The Point Blank Forum is Here!

The forum has always been a crucial feature of the learning process for music production students at our online music school; A place where they can interact with their fellow students, share their latest tracks and probe their tutors for any extra nuggets of knowledge not covered in the course material. Until now however the only people with access to the forum have been the paying students. We figured that this was going against the raison d’etre of a forum… they should be open to all, encouraging as many as possible to interact with each other, and in doing so build up a buzzing community of people who share the same passion.



So we are excited to announce the Point Blank forum. It works just like any other forum out there, you can embed content from youtube and soundcloud, and add a unique signature which appears after all your posts (an ideal place to put your myspace details or your latest tune from soundcloud). It may be slightly slow going to begin with as we spread the word and let all our students, past and present know it exists but please stick with it. With your help this will hopefully become one of the liveliest and of course friendliest music forums out there.

So come along, introduce yourself and get chatting. Feel free to suggest any categories that you feel would benefit the forum too… the forum is all about you and we are always open to ideas!

What Genre Next? You can Help us Decide

Since their launch in 2009, we have been overwhelmed by the popularity of the Pro Producer courses here at Point Blank Online. The genres have spanned from Minimal Tech, Deep and Soulful House, Trance, Electro House, and most recently Dubstep and Hip Hop.

Developed with the more experienced producer in mind, they are perfect for anyone who wants to raise their music above the competition and focus their sound by learning advanced techniques typical to that genre. These are no means painting by numbers courses though; we encourage students to take the techniques learned and apply them to other styles of music to create their own unique style. You can hear some of the best student tracks created on the courses here, or by subscribing to the Point Blank Podcast on iTunes.

We are currently deciding on which genre to develop next and we want your help!

Our shortlist is:

Nu-Disco
Chillout
Drum n Bass
Progressive House
R&B
IDM
Dub/Reggae
Death Metal!

Head to our online music school to enter your vote in the official poll or if you have a different suggestion that we haven’t thought up then feel free to post a comment here.

Fancy DJing at this years Lollapalooza? Then read on...

It’s safe to say that the summer season has well and truly arrived, and to us passionate music lovers that means one thing: an overwhelming amount of festivals. Ah, the thought of basking in the hot sun surrounded quirky stalls and decorations, days gone by without a shower, eating tinned food and the occasional over-priced meal when the hangover is a little too much to bare, dancing to great music, meeting strange and beautiful people, DJing in front of a massive crowd… Whoa there! Roll back a bit. No that wasn’t a typo; this years Chicago-based alt fest, Lollapalooza, is running its annual remix contest, aptly titled the Lolla Remix Throwdown. Music producers the world over have until 25th June to submit either an original tune or remixed piece, and the winner in return not only lands the opening slot in Perry’s dance stage at this years Lollapalooza, but also bags themselves a huge array of prizes not witnessed since the days of the Generation Game: two Pioneer CDJ900’s, a pair of Shure SE535 sound isolating earphones, a $250 gift certificate for SatelliteRecords.com, their tune/remix featured as a free download on SatelliteRecords.com homepage for one week, $1,000 cash, a Lollapalooza artist pass and artist guest pass, and a hotel for the duration of the Lollapalooza weekend. Runners up won’t be left forgotten though, as the three remaining finalists will receive Pioneer HDJ2000 headphones, a $150 gift certificate to SatelliteRecords.com, two three-day passes to Lollapalooza and $750 cash.

Don’t hesitate in submitting tunes though, as the winning track will be based on public votes so, quite naturally, the quicker you get your music on the site, the more time in which people can vote. Bare in mind you’ll also need to get your self-promotion hat on too if you want to crank up the numbers as there’s a lot of competition already. Just imagine all those prizes rolling by on a conveyor belt if you need a little incentive.

Also on the bill at this years Lollapalooza are 2ManyDJs, Erol Alkan, Digitalism, Tiga, Rusko, Caspa, Felix Da Housecat and much more. Going to be a surefire banger! For full details on the contest click here. Good luck and Godspeed!

Point Blank At IMS Ibiza

Point Blank's very own Rob Cowan is currently sunnning himself on the beautiful island of Ibiza, but it's not simply a holiday, in fact Rob is visiting in order to take part in the annual International Music Summit hosted in Ibiza.

The IMS have pulled out all the stops, assembling an eclectic array of talent and bringing together a uniquely different festival line-up to Ibiza. Underlining the IMS mantra of being forward-thinking in everything they do. Artists in attendence this year include; Sasha, Buraka Som Sistema, Pete Tong, David Guetta, Annie Mac, Busy P and a whole lot more. The summit contains a mixture of panel talks with Q & A's and discussions, as well as live performances and DJ sets.

So with all this in mind, Point Blank's Rob Cowan has just been in a studio located within the IMS to see Hip Hop DJ extrodanire Mark Ronson and Dubstep pioneer Skream record a show for Ibizian station, Sonic Radio. It turns out that before the show kicked off there was some kind of technical difficulty which coulp have possibly meant the show wouldn't have gone ahead, however, luckily Rob was on hand to save the day! After some technical wizardry he managed to get the equipment working again and the radio show was back on track with just a minor delay.

We're all eagerly awaiting Rob's return with more stories of all the goings on at IMS Ibiza, in the meantime you can check out the photo above taken with Rob, Mark Ronson and Skream at the Sonic Radio Studios.

Techno, Techno, Techno...

Belgian music festival I Love Techno is looking for a young up coming producer to create a track to become the soundtrack to this years festival. So if you Love Techno and want to be a part of one of the best international electronic music festivals of the year then read on...

"Do you eat Fruity Loops for breakfast at your Cubase? Are you Ableton to make an awesome track? Does this sound Logic or make any Reason? But most of all... Do you LOVE Techno?

Then you are the one we are looking for!

Grab all the vocoders, grooveboxes, MIDI Keyboards, triggerfingers, distortion units & compressors you can find. Launch your favorite production software and start building the most awesome track you have ever built. Maybe your track will become an official track for this year's edition of ILOVETECHNO.

The selected track will be featured on our official ILT promotional cd and will be distributed digitally on iTunes & Beatport by the record company News.

And, as a bonus, you + 10 of your best friends will be invited as a VIP on the next ILT edition.

So what are you waiting for?

This song starts now!"

This is an amazing opportunity for you to get your music out there and heard by a whole host of people, not to mention the fact that you and 10 mates get VIP festival access! Entries for the comp must be in by 15th June, so don't delay...get involved now by following the link.

Hip Hop Course to Feature TK Wonder

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.

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!