Fabric London Resident DJ Tayo - Learning Logic at Point Blank

In this video, DJ Tayo talks about his time on the Logic Music Production Course at Point Blank. Since he took the Logic course Tayo has scored some top underground hits on the bass music scene and seen his reputation as a DJ soar, landing a residency at world famous London club Fabric and a slot on BBC Radio 1 Xtra.



Check out the full details of the Music Production Merit Course

Mystery Jets visit Point Blank

This week saw the Mystery Jets bassist Kai Fish pay the Point Blank Studios a 'flying' visit (sorry, couldn't resist!). Kai was interviewed by student Luc Bennette who is currently enrolled on the Radio Production Course. The interview was recorded and will feature in Luc's final project. It will be also be available to listen to via our own in-house radio station so listen out for that.



Mystery Jets signed to Rough Trade this year after considerable success on 679 Recordings and the band have a busy summer ahead of them. They will be hitting the festival circuit this summer heading to Benicassim in Spain, Hop Farm in Kent, Field Day in London and the Manchester International Festival so be sure to catch them if you are at any of those.

Thanks again to Kai for giving up his time.

Bass & Groove Masterclass with John Mckenzie

This month, students on Point Blank's music production courses were treated to a masterclass from groove-merchant John Mckenzie. His words of wisdom emanate from a career of playing with some of the biggest music stars in the world, from recording with David Bowie to playing in front of thousands with the likes of Tina Turner, Seal and Shakira. Perhaps slightly more relevant to the interests of this particular audience was his involvement in the dance music scene having worked on records with legends such as Danny Tenaglia, and Everything But The Girl.


Here's a few snippets of what went down on a funky afternoon in Studio 1:

John started by treating us to a few renditions of his favourite bass lines: 'Good Times' originally played by Bernhard Edwards and famously sampled by The Sugar Hill Gang in 'Rappers Delight', 'Another One Bites the Dust' which is another modern tribute to the 'Good Times' riff, 'Red Alert' by Bassment Jaxx, and 'Papa was a Rollin' Stone' by The Temptations.

Performing these without the groove was hard for him, going against all the natural instincts that are ingrained into his finger-tips, but hearing them in this form really emphasised the fact that the groove can potentially be the crucial difference between a stale plodding bassline and a timeless classic.

"Every piece of music has a groove, even a piece of classical music or a slow piece of music has a central groove … the cornerstone of making music is discovering where the groove lies"

"It is the percussive hits of the right hand strumming that is the driving force behind the groove-factor"

"The best basslines are often the most simple ones, 'Papa was a Rollin' Stone' being a prime example. It is easy to make a bassline too busy... placement of the notes is the important thing"

Next was a jam session to demonstrate the process of building up a track starting with a live bassline. After making a beat in Logic Pro John recorded an improvised jam to much head-bopping approval from the onlookers. The best 4 bar section was spliced and then pads and keys were layered on top with the help of some willing students:-

"The groove is not just about the bass; guitars, keyboards and percussion can all contribute. This is especially evident when you hear a good live drummer - the natural variable decay and velocity, and the subtle grace notes all add to the groove-factor. Percussion parts without this human feel can sound robotic and cold, hence why it is important to use techniques such as varying note velocity when building your percussion tracks in sequencers."



We finished by discussing the importance of compression, creating 'room' in your tunes, and not over-obsessing too much about minor details. As music producers we tend to be perfectionists but most music listeners like to let music wash over them and will not notice small idiosyncrasies. Essentially if the tune has a good groove and a catchy bassline, you are likely to see smiles on the dancefloor!



Thanks to John for coming in to share his knowledge and experience with the Point Blank students. Check out some video footage of the masterclass here:



If you want to learn music production with a solid groove and bassline, he is doing another series of masterclasses with drummer, Andy Numark in London in around 3 months time keep your eyes peeled for those.

The series of our own masterclasses, free for all students on our music courses, will continue next month.

