
progressive which means it continuously builds up. After
the chorus there is a verse that leads into a pre chorus at
3:07 which then leads into the final chorus at 3:39. !

As for chords the progression is not legato and the notes are hit
quickly in the sequence GBE like you can see in the images. The
melody follows the chord progression but holds some notes out
which makes for a creepy effect especially when to octaves of the
melody is played. The song gets its darkness from me adding some
psychedelic elements into the song which sound like some of the
elements in a type of electronic music called psychedelic pop.
Caribou is an example of an artist who makes this kind of music
and you can hear many experimental and manipulated instruments
which sound like the could have been anything originally as they
have been edited and processed so much. I tried to recreate this
effect in my song. I got the idea of making the piano the way it is
through the ending part of the Caribou song Odessa. To see an
example of how i tried to make the song sound psychedelic click the tumblr link at the top of this
journal. !

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5.MY MIX!

I had no troubles mixing with this song, there wasn't really any issues. I added an low cut EQ to
eliminate and unwanted low frequencies. I also used to compression to make sure that there was
enough headroom on the track and to make sure that the tracks volume was well balanced in each
section of the song. I added a little high end in the EQ to make the track slightly brighter but as i
mentioned before due to the nature and genre of this track there wasn't anything major that
needed to be heavily processed into the mix. For most of the songs my aim was to be getting a
final overall mix which was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me a decent amount of
headroom in the track.!

6.EVALUATION!

For this song i believe that my effort succeed. There wasn't many complications whilst making this
track and my inspiration tracks helped me greatly. I learnt techniques and requirements of
electronic music through my inspiration track which i then applied to my track. I learnt that
progression and filters are important in this type of music. Like the last song i added my own
stylistic choices to my track which went and with the combination of that and the added elements to
make the track electronic and cinematically based turned the track into a success.!

Track 7 - Supremacy !
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/supermacy!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
SYNTHS AND PROGRAMMED DRUMS!
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
MARTIN GARRIX - VIRUS !
3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound in this song was to make something more electronically based sort of along the
same route as The Shifted and Ascendance but instead more sinister and harsh. !
As the album is electronic cinematic i wanted to make sure i incorporated a good few genres of
electronic music so that it wasn't just purely cinematic, i wanted a range of different styles and
techniques i could add and experiment with. So for making this type of cross between cinematic
music and house music,i wanted to make a more harsh and aggressive song for the album. I
needed to have a range of tracks all with a different feel to them for a total cinematic score.!

4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

Key instruments in this song are definitely the sub bass

and drums. They really cemented the track together and
made into a real upbeat song and without them the track
would sound completely different. The structure was typical
of the songs genre with a 30 second introduction then a 30
second chorus. Then a 30 second verse and another
chorus which then lead into a bridge section which then
gradually builded until the end of the song. !

As you can see by the images on the side here the chord
progression is an AG(Sharp)E and the melodies are made
up of the surrounding notes to that. An electronic song
which contains this structure is
one of Martin Garrixs songs
called virus. its structures
fairly similar and the song is in
a similar style to supremacy.
Both songs have similar
chorus and introduction sizes,
this is typical of songs from
this genre. !

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5.MY MIX!

I had no troubles mixing with this song,

there wasn't really any issues. I added an
low cut EQ to eliminate and unwanted low
frequencies. I also used to compression to
make sure that there was enough
headroom on the track and to make sure
that the tracks volume was well balanced in
each section of the song. I added a little
high end in the EQ to make the track
slightly brighter but as i mentioned before
due to the nature and genre of this track
there wasn't anything major that needed to
be heavily processed into the mix. For most of the songs my aim was to be getting a final overall
mix which was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me a decent amount of headroom
in the track.!

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6.EVALUATION!

For this song i believe that my effort succeed. There wasn't many complications whilst making this
track and my inspiration tracks helped me greatly. I learnt techniques and requirements of
electronic music through my inspiration track which i then applied to my track. Like the last song i
added my own stylistic choices to my track which went and with the combination of that and the
added elements to make the track electronic and cinematically based turned the track into a
success. However in this song i would have liked to used more variation in parts of the song, i don't
think that i was too successful in making the song less repetitive due to the nature of the genre,
however i did compensate on this by making the track shorter. !

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Track 8 - The Finale!

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/curley-cuz/finale!

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1.INSTRUMENTATION:!
PIANO, STRINGS, PROGRAMMED DRUMS !
2.INSPIRATION TRACKS:!
MURRAY GOLD - ROSES THEME !
3.TARGET SOUND!

My target sound was to make a slower and more traditionally cinematic piece to end off the album.
I was going with the same sort of theme as redemption with the sad and emotional vibes. I used
the same techniques as the Redemption song.The few differences being that i picked acoustic
drums to programme and i wanted this one to end on a high so used a key change towards the
end of the song to vary up the song which is something that i haven't used in this entire album so i
thought i would add one in. To recap however, there was a number of effects and techniques which
i used in this song to convey that sad tone such as the velocity of the melodies, i wanted them to
be more gentle to show the mood of the song, this is better than having a high velocity as that
could be seen as a very aggressive tone in music and it wouldn't of suited my target for this song!

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4.RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES!

