I need help with my production application form asap

[Jon]

Hey guys I'm applying for a music production course and have a little questionairre to fill in, was wondering if anyone could help out and tell me if i've missed anything blatently obvious or have said something stupid.

 

 

1. In your opinion, what are the most important elements of the production process?

 

Removing boundaries between the production team and artist: working as a whole

Song writing

Recording

Arranging

Editing (Effects etc)

Second Opinion to check for errors etc that were not picked up by the producer/technician

 

2. In your opinion, which of these is the best programme? Cubase, Pro Tools or Logic and explain why?

 

This is where i need help. I have only ever used Accoustica, Nuendo and Garageband for sequencing

 

3.Give 2 examples of good and bad studio practice?

 

Good:

 

Punctuality

 

Having a good plan of stages of production and idea of what the final outcome will sound like before recording

 

Practice well beforehand

 

Working well as a unit, removing any artist producer boundaries

 

Bad:

poor preparation

bad communication

 

4.In your opinion what makes a successful track?

 

A good balance of technicality and music. Not being so simplistic so that it's boring and not being so technical that only other producers/musicians will find it interesting/pleasurable.

 

 

5. What musical skills do you have and why do you think they are important in music production?

 

Turntables (around 3 years experience)-

as a dj one listens to a lot of various styles of music. In my view, one learns how to structure songs well as a result: how songs should and should not be produced, what works and what fails (key clashes etc)

As a turntablist i have experience with sampling and a good knowledge and ability to produce precussive rythms which becomes valuable in drum programming.

 

Guitar - A knowledge of note structure, what keys work well etc

 

6. What audio editing/ sequencing software do you use and why?

 

Garageband- I use this for recording scratches and adding effects to samples/recorded material

 

Accoustica Audio Mixer- has a user friendly interface that permits the user to easily manipulate and arrange waveforms, seperate waveforms into tracks (good for mixtapes) and panning etc.

 

Reason- The main program i use for programming beats.

 

Abelton Live Lite: i use this for programming my midi drum pad controller for live performances

 

Wavepad: I use this for recording demo ideas

 

7. Which producer has most influenced you and why?

 

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park:

 

combines being a musician and a producer- thus being able to communicate with musicians that he is producing as well as simply recording.

ability at panning and glitches/stammers

his sampling abilities and ability to create and edit his own samples (example: the edited accoustic guitar sample at the start of somewhere i belong)

originality

 

8. How would you describe your skills as an engineer/producer at the present time?

 

I am able to arrange ideas well and produce beats using samples, but desire more knowledge of methods of producing and editing my own samples and am interested on learning more about producing live musicians and bands as well as creating electronic music

 

 

 

 

 

this needs to be done by tommorow lunch time, so any help at all would be v useful.

 

 

thanks

 

pz

[djxander]

Content wise, this looks good. However, I think the style of writing is a bit sloppy. I would edit it for you, but I'm too busy for the next 5 days. I suggest you find somebody who really excells in writing and ask them to give it a thorough editing.

 

Also, stay consistent. If you're going to use hypens, stick with hypens "-", if you're going to use colons stick with colons ":". Using them interchangeably shows you are not attentive to detail and are sloppy. That is the most blatent inconsistency I saw, but I'm sure there are others. Make sure the way you space things out (litteraly, the amount of lines you put between items) shows consistency also.

 

Finaly, applications to universities and various programs usually expect answers in sentance form. Your whole thing looks a bit too relaxed for an application because you liberaly use lists and paragraphs interchangeably.

 

good luck homie.

[Jon]

Content wise, this looks good. However, I think the style of writing is a bit sloppy. I would edit it for you, but I'm too busy for the next 5 days. I suggest you find somebody who really excells in writing and ask them to give it a thorough editing.

 

Also, stay consistent. If you're going to use hypens, stick with hypens "-", if you're going to use colons stick with colons ":". Using them interchangeably shows you are not attentive to detail and are sloppy. That is the most blatent inconsistency I saw, but I'm sure there are others. Make sure the way you space things out (litteraly, the amount of lines you put between items) shows consistency also.

 

Finaly, applications to universities and various programs usually expect answers in sentance form. Your whole thing looks a bit too relaxed for an application because you liberaly use lists and paragraphs interchangeably.

 

good luck homie.

 

 

Thanks mate. I'm very capable at articulating my work, I was just writing in short note form here to express the types of ideas for answers that I had been coming up with.

 

 

thanks for the advice man

[djxander]

Gotcha I wasn't sure so I figgured I'd put it out there. Good luck again!

[Jon]

bumpage!

