Gig Review (External)

This Gig was the debut of Jack Garratt's new album, Phase. I missed the first warm up act, however i was able to watch the second act named.........which was a modern R&B act. I feel that it worked because it created an atmosphere which was laid back yet captivating. This also allowed the crowd to prepare for the headline act.

Both the warm up act and headline act were effective at engaging the audience. The warm up act was effective at engaging with the audience because he brought loads of energy to the performance. he would walk up and down the stage, take breaks in the song to perform dance solo's and perform riffs and over vocal techniques to make the performance more exciting. The headline act was able to successfully engage with the crowd swell but in a different way. For example after every few songs he would stop playing and interact and have a conversation with the crowd. asking what songs they would like to hear etc. also during his songs he would use call and response. One moment i remember in particular was during the song "The Love You're Given". In this song, there is a sample of an opera singer from the start, and the crowd sung this sample throughout the song. Then he would walk to one side of the stage and raise his arms in the air to get that section of the crowd to sing along. So for the beginning part of this performance he was interacting with the crowd which created a more personal atmosphere because it allows the audience members to feel as if they are part of the performance swell.

A standout moment of the performance was the introduction. There was a song being played with loads of energy, which was a great contrast from the warm up act which was a lot more relaxed. so when Jack came in straight away with this energy i was immediately captivated. The lighting and audio visuals were used extremely effectively well throughout the whole performance but in particular in this opening performance, there were loads of moving lights, fire, smoke, background lighting and there was also a ring that responded to the music as well. Jack was already playing the keys and drums and the FX pad at once whilst singing, showing off his amazing skill set. I thought this was a standout moment because i didn't know who Jack Garratt was before this gig and the fact that he introduced him self in this way let me know that the rest of the show was going to be just as amazing and energetic and electric as this moment was.

Overall i thoroughly enjoyed the show. i went in not knowing what i was going to expect and i came out of the performance extremely happy and i would go and watch him live again. i think as an artist one of the most important things is to let new people find and connect with you're music and thats exactly what happened with me. I have now added some of his songs to my playlist on my phone

Workshop Diary (Week Four)

In our DJ class this week looked at creating a group playlist. we learnt how to effectively categorise playlists in different ways, including Genre, Artists, Theme etc. this was helpful because we were making our own playlists and we were able to manipulate the atmosphere with the songs. for example playing a more or less energetic song. we also continued with our beat-matching and our cutting.

in our sequencing class this week we focused on making a whole song completely out of audio and no midi. This was fun because it was a very creative was that got us thinking. the human voice can imitate lots of different instruments from a synth to a bass and it is also great for making percussive sounds. not to mention putting effects like delay and reverb to create an ambient more effective vibe.




in our sequencing class last week, we were given a list of a few different audio songs and we had to use the skills we've learnt over the past few weeks to change the audio and remix it into something else. I was given the song..........and I rearranged the order and created a four bar loop. I also changed the pitch added a filter and some reverb to create a more ambient effect throughout the song. This also allows the drum pattern to come in very clean and crisp because the sound will be much more abrupt rather than it being ambient and almost floaty.

Decades Gig Review

This gig consisted of a couple of warm up performances and then a headline act. I thought that this structure was effective because it made the overall show have a more professional vibe, which provides a more enjoyable vibe for both the audience and the performers and also gives the performers more experience working in a professional environment.

Not all of the performers were successful in engaging the audience. the first warm up act which consisted of a duo of two girls was nice but i didn't really feel engaged. I think this was due to the way they were performing to the audience. they sat down and had closed body language, they didn't introduce themselves either, they just started singing. Now compared with the headline act, which was an afro beat band. They weren't really engaging at times i would see them look at the floor and it was a little bit uncomfortable at first. whereas the Afrobeats band had loads of energy, great energetic body language, call and response. But the best part was they even had a section where the band just free-styled the beat and audience members where encouraged to come onto the stage and dance. They also did covers of popular songs which encouraged the audience to sing along and become part of the performance. I also liked the use of the audio visuals used throughout giving the performance more depth.

A standout moment for me was when one of the warm up groups called ".........." performed a selection of, jazz/soul/R&B songs. i liked the way they used lots of instruments to form a band. consisting of bass, drums, E-piano,guitar, trumpet, trombone and a saxophone. during one of the songs they performed, there was an opportunity for the drummer, bass player and saxophone player to have solo's. This moment stood out to me because it was completely freestyle and it allowed me to fully engage in the performance and feel the music. The drummer had lots of different fills and rolls and changed the style of the drums but the saxophone player was my favourite. Not only is the saxophone one of my favourite instruments but the dramatic performance added that extra dimension. I remember one part specifically where he kept going up octaves and it looked as if he was going to run out of air, but he managed to complete the solo. This showmanship is what makes that my standout moment.

