1. Extended Project Evaluation Ste Moore

2. How did you plan your time? In preparation for this project I planned the use of my time by creating a Gantt chart, separating it into four sections which relate to the A01, A02, A04, and A04 grading criteria. The main benefit of the Gantt chart is that it helped me in that I knew how much progress I should be making by looking at the date we were currently on. Although due to circumstances I did not work on the extended project for an amount of time which then shortened the time scale greatly, after this I then re-made my Gantt chart. Even with the Gantt chart I think I could have managed my time a lot better as when it came to producing the final outcomes, I felt that I was running out of time to complete my outcomes and gain feedback, which is where I made the decision to only produce 2 Dubstep tracks instead of the 3 I stated in my assignment brief.

3. This is a screenshot of my first Gantt chart

4. What difficulties did you experience and how did you overcome them? Difficulties I have experienced in the extended project start from the beginning with finding correct information for my research I overcame this by searching until I found websites that had the same information on them, I also read a book about the roots of dub. Another difficultly I experienced early on was finding people willing enough in college to answer a couple of questions into a sound recorder as part of my primary research to find out peoples opinions of Dubstep. I also experienced another similar difficulty when asking students of the college to fill in a four question questionnaire, about the 6 pieces of album artwork I had designed, I found that not many people are willing to spare a few minutes to answer a small questionnaire, which held me from progressing as much as I would have liked to. One major difficulty I came across was when I was producing my Dubstep tracks as I had no previous knowledge of the samplers Cubase & Reason and had to learn as I was working, I overcame this by following tutorials on YouTube on how to use the vst plug ins to create the wobble, I also learnt how to use the automation feature. A difficulty I came across towards the end of the project was that after days of posting links to audioboo, soundcloud & tumblr I realized that people cannot leave comments on tumblr, and for soundcloud & audioboo an account is needed in order to leave a comment. In order to overcome this I used facebook to ask people for feedback and also a website called surveymonkey.

5. How thorough is your research? In my opinion my research is fairly thorough as I used the following methods; The Internet Books Primary I used the internet to find out where Dubstep originated and developed from and how long ago. I used a book to check whether this information was correct. In terms of primary research I made a paper questionnaire and sound recorder the interview, the purpose of these interviews was to find out what the general opinion was of Dubstep and if people have heard of it as a large number have not.

6. Are your final outcomes what you originally intended or are they different? My final outcomes are what I originally intended apart from one slight change, instead of producing 3 Dubstep tracks I found I only had time to produce 2. As in my brief I stated that the aims for my final outcomes were to produce; 3 Track Dubstep EP Complete with Album Art Therefore I am unsuccessful in meeting all of my aims as I have only managed to meet 3 of my four aims. The aim I was unsuccessful in meeting was my aim to ‘successfully produce 3 Dubstep tracks’, in my opinion I don’t think I am fully unsuccessful as I still managed to successfully produce 2 Dubstep tracks, I produced the Dubstep tracks using sampler software Reason and Cubase. I successfully produced the album art I stated in my brief, I did this by creating 6 various album art images on Adobe Photoshop and created questionnaires to find out which album art was liked the most, which turned out to be album art version 6. I created my album art by using 2 different images, one was an illustration I drew and scanned into the computer, the second was a long exposure image I took.

7. What skills have you developed through doing the extended project? Throughout the process of research, planning and producing for the extended project I have honed my skills in finding correct information on the internet via searching a multiple number of websites to make sure they all have the same information. A skill I gained whilst in the planning phase was how to create a Gantt chart. The biggest skill I have gained was in the production phase of the extended project, where I gained skills on the sampler software ‘s Reason & Cubase. The skills I have gained on Cubase are; How to set up a new project How to create a drum beat using a key editor How to import and place voice samples and edit the samples How to organise a project I gained these skills at first by being shown how to create a new project, then when it came to starting my second song I already knew what to do. I learned how to create a drum beat by opening the key editor by watching an online tutorial. I found this method easier than using a keyboard to do the drum beat as when you open the key editor all you need to do is place where about you want the bass drum, snare, clap etc and it can loop the beat until you create one you like. The Skills I have gained on Reason are; How to link Reason & Cubase to be able to use the VST plug-ins on Reason Automation – this is what changes the speed of the ‘wobble’ How to set up a Subtractor VST in order to create the ‘wobble’ How to use Thor Polysonic Synthesisers I gained skills on Reason also through watching online tutorials on YouTube on how to set up the Subtractor VST to create a wobble . To link Reason & Cubase together is a button on the face of Cubase I was shown this by the music technology teacher. One problem I came across was trying to vary the speed of the wobble, as I had not used the software before I thought you simply had to change the rate of the LFO whilst recording the wobble onto Cubase but when I played it back there was no variation. I learnt how to automate the wobble when a music technology student offered to help me out which I was grateful for.

