Blog 26: Senior Project Reflection

Senior Project Reflection

1) The thing that i would be most proud of during my 2 hour presentation would have to be that of the room setup that i had in my head turn into reality. I enjoyed how all the panels came together and were so well done with the help of my friends. I enjoyed seeing the initial reaction on the people's faces as they walked into my presentation.

2a) AP

2b) AP

3) My whole senior project was the thing that worked for me because it gave me various directions to go and also gave me a lot of liberty as to what i could do, from my room setup to both of my independent components.

4) If i had to go back and change anything I would have probably prepared and started doing my whole room setup up earlier since I started doing it a couple days before and did not realize it would take so much time to make all the props for my room.

5) My senior project has really made me aware of all the different areas within EDM that exist such as graphic designers, performers, artists, and of course the DJ's themselves. As i constantly learned more through the means of my research checks and Independent Components I got closer and first hand look as to what goes on into coordinating these events. When i would go to these events such as those that i went into with my second independent component i would become aware of some things that were done properly based on my research. During the next couple of years i plan to use the knowledge i have gained but also acquire new knowledge and go into the EDM business as much as i can.

Diplo's 6 HOUR Summer Playlist

Superstar DJ and head of the record label "Mad Decent", Diplo, has just recently released on his soundcloud  a 6 hour mix meant to be for the summer. This track offers various songs from the 90's up till songs if this year. This is a playlist to listen to, maybe not on the same day but definitely has an uplifting vibe that is sure to get you ready for the summer! This playlist offers songs from Major Lazer, GTA, A-Trak, Flosstradamus, Daft Punk, Miguel, Baueer, Kendrick Lamar, Diplo himself, and many more. This 6 hour summer playlist is not all EDM but that should be no surprise from Diplo. Diplo has collaborated with various artist such as Snoop Lion and Bruno Mars. Take a listen below.

Skrillex in Mexico After Movie

Skrillex in Mexico After Movie

Skrillex is a world known superstar DJ who is constantly on tour for the past couple years. This past December Skrillex had his mothership tour in different cities across Mexico. This tour featured stops in Monterrey, Mexico City, Puebla, and Guadalajara. Skrillex teamed up his mothership team which consisted of the artists Nadastorm, 12th Planet, and Zedd. This after movie gives you a small glimpse of the way these superstar DJs travel as well as the fan base of EDM in Mexico. This video is lengthy but definitely one to watch.

Blog 25: Mentorship

Mentorship

Literal:

• Mentorship Log
• Bryant Castaneda : (626) 506-9303

Interpretive:

• I gained a lot over the course of the year with my mentor. The most important thing i gained from my mentor would have to be that of all of the things needed in order to produce a song. I gained so much valuable information on how to produce your own songs over the course of the year. I gained so much information that i can now use when i start making my own songs and edits. Not only that but also all the experience and first hand experience he has from DJing helped me see how things have to be done and all the preparation that goes days before the event and the things that have to be done that same day of the event. I learned things can be hectic but in the end can be rewarding especially if you enjoy doing what you do.

Applied:

• The type of music played at Electronic Dance Music events plays a huge prominent role in the success of the majority of EDM events. I constantly witnessed how my mentor had to keep changing and catering to new sounds and the new styles that came out with bigger name artists. I saw how much preparation and promotion is taken and needed in order to ensure success of the night, especially when I went to one of his gigs. Artist play this huge role of attracting people to the event, without them the night would more or less fail. The DJ's/ Artists are defined and known for their music, just like my mentor they have a set of people who follow them and play a huge part in ensuring the success of the event.

Full Stream of Daft Punk's New Album

Daft Punk Stream Full Album

After much wait Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is to come out May 21st. Daft Punk have offered something unexpected which was to stream their whole album free via iTunes. This came as a shocker to everyone and is definitely an album worth listening to. Daft Punk also offered an exclusive video of their new song alongside the video, both Daft Punk members appeared as they unveiled their new album in it's vinyl version. The vinyl copy of Random Access memories offers pictures of their own clear piano synthesizers and a deeper look into their helmets.You can stream their album below and also watch the video.

