Technology in context

Part 1

I Feel It Coming - The Weeknd (Feat. Daft Punk)

-      ‘I Feel It Coming’ is a song by Canadian singer The Weeknd featuring French electronic duo Daft Punk, it is from his third studio album, Starboy (2016). The artists co-wrote and co-produced the song with Doc McKinney and Cirkut, with additional writing from Eric Chedeville.

The use of technology used in this track are Drum Machine, Synthesiser, Vocal transformer is also used when singing for improving the voice.

The vocals and the whole beat of the song especially use technology. The guitar and synthesiser harmonise quite a lot in the song. The guitar is playing the chords and the synthesiser is playing the arpeggio in an electronic version compared to the guitar – this effect is used to create depth in the song.

The effect of the vocal transformer was that it was changing the voice making it higher and lower and especially when it goes higher it creates a harmony. The voice was also sounding robotic. The effect of the robotic voice was that it makes the song sound more electronic. The outcome these effect of the use of technology used in this music is that the song sounds so nice.

Pink Matter - Frank Ocean (Feat Andre 3000)

Pink Matter is a song by Frank Ocean Feat. Andre 3000 of Outkast; it was released in 2010 on Frank’s first album Channel Orange.

In this song, the Guitar is used to play the solo of the song, A vocal transformer is being used to make the voice and the lyrics sound slow. It made the song sound emotional as it is not too much of a rock and pop track.

There is a synth being used and the synth sounds like the strings are being played in most of the song and the effect is that it makes the song sound peaceful. The Drum machine is being used and plays a very straight beat. The drum and the guitar are being playing together in the song.

All the instruments change in the middle of the song and different parts are added (i.e. Andre 3000) but the synth is played throughout the entire song and stays the same. The changes of the instruments create melodies. The synth keeps the song within the tune.

Part 2 

We are using the Mini brute analog synthesiser and vocal transformer, it is used for playing instruments like bass etc. It is smaller and slightly different to the normal keyboard and piano. In Minibrute keyboards we can tune to wave sounds as well. When setting up the keyboard,it is very important to take a picture as to how it is set up because next time or next lesson,when you have to use it,you will need the picture of the settings and also how it is connected to hear inputs and outputs. In minibrute keyboards,you can make it sound like what it needs to like bass sounds,sounds of wind instruments etc. For example,I was using it to make it sound as if I am playing a bass. Even in a normal keyboard we can select the sounds which we want to play, but the minibrute keyboard is only different in size as compared to the normal one becausethe minibrute analog synth is smaller than the normal one. In a normal keyboard you have numbers to tune, but a minibrute analog synthesiser consists of mostly controls - this allows you to control the exact sound you make as opposed to preset keyboard sounds.

My equipment also includes extra wires to connect to the guitar and bass amps to listen to the Output when rehearsing our songs for the performance.These amps are used to listen to output and also make sure that the sounds are coming clear when we do sound check before the performance.These are very important and also working on the panel settings for sound effects and while connecting the equipment.

In our band we also use a Voice transformer which is used for singers for tuning the parts into vocoder  etc for the voices to be reflected. Its used to make the vocals sound different while singing in the band and also using reverb and other effects.

Ampere is a main extension chords which are added to the equipment for outputs and the other sound effects and also it is a very small extension chord as compared to the plug points and the Guitar and bass amps for outputs. Along with the equipment,There are other wires which are connected to the speakers so that it can be loud enough while playing and performing on stage.

This is one of the examples of how I got influenced by other artists.

Dub FX,(real name Benjamen Stanford) is a worldwide street performer and studio recording artist from St Kilda,Melbourne,Australia. At the start of his career he was singing in a local alternative rock and rapcore band initially known as Twitch, in 2004 they released a debut and the only album Exeunt Omnes. Dub FX is completely independent, using only live performance, word of mouth,Internet social networking, and a number of easily accessible free.

Dub FX uses many different effects in his live performance; he started off with a Boss GT-6 multi-effects pedal which he then traded up for the GT -8,and now uses a Boss GT-10B bass guitar effects pedal for nearly all the effects used over his voice. He uses reverb,live looping,Delay,Production controllers,Keyboard synth.