Overall I enjoyed the Gig, i enjoy the genre's of music that was performed and i also thought the atmosphere created was warm and welcoming yet realistic. which is why it was ideal. It also showed me what kind of things i would see in a professional environment for example, front of house engineer and audio visuals. It was slo good to see the standard of performers in the professional industry because it shows me where i need to get.

Workshop Diary (Week Three)

This week in our sequencing class we started to record our own audio. we were given microphones (WHAT MICS? HOW WERE THEY SET UP?) and we were to try and arrange a piece of recorded audio into one of our already composed pieces of work. I also used the pitch correction plug in on my audio to give the auto-tune effect.

In our DJing class we were still practising our beat matching, but we also looked at a new technique oh chopping up a beat and cutting it to create a new loop. we then used that new loop to bring in another beat. EXPLAIN THE LOOP IN MOER DETAIL
 This technique is effective for mixing to songs that have very different bpm's it is used most effectively when you don't do it too often (WHY NOT TOO OFTEN) so you're timing of when to use this technique will get better as you practice more.

Technical Theatre

In todays lesson we started by looking at different colours and writing down what they make you think about. For example the colour Red is linked with passion. This task helped us with the rest of todays lesson because we looked at Justin Timberlake's song-Cant Stop The Feeling and we also had to plan how we would sequence lights and audio visuals and effects to the song. we were shown an example from last year which showed us the standard that we would have to sequence our lights to. it was also helpful as it demonstrated how we should highlight certain elements during the sequence for example a drum roll or trumpet solo. we then were put in to groups and listened to the song and then figured out what we would do and what timings we would do it. in our sequence we will be incorporating a lot of different skills learnt so far. for example using patterns on the moving lights and using the Gogo's. our display will also use a wide variety of different lights for example side lights, Fresnel's and spotlights.

Workshop Diary (Week Two)

This week we learn't how to fade audio in our sequencing class. this allowed us to chop up and rearrange audio without hearing any popping or cracking sounds which would lower the quality of the overall composition. We also learnt how to curve the fades so we could fully manipulate the fades in each of the midi regions.
ADD A SCREENSHOT TO ILLUSTRATE THIS SKILL

In DJ-ing we continued with our beat-matching and things are starting to become a lot easier and moe fluid which allows everyone to have a much more engaging performance. we also focused on waiting for bars in the tracks and the best times to come in so that the tracks could work together nicely. An example of this was in our mix of Rihanna's Needed Me and Drake's One Dance. In the audio section of Rihanna's song the chopped up part of Drake's song was mixed in and effectively created an energetic atmosphere
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO MIX IN THE BARS/PHRASES?

Workshop Diary (Week One)

This week, we were introduced to the skill of Beat-matching in our Dj class. we had a demonstration from Phill and we were then instructed to go into the production rooms to have a go ourselves. At first i found it hard because i found it tricky to decide where to put the Que's in the songs. because of this i then found it slightly harder to mix. However after some practice i was able to find better places to put the cues in and i stated to get the hang of things. i was able to successfully mix a couple tracks together, and now i can add those tracks to a list of tracks that i can mix nicely.





In our sequencing class we were introduced to using audio in logic, we had audio files on the server and our task was to make a track using the audio given to us and to also make the track tell instructions on what we were learning in the lesson as well. i found this lesson helpful because it gave me a better understanding of working with audio and also it helps me to read waveforms which also helps me in my DJ class because i can read it in the Traktor software which allows me to find a break or drop or vocal section in the track, allowing me to take advantage and manipulate my set accordingly

Workshop Diary (Week One)

This week, we were introduced to the skill of Beat-matching in our Dj class. we had a demonstration from Phill and we were then instructed to go into the production rooms to have a go ourselves. At first i found it hard because i found it tricky to decide where to put the Que's in the songs. because of this i then found it slightly harder to mix. However after some practice i was able to find better places to put the cues in and i stated to get the hang of things. i was able to successfully mix a couple tracks together, and now i can add those tracks to a list of tracks that i can mix nicely.

In our sequencing class we were introduced to using audio in logic, we had audio files on the server and our task was to make a track using the audio given to us and to also make the track tell instructions on what we were learning in the lesson as well. i found this lesson helpful because it gave me a better understanding of working with audio and also it helps me to read waveforms which also helps me in my DJ class because i can read it in the Traktor software which allows me to find a break or drop or vocal section in the track, allowing me to take advantage and manipulate my set accordingly

Moving lights

In todays lesson we looked at installing and programming moving lights, each moving light has 36 parameters. I was slightly familiar with this task because in our previous lesson we looked at programming profiles and Fresnel's. first we activated the moving light. the one I used was called a Mac Entour 700 using the Congo JR, my channel was 396 I was then informed how to effectively zoom, focus, pan, tilt and add colours and effects to the moving lights. I added a water effect with a magenta colour which rotated slowly