Daft Punk Album Live Stream - Click Here

Random Access Memories Unboxed

Daft Punk Interview on BBC's Radio 1 with Pete Tong

New Daft Punk Interview

A week ago Pete Tong's radio show on BBC Radio 1 had an exclusive interview with Daft Punk. Pete Tong's radio show is one of the most listened to and known within the EDM scene so having Daft Punk on the air with him was something else. Daft Punk talks about the process that they took in order to create their new album Random Access Memories. Daft Punk also talks about how this is their first actual first studio album and how it was the record that they wanted to do and create. Take a listen to this interview yourself below and come up with your own thoughts about what they say. It truly is something else to hear Daft Punk after being inactive for so long.

Blog 24: Exit Interview Questions

Exit Interview Questions

1) My essential question is what makes a successful EDM event? The best answer to my essential question is to successfully create an eye-appealing and informative flyer that will inform your audience about your event. This is my best answer because a flyer is a simple, cost-efficient, and appealing way to inform your audience about your event. A flyer is a simple way to give all the information about your event that will let you directly connect with you audience. A flyer gives out information such as that of the venue location, the artists that will be attending your event, promoters, prices, and specials. Flyers also appeal to audience since it gives fans a way to directly connect with the event since it offers something tangible that fan can keep over the course of the years as a memory item. Creating a flyer also offers you a way to connect with a mass number of people since there are other types of flyer that are created in order to promote online through social media sites or online websites.

2) I have been into Electronic Dance Music events over the course of 4 years and waiting until the age of 18 to be able to attend a big scale EDM event since they are only 18+ since 2010 after the death of a 15 year old at the Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles. Although I did not know it at the moment my first answer would directly derive from there as experience. Over the course of the years I would go out and collect flyers for different types of events that had all different types of information on it. Each flyer I kept was different and unique in their own way that always had information from venue location to artists and date of the events. As I developed more into my senior project I began to read articles and the first article that demonstrated the importance was an article title "How to promote your events and throw your own events" this was a 6 article series which first opened the doors in the direction that I needed to go in to. Article series #4 was the article that stated the importance of a flyer and introduced me to the Information Hierarchy which is the basic concept of making the most important items that will bring in the most people into your event the biggest thing on your flyer and then making the other items smaller and smaller depending on how important the information is. After learning this information i started playing closer attention to flyers that would be handed out to me as well as those of the flyers that i already had. It wasn't until then that i also realized how flyers are also promoted on social media sites such as Facebook in order to capture a broader audience. This made me realize that flyers are virtually everywhere online and people don't really see or notice how much of an impact they have on how successful and event is.

3) One of the first problems that I encountered at the beginning of the year was that of completely shifting my focus from producing Electronic Dance Music to EDM events. During the beginning of the year I came with the intention of being able to produce music and songs so that by the end of the year i would be able to send well produced demos to record labels and hopefully be able to become signed by a record label. Things took a turn once I was told that i could not be able to present on how to produce a song for 2 hours. That's when I shifted my focus away from the producing aspect to Electronic Dance Music as a whole. I then learned some of the important things that are needed and that are done in order to create an Electronic Dance Music event. They were things that I had not necessarily known attracted me the way they did to these events. 

Another problem that I encountered was that of being able to successfully do my second independent component. After I had derived my first answer, which was that of creating and informative and eye-appealing flyer, i wanted to go further in with this answer. I wanted to promote and become a promoter for events in order to see how you had to do things and how things had to be done in order to give people out flyers. At first it seemed like an easy task such as just going and asking to join to promote for their events but later found that these types of events are a small batch people that already have their network built within them and it's really hard to get into. I had to seek out people who had previously been in these networks or were part of them and that when i remembered about Joshua Salas who two years ago was part of a promotion team for a Club called Matinee. I then found out that he has also become a resident DJ for that club and that's when i started to find a way to get a hold of him so that he could help me with my independent component 2. I got a hold of him and he got me to promote for events that he would DJ for. He was the one who showed me how to properly promote using flyers, areas of interests to go, and how to greet people. I promote for a number of events and on the last event I helped promote for which was a house party, I actually got the opportunity to DJ. 

