We are excited to reveal that Point Blank's newest pro producer course, the Hip Hop Course, features New York vocalist TK Wonder! We’ve partnered up with TK, who has opened for artists such as Nas, Erykah Badu, Duffy and Talib Kweli, to offer students exclusive course materials including vocals, track parts and other resources for use on your tracks!
So when you enrol now on the Hip Hop Course you not only have access to 93 video tutorials totalling 8 hours of viewing, 1-2-1 tutorial videos from a pro producer, exclusive MIDI files for you to download and use in your own tracks, Beat Analysis tutorials with tracks from Dr Dre, Timbaland and more, but you also get access to the new amazing production tools from TK Wonder! With such a load of impressive resources it's clear that this course is definitely What You Want. To enrol now, read on.
I'm sure all the Hip Hop heads reading this will be just as excited as us about the prospect of fast tracking your music to the level of a professional producer. With such a high standard of tuition and a massive library of tools at your disposal, students will have their tracks sounding like industry standard Hip Hop tunes in just a matter of four weeks!
You can check out the full details for the course here, and you'll also want to check out the video below from course collaborator TK Wonder and get a taster of the superb vocal parts you can expect when you enrol on this premier Hip Hop Course.
Friday, 21 May 2010
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Hip Hop Course with Pro Producer Paul Waller
Each and every tutor here at Point Blank is an experienced music industry professional. Among them are Grammy Award winning songwriters, platinum selling producers and sound engineers who have worked with some of the biggest names in the game. We pride ourselves on providing our students with expert tuition from people who understand what it takes to succeed in the music industry.
Continuing this trend, we are excited to announce the new Hip Hop Pro Producer Course which will be taught by producer/remixer/engineer, Paul Waller. Among the many acclaimed urban artists he has worked with are De La Soul, Gang Starr, Soul II Soul and All Saints as well as legends Gil Scott Heron and BB King. He has credits on several million selling records including Massive Attacks' "Unfinished Sympathy" and Bjork's "Debut" album. Here he is to tell you a bit about the course:
On the course you get to download the project file of a track produced exclusively by Paul for the course and find out exactly how it was created using only the instruments and plug-ins in Logic. You will also benefit from Direct Video Response (DVR) - weekly 1-2-1 video feedback on your own tracks from Paul himself.
Other new developments specifically for this course include our 'Beat Analysis' video tutorials in which we deconstruct classic Hip Hop beats by the likes of Dr. Dre, J Dilla, Timbaland, RZA and The Neptunes. You will then learn how to extract the groove templates and apply them to your own beats. You can see a sample of one of our Beat Analysis videos below where we look at ODB's 'Got Your Money' beat:
The Hip Hop music production course launches on Monday 3rd May and is enrolling now. Please click here for more information. Places are strictly limited and filling up fast so get in there quick!
Continuing this trend, we are excited to announce the new Hip Hop Pro Producer Course which will be taught by producer/remixer/engineer, Paul Waller. Among the many acclaimed urban artists he has worked with are De La Soul, Gang Starr, Soul II Soul and All Saints as well as legends Gil Scott Heron and BB King. He has credits on several million selling records including Massive Attacks' "Unfinished Sympathy" and Bjork's "Debut" album. Here he is to tell you a bit about the course:
On the course you get to download the project file of a track produced exclusively by Paul for the course and find out exactly how it was created using only the instruments and plug-ins in Logic. You will also benefit from Direct Video Response (DVR) - weekly 1-2-1 video feedback on your own tracks from Paul himself.
Other new developments specifically for this course include our 'Beat Analysis' video tutorials in which we deconstruct classic Hip Hop beats by the likes of Dr. Dre, J Dilla, Timbaland, RZA and The Neptunes. You will then learn how to extract the groove templates and apply them to your own beats. You can see a sample of one of our Beat Analysis videos below where we look at ODB's 'Got Your Money' beat:
The Hip Hop music production course launches on Monday 3rd May and is enrolling now. Please click here for more information. Places are strictly limited and filling up fast so get in there quick!