See you next time.

Tutor Interview - Danny J. Lewis

This is the first in the new series of tutor interviews coming up on the Point Blank Blog. We are proud to boast tutors with some serious credentials in the music industry and we are sure you are all keen to hear about how they realised their ambitions, reaching the top of the music production tree.

Kindly taking some time out to kick us off is Danny J. Lewis:



How long have you been working at Point Blank?

7 Years

What classes do you teach?

At the college in London I teach Sound Design and Production Skills whilst online I teach Sound Design, Ableton Mnml and Logic Mnml and Logic Deep/Soulful House


Can you tell us about how you got started in the music industry and the path that lead you to Point Blank?

After harrassing people on the club scene with my demo tapes I released my first record in 1993 and was lucky enough to be put into various studios in London by a management company to work on club tracks. I had a whole bunch of releases and remixes out with credible underground house labels and then in about 2000 I was offered an exciting job to work for a digital music company. It was whilst I was there that I met Rob who set up Pointblank and when I felt like putting something back into the business I contacted Rob with a view to teaching and passing the knowledge on.

What production project in the past has given you the most satisfaction?

It was a project that I did with legendary Studio 54 DJ Kenny Carpenter and Daz I Kue (famously now in the Bugz in the Attic collective). The track was released on Kenny Dope and Louie Vega's 'Masters at Work Recordings'. The release was out under the name 'The Ladbroke Grooverz - Seasons of Time'. I had only been producing for a couple of years and here I was with a serious heavyweight American DJ, it was intimidating but somehow I cast that aside and it all worked out fine. It was the start of a great new working relationship with Daz too.


Who is the most talented/ inspiring producer you have worked alongside?

Definately Daz I Kue, this guy taught me a lot for sure. I had spent years in many studios with engineers who didn't want to pass the knowledge on but Daz was different, always willing to share and help me develop. In some respects i'd say he fulfilled the 'mentor' role for me. We ended up working as a team and producing/remixing under the name 'Dafunkstarz'


Can you tell us a little more about your label Enzyme Black how you came about setting it up?

It's a highly personal pet project for the purely Deep/Soulful music I want to make. The releases are exclusively my productions under a selection of pseudonyms, purely to keep the admin side manageable! It's for underground releases that I put out indulgently for myself... the fact that other people like them is a bonus.


Is it hard to be profitable as a label in an age when much of the new generation of music consumers do not consider it immoral to download their music from unauthorised torrent sites and blogs?

Well, I think for some niche genres (EBR's genre Deep/Soulful is quite niche) the people who buy the music still actually respect it. This means they are more likely to purchase the tracks than steal them. I had an interesting scenario once though, one of my students at the college in London told me he had illegally downloaded my entire back catalogue and was DJing with it - in fact earning money for his DJ gigs. I told him how I felt without being heavy handed. Regarding profitability - you are more likely to be make some money when you keep things in house so I do all the press and promotional text and also most of the graphic/web design (with the exception of the label logo and the West District Allstars release artwork) I also do all of the mixing and Mastering - saving a considerable amount of money per release. I would suggest though that if you are in it for the cash you're probably not in the right place - the commercial stuff is where the money's at. Releasing underground music these days is usually a way of getting more DJ gigs - and that's where the big money is.

What are your top 3 most memorable DJ sets?

When I was in Spiritual South I played solo at a festival in the Netherlands in front of 5000 people on stage - i felt like a superstar and it was a proper ego trip. I've played in Italy a few times, one of my favourite places in the world, and Nabilah in Naples was pretty special. Here the club was right on the sea front and previously Giles Peterson and Kevin Yost had been on the top billing.. not bad acts to follow. On a more earthy level I would say my all time favourite gig was at 'Days Like This' in Birmingham a couple of years ago - one of the best Deep/Soulful house nights in the world without a doubt. The 200 strong crowd were hanging onto every track and knew all the words.. seriously.. it was insane - the perfect club to play at for the musical purist.

