secondary research

Metro-Boomin-

Metro-Boomin Formely known as Layland Wayne is currently one of HipHop/Trap's most influenetial and iconic Producers.

Today I'm going to be conducting some research into MetroBoomin and his production techniques. what separates MetroBoomin from other producers is his ability to not only produce intricate and complex tracks, but to adapt to the artist which he's producing for.

Usually a producer would have a certain sound but metro is flexible enough to implicate his sound in the style of a specific artist. This flexibility and versatility as a producer is what has allowed him to quickly and effectively take over the Atlanta trap scene and made his name synonymous in modern hip hop production today.

Wayne started producing music at age 13(he's 21 now) on FruityLoopsStudio. He initially started out as an artist but then fell in love with the production side of music. His first serious project consisted of working with "Bricksquad Monopoly" rapper Tay Don. This then led him to collaborate with "Bricksquad" label artists such as "OJ Da Juiceman", "Gucci Mane", and eventually his frequent collaborator "Future" who Wayne still works with closely till this day.

Wayne has become so successful that revealing his techniques could potentially jeopardise his career, this could happen becaue everybody would then be able to reproduce his sound and he would no longer be significant. As a result i will start conducting research in order to discest and try and produce a similar sound with my sound incrporated as a result. I am going to conduct an interview. I will be asking some experts for their opinions on some of metro's most significant tracks and see if they can break down any of his production techniques. The Experts are music Teachers who are also producers and engineer's from my college. The people who I will be interviewing are

I found the agents emails of the various modern producers of which im researching and have sent them an email howver i have not heard back from them so i have decided to conduct this interview instead.

Case Study-Travis Scott Producion(vocals)

The way that Travis Scott uses his vocals in a piece is unlike any other artist. After doing some extensive research into how Travis Scott manages to piece together his audio. I believe he starts off with Auto-Tune. Travis uses two different types of Auto-Tune. First he uses Antares Auto-Tune to create the almost robotic sounding effect made known by artist T-Pain. Also like T-Pain used Auto-Tune, Travis sets it so that the response is immediate. Travis Scott also uses a second type of auto-tune called Melodyne. Scott uses this in a different way, he uses Melodyne as more of a correction tool for the finer details for smoother transitions in his vocals and to make sure he can hit the high notes as well. Although Melodyne also offers the more robotic sounding auto-tune, its vast depth of cleaning and tidying up vocals is what differs it to Antares Auto-tune.

 I found this research helpful because I was able to learn a detailed account of how travis Scott uses auto-tune, which applies to my project because I would like to portray this style in at least one of the songs from my EP. Although I do not have this software I will use this knowledge from the research carried out to use the logic stock auto-tune to the full extent and I know have the knowledge so that in the future when I purchase this software I will be comfortable using it.

I have also found two videos on youtube. One that shows you how to use Antares to get the T-Pain auto-tune effect and I have also found a YouTube video that briefly shows you how to finely tune you're vocals using the Melodyne software.                Travis Scott doesn't just use auto-tune on his voice. From listening to a few of his songs I can hear that he uses a range of different Audio FX, For example Distortion. You can find examples of distortion in a lot of travis Scotts songs for example 'The Prayer'. In this song, there are three clear different examples of distortion used. The first is from 0:25-0:30 and you can hear part of the sample in the background with distortion added to it. The next type of Distortion used is more subtle, on Travis's main vocals which start at 0:28. The distortion is used differently here as opposed to the way it was used on the sample. A small part of distortion is used producing the effect to the listener of cleaner sounding vocals because there is less diction to hear any extra frequencies in the voice.         To produce this effect you need to set the drive(intensity of distortion) so its at a moderate level and set the mix(the balance between the unaffected and effected Audio/Midi) low so that you can quite clearly hear the vocals but the distortion is almost not heard. Finally at 2:08 there is a mix of auto-tune and distortion, I found this very helpful because it helped open up my eyes to blending Audio FX to create different and more complex sounds which will definitely help me with my EP. I like the distortion sound because I feel that it offers a wide variety of use for example you could use it on you're voice to help express emotion, or you could add it to a sample that sounded too repetitive to give it more complexity. The fact that this plug-in is so versatile is just another reason why I'm implicating it into my music, and its also simple to use.

                      I also found a straight forward video instruction how to use one of the distortion plug-ins in logic named Clip Distortion.

Case Study-Flute

After studying recent Trap/HipHop tracks, i've noticed that the flute has become one of the most important and influential instruments of 2017. The signiture sound also became so popular that their was a challenge based off the signiture flute riff that loops in the hook of future's mask off. Several modern producers have implemented the flute in their songs, for example: Metro Boomin, Southside, CuBeatz and MurdaBeatz. In songs such as 'Mask Off', 'Tunnel Vision', 'Portland' and 'Get Right Witcha' the flutes presence is clear and has a very effective sound that compliments the songs.

The Genre's of jazz is also very closely linked with HipHop which is one of the reasons why the transition of the flute instrument was so clean and effective. Ive used the flute in all three of my tracks to try and add some more depth and complexity to my tracks . However the flute that I have used is midi rather than a sample. I decided to use midi because I found it easier to work with and midi flutes are still used in popular modern HipHop/Trap songs.

 Here are some examples of the flute being used effectively in some popular HipHop/Trap music and in some of my tracks. The flute in "Future's" Mask Off is a sample taken from Tommy Butler's 'Prison Song'

Case study-Noah'40' Shebib

I tried to find the best source of research to describe how Drake's Producer creates the infamous underwater sound that has had lots of influence in the Hip/Hop and R&B industry. Examples of this sound can be found in quite a few different songs by Drake. A great example is in the song 'Days In The East', you can hear a trademark "40" sound that I can describe only as some sort of EQ'd siren(EQ is a music production feature that allows you to freely increase and decrease different frequencies within the music). If you listen from 2:30 onwards you can hear the full transition and influence of 40 implicated into the song. The best source that I could find was a youtube video of '40' describing how he does it himself.



 Within one of my song I am going to try and recreate this sound for a small portion. I feel that using this technique will grab the listeners attention because they will be able to focus a lot more on my voice.
 This production technique will also change the mood and atmosphere of my song because the lack of frequencies will change the overall sound of the piece and add more clarity and dexterity to my vocals, because they will be the only high frequencies being let through.