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Refer A Friend To Point Blank And Earn Cash Rewards
We’ve received so much positive feedback on our online music courses from students around the world. It's great to hear that so many of you have had such an enjoyable experience and inspiring to hear how much your music has improved as a result of taking a course with us.
We want to continue growing our thriving global community of music producers so we have put together an incentive scheme to encourage you to spread the word.
For every person that you refer to a course at Point Blank, you earn £25 (Around $40 US!)
It's simple. You can tell your friends in person or via any of the social media that you use. You can blog about us, write a post on Facebook, Tweet it...it's up to you. But to claim your referral fee you must ensure that your friend namechecks you when they book the course. For every single person that does so and completes their course, you earn £25 (check this amount in your currency).
The scheme is up and running right now, so spread the word and start earning today!
Terms & Conditions
• Point Blank agrees to pay £25 to any current or former student who successfully refers a friend to enrol on a course at Point Blank Online
• Payment will only be credited once the referred student has paid in full and completed their course
• At this time all payments due will be credited onto the referrers nominated debit or credit card
• Students can refer multiple friends and receive £25 per friend referred
• When completing the enrolment form, the referred student must select “Referred By A Friend” in the section titled “How Did You Hear About Us?” and insert the name of the friend in the text box provided
• If this information is not submitted at the time of enrolment, no payment will be made to the referrer
• Point Blank reserves the right to suspend or cancel this scheme at any time. Any referral payments due at this time will be honoured
We want to continue growing our thriving global community of music producers so we have put together an incentive scheme to encourage you to spread the word.
For every person that you refer to a course at Point Blank, you earn £25 (Around $40 US!)
It's simple. You can tell your friends in person or via any of the social media that you use. You can blog about us, write a post on Facebook, Tweet it...it's up to you. But to claim your referral fee you must ensure that your friend namechecks you when they book the course. For every single person that does so and completes their course, you earn £25 (check this amount in your currency).
The scheme is up and running right now, so spread the word and start earning today!
Terms & Conditions
• Point Blank agrees to pay £25 to any current or former student who successfully refers a friend to enrol on a course at Point Blank Online
• Payment will only be credited once the referred student has paid in full and completed their course
• At this time all payments due will be credited onto the referrers nominated debit or credit card
• Students can refer multiple friends and receive £25 per friend referred
• When completing the enrolment form, the referred student must select “Referred By A Friend” in the section titled “How Did You Hear About Us?” and insert the name of the friend in the text box provided
• If this information is not submitted at the time of enrolment, no payment will be made to the referrer
• Point Blank reserves the right to suspend or cancel this scheme at any time. Any referral payments due at this time will be honoured
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Grab Yourself a Free Point Blank T-Shirt!
Yes one of these stylish and much in demand t-shirts could be yours. All we ask is that you place a link from your blog, website, Myspace or Facebook profile back to www.pointblanklondon.com.
Once the link is in place, email us the url/web address to view the link and the T-shirt will be sent to you absolutely nothing!
Please send your emails to nick@pointblanklondon.com
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
Mixing Tutorial with The Rogue Element
All the tutors here at Point Blank are experienced music industry professionals. They include Grammy Award winning songwriters, platinum selling producers and sound engineers who have worked with some of the biggest names in the game. If you choose to study here, you will be getting expert tuition from people who understand what it takes to succeed in the music industry.
The following video gives you a taster of life as a Point Blank student. Watch adward winning DJ/producer Ben Medcalf (aka The Rogue Element) guide students through the process of mixing down one of the tracks from his latest album, Lumina.
The video is taken from the Introduction to Logic Pro Course
In the final week of the music production course each student has the opportunity to bring in their own track for a 1-2-1 mixing session with the tutor. So on completion of your course, you will have a whole track that has been professionally mixed down.