4) The first important source that helped me answer my essential question was that of the 6 series article which was how to promote and throw your own parties since it was the first articles that helped me open the doors and guide me in the direction that i needed to go after shifting focus from producing Electronic Dance Music to EDM. Without this series of article i would have probably not known which direction to head in since i didn't know where to go at the time. 

The second most important source that i had to be my fourth interview with Joshua Salas. I had decided to interview Josh Salas for my fourth interview since he is in the EDM scene a lot as a DJ and promoter. He has also had many first hand encounters with the EDM scene having attended many EDM events over the course of the years. Throughout my interview he gave me the reassurance of everything I had come up with over the course of the year. It made me feel sure about my whole senior project and the answers i had derived over the course of the years. 

5) Over the course of the year I have learned many things and my final product would have to be that of experimenting in order to figure out what works and what doesn't as well as being able to constantly innovate. During my first independent component i actually became aware of this since my first independent component was producing a song and throughout the whole time that i was making the song i was constantly changing sounds around to see which ones worked best and which ones didn't. I also saw this during my second independent component when I had to promote and hand out flyers out in the street since i had to determine what places worked best for handing out flyers and what places didn't as well as figuring out what time of the day i had to go to in order to hit the target audience that would most likely attend the event. This is constantly done with EDM since there are always new sounds and songs coming out and it's all about experimenting and innovating in order to get the most sells of your songs, in order to distinguish yourself from others, and in order to make your event more attractive and well known than that of others. Things are constantly innovating and new things are constantly coming out throughout the world and EDM ins't an exception.

Blog 23: 2014 Interview

1) I interviewed Carlos Cerrillos and he is in Mrs Edward's house.

2) Something computer programming related and robotics related and that's because I am interested in it and i already kinda already know how to do some of the stuff and i also want it to be my future career path.

3) Well there is proffesor that i already found that works up at Cal Poly that needs help working on programs analyzing data so i'll probably go with that but I'm not sure if i'll stick with it and try to find someone else at JPL or something.

4) Well i hope to see more of the two hour presentation since im not really sure what is required from it and i actually heard that you dont really present for two hours, so i want to just see more about it.

5) Q: Is it hard? a lot of work?
A: It can be stressful and it's a lot of work but if you get everything done on time then you'll be good since at the end everything comes together so you're not doing everything at once at the very end.

Q: Is the work spread out?
A: All the work is pretty spread out so you actually have time to do them but in between those projects you have other things to focus on within your core and you have to be able to manage your time.

Q:What is the average time frame for each project?
A: Yea for the most part but you have other things that can go longer such as that of independent components which can go on for two months or so and you always have time but you just have to make sure to do them.

EDC Las Vegas 2013

Lineup for EDC Las Vegas 2013 Announced

EDC is a little over a month away and is by far one of the most anticipated events that occurs this summer. EDC tickets as of last week have officially been sold out and it was only a matter of time when Insomniac Events would announce the artist lineup. A couple of days ago Pasquale Rotella and Insomniac Events both announced this years lineup to the festival with their new official flyer. EDC Las Vegas is to take place across a three day span from June 21- June 23 and from Dusk to Dawn. Some of these years artist include that of Above & Beyond, Afrojack, Armin Van Buuren, Benny Benassi, The Bloody Beetroots, Clockwork, Dash Berlin, Deniz Koyu, Dirty South, Dog Blood, Knife Party, Krewella, Laidback Luke, Madeon, Major Lazer, Morgan Page, Nicky Romero, Porter Robinson, Steve Angello, Thomas Gold, Tiesto, W&W, and many other artists. This years EDC is to sponsor a stage organized by the event promoters of HARD Summer. This years EDC lineup is showing a lot of upcoming DJ's such as that of Carnage and Borgore. EDC is a great platform and event for these DJ's to liftoff their career. See the official flyer below.