Do you still DJ much these days?

Not as much as I used to as I'm a dad now and i've been settling down to some family life. Don't write me off yet though - i plan on doing a new Ableton fuelled live thing in the future.

What benefits do you think people get from coming to a place like Point Blank?

The benefit of experience, credible experience from people who truly understand the genre that they are representing. When I started out it was impossible to learn as most people (with the exception of Daz I Kue) were 'closed' - unwilling to share knowledge. These days it's crazy, so much FREE information out there but it's sifting through the rubbish that is the hard thing. There are so many free tutorials on youtube and similar that just don't deliver the credible goods.. As far as i'm concerned it's better to get the real deal.. and also of course the benefit of coming to pointblank is the personal feedback - even online.

If you could give just 1 tip to an aspiring producer what would it be? (apart from "come to Point Blank" of course!)

Watch, Read, Listen, Learn, Practice and repeat the process until you die!

Thanks Danny, fascinating stuff.

For a taster of the personalised feedback you can expect to receive from Danny himself on the online courses check out the following video:

Minimal Tech Course Feedback

See you next time.

Work Experience at Point Blank

This week we have had the pleasure of 14 Year old Noa Krikler's company here at Point Blank Towers. Swapping the classrooms of Highgate Wood School for the studios she came to do some work experience and get a feel for life in the working world of the music industry. Whilst here we tried to give her a taste of all the different departments that keep Point Blank running smoothly and this is her blog of her experience:


Monday
I had a really fun day on Monday. After being introduced to everyone and shown around, I went to sit in a Sound Engineering class where we looked at all the types of microphones and the situations when they would be used. I then went into the recording studio and sang through each microphone so the students could hear the differences. This was really useful as, since I am interested in singing, it gave me some experience and knowledge in the topic.

Then, after lunch, I went to a vocals class. Here we practised a song a few times before passing a microphone round and took a chorus or verse each. This was really good because it gave the teacher a chance to give us direct improvements we can make on our singing. This helped a lot and also I wasn’t shy or embarrassed about singing because the teacher was really inclusive and gave us a lot of compliments.


Tuesday
On Tuesday I saw a different side of Point Blank. In the morning I was asked to look at a couple of introductions to the courses on the Point Blank website and see if there was anything I wanted to change on it. I felt really important when my views were taken into account. Then after lunch, I shadowed a college assistant who looked after the leads and helped the students out when they needed. This was really fun because I learned cool skills like how to coil leads properly, a couple of tricks with the computer and also some knowledge on the music industry in general which I found really interesting.

Wednesday
Wednesday was a lot of fun. At first I helped out in the office, photocopying and doing some paperwork (which I actually really enjoyed!). I'd never done any paper work or anything before so it was cool to give it a go. Afterwards, I went to a class of web design students aimed at making a new website for the Hackney Youth site. Here I learned about all the steps to making my own website and all the ideas I could include. I found it really useful because I know that in the future I might want to create a website for my music and the class has given me some basic skills to put towards that. It's just a shame we didn't have longer!

Thursday
I learnt so much today! I started off in a Music Production course where we looked at structures of songs and the top ten songs in the chart this week. After, we looked at different types of bass lines, their effects and examples of them in songs. I didn't realise there was so many! I googled the tutor of the Music Production class,a guy called Jos Jorgenson, and found out that he wrote the theme music for the X Factor and America's Got Talent! He knows all about the professional side of song writing and how to use all the equipment – and there's a lot of equipment in Point Blank! I'’s much better than the school stuff and there's so much of it. After lunch, I learnt about the marketing side of Point Blank and what they do to spread the word about Point Blank. I brainstormed a few ideas on different ways to market the business and they were really interested in a young person's view and opinion. I can't believe it's my last day tomorrow!