Click here to meet more of the pro producers who teach here at Point Blank.
The following video gives you a taster of life as a Point Blank student. Watch adward winning DJ/producer Ben Medcalf (aka The Rogue Element) guide students through the process of mixing down one of the tracks from his latest album, Lumina.
The video is taken from the Introduction to Logic Pro Course
In the final week of the music production course each student has the opportunity to bring in their own track for a 1-2-1 mixing session with the tutor. So on completion of your course, you will have a whole track that has been professionally mixed down.
Click here to meet more of the pro producers who teach here at Point Blank.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Mixing Dance Music Course - Preview Video
Being able to properly mix-down your tracks is often the difference between amateur producers with potential and producers who are releasing their records. A track may sound good in your bedroom, but big club sound systems can be a lot more unforgiving, amplifying any imperfections in the mix.
Mixing techniques such as EQ, compression, effects, sidechaining and automation are vital to adding the necessary professional sheen to your tracks however they are by no means easy to comprehend, and this is usually the stage in the music production learning curve where people come un-stuck.
So as you’ve probably guessed, we at Point Blank have come up with a comprehensive 4 week course focussed on mixing electronic music. The course includes over 100 Quicktime tutorial videos and 40 Logic projects, and features music from pro producers Danny J. Lewis (Defected/Enzyme Blank), Mike Koglin (Noys), and Ben Medcalf (Rogue Element/Disco of Doom). They will demonstrate how to achieve a punchy professional mix that is guaranteed to detonate the dancefloor
Each week you can upload your projects and you will receive tailor-made, personalised video feedback from a professional producer on your music. On top of all this, you also get access to the student forums where you can share tips and advice, as well as a weekly web-chat with your tutor. The techniques covered can be applied to a wide range of electronic music genres.
The video below is a preview of the course. It gives a great overview of our style of teaching as well as the types of techniques and processes you can expect to cover.
If you like the look of it, you can check out the full course brochure and enrolment information by clicking on the following link:
Mixing Dance Music Course
Mixing techniques such as EQ, compression, effects, sidechaining and automation are vital to adding the necessary professional sheen to your tracks however they are by no means easy to comprehend, and this is usually the stage in the music production learning curve where people come un-stuck.
So as you’ve probably guessed, we at Point Blank have come up with a comprehensive 4 week course focussed on mixing electronic music. The course includes over 100 Quicktime tutorial videos and 40 Logic projects, and features music from pro producers Danny J. Lewis (Defected/Enzyme Blank), Mike Koglin (Noys), and Ben Medcalf (Rogue Element/Disco of Doom). They will demonstrate how to achieve a punchy professional mix that is guaranteed to detonate the dancefloor
Each week you can upload your projects and you will receive tailor-made, personalised video feedback from a professional producer on your music. On top of all this, you also get access to the student forums where you can share tips and advice, as well as a weekly web-chat with your tutor. The techniques covered can be applied to a wide range of electronic music genres.
The video below is a preview of the course. It gives a great overview of our style of teaching as well as the types of techniques and processes you can expect to cover.
If you like the look of it, you can check out the full course brochure and enrolment information by clicking on the following link:
Mixing Dance Music Course
Monday, 18 January 2010
A Guide to DIY Recording and Home Production
One of the tutors from our audio engineering courses Ian Button has recently been scribing an in-depth guide to DIY recording and home production. Below you can find part 1... for parts 2-4 head over to Thee Awkward Silences blog where it was originally posted.
Like all of the Point Blank tutors, Ian has a wealth of experience as a musician and producer. Not only does he teach the Music Production HNC Course but he is also the guitarist for Death in Vegas, drummer and producer for Thee Awkward Silences, as well as having sessioned for Pete Doherty and many other well-known artists. Clearly a chap who likes to keep himself busy then!