[drakule]

2. In your opinion, which of these is the best programme? Cubase, Pro Tools or Logic and explain why?

 

its preference, also they are better for different things, protools is way better for audio > it has the feel of working in some way with traditional tape, however it falls short with programming, also there's a big difference in tools systems, if you've got serious buck then ur ok coz a decent tdm rig will set you back tens of thousands, otherwise you're limited to protools le, which is very capable, just has limitations track count wise (upto 45 now i think with the extra producer pack) - the plugins on a tdm system are far higher quality, etc. there's probably not much point in me going to in depth here pros and cons of tdm vs le,

 

Logic excels where tools falls short - midi and programming is way more advanced than tools however protools 7.2 has started to bridge a few gaps in this. i personally think logic has a great sound, the synths you get with logic pro are fecking ace too, also its native to apple so works a fuck of a lot better on yer mac! audio in logic isnt as good as it is in tools

 

personally i program in logic and then mix in protools, i hate mixing in logic, but i guess thats just preference and not cold hard fact.

 

cubase? well i know f all about that coz ive never used it tho i have a copy of sx3 sumwhere round ere. few commercial studios use cubase, most are tools and logic,

 

 

the lucky tdm owners of tools can bridge logic into tools and run both programs at the same time - bastards!

 

where you applying for????

[drakule]

4.In your opinion what makes a successful track?

 

hard one - from a production point of view? i think a track can be made or broken in the mixing stage, however, what makes a successful track? the simplest song in the world can be the most beautiful, probably the truthful answer in contemporary circles is justin timberlake.

 

well not necessarily him, but its all about the marketing if you ask me, i guess if success is measured in unit sales its all about the amount of money the label put into the act, well nearly, there are some exceptions but you see what im getting at? a succesful track in who's eyes anyway?? the label, the artist, the engineer, the producer?

 

fucking ambiguous question that, you could write all day!

[Jon]

2. In your opinion, which of these is the best programme? Cubase, Pro Tools or Logic and explain why?

 

its preference, also they are better for different things, protools is way better for audio > it has the feel of working in some way with traditional tape, however it falls short with programming, also there's a big difference in tools systems, if you've got serious buck then ur ok coz a decent tdm rig will set you back tens of thousands, otherwise you're limited to protools le, which is very capable, just has limitations track count wise (upto 45 now i think with the extra producer pack) - the plugins on a tdm system are far higher quality, etc. there's probably not much point in me going to in depth here pros and cons of tdm vs le,

 

Logic excels where tools falls short - midi and programming is way more advanced than tools however protools 7.2 has started to bridge a few gaps in this. i personally think logic has a great sound, the synths you get with logic pro are fecking ace too, also its native to apple so works a fuck of a lot better on yer mac! audio in logic isnt as good as it is in tools

 

personally i program in logic and then mix in protools, i hate mixing in logic, but i guess thats just preference and not cold hard fact.

 

cubase? well i know f all about that coz ive never used it tho i have a copy of sx3 sumwhere round ere. few commercial studios use cubase, most are tools and logic,

 

 

the lucky tdm owners of tools can bridge logic into tools and run both programs at the same time - bastards!

 

where you applying for????

 

 

Hey man thanks a lot for the help. I'm applying for both the diploma and higher diploma one year music production courses at the Guildford ACM (i'm letting them choose which course i would be most suited to), dj phology from these forums took a dj course there a couple of years back.

I'm basically taking a gap year to focus on music before heading off to university, i just got an offer from Leicester, the uni i want to go to, so it's just hard work this year and hopefully i make the grades which i should be able to, i got an ABB offer, which for an English Literature course is damn low

 

so fingers crossed for both of those at the mo lol

[drakule]

good luck!

 

im studying myself at the mo. at a place called lipa, its paul mccartneys place in liverpool, they have a very good sound tech degree worth checking out after your diploma - the studios are amazing, studio 1's probably the best studio in the north east - designed by george martin no less, tis amazing...

 

im doing music tho, not sound tech, we do get the option to take a more techy slant towards the degree which ive taken so its about 50 50 - next year my final year i have to produce an album - one of my own and one for someone else, and then a live show around your own material for the end of the year, n thats my degree, fun eh.

[Jon]

good luck!

 

im studying myself at the mo. at a place called lipa, its paul mccartneys place in liverpool, they have a very good sound tech degree worth checking out after your diploma - the studios are amazing, studio 1's probably the best studio in the north east - designed by george martin no less, tis amazing...

 

im doing music tho, not sound tech, we do get the option to take a more techy slant towards the degree which ive taken so its about 50 50 - next year my final year i have to produce an album - one of my own and one for someone else, and then a live show around your own material for the end of the year, n thats my degree, fun eh.

 

 

woah nice man. that sounds amazing and tough at the same time. i'll let u know how my application goes