Friday
I really enjoyed today. I worked with Nick, the online marketing executive, who showed me the different social networking sites Point Blank uses for promotion like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Youtube etc. Social networking is important because it provides a way to reach out to new audiences who might not have heard of Point Blank and creates a community for current and past Point Blank students to network with each other.

This week has given me a real insight into the different types of jobs and opportunities the music industry has to offer as well as what it is like working full-time in an office. The courses Point Blank run not only teach the students technical skills and theory, but they also prepare them for finding their ideal jobs. Thanks to everyone there and hopefully I’ll be back one day soon.

Noa

Music Industry Careers: Island Records' A&R Tells All

5 Years ago Ben Scarr was just like thousands of other people his age, determined to carve out a career for himself in the music industry but not sure of his exact calling.

In 2004 he enrolled on the Music Production Merit Course here at Point Blank in the knowledge that the techniques he would learn and the contacts that he would make could help him realise his dreams. 5 years on and he has worked his way up to the enviable position of A&R Man at Island records where it is now his job to find the music stars of the future.

Kind enough to re-visit Point Blank to as a guest lecturer this is an overview of his story and the advice he gave to the on-looking students packed into studio 8:

How did he work his way up the industry ladder?

• Whilst studying at Point Blank, Ben approached his favourite club nights to offer to help with the flyer distribution and earned a 6 month part time internship at a professional studio in Brixton. Standing in the rain outside clubs at 2 am and going on endless coffee runs was by no means glamorous, lucrative or much fun but it is so important to be proactive in gaining additional experience and contacts at that early stage, as well as demonstrating your desire to succeed.

• Once he finished the Merit Course he earned some extra cash as a DJ and Production tutor for the Point Blank community projects, and at the same time he had progressed to head up the street team that handled flyer distribution.

• He decided it was time to try and get a job at a label so sent off lots of applications, but with little success.

• However his networking paid off as one of his contacts, who he worked with for Hip Hop night 'Jump-Off', gave him a phone number for a record executive at Mercury Records. Having nervously enquired, Ben was delighted to be offered 1 month's work experience in the marketing department.

• Realising he needed to seize this opportunity, he showed real dedication, dropping all his other commitments, arriving early and leaving late every day. It worked and they extended his work experience to 3 months.

• Unfortunately when this came to an end there were no jobs at Mercury but they were so impressed that they helped him land a role in marketing at Island Records.

• Once there he made an impression on the A&R department by arranging for his music producer contacts to do some remixes on spec. (ie if the label don't use them then there is no fee).

• In passing, he also mentioned to his boss the idea of Girls Aloud and Sugababes covering the Aerosmith vs. Run DMC classic 'Walk This Way' for Comic Relief. Having assumed they hadn't liked the idea he was surprised but delighted to open a box full of new 'Walk This Way' promo singles a month later.

• He was offered the role as assistant in A&R where he patiently watched and learned for 6 months.

• His next major break came when he introduced his colleagues to a young unknown synth-pop artist named Frankmusik (now signed to Island and with over a million hits on his Myspace). This put his name on the map within Island records and he began to get more acknowledgement for his ideas.

• His tip-off that Wiley’s tune ‘Rolex Sweep’ was set to be a smash hit was snubbed by his boss.

• With egg on his face after it reached number 2 in the charts on another label, the boss realised Ben's talent for urban music and sent him out to unearth some other unsigned gems. He quickly hooked up with Tinchy Stryder and has been the driving force behind his success – his second single 'Take Me Back' charted at number 3 in the UK after Ben shrewdly drafted in Taio Cruz for the vocals.

• Most recently he signed the hit tune 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' which became a viral sensation via Youtube.

Questions from the floor:

• What does your typical day consist of?

"It is very varied. I spend a lot of time listening to new music that I am sent. We might meet about a potential new artist and talk about which sonic direction they should go. Much time is spent sourcing producers and writers who will suit our artist's style... Often I will visit the studio to give my thoughts on the artist's work in progress, The producer and artist can be in the eye of the storm when they have been listening to the same thing all day so it helps for someone to come and give their thoughts from a fresh perspective at the end of a session."