DIY Record Production – Part 1: A View – by Ian Button July 2009
Absent-mindedly scanning the 2009 Mercury Prize nominees in the paper the other morning, I noticed that one of the contenders’ biog/blurb seemed to be making a big point about their album being recorded ‘on a laptop in a shed’.
While on the one hand I’m glad to see that Sweet Billy Pilgrim are proud of their work and how it was made, I was frankly surprised that in 2009 their ‘DIY’ approach was worthy of such note (it was practically the only thing the feature mentioned about them). People have been making records ‘at home’ for many years if you think about it – from Les Paul’s early multitracking experiments in his garage, to Joe Meek’s hit-factory flat in Holloway Rd, to Daniel Johnston’s cassette recordings – artists and producers have been putting so-called ‘professional’ production values into perspective by doing it themselves. Some are being subversive, some are just being practical.
Over the years, a variety of acts have occasionally surprised/annoyed the traditionalists with releases that weren’t recorded…er… ‘properly’: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska was recorded on a 4-track portastudio; The Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions used a single microphone and no overdubs. Ok, it was quite an expert/expensive microphone, but it made a point; Baby Bird was hailed as a bedroom genius; White Town got to No.1…the list goes on, with Bon Iver being one of the most recent artists to become famous for locking himself away in a hut with some simple equipment and coming out with an acclaimed album. I myself can vouch for the fact that much of Death In Vegas’ first album Dead Elvis was made in a bedroom, using some fairly non-standard approaches to recording guitars, editing, mixer controls way beyond safe settings etc etc.
But the point is that it’s the content on these recordings that matters – they were all accepted on their own particular terms. I’d like to think the same applies to the production I do now, for Paul’s stuff, Extradition Order, David Cronenberg’s Wife, Deep Cut and all the others (of which more in a future article).
No one took Springsteen’s album back to the shop because he hadn’t used enough tracks. Thankfully Radio 1 didn’t send Thee Awkward Silences stuff back and tell us to record it again.
Sure, there are nerds like myself who like to go on about how albums are made, and as producers/artists pride ourselves on attention to detail and doing what we think is right to make the best of the project, but the fundamental point and goal of any production, DIY or otherwise, is that we are able to make something convincing with whatever resources we have, or choose to use, and the consumer/listener either likes the result or doesn’t, but accepts it as a record alongside all the other records that have ever been made.
That attitude has always been there – I’ve had it myself for over 20 years, at the same time as working in countless projects that – for whatever reasons – had to do it the textbook (i.e. expensive, studio) way. I’m talking about making DIY ‘rock’ records (e.g. The Anthony Anderson Project), but anyone who’s been involved in making electronic/dance music will have been aware of that same production ethic for just as long.
The main difference between home and studio recording used to be sound quality (tape width, number of tracks etc). That issue is no longer there. Today’s technology and the accessibility of recording/production tools means it’s even more feasible to make a musical product independently/at home/cheaply/in any style, and send it out there into the big wide world and no one will know (or care) how you recorded it – they will judge it, of course, but it will be about how good your lyrics/chorus/haircut/bandname are, not your mics or reverb settings or whether you used Protools (thousands of pounds) or Audacity (free). There’s another issue here too: the current music consumer ethic and sales trends are going to mean that expensive recordings won’t make any sense for any but the most massive artists. It’s going to be no bad thing for us all to learn how to create our art quickly, cheaply and realistically.
Basically, the same thing applies to production as it does to playing/writing/performing – if you are confident about what you can do, and honest about what you can’t do, you will find a sound, an approach, and a way of working that will fit.
In the next article I’m going to go into a bit more detail about how I record Paul’s and all the other bands’ stuff, with a few suggestions for what you are going to need if you want to get started yourself.
Like all of the Point Blank tutors, Ian has a wealth of experience as a musician and producer. Not only does he teach the Music Production HNC Course but he is also the guitarist for Death in Vegas, drummer and producer for Thee Awkward Silences, as well as having sessioned for Pete Doherty and many other well-known artists. Clearly a chap who likes to keep himself busy then!