Mad Decent Block Party

Mad Decent Block Party

 The Made Decent Block Party is a block party held across different cities across the United States that offers various artist under the made decent record label. The announcement about the Mad Decent Block party was made a couple weeks back and now the lineup as well as the cities to these years Mad Decent Block Party locations have been announced. This years Mad Decent Block Party looks better than any of the previous years offering artist such as Mexico's natives 3Ball Mty, Baauer, Clockwork, Destructo, Dillon Francis, Diplo, Etc! Etc!, Flosstradumus, Grandtheft (GTA), Herobust, Keys N Krates, Major Lazer, The Partysquad, Torro Torro, Zeds Dead among others! The big surprise of the artist lineup had to be that of Jack U. At what first seemed to be a forth-upcoming DJ turned out to be a new duo collaboration between the two superstar DJ's Diplo and Skrillex. The Mad Decent Block Party is definitely one to attend this summer! Watch the official trailer below.

You can also check out the official flyer for the Los Angeles Show Below

Blog 22: 3-Column Chart

Final 3 Column Chart

My Final 3 Column Chart

Blog 21: Independent Component 2

Independent Component 2

Literal:

A) I, Jorge Estrada, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

B) The person who helped me complete my Independent Component was a former I-poly Student. His name is Josh Salas and goes by his DJ name Vitus. He is the one who mostly helped me complete my independent component alongside with his friend and DJ as well, DJ Essential. They both produce music and  promoted before they started Djing so they knew what to do and also had the resources to help me complete my Independent Component.

C) 30 Hours

D) During my Independent Component I took on the task of learning how to promote. The people that i went to in order to get help because they had the knowledge and experience of promoting. They were the people who also had the resources I needed since they are in the EDM scene. For my independent component I promoted for them and handed out various flyers to people from different venues doing what they told me. I would have to go to different locations that would accept the flyers. I would have to ask stores beforehand if i could leave flyer for the event in many cases they would say yes and in other they would not allow me to. I would also have to make sure that I chose a location that had people that might want to attend the event that i was promoting. I had to make sure to be friendly and inviting so that people would actually take the time to read the flyers. I would also come across people who were rude or would not even take me into consideration. I had to learn early on not to let the rejection of people get to me and just continue promoting with other people who actually would take the time to read the flyer. In some cases I would only hand a few flyers out since there weren't many people at that location and it had to do with the time period as well. The time that you hand out the flyers is crucial as well as the days since there are more people you can cater to in the afternoon during the weekends. These were some of the things i had to experience when promoting but there were also perks to it since i would be able to attend the events i promoted for, for free. I would spend time with the DJ's in the back as well since i would be around Vitus and Essential. It was a great overall experience. 

Interpretive: 

 This is a picture from the event that i had to promote. It follows the information hierarchy and has the names of Vitus and Essential who were the ones who gave me a basic understanding on how to promote.

 This is a picture of the night of the event of T.N.T where you can see Vitus and Essential DJing and that night i was able to meet up with other promoters and the other DJ's as well.

This was the night i got to DJ with Vitus for the house party i helped promote for that turned out rather well.

Applied: My independent component helped me a lot since it helped with most if not all the answers to my EQ. While promoting I paid attention to all the different designs of the flyer and some demonstrated that they had effort and work put into them, and all would follow the information hierarchy. It made me realize how big of a factor flyers played in promoting for your event. It also made me realize that you can get a cross a large amount of people if your promoters do their job correctly since promoters come from different areas and promote for their area. It helped me with my second answer with my EQ since people really paid attention to the artist that were going to perform/ DJ that night. In some cases people would discuss with me about a DJ that they really liked was going to DJ that night and that they would go out just to see that DJ perform. It showed me that the lineup for the event that night is important and can attract people from distant locations. It helped me with my third answer to my EQ since some of the flyers had themes to them and this in turn would change the whole design of the flyer and in some cases would make them look better than others. People would seem really interested in themed events since they offered something different and out of the ordinary that other events did not. It showed that if you create an event with an appealing theme, has the potential of attracting and creating a bigger interest for the people to attend. This independent component has really made me realize how little things can make a big difference in making your events a success or a failure.

