This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Ken Blair. Ken is a recording engineer, record producer and and owner of BMP. BMP is a recording company specialising in classical, jazz and acoustic music.

Ken began by the lecture by briefly talking about his various roles over the course of his career in sound recording. For the lecture Ken focused mostly on his role as Recording Engineer.

Ken pointed out differences between recording classical and pop records. Firstly with classical recording the microphones are generally more distant from the sound source because the aim is to pick up the acoustics of the room/hall. Ken explained how the room/hall sound is a common convention in classical music. Secondly with pop you have the mix set up right before you start through a large number of placed microphones. Finally with classical you record entire takes as opposed to pop records where artists do overdubs. Ken let us know that since 20 years ago classical record labels have been making fewer records and as a result Ken has been working with music publishers

Ken then went through a range of recording locations around the world he has worked on. Within these locations Ken spoke about some general rules of thumb like setting up the microphones first before the musicians arrive. Ken showed us a picture of an engineer, producer and client sitting at a control room desk and explained each persons role.

Ken moved on to a range of hall recording examples which for him typically take place in London. Ken made it clear that it can be a long day of work moving between Lincoln and London. When recording in music halls around London Ken highlighted various amenities such as soundproofed cable holes in the walls which made an easy link between the control room and recording equipment in the hall.

Ken ended his lecture by speaking about ways of getting into the industry. Ken stressed the importance of recognizing and grabbing chances. Furthermore to have perseverance and go for the opportunity even if it looks impossible. Ken spoke about his past in the 1980s and how he wrote letters to 50 studios and only 1 Caribbean studio got back to him offering work experience. In the interview Ken as told by the interviewer that you should wear to an interview what you wear when doing the job. Ken explained how we need to do stuff in order to build a portfolio. In terms of working in the studio Ken expressed how its just as important to be good at what you do as well as getting on well with colleagues like musicians and to quote Ken ‘somebody needs to play mum’ in order to create strong relationships. Furthermore Ken pointed out how the genre of music determines how you express yourself in some actions for example in studio talkback you. In terms of CVs Ken advised us to make a skills based CV for audio industry related jobs and to justify each skill with examples.

An audio production student asked Ken what kinds of skills in a skills based CV he would seek in audio engineering. Ken responded by that the skills would be based around experience in recording, editing and having an easy to work with personality.

I learnt a range of valuable lessons and advice. In terms of lessons I learnt to make my CV skills based for jobs in the audio industry. For me highlighting skills related to video game sound design/music composing such as technical skills in Pro Tools and FL Studio. I also learnt that I need to build a portfolio of work by doing stuff so in my case doing anything related to video game audio.In terms of advice I learnt the importance of recognizing and grabbing opportunities regardless of whether it looks impossible. Furthermore I learnt that having an easy to work with personality is just as important as having the skill set required in any audio related job.

This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Katia Isakoff. Katia is a music artist and producer who has worked on a range of projects like co-founding West London studio UNIT20 with producer Steve D’Agostino in the mid-90s, lending vocals to composer and musician Barry Adamson and doing various guitar performances which have featured in a Stephen Spielberg TV series.

Katia began the lecture by introducing women produce music. Women produce music is an new organisation founded by Katia and music producer Richard James Burgess with the aim of promoting the work of talented woman music producers. Katia made it clear that women produce music is not hardcore feminist or exclusive to promoting only women music producers and showed us at least 50% of the organisation is men by pointing out the male and female staff members. Katia continued to explain how women produce music acts as a 2 way street between academia and the industry that provides support for music producers.

Katia pointed out the steps that herself and Richard James Burgess took to establish women produce music. Katia presented findings in a women as music producers research project to various organisations then established the UK music equality and diversity committee. To build social media presence before the launch of Women produce music Katia created social networking accounts on facebook and twitter. The twitter account currently has over a thousand followers.

Katia then spoke about the state of the press, cultural attitudes and music industry around women as music producers. Katia pointed out that the press tend to focus on asking questions around female inequality in the music industry as opposed to promoting the work of women producers. On a music producers panel Katia explained how when they discuss women producing music that some people are part of the ‘blaming culture’. Katia expressed how she isn’t going to stop asking controversial questions because she doesn’t want people to retreat from the discussion but really wants to everyone to debate and discuss these topics then find a common ground to move on. Katia then went through a range of examples of women music producers such as Sylvia Massy and how they used social media to engage with record labels.

