AMP student work recognised at UK Music event

On March 3^rd I was invited to attend an event organized by UK Music. 

Essentially it was a high profile acknowledgement of having devised and led the pilot initiative with BBC Introducing, which we have now been invited to help instigate at other Universities and Colleges, in-keeping with the BBC’s remit to promote new music.

The centrepiece of the event was the screening of our BBC Introducing making of video (https://vimeo.com/116336617 ); great for our profile! Huge credit to Steve Dominey who edited the film, which was very well received by the attendees and drew lots of positive comments. 

Although Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Sajid Javid) didn’t turn up (he was called to China at short notice), Baroness Jolly, who deputised for Sajid Javid, and the Shadow Culture Minister both made a speech. 

The Head of Universal Music was there, along with a few other major industry players. Dennis Weinrich from JAMES was there, supportive as ever, and Lorna Finlayson from UK Music grabbed me on arrival saying she wanted to introduce me to some people from the University of Westminster who want to do something similar.

I also caught up with BBC Introducing Producer Kieron Yeates, and they all seem delighted with what we have done – impressed by the production values and amazed at the quantity of output; 4 shoots delivered to date with another three scheduled for 

March. 

In short, this was a great showcase for our Audio & Music Production and Film & TV Production undergraduates. So well done everyone, it’s all good!

Bucks students record artist Natasha North for BBC broadcast

 

Students from Buckinghamshire New University have enjoyed the chance to record up and coming singer-songwriter Natasha North for a show to be broadcast by the BBC.

As part of a partnership that the University has with the programme BBC Introducing, students from the School of Media Production and Performance had the opportunity to mix and record three of Natasha North's tracks as well as film and edit her performance on campus. The show will be aired on BBC Three Counties Radio and the BBC Introducing website this Saturday.

Daniel Garise, who is in his final year of a BA (Hons) Film and Television Production degree, said: "This is my first experience as a producer and it's been exciting and challenging to make sure everything runs smoothly.

"We first started talking to Natasha and her team a couple of weeks ago to finalise the track list and to find out what we need to mix and how the day should run. It's been a great experience for me and very rewarding to work on a show such as BBC Introducing."

The show, which was recorded in the University's recording studio in the main Gateway building, enabled students to get a taste of what it is like to work in the media production industry and to put into practice the skills they have learned throughout their studies.

Lecturer Daniel Peters, who supervises students studying BA (Hons) Audio and Music Production, commented: "These sessions give final year students the opportunity to work in a professional scenario. From pre-production, to the shoot and then to post-production, students are expected to liaise with industry professionals, hit strict deadlines and produce work fit for broadcast." 

Natasha North said of her experience at the University: "It has been extremely professional and everyone knows exactly what they are doing. The students have been brilliant at sorting everything out."

Students previously recorded band The Scruff for BBC Introducing, and the series is due to continue featuring student recordings as part of its ongoing partnership with the University.

The latest artist the students worked with was singer/songwriter Alex Bay and guitarist Kaid Hussain.

Student Adam Taylor, studying BA (Hons) Audio and Music Production, said: "I really enjoyed the experience of having Alex Bay in for a live shoot.
"Having the challenge of an outside artist coming in gives you some real life experience you cannot get in lectures. It was unpredictable and forced us to think on our feet and problem-solve. Challenging and fun!"
Main picture: Artist Natasha North is recorded by students in The Gateway recording studio.
Second picture: Alex Bay with students following his recording.

Find out how you could study the courses featured in this story

• BA (Hons) Audio and Music Production
• BA (Hons) Film and Television Production

Release The Bats - Live Music Recording

People say sound isn’t something you just hear, it’s something you feel. I certainly felt the sound, blasting out at around 110 dB for an assigned OB task; a video recorded live session of the band “Release the Bats”. Sounds simple, right? Jam a couple of microphones into an amplifier, throw a microphone at the singer and whatever microphone shaped objects are left get carelessly positioned around the drums. “Give it a raw feeling”. It doesn’t work like that, especially when you’re being assessed, and want to get the best sound opposed to doing the mother of all botch jobs. Before the actual day, preparations were made between myself and my peers, technical riders and stage plots were designed (on behalf of the band whom made communication a difficult process) and contingencies were prepared in the event of problems. The first problem we came across was the concept of an OB. In other words, we were being assessed on something we’d never done, and hadn’t used the equipment (a nice shiny Midas Pro2 digital desk) in over half a year.


Needless to say, I was worried about complete catastrophic failure on our part. When the ball got rolling, and we started setting up, nerves were eased. That was, until we encountered a problem with sending a direct link from the desk, upstairs to the recording studios. Using even more technology, known as Focusrite RedNet, we attempted to send all the audio directly to the studios without processing it on the desk. It’s another thing that we’ve never done before, and encountered a problem almost instantaneously, no sound. This is bad, but we quickly found the missing link that was causing the whole issue, a good old trusty router. Who would have thought of it? Certainly not us, that’s for sure.

This is all before the band has arrived, in typical punk fashion, they arrived little over an hour late, and this is where the show began, things started to become real, and everyone had to put their professionally first. Lines had been checked, and it was all about getting the best damned sound with the given environment, until we realised that the monitors weren’t plugged in. It was a bit funny that the band weren’t getting any vocals through their monitors. Without further ado, they were plugged in, line checked, and appropriate monitor feeds were sent as requested. Simples.