New Daft Punk Commercial Premiered at Coachella

With all the hype and massive number of people attending Coachella this weekend it was a great place to give people a taste of the new Daft Punk Album: Random Access Memories. This 1:32 video commercial featured Daft Punk themselves with their guitars and bass alongside Nile Rodgers, and Pharrell Williams who are confirmed to appear on the album alongside people Panda Bear, Julian Casablancas, Todd Edwards, DJ Falcon, Chilly Gonzales, Giorgio Moroder, and Paul Williams. The video features live vocals from Pharrell Williams himself and then transitions to what seems to be the official final product which is titled "Get Lucky". You can see the video yourself below.

Daft Punk Skrillex Remix by Conte

Conte Remix (Mashup)

I have never heard of this guy names Conte but after seeing this video of him creating a mashup and using visual effects with his Launchpad just completely blew my mind away. All the the work put into not only the mashup but video itself is definitely something to watch. All the dedication this guy put into it is just something else but alongside that with the track sounding good just blew me away. Conte is someone to definitely keep an eye out with a new E.P being released this spring and a tour this summer. Witness the video below.

UMF Mega Structure Potential Room Setup

UMF Mega Structure

Ultra Music Festival has a couple weeks since it happened. I watched and witnessed the live stream of one of the biggest and best events around the world. During this time span I would be thinking about a way to bring something to the whole room setup for my 2 hour presentation as well to the people who will be in the room that day. While i was watching this live stream one of the stages for UMF stood out to me as being able to slightly recreate. The stage is called the UMF Mega Structure and seems highly possible to recreate. It is gonna take a lot of work to recreate but if I can pull it off with the help of my friend it will be possible to create and will surely be something to witness. Below are pictures of the UMF Mega Structure.

Random Access Memories

Daft Punk

Daft Punk has finally come out and announced the release of their much anticipated album titled Random Access Memories. The new album is to come out on Columbia Records and feature 13 new original songs which titles have not been officially released yet until the date of release on May 21. The first clue of the new album came months ago as people who collaborated on the new album spoke of it and it wasn't official until a couple weeks back when a 15 second commercial aired on SNL over the french network and left everyone in disbelief. This soon followed with a new website launching under randomaccessmemories.com which features a clip of their new song as well as new videos titled the Collaborator Series which will surely feature all the people who were a part in the making of Daft Punk's new album. Other people who are to appear on this new album include artist such as Pharrell Williams who is to appear in 2 tracks and has made vocals for songs with Ludacris, Swedish House Mafia, and the movie Despicable Me. Until May 21 we will not be able to know a whole lot more details about the album but is sure to be a huge success. 

EDC London 2013

EDC London 2013

The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) is one of the largest raves held in the U.S. EDC has existed for more than 15 years and has seen expansion over the course of the years. EDC first held in Los Angeles was an event to attend but in 2011 saw the first year out of Los Angeles. Las Vegas became the new home of EDC that year  and for the past 2 years has been held there with 2013 being the third year and  is definitely going to be bigger than the one held last year in sin city. EDC since then has also offered various other EDC locations all, however, within the United States. Cities such as that of  Dallas, Orlando, New York, Chicago, and Puerto Rico. As one of the biggest raves in North America it was only a matter of time before EDC migrated overseas. This Friday it was first heard that in June EDC would have a new home, EDC is to now be held in London at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It was first aired on an announcement on Pete Tong's Radio 1 which is one of the most listened to radio shows in EDM. After the news was aired, the announcement was immediately confirmed by the CEO of Insomniac Events (the people behind EDC) Pasquale Rotella, the event site itself, and many other artist that will be performing there this year. The first lineup for the the first EDC London will consists of big name artist such as those of Tiesto, Avicii, Steve Angello, Alesso, Hardwell, Porter Robinson, Madeon, and many more. You can check out the trailer video for EDC London 2013 below.