8. Screenshot of my song open in Cubase & Reason with the VST plug-ins I used to create effects.

9. How have audiences responded to your final outcome(s)? Album Art All the feedback I have gained for my album art has been positive as after analysing the data I gained from asking people to fill in the paper questionnaires, I worked out that 44% of the people I asked thought number 6 was the most appealing, with an average of 9 out of 10 when asked what they would rate it out of ten. With 33% of people thinking number 2 was the most appealing. Number 3 & 4 both had 11% each with no-one thinking number 1 or 5 appealed the most to them. After analysing data from the online questionnaire hosted by surveymonkey the results show 50% preferred album art number 6 with 33% voting for number 1 and 17% voting for number 4. Feedback from Facebook shows 1 person voting for number 2, 2 people voting for number 6, and 2 people voting for number 6. From all of the feedback number 6 was the most liked album art therefore this is my final album cover.

10. How have audiences responded to your final outcome(s)? Songs I have had varied responses when asking for feedback about my songs, the majority of the feedback I have had is good and informative enough to let me know what I need to do if I was to improve my songs. Although I have had some fairly negative feedback from people who fail to read the text under the song informing them that they are the first Dubstep songs I have ever produced and also the first time I have used Cubase & Reason. The best feedback I received was on SoundCloud where a few comments were left telling me that I am doing a good job and just need to keep working at it to hone my skills. Comments such as these inspire me to continue creating Dubstep tracks as if I had a long period of time to work on a song I think it would be fairly successful.

11. How have audiences responded to your final outcome(s)? Focus Group When I held my focus group I found that there were no negative response as such, although when I asked the question ‘Do you think this song fits the Dubstep genre?’ about my first song I received some feedback saying that they think it fits more into the dance genre due to the speed of the track. Good things that stood out about my song based on feedback from the focus group are the samples I used, the focus group seemed to find them amusing which was the effect I was going for as when I first heard the sample it made me laugh. Another good thing the focus group said about my first song was the way it speeds up and down. Some constructive criticism I received during the focus group was the general opinion that some of the loops in my song go on for too long and could do with shortening down to make sure the listener doesn’t get bored. When I asked how the song could be improved I received the feedback that it could do with being shorter and more sound effects and variants in the pitch would improve the song. When I asked the focus group what they would rate my song out of ten with ten being the highest there was an average answer of 7, which I think proves that my first song was fairly successful as it managed to achieve over 5 out of ten. Again the feedback I received from the focus group about my second song was positive although there was some constructive criticism in there, when I asked if they thought the song fit’s in the Dubstep genre the answers I received were what I hoped as the focus group agreed it is more Dubstep than the first track I made. When I asked about good and bad features about my second track a comment I received was that its sound like it is all over the place, I agree with this as I myself think it sounds messy, although a member of the focus group said that they liked the amount of effects I had used in the song. Another good comment I received was they liked how the beginning was fairly slow and I featured a drop in my song which the focus group agreed makes it fit nicely into the Dubstep genre. Members of the focus group also said that to improve the song it could be structured a bit more and feature a second drop, I agree with how it needs to be structured and a second drop would be nice to hear. When asked what they would rate the song out of ten there was an average of 8, this shows again that my song has been fairly successful and shows that its more successful than my first song.

12. Conclusion, What would you do differently if you were to do the extended project again? If I was to do the extended project again I would do it differently by spending my time more productively and planned my time out better. I also would spend more time on producing the final outcomes in form of my songs, if I planned my time better I would have had time to create all 3 songs and wouldn’t of had to rush my songs therefore I could have made them more professional.