Not only did we have to record the sound for the OB, sending a premix to the PT Recorder (which records all the sound and the video together), we had 48 hours to do a studio rough mix, with a 48 hour turnaround. Mixing the drums wasn’t so much of a problem, sampling the drums to compliment the recorded drums assisted the mix, it’s the vocals that caused the greatest issue. Tune? Dynamic control? Vocal technique? It’s like he not only ignored the conventional singing technique, but done the exact opposite. Performance value was great, but recording quality was a difficult thing to work with in the studio. There was no amount of compression that could save the vocals, so the dynamics had to be ridden manually to ensure equal levels overall. That at least stopped it poking in and out of the mix, the tune and melody was the second and bigger problem. Autotune was out of the question, using Melodyne, a pitch correction to gently shape the vocalist’s tune was also impossible (due to bleed and sharing microphones), so what do you do when you can’t make it sound better? A lightbulb moment, make it sound worse. Adding grit and distortion to the vocals made the tune somewhat irrelevant, as a matter of fact the imperfect tune complimented a rawer mix.

Overall, the entire production was challenging, but successful. It’s taught us all how to work together, collaborate with video students, liase (or attempt to liase) with bands, and informed us how important getting a decent sound right off the bat (haha, get it? Release the Bats? Okay, I’ll stop). There was certainly room for improvement, but it wasn’t a failure either. I’d quite happily do an OB under similar circumstances, with the newfound knowledge of the technical understanding within Outside Broadcasts, and from which, can only improve the end result and product.

Sennheiser UK Ltd presents scholarship to AMP student

Leading audio manufacturer Sennheiser UK Ltd has presented its second annual scholarship award of £1,500 to Audio and Music Production student Callum Paxton.

The scholarship is presented to students based on their academic performance in the first year and is part of an education partnership agreement between Bucks and Sennheiser.

It was presented following interviews between six shortlisted students and Phil Cummings, Sennheiser’s Marketing Projects Manager, where the students were asked a series of questions.

Callum said: “The money will help pay for recording equipment and to help set up a covers band I am playing with to finance my university studies. I also plan to use the money to finance high-quality and innovative sounds for a website for the covers band.

“It is great that the University has this partnership with a manufacturer of the calibre of Sennheiser and is one of the reasons I feel the university stands out.”

Phil Cummings said: “All of the candidates interviewed well and it was a tough choice to give the scholarship to Callum over the other students.

“Sennheiser is committed to developing the future of audio music production and is proud to be associated with Bucks New University.”

Mr Cummings was assisted by singer Nellie Bell, who is sponsored by Sennheiser, and will be recording in the audio production suites at Bucks New University next month.

She added: “I am extremely impressed by the facilities at Bucks New University and the standard of students. All were enthusiastic and answered the questions well.”

Runners-up Rob Cadman, James Collet, Jim Mitchell, Elliott Newman and Mark Timms each received a pair of Sennheiser HD25 headphones.   

Work Experience & beyond! Adam Whalley @ Team Rock

In the summer of 2013, in between second and third year - my favourite DJ from the only major national rock radio station (planet rock) left, to join a new station that was forming, Team Rock. Upon initial listens to the test transmissions I could tell there were some issues with the sound - and I decided I’d send an email to the head of radio, a guy called Moose. I told him the issue, and then proceeded to get a bit of work experience largely on my basis of my great knowledge of broadcast audio (lie) and my expert skills in making cups of tea (bigger lie). He then enquired about my degree and asked about what I do and invited me in to meet them all, so expecting nothing but an insight into a radio station - I headed off to London and was met by Moose who proceeded to show me the little studios in the basement of a palatial building in London. I was then showed their spare audio studios, where they wanted to record sessions. They asked can I do it? Of course I said yes, and from there I was taken to the roof garden to discuss an equipment list that needed to be bought.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working for a growing company, and working in a great team of people who really think outside the box and try and do things differently. At Team Rock Radio, there are no adverts and that means we can play whatever we like, whenever we like and provide listeners with a variety that really hasn’t been seen in ‘commerical’ radio for a very long time! Since I joined the company, they’ve won awards and established a fan base which is ever growing - as well as syndicated some of the shows abroad meaning some of the sessions I produce are played in varying countries to potential audiences above 10 million! It’s something I’m massively proud to be a part of.

There is also the small matter of the artists I’ve been privileged enough to work with, and the list is ever growing, but headed by massive names such as Slash, Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Joe Bonamassa, Alter Bridge, Scott Stapp, Black Star Riders (the current carnation of Thin Lizzy), Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple) and many more. I’ve met other great artists, and really learnt that the music business isn’t such a scary place full of cut-throat and evil people - although that’s not to say I haven’t met a few unsavoury characters who I’d rather not meet again! I've learnt tonnes of new music, been to gigs and got albums that I never would of bought off my own back - and it's led to me getting some new favourite bands

From an audio point of view - I entered the job wanting to do it slightly differently. I didn’t want to constantly just chuck an SM58 on a voice and plug a guitar into a DI. We have such great equipment and potential in our studios here, I’ve tried to treat each session with a studio feel. Recording through great pre amps and converters into Pro Tools, and using professional and high end studio microphones to get that great sound! It’s great fun, and as a one man team I’ve had to learn and adapt extremely quickly, but It’s probably been some of the best experiences I’ve ever had!