Key instruments in this song where definitely the piano which conveyed the sad tone which makes
this whole track what it is. The strings support the piano along in the chorus sections whilst the
drums keep the track going though each section. The songs structure starts off with a 20 second
introduction which then leads into the chorus which lasts until 1:00. The song then breaks down
into a verse until the chorus comes back in at 1:47 and then the key change happens after that
which then finishes the track off. i think this is a simple yet effect structure which enhances the
choices and selections i have made whilst making the song. The sad vibe that this track gives off
doesn't need any risers or short punchy choruses or baselines due to the temperament of the
song. As you can see from the surrounding pictures i used a technique which many cinematic
artists use to make their songs sound more delicate and emotional. This technique is using many
octaves at one time which adds depth to the song. The Chord progression is (Sharps) ADCG and
the piano melodies are again based around that. !

5.MY MIX!

I had no troubles mixing with this song, there wasn't really any issues. I added an low cut EQ to
eliminate and unwanted low frequencies. I also used to compression to make sure that there was
enough headroom on the track and to make sure that the tracks volume was well balanced in each
section of the song. I added a little high end in the EQ to make the track slightly brighter but as i
mentioned before due to the nature and genre of this track there wasn't anything major that
needed to be heavily processed into the mix. For most of the songs my aim was to be getting a
final overall mix which was balanced and didn't go over 3dB so that it gave me a decent amount of
headroom in the track.!

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6.EVALUATION!

For this song i believe that my effort succeed. There wasn't many complications whilst making this
track and my inspiration tracks helped me greatly. I learnt techniques and requirements of
electronic music through my inspiration track which i then applied to my track. Like the last song i
added my own stylistic choices to my track which went and with the combination of that and the
added elements to make the track cinematically based turned the track into a success.!

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Marketing!
My marketing tool is a viral video from a tv series called doctor who which i have put music over
and i think it will be an effective way to increase traffic to my music due to its scary nature, people
love a scare and the newly wrote music over it will attract people to my album to see what other
cinematic music that i make. I also think that many fans of the TV series or fans of the fantasy/sci-fi
genre will also be very interested and will be attracted to my album.!

Some of the techniques that i needed to to consider or use were things such as temperament,
experimental effects such as tremolo,,automation and risers.
All these techniques helped me create this video. Some links
that i could use to promote my video could be:!

www.tumblr.com !
www.facebook.com !
www.twitter.com!
www.instagram.com !
www.youtube.com!
www.vimeo.com !

These sites could help me gain traffic to my video due to

recommendations, shares, likes, tweets and more. When
something goes viral you will often see it across all platforms
of social media and this is one way that i could take
advantage of. Also promotion agency sites could also be a way
of gaining traffic to videos or products. My marketing tool has been successful i think that it was a
very good choice to add a scene from a popular TV as that always drives hype due to the TV show
already being popular. The music that has been added to the scene really makes it even more
scary and intense and people will find this entertaining and hopefully will drive traffic towards my
album. However i would have liked to have spent more time planning my video and what music
could have gone along with it as although the outcome of the video is good i maybe could have
added extra elements to it and even taken a larger scene from the video. I could of added in things
such as voices and used more examples of leitmotifs. !

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Overall Evaluation!
So after making my album and all the tracks and the logo and all the other elements to this album
do i think my album is viable as a product? My answer to that is yes i do, although there are some
improvements i would have made if given more time to produce tracks and organise marketing etc,
i think yes. My reason for this is that if you compare most of my tracks in this album they sound
very similar to the inspiration tracks i have chosen. A lot of my tracks are different to anything in the
marketplace today and thats a good thing, that means that there might be room for something like
this to do well in the future. However i do think that some improvements would need to be made
deepening on how much the price of this product would be. There are some tracks which i could
have improved if i had more time and resources, i could of added more tracks and variations on my
current tracks. !

The strengths of my album is that it gives a

variety of cinematic and electronic music
combined into many songs in a big package.
Going from the first piece down the the last
song nothing sounds that similar which is a
great accomplishment as many artists who are
famous make albums which sound all the
same. I have avoided this problem through my
variation of tracks and techniques which i
picked up from my inspiration tracks and
applied to my work. For this reason i think they
compete with some existing examples in the
marketplace. For example i believe that the
songs made in this album wouldn't look out of
place in a film, TV show or game. I also think
that they could compete with artists in the
market place such as Ten Walls. !

My marketing for my product could definitely

be improved however saying that i that it could
stand on its own two feet in the marketplace. I
would have liked to have maybe added more
marketing strategies such as remixes and
coves but time was a bit of an issue. I think my
artwork although not a masterpiece could
definitely be used as an album cover i think it
suits the dark and mysterious music that lies
inside the album. My Marketing tool would
feasibly work as a means to attract traffic
however it would have been more effective if i
had planned more marketing tools such as
remixes covers. Remixes and coves almost come with a guarantee that they will get traffic due to
the fact that you can take a well known song a put your won spin on it. Perhaps if i were to do this
project again i would make a remix or a cover to help with the marketing and promotion of this
album so that is attracts more traffic that 1 video would.!
I would monetise my product by realising it on Itunes or sites like band camp which give a fairer
price to listeners so that they are more likely to buy your tracks. Sites like band camp sell EPs and
albums for literally a pound sometimes and although that doesn't seem like much when people see
a deal they are more likely to buy your music as it is inexpensive and way better than spending 10
on an album which would make more people want to illegally download your music or just stream it
instead. I could also use labels on sound cloud to promote my music such as Majestic Casual. !

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