Katia finished her lecture by highlighting how record labels are watching music producers activity and if interested the label will share their activity to reach a wider audience. I asked Katia if mainstream press will highlight more of the work from women music producers in the future to which she responded ‘yes’ as long as the few persistent organisations and individuals continue to share and promote their own music based work.

From this lecture I learnt the power of being persistent in promoting and sharing ideas on social media. If interested record labels could share your work to their followers which creates greater audience awareness of your music based work.

This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Dan Shepherd. Dan is an audio producer who set up Far Shoreline Productions, an audio production company offering a range of services like Case studies and podcasts to public, private and third sector organisations. Dan has been making feature programmes for BBC radio for twenty years.

Prior to attending the lecture I listened and made notes on two feature radio programmes Dan had produced. The first programme was ‘Indian pacific’ which followed a range of perspectives on a train journey from Sydney to Perth. The second was ‘Cutting Up The Cut-Up’ which runs through the development of the ‘cut-up’  from avante garde to music to parody.

Dan began the lecture by outlining that he would be explaining the process of making a feature radio programme for the BBC by running through the production process of the 2 feature radio programmes we had listened to. Dan let us know that this would be followed by a more open discussion about radio or anything related in general.

Before Dan went through his examples he pointed out the difference between radio features and radio documentaries. Radio features have a wider spectrum of subject matters and allow more creativity than a conventional documentary which is more limited in the field of journalism. Dan expressed his appeals to feature radio programmes which were going into a subject in great depth by exploring nuances in a more grey area, creativity, scope to explore a subject in any way you want and transporting the audience to another place . In terms of transporting the audience to another place Dan told us how some radio feature programmes require the audience’s imagination over other formats like TV and that the audience can interpret radio feature programmes on a number of levels.

Dan explained the two categories of radio feature programmes, presenter led and montage. Presenter led radio programmes are structured in a way where the presenter is guiding the audience through the programme and they are typically recorded in a studio. Montage radio programmes don’t have a presenter, instead a collection of voices that are cut together coherently for the audience to make sense of.

Dan started with the montage feature programme ‘Indian pacific’ and brought up the challenging question he faced when producing the programme which was ‘How am I going to convey what this train journey is like?’. Dan explained how his original goal was to find people people who describe what its really like inside the train. Dan pointed out that the first part of making a feature radio programme is research, followed by logistics. During the time of the programme (1997) BBC news covered little on the issues happening in Australia such as the heated debate around immigration, land rights and natives controlling land so Dan’s plan was to incorporate these issues into the train journey. The next part of the plan was to experience the train journey and interview passengers to gather a range of perspectives. Dan went on to say how in practice the passengers had little to say then made the point that plans often go off schedule so you have to adapt. To adapt to this problem Dan interviewed experts at the end of the train journey in Perth to fill the gap in knowledge of the issues within Australia. When recording Dan used omni directional microphones for interviews and stereo microphones under to train to pick up moving train sounds.

In total Dan had recorded 30 hours of content and went through the lengthy process of sifting through everything down to 23 minutes of voices. Dan told us the next steps were creating the crafted feature programme in the editing and mixing stage followed by the studio managers polishing up the programme in doing the final mix. Dan let us know that after the programme was complete the BBC owns all the rights in perpetuity, a term previously highlighted by Lol Hammond.

Dan made the key point that it’s critical to create feature radio programmes objectively with the audience in mind. Not yourself.

Dan moved on to his next feature programme ‘Cutting Up The Cut-Up’ which was presenter led in the studio and generally more conventional. In this instance there was no authority figure around the cut-up so Dan pointed out that as a presenter you join the dots. Dan explained that as a starting point in a presenter led feature programme you educate the listener as they know nothing about the subject

Dan concluded his lecture by discussing the rise of the podcast and how its transforming the whole spectrum of speech radio. Dan continued to say how radio doesn’t know how to deal with the rise of the podcast and the future is going to be challenging for radio stations like BBC4 that hold onto traditional models of communication. Dan advised us that doing podcasts is a good starting point for anyone interested in broadcast media because of its accessibility and freedom to explore a subject in any way you want.

