Today marked the 4th meeting with my client, John O’donohuge. The meeting gave me an opportunity to play John the 3 songs I had been working on for his VIP room. The songs that were played were production demo’s of the final product, meaning some finishing touches and mastering were still yet to be applied. Once again we used the Reserve Lounge itself to play my work so far in an attempt to gauge the acoustic qualities of the room and apply them in the mastering process. For example, if the bass bins are perceived louder or more powerful compared to the overhead speakers, I will need to balance this in the mastering stage by knocking a few decibels off the lower frequencies of the tracks. As well as this we played the songs in comparison with the other material the music interface had entered in to the playlist to grasp an idea of how much louder commercial tracks were compared to mine. The reason for this was that many average listeners perceive louder music as being better due to the increased frequencies that our ears detect from louder music, so to have your music as the quietest song in the playlist would be considered commercial death. The theory of the Loudness Wars will be covered in detail in a later blog post when deciding on mastering strategies for the songs. While listening through my work in comparison to other commercial releases I realised that the playback volume was roughly the same throughout and upon further investigation into the  Kaleidovision music system I found that it utilises automatic gain control (AGC). This is an application that uses loudness normalisation algorithms to analyse songs in the playlist and play all of the music back at a similar volume through measuring the average peaks throughout songs and bringing them to the same decibel value. The point of loudness normalisation within commercial spaces like the Reserve Lounge is to create a consistent and pleasurable listening experience. This meant that in the mastering stage I would be able to master the songs to feature a wide dynamic range, rather than sacrificing dynamic range for loudness. Once again this is something that will be covered in more detail later on.

With regards to Johns feelings on my work so far, he was extremely impressed. His only negative comment was that the songs didn’t sound quite as big and professional as other commercial releases featured on the playlist. As John wasn’t musically minded I felt it was necessary to explain the next steps of the production of the songs and the mastering stage. I explained that the point of mastering was to make these songs sound big, polished and professional and that the next time he heard my work he would be amazed at how much of a difference the mastering stage makes. The next stage of production was adding some finishing touches and final mixing of the songs and then finally the mastering stage to complete the product. Following this will be the testing stage, where the final product will be played to selected ‘average listeners’ and they will be asked to document their emotions before and after the music has been played. Following this will be my final client meeting and delivery of the product to my client.

Today was my chance to show my client what i was really capable of when given a brief to work from as I entered my 3rd client meeting with John. After explaining some of the research I had found and used in the creation of the project we went up to the ‘Reserve Lounge’ so i could play him one of the completed tracks. This was fortunate as this allowed me to assess the dynamic qualities of the room and the sound system and how they reacted to my music. Upon playing the song to John I instantly realised that the lower bass frequencies were slightly too prominent on this particular system. This was due to a pre-set EQ the kaleidovision system featured to boost the bass frequencies of all music played through the interface in an attempt to improve the listening experience of the customers. Although a more musically in tune pair of ears like my own was able to notice this, John did not however.

After the music had finished playing, John seemed pleased and congratulated me on my work so far. “Its nice to finally hear music that actually suits the room”. Unfortunately as John is not from a musical background as such he could not give me a technical critique of my work so far. However the fact that he was pleased with the product as a ‘regular’ music listener, that was all the praise i needed. He also said that as long as the other two songs are finished of a similar quality he will be more than happy to use the music within the room in the future. Although the praise from my client was much appreciated It did make me realise that i would have to look into the business and legal side of him using my music in a public space. This was actually very helpful as i now have a new avenue to direct my research towards. We scheduled our next meeting for Monday 31st March where I hope to have all of the songs nearer a completed stage, ready to show my client and then begin the testing stages.

Today I attended my second client meeting of the project with John to discuss the details of the rooms sound system and how this could affect the final product as well as a discussion of the projects context and how this fits within the business model. The sound set up of the ‘Reserve Lounge’ is particularly important as understanding its parameters will allow me to evaluate its limitations and how this affects the product. Also by understanding the context of the assignment I will be able to apply specific techniques to achieve a professional product within this context. After speaking to John I have discovered that the ‘Reserve Lounge’ features a stereo sound system installed by Kaleidovision, a company specialising in digital installations for retail spaces.

The installation consists of 4 JBL 12 inch speakers hanging from the ceiling at each corner of the room accompanied by 2 JBL sub-woofers to the left and right sides in the centre of the room, all linked to a digital Kaleidovision system running as an interface on the ground floor of the club where songs can be added, changed and put into playlists depending on the time of night and the atmosphere needed to extend the amount of time the customer spends within the VIP room.

Also within our last meeting there was some speculation of the context of the project. I needed to ensure exactly what John wanted from the product, whether it was an actual sound installation, including various pitches and frequencies made to effect the human mind directly to ensure they spent longer in the room or whether he wanted 3 musical ‘songs’ that helped create a fitting atmosphere for the room. After explaining the difference between the two John decided it was more appropriate to have a product that featured 3 musical songs but including some underlying elements of musical psychology  to attempt to affect the customers mind subconsciously.

Based on this meeting i was able to draw some more objectives in terms of research over the coming weeks. I must begin researching into music psychology to understand exactly what will ensure the customers stay within the room. My key research sources for this particular subject will include: ‘Mystic Chords: Mysticism and Psychology in popular music’ and ‘The Oxford Handbook of music Psychology’ as well as looking at relevant newspaper articles and internet sources. I must also research into the possible limitations of the sound system within the “Reserve Lounge’ as this could have a detrimental effect on my final product and the way it is ‘consumed’ by the rooms customers.

Yesterday I visited Home Nightclub and met with its owner to partake in our first official meeting to discuss exactly what he wanted the musical pieces to include, their genre and the effect he wanted the music to have on customers.

We first discussed the genre of the intended musical pieces. John had a very set idea on how he wanted the music to sound, he wanted 3 purely instrumental tracks sharing a genre combination of ‘ambient’ and ‘downtempo’ possibly with some jazz influences thrown in for good measure. I explained to John that simply combining genre’s isn’t as easy as he’s made it out to be, i takes a lot of time and research into both genres to understand what makes each unique and what sections of the genre can be used for collaboration. Despite this I decided i wanted to try it as researching into various genre’s interested me greatly and felt with enough research i could back up my creative choices within the final product. For the majority of the tracks John wanted an electronic rhythm section, meaning the use of sampled drums and synth bass as he believed that acoustic instruments would not give the correct atmosphere. He expressed that any instrumental choices on top of the rhythm section was completely at my own discretion, which was perfectly fine with me as it gave me more creative freedom. John finally expressed that the purpose of these pieces of music would not only encourage the rooms current customers to stay within its walls longer but also entice new customers to enter upon hearing the music while walking past the room on the way to another floor. This gave me the perfect opportunity to research and examine how each of the different genres and styles have various effects on the human mind and the emotions they could incur.

Although my meeting with John was only 20 minutes long due to his hectic schedule I felt it was extremely informative and gave me a solid base to begin my research into the mechanics of the product its self. I now feel ready to draw up a plan and timescale for my intended progression on a week by week basis.

My notes for the meeting can be found on the ‘Supporting materials’ section of my blog. Below are some of the songs the client gave me as reference material and a guide as to how he wanted his music to sound:

Reference Material: Audio Project 2