• What is your advice for aspiring producers and musicians from an A&R man's perspective?

"Don't hold back on sending your music to labels, get as much feedback as possible; you don’t want to spend years on an album only to be told that the sound doesn't work"

"Target the labels that suit your sound and try to develop some kind of relationship with them. It's a good idea to find a contact name to address your mail to otherwise it is likely not to get opened. You will always find an A&R contact in an artist's album sleeve so look at an artist with a similar style to your own."

"On your demos send in no more than 2 tracks... include a short note about your act and make sure you write your contact details on the actual CD."

"Talk to people and tell them what you are aiming for. You may get laughed off by some but one time you will meet someone who can help you"

"Work on your look. Style is a crucial factor when labels are considering an artist"

• What are some of the hotspots for getting spotted by A&R people?

"In London: Hoxton Bar & Grill, Yo Yos, Troubadour, Camden Barfly, Water Rats. Depending on the style of music there are different ways of getting spotted... bands tend to be discovered at gigs whereas urban acts tend to make their name on the underground scene and virally through sites like Youtube"

• Do you deal with publishing deals?

"No, publishing deals are separate to record deals but every artist will have one. They are important as alternate forms of income to pure record sales... Your publisher will try to get your music on television programmes and commercials or in computer games... and if your tune is ever sampled on a hit record you will be in for a big pay day if you own the publishing rights of that sample."

Thanks to Ben for sparing his time and providing inspiration and insight for the Point Blank students who attended. Look out for more masterclasses, free for all students, coming in the near future.

Student Diary - Structure and Arrangement

This is the stage which I, and many other budding producers who I have talked to, tend to neglect more than any other, despite a solid arrangement being absolutely vital to the listenability (yes, I just invented that word) of your tune. A poorly structured song will just not sit right in peoples ears because they are used to a certain classic length and order of verses, choruses and all the bits in between. If you are making music for the club you need to arrange your tune making sure the intro and outro are 'DJ friendly', and if you want to make a successful pop tune convention suggests that there is an even more rigid formula to follow.

So why do people tend to neglect structure and arrangement? Looking through my hard-drive you will find probably 80% of my tunes are unfinished. I create a hook and start to arrange; then I get frustrated or bored and say I will come back to that one and finish it later but I rarely do. I think the main reasons are that it simply isn't as fun or straightforward as creating the 4 or 8 bar loop; the rigid rules and fiddly, time consuming nature can sap the enjoyment out of the whole process. Also, even when you create a great hook, by the time you get to these final stages, you have listened to the same 8 bars so many times that you can literally grow sick of the sound of it.

But you must complete your tracks, resisting the urge to move on if you think you are on to a winner because, 1) if you leave it a while, you often will have lost the verve and enthusiasm when you return 2) you will have nothing to show for all your hours of hard work, 3) as a DJ, there is nothing quite like the feeling of satisfaction when you mix your tune in to another for the first time, and crucially 4) your learning curve will plateau and you will stop improving.

So my tutor demonstrated some ways to develop our arranging skills, such as the A-Bing technique whereby you breakdown a track that you like in the Logic arrangement view, and then imitate the structure of that track using your own parts. This technique is also the starting block of making radio-edits, a vital tool for any producer who wants the tune he is working on to get mainstream radio play which, in this age of digital piracy, is perhaps a more realistic way of earning some serious cash from your music.

I'm sad to say next week is the culmination of this Introduction to Logic Production Course. There's a multiple choice test to check at least some the information has sunk in! And Ian will go through my final mix-down with me before I hand in my final project. So this coming week I'll be reading back through all my notes and putting the finishing touches to my track. Looking forward to getting my hands on my certificate and putting it all in to action…

See you next time.