I learnt a range of valuable terms, lessons and advice. In terms of terminology I learnt about the two categories of radio feature programmes, presenter led and montage. In terms of lessons I learnt that in practice with many projects plans often go off schedule so you have to adapt. Furthermore when making a feature programme it’s critical to create the programme objectively with the audience in mind and to research the topic. In terms of advice I learnt that a good starting point to get into broadcast media is podcasts due to having the freedom to openly discussing topics and the high level of accessibility.

This week me and my 3rd year Audio production course received a guest lecture by Jez Riley French. Jez is a sound artist and field recordist. 

Jez began the lecture by introducing a range of his field recording examples whereby he utilized unconventional recording methods, most commonly, placing handmade contact mics in unusual places. Jez showed us his modified contact mics which he bought from maplins then modded so the mics could pick up bottom to mid end frequencies more clearly. The examples were raw recordings with no altering in post production. Jez explained how when you listen closely each example has a musical quality to it then quoted John Cage when he says ‘The More you listen, the more you hear.’.

Jez showed us a range of recording examples such as the Bethlehem wires in iceland that support the largest radio tower in europe. Jez placed contact mics on the wires which recorded deep resonant sounds of the movements within the wires and wind echoes. Jez explained this recording method was used to create the iconic blaster sound heard in the Star Wars trilogy. Another example was the recording of air bubbles being released from melting ice in Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, iceland. Jez put hydrophones into the water on the ice which picked up a high frequency crackling sound.  In terms of musical pieces Jez showed us an example called ‘Salts – Adagois’ which he created by playing a looped 2 second music clip through a concert hall then recording it by placing contact mics in peculiar surfaces/areas such as springs. Most of Jez’s work is sound art but some of his works have more of a musical quality to it than others.

In between the examples Jez spoke about a range of principles, lessons and ideas related to his work in sound art and sound design in general. Jez usually records for his own interest/pleasure but sometimes adapts his work for clients such as video game developers and TV networks creating nature programmes. With regards sound art Jez told us to be prepared to adapt our work to different environments and to be specific about what sound system we want to fully reproduce the experience of whatever our sound art is about. In terms of recording Jez made it clear that if the recording is bad that we simply go out and record again because there’s only so much you can do in post production to alter the recorded sound. Jez let us know that careers in sound design, especially video game sound design, requires great raw recordings to capture a full sound that appeals not only to our conscious mind but also our subconscious mind.

Jez expressed how he was fascinated by the question ‘what is reality in sound?’. Jez continued to explain how humans are essentially dumb when it comes to perceiving sound and that human hearing is progressively getting worse due to living in an environment of compressed sounds where the ears aren’t working hard enough. In an example of recording froghall wharf tadpoles and water beetles Jez explained how the tadpoles perception of sound is overwhelming to the point where vibrations in the ground created by humans sound the equivalent to a loud jet plane engine blasting away. Jez summed up that humans are unaware of a whole spectrum of sounds that they are perceiving subconsciously which could be damaging to human perception of sound in future generations.

Jez concluded his lecture by showing us more of his recording equipment with some general thoughts/advice for when we do field recording. Jez doesn’t use handheld microphones like zooms because of the inherent pre amp above 70% that removes the recording capability to pick up frequencies but let us know that handhelds like zooms are good for trial and error to figure out what sound we want. Jez showed his ultrasonic detector used for recording sounds in geothermal areas, coils that pick up sound through electric signals and VLF detectors which pick up decaying universal sounds.

I learnt a range of valuable lessons, ideas and advice. In terms of lessons I learnt that as a sound artist or any profession where I’m managing an audio project to be prepared to adapt my work to different environments and industry needs. Furthermore being specific about what sound system specifications I want. For careers in video game sound design, my personal career goal, I learnt that there is high demand in the industry for high quality raw recordings. In terms of ideas I learnt about how humans are unaware of a whole spectrum of sounds that they are perceiving subconsciously which could have detrimental effects in future generations . In terms of advice I learnt that if a field recording is poor quality to simply go out and record again due to post production having limitations in increasing the quality of a low quality recording.