Ultra Music Festival Sunday Live Stream

Ultra Music Festival officially kicked off on Friday with appearances from superstar DJ's like Afrojack and Fatboy Slim and went into its second day with the streaming of artist from 18 year old prodigy Madeon, dubstep heavy hitter Flux Pavillion and Doctor P, and the world's #4 DJ Deadmau5. The live stream of Ultra Music Festival on Saturday was definitely a huge success as more than 80,000 people tuned in to watch the live stream of this event. Tomorrow is the last day of weekend one of Ultra but will definitely not disappoint and is sure to stream big name artists once more. You can watch the live stream of the last day of weekend one of Ultra.

Ultra Music Festival Live Stream

Ultra Music Festival (UMF) may be one of the biggest EDM events held in the U.S and world. It is to take place in Miami, in less than a week from now. Ultra has announced that they will be streaming their event live and this will be their second year doing so as last year was the first time a major EDM event was streamed for the people who could not attend the event. They will be streaming certain artist each day from 1 of the various stage that they will be having. So if you want a glimpse of how massive these EDM events can result in make sure to catch the live stream of the 3-day event starting on Friday March 15-17 and also the stream of the 2nd week March 22-24.

Watch the video of the live stream announcement here.

Blog 19:Senior Project and ESLRs

Blog 19:Senior Project and ESLRs

1) I think i have most excelled in the ESLRs of being an Effective User of Technology.

2) I think I have excelled in this part of the ESLRs since my senior project mainly focuses a lot on producing Electronic Dance Music. With this being said it focuses a lot on the aspect of me figuring out how to use the program in order to produce music. It also focuses on knowing how to accurately and effectively use the program in order to produce music. You have to go out of the way in order to obtain as much knowledge in order to create a song as well as using and learning many things in order to create unique sounds that fit your style of music and create something unique that will make you stand out from other producers and ensure a higher chance of success.

3) Currently I am not working on producing my own songs but working on creating mashups and edits of already produced songs.

Blog 18

Blog 18: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #3

1) What makes a successful EDM event?

2) An artist lineup is crucial for the attendance of people to your events, especially in smaller less reputable events.

3) I have only so far been focusing on ways that major EDM events generate enough revenue, but since they are already big they have all the necessities needed to attract people. With smaller EDM events an artist lineup is always needed for people to know before the actual event takes place. Such of these would include smaller EDM events held locally within a city such as clubs held in the Avalon, where they announce the artist that will be performing that day along with ticket prices and supporting artist. They announce the few artist that will be performing in order to attract the local people to come and see them and not have to wait for major events or festivals to happen. These events are also generally offered for less than those of major events since they only have very few artist but many people that will attend as well as generating income from drinks or merchandise sold the day of the event. Such an example is that of the picture below which shows the main artist Morgan Page alongside with the supporting acts of that night.

4) The main source that helped me answer this question is that of the website Digital DJ Tips from the 6 different articles that they offered and that helped a lot with EDM events in general.

5) From here I plan to use this information and figure out how many local events and clubs do this where they actually show what artist will be performing that same day at their club in order to attract people and seeing if they sell out shows and roughly how much revenue they can generate.