DIY Record Production – Part 1: A View – by Ian Button July 2009
Absent-mindedly scanning the 2009 Mercury Prize nominees in the paper the other morning, I noticed that one of the contenders’ biog/blurb seemed to be making a big point about their album being recorded ‘on a laptop in a shed’.
While on the one hand I’m glad to see that Sweet Billy Pilgrim are proud of their work and how it was made, I was frankly surprised that in 2009 their ‘DIY’ approach was worthy of such note (it was practically the only thing the feature mentioned about them). People have been making records ‘at home’ for many years if you think about it – from Les Paul’s early multitracking experiments in his garage, to Joe Meek’s hit-factory flat in Holloway Rd, to Daniel Johnston’s cassette recordings – artists and producers have been putting so-called ‘professional’ production values into perspective by doing it themselves. Some are being subversive, some are just being practical.
Over the years, a variety of acts have occasionally surprised/annoyed the traditionalists with releases that weren’t recorded…er… ‘properly’: Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska was recorded on a 4-track portastudio; The Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions used a single microphone and no overdubs. Ok, it was quite an expert/expensive microphone, but it made a point; Baby Bird was hailed as a bedroom genius; White Town got to No.1…the list goes on, with Bon Iver being one of the most recent artists to become famous for locking himself away in a hut with some simple equipment and coming out with an acclaimed album. I myself can vouch for the fact that much of Death In Vegas’ first album Dead Elvis was made in a bedroom, using some fairly non-standard approaches to recording guitars, editing, mixer controls way beyond safe settings etc etc.
But the point is that it’s the content on these recordings that matters – they were all accepted on their own particular terms. I’d like to think the same applies to the production I do now, for Paul’s stuff, Extradition Order, David Cronenberg’s Wife, Deep Cut and all the others (of which more in a future article).
No one took Springsteen’s album back to the shop because he hadn’t used enough tracks. Thankfully Radio 1 didn’t send Thee Awkward Silences stuff back and tell us to record it again.
Sure, there are nerds like myself who like to go on about how albums are made, and as producers/artists pride ourselves on attention to detail and doing what we think is right to make the best of the project, but the fundamental point and goal of any production, DIY or otherwise, is that we are able to make something convincing with whatever resources we have, or choose to use, and the consumer/listener either likes the result or doesn’t, but accepts it as a record alongside all the other records that have ever been made.
That attitude has always been there – I’ve had it myself for over 20 years, at the same time as working in countless projects that – for whatever reasons – had to do it the textbook (i.e. expensive, studio) way. I’m talking about making DIY ‘rock’ records (e.g. The Anthony Anderson Project), but anyone who’s been involved in making electronic/dance music will have been aware of that same production ethic for just as long.
The main difference between home and studio recording used to be sound quality (tape width, number of tracks etc). That issue is no longer there. Today’s technology and the accessibility of recording/production tools means it’s even more feasible to make a musical product independently/at home/cheaply/in any style, and send it out there into the big wide world and no one will know (or care) how you recorded it – they will judge it, of course, but it will be about how good your lyrics/chorus/haircut/bandname are, not your mics or reverb settings or whether you used Protools (thousands of pounds) or Audacity (free). There’s another issue here too: the current music consumer ethic and sales trends are going to mean that expensive recordings won’t make any sense for any but the most massive artists. It’s going to be no bad thing for us all to learn how to create our art quickly, cheaply and realistically.
Basically, the same thing applies to production as it does to playing/writing/performing – if you are confident about what you can do, and honest about what you can’t do, you will find a sound, an approach, and a way of working that will fit.
In the next article I’m going to go into a bit more detail about how I record Paul’s and all the other bands’ stuff, with a few suggestions for what you are going to need if you want to get started yourself.
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