CP Literature Reviews

LITERATURE REVIEWS

1. 'A Conversation With Brian Eno About Ambient Music'

https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/10023-a-conversation-with-brian-eno-about-ambient-music/

In this Interview, well-known British music producer Brian Eno shares his input on Ambient Music and his work within the genre. In the interview, we are introduced to some of his unorthodox recording methods in his Notting Hill studio. Some of these include randomization scripts to be used within Logic, which randomizes MIDI notes accordingly to the setting you choose. The Studio he works in also features numerous speakers in different locations around the room in order to enhance the 3D sound, swaying from the conventional 2 or 4 speakers placed in front.

This is all relative to my progress in understanding the production of ambient sound and thus relative to the progress of my project. I hope to use this interview and some of these techniques as a reference when trying to be creative in my production.

2. 'METRO BOOMIN | Beats Tutorial | FL Studio | Razer Music'

In this Interview/Tutorial, 'Metro Boomin', American trap record producer shares his methods and techniques involved when making Drums and 808s for his tracks. Metro takes us through his way of spacing out kicks and 808s to form a solid groove, instead of frequent kicks on every hit. The producer also gives advice on where to place snares and perc hits and other useful advice.


For the EP my group will be producing, the tracks main driving sounds, melodies and chords will fall under ambience while our drums and bass sounds will sound more towards the genre of the trap. Learning Production techniques such as the ones mentioned in this video will be essential in incorporating this into our tracks and giving the trap sound we are looking for. furthermore In this specific video, Metro Boomin also only talks about drums and 808s, serving as a good tutorial to take things from. Despite this, I will only take inspiration from this and not copy specific actions as I do not want for our tracks to sound too generic.

3. '27 Essential Ambient Production Techniques'

https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/27-essential-ambient-production-tips-166772

In this article/tutorial, 'Computer Music' shares 27 tips and techniques for creating Ambient Music. The Tips range from effects to note placement, giving a good insight into getting started to produce Ambient Sounds. Some of the main things I got from this article was the tips involving sound creation and sourcing. Sampling was talked about briefly and even the use of nature recordings such as rainfall.

This Article I can say helped me progress the most with Ambience. As a newbie to the genre, learning some of these techniques was very inspiring towards my production. Some aspects of Ambience I have heard through research has been hard to replicate with my previous skill set, but with a lot of these tips, I have understood the methods of creating these sounds and have been able to do so. After reading this, I have applied a numerous amount of these techniques to my previous attempts with Ambience and have only gotten improvements doing so.

4. 'Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports Sleeve Notes'

http://www.indiana.edu/~audioweb/T369/eno-ambient.pdf

In these Artist Notes of the Brian Eno's 1978 album, he explains his passion for the Ambient genre and elaborates on some of the dynamics of his work. Eno critiques the current state of conventional background music, saying that it dampens and diverts the acoustics of the room it is playing in. On the other hand, Eno explains how he wants his work to compliment the enviroment and enhance these acoustics.

This is good at progressing with my understanding of Ambience. Eno's ideas and concepts stated here and in other statements are recognizable in Ambient Music today and played a pivotal role in shaping the genre's qualities. Furthermore, in order to create sounds similar to modern Ambience myself, reading and understanding the method behind Eno's work will be a good way to do so. When resume producing some Ambient Sounds, I will keep in my mind the Idea of complimenting the acoustics and other points stated in these notes.

5. 'How to Record Better Vocals'

This article/tutorial presents some tips and tricks for recording vocals. Some good advice I got from this was the issues that can come from recording vocals:

1. Popping
2. Sibilance
3. Proximity Effect
4. Foot Noise
5. Poor Room Acoustics

These issues and some of the causes for them were addressed in detail, along with solutions and better methods for avoiding these issues.

I found this along with similar articles very useful in getting started to record vocals. Although the Vocals for our tracks have not been fully finished yet, it's important for me to plan and research beforehand as recording vocals is something I am not yet familiar with. From these tips, I can prepare the sessions and try to avoid issues before they come up.