Blog 17: Fourth Interview Questions

Fourth Interview Questions

1. What makes a successful EDM event?
2. What do you look for when you attend an EDM event?
3. What are some of the most common ways that you find out about these events?
4. Why would the venue where an event was being held at be important?
5. How does distance play an important factor in your attendance of an event?
6. Would you have preference of bigger events than smaller ones?
7. How would safety play a role in your experience at an event?
8. How would the reputation of an event persuade you to attend it?
9. How does an artist lineup play a role in your attendance?
10. Would an event held outdoors be better than that of one held indoors?
11. Why does genre diversity play a huge role at these events?
12. How and why is ticket pricing important?
13. How would an event in the night compare to one held in the afternoon?
14. How does a stage setup influence your decision on attending future events?
15. Would it be better to have multiple stages or to just have one big main one?
16. What would be some factors that would not make you want to re-attend an event?
17. How would waiting too long to enter an event affect your experience?
18. How big of a role would themed events play a factor in an event?
19. How does only one headliner compared to multiple ones affect your decision on investing money to attend the event.
20. Are there any other other factors prior to the ones mentioned that might affect your experience good or bad in EDM events?

2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

Blog 16: 2-Hour Meeting Answer #2

1) What makes a successful EDM event?

2) Creating a successful lifestyle/experience in order to potentially create a brand.

3) One example is that of local events or clubs that offer their select experience to their customers that always make them come. Insomniac Events is also another in which people buy tickets to the event prior to actually knowing any artists that will perform that day. A fact that I learned was that people don't usually go for the drinks, artist, or venue but for the lifestyle that you offer to them is the main reason people attend these events.

4) How to promote and throw your own parties part1 from Digitaldjtips.com was the main source that made me realize how big of a factor it was to create a lifestyle for your event.

5) I plan to continue my study of answer #2 by looking up information of different events around the world such as those held by Insomniac Events or Ultra Music Festival and research their beginnings as to how they created their lifestyle, the number of years it took, and how they grew and changed over the years in order to create the massive events they do.

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

1) For my independent component 2 I plan to promote for local clubs that are driven towards EDM in order to try and see how much promotion goes into these event.

2) My independent component will meet all 30 hours since I will be given roughly 2 weeks or more to promote for the event prior to the actual date and from what I am aware I will have to be around different areas promoting for hours handing out flyer and getting visual evidence that I did.

3) My first answer to my essential question was that of successfully promoting an event to get as many people to attend your event and with my independent component being promoting I will gain a hands on experience and see how people of the event manage these things.

Blog 14: Independent Component 1

Independent Component 1

• Literal

a) "I, Jorge Estrada, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work."

b) The source that I used a lot was that of sonicacademy.com which is a website that offers various different tutorial on producing not only to help in EDM but in other genres as well. It is a website that mostly focus on EDM, however, it offer various features such as that of the specific program that you use which can vary from Fl Studio, Logic, or Ableton which is the one I am focusing on using. The website also offers options that vary on the type of genre you want to focus on. I focused mainly on the sub-genre called Progressive House since it is the style of music that I enjoy the most and want to really create in the future. This was my main source but aside from that I also looked a various youtube videos, specifically from a youtube channel that focuses on actual EDM artist being filmed in the studio and briefing over and demonstrating how they create some of their songs and showing footage of how they do it and the different techniques that you could use and are the ones that the artist utilize themselves.

c) Digital Spreadsheet

d) During these 30 hours of work I looked at multiple videos and courses that sonicacademy.com offered and from what they showed me I created a song that I worked on and kept adding onto it and worked different days since I cannot completely do everything as fast or easily as the courses demonstrated. I plan to completely finish the song and build upon it. By the end of the school year I plan to have a song or multiple ones and get someone to lay vocals over it and upload it onto soundcloud.com and share it with people to demonstrate how far I have gotten.

• Interpretive

  During these 30 hours I produced a track that took a lot of time and effort and at this point isn't even 100% done in my opinion. A vast number of hours were actually that of looking at tutorial and videos on how to produce the certain genre and all the components that need to go into the song as well as knowing how to figure out if you need to fix something or rearrange it and knowing how to identify these items and try to fix them. I also learned that it not only matter what the person in the tutorial teaching you thinks but it also depends on what you think sounds good and will work. You want to make sure to always add your own touch and style to it.

My song

The song itself took a lot of work to accomplish. The course I took in order to complete the song was comprised of all the different elements that i would need in order to make the song. The pack included things such as the MIDI files which are basically all the notes that you are gonna use in order to create the melody. You need to load a MIDI file int the session view of the program Ableton and it will automatically give you the melody you want from that file. This MIDI file however has no audio or sound since you need to add you own sounds using either sample files or using a present from  VST plugin. Once you get the sound you want to use with your MIDI file then you will be able to tweak the sounds until you get the desired sound you want using the MIDI file notes. You can use various plugins and add different EQ's to them in order to alter the sound as much as possible and to the liking of your choice. The MIDI files are just some of the things that come with the course that i took. There were other files that were included in with this course which was that of that samples that you could use in order to make your song sounds complete. These samples were those such as drum kicks, snares, hi hats, among other melody sounds. You need to use these samples to your liking and you can alter them as much as you choose. You could also layer different samples in order to make them sound complete and in order to build a better percussion or drum kick. When you are creating a drum kick you want to make sure that you layer not only a kick sample but also some snare and hi hat on top of the drum kick in order to give it a fuller sound than just bass. When you're creating your percussion you want to make sure to make at least an 8 bar loop but alter the loop to the point where it isn't that repetative and won't bore the people who listen to your songs. When you create your main lead or melody you want to create a big enough bar loop in order to be able to layer different sounds and be able to smoothly transition it into your overall song. You want to get certain parts of the main lead notes and layer them with different sounds in order to build your track even better and in order to create a different sound as the track builds up even more. You want to make sure that the sounds you layer aren't clashing with each other and sound coherent in order to please the people who listen the song as much as you can. Layering is done by copying certain notes and adding them to a different audio or MIDI file and you paster in on there. Then you want to either get a new sample or use another preset from one of your VST plugins. Just like you use certain notes from your main melody in order to create a build up and transition the drop and main melody together you want to do the same when you are creating your break down in order to not just abruptly end the drop or main melody. You want to take the main elements of the drop out and leave only certain notes that won't make the transition noticeable. When you have your drop you want to have your whole melody transition already and add a drum kick which is present in every fourth note. This gives the song the whole club feel to it. You also want to alter your percussion and make it add to your drop. A song is usually comprised of two different drops minimum, so in order to please your audience as much as possible and not bore them the second drop should usually have another different element added onto it that the first drop did not have. This can be done by simply get certain notes from the main melody that you did not use before and pasting it onto a new audi or MIDI file and adding layering another different sound onto it. Once you have all the main components finished you want to spend a lot of time on the EQ and effects that you want to add to your sounds. These effects and EQ's will add a lot to your sounds. This is the hardest part of completing your song since it will make it come together as a whole and editing all the EQ's will make sure that none of the noises will clash or collide with each other.

• Applied

The component overall made me understand one aspect of EDM better than before and made me realize how much has to go into producing your own songs. It made me realize how competitive this field can get and that you really know what you are doing an what each parts does in order to have the capacity to create multiple songs and not go in blindly since if you do, you will get lost along the way really fast. Creating a basic song structure and from looking at the videos I was able to learn how certain sounds within songs are acquired and from that I would go back to songs that I have and can notice all the different instruments that have to be taken into consideration and added to the main melody through a method called layering where you add certain sounds to certain notes of the main melody that in most cases can really add a lot to the song and its structure overall.

Blog 13: Rough Draft of 30 Minute Presentation

30 Minute Lesson Plan (Rough Draft)

Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

 Third Interview Questions

1. What makes a successful EDM event?
2. How important is the lineup that will be present at these events?
3. How important is promotion of these events?
4. How would reputation of a certain event play an important role?
5. Is safety in these events also an important factor?
6. Would you have preference over more well known EDM events compared to that of the more unknown ones?
7. How big does the role of a venue or location play in you assisting these events?
8. How important is the issues of ticket prices?
9. Is genre diversity a major issue as to you assisting these events?
10. What other factor prior to the ones mentioned would affect your decision in attending these events?