RNC Christmas X Factor Jingle

In the session today, as a team we had to make ideas for the RNC christmas X Factor jingle.
We were using 3 different pieces of equipment, the mack with garrageband, a mixing desk and the middy controller.
First, we started to work on a good drum beat, then, we recorded the beat once we had an idea planned.
The next step, was to work on some kind of a background sound to make the jingle more different. Once we had the background sound, we decited to work on the lead for the jingle, this again was fun to think of as we were trying out new and different things. Then, once we got the lead, we were working on the pianoe part for the jingle, this was more difficult as were using an 8 key controler.
However, we've managed to come up with a final idea, after doing some mixing and the final touches, we saved the jingle as a possible suggestion.
Our next plan is to show this to the group and get their opinions, also work on more ideas.

Mixing the RNC Jingle with Soundforge

For the past few weeks in the Music Technology unit, as a team, we've been working on a jingle for RNC Radio, using different types of software and equipment.
After making the jingle soundtrack, and the vocal parts, it was time to mix it all up to have a possible jingle idea. For this we used a software called Soundforge Pro 10.0. A professional audio editing software.
This software is really good for people with sight loss, as it's accessible with lots of it's operations not requireing the use of JAWS. The only functions that JAWS operates with are the menu and mixing functions.
this week, we were given the different audio parts to our jingle, our task was to mix it all up and to have a possible mixed jingle idea by the end of the session.
As I was exploring different sound affects that I was able to use to help me mix and creata a jingle, I came up with a few ideas. My first idea wasn't good as the timing was a constant issue, so I decided to think of another more creative idea which may not feature as many timing issues. At the end of the session, I've managed to come up with an idea, however, due to issues with JAWS, I wasn't able to do a final version of my idea. However, I will try to put it together next time and have a listen to hear how it sounds, and if it's actually a good idea.

Exploring a radio programme: Clips

Today I was working on my Exploring A Radio Programme Presentation.
I was looking at audio clips I've managed to download. So that I can choose the best clip to use in my presentation.
I've decided to go for the archive clip of JK and Joel's Official Chart countdown from June 2007. Then I edited the clip in soundforge.

Exploring a radio programme: The Running Order

I'm still working on my presentation for my Exploring a Radio programme part of my coursework.
The aspect of the show I was looking at today, is the running order of the show, and here it is:

The Official Chart Running Order

 

The show starts with a short introduction from the presenter, introducing themselves.

Then the show features the top 3 tracks as revealed on the Official Chart Update.

This is then followed by the countdown of the UK top 40.

First, are the tracks 40-11.

Then the short collection of this week’s number one contenders is played.

The show then changes it’s format, playing all the tracks in the top 10 together with the videos.

Usually during the live video top 10, there will be the short countdown of the album chart, + a live guest in the studio if possible, or a pre recorded video chat with the artist.

 

Chapel Recording session 11th November 2013

For our Chapel recording session this week, we were split into 2 bands, our task was to record 2 theme tunes. The task for my band was to record a theme tune for the RNC Open Mike Night.
At first, we started working on an idea of the tune we can work, experimenting with different ideas and combinations. We used a piano, set of drums and guitar. Me and another member of the team were moved to the control room of the studio, mean wile the other members of the team were practising different ideas in the recording studio.
After the team came up with an idea, and worked on it, they would tell me to record it. Then after the recording the whole team would get together and listen to the idea, and decide if they want another take in order to make the best decision, or if this idea should be continued.
At the end of the session, we've managed to come up with 2 possible theme tune ideas, one of them was decided on, with the other one, the team decided on another take next session before making the final decision.

Exploring A Radio Programme Presentation update Friday 15th November 2013

Today I was once again working on my Exploring A Radio Programme presentation. I was researching the history of The Official Chart, including the presenters, dates, and the constantly changing format of the show.
I've discovered that the format of The Chart Show wasn't always the same, it was constantly changing and developing throughout the years.
I found that the first ever presenter of the chart show, Alan Freeman was doing the chart show from the 1st October 1967 till 24th September 1972. The show was back then called Pick Of The Pops, it's format was to play all the new entries between 30 and 21, then the full top 20

Exploring A Radio Programme: My programme choice and possible presentation resources

After the radio station presentation that I did on radio 1, now my next task is to explore and annalise a radio programme. I've decided to pick the programme that puts 2 of my biggest interests together, music and radio. I've chosen The Official Chart on BBC Radio 1.
I've so far managed to find some audio resources online, the links to the videos can be found below, together with what video or audio resource it is:

The old Official chart radio bed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3cKIzSho2k

The current Official Chart radi ob3ed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpmBy62xLrk

The Official Chart video top 10 jingle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhMnkx5rkI

These are the possible audio resourses I will use in my presentation about Radio 1's Official chart after they're edited to only leave the relevant sections. Also I'll get the list of the official charts presenters and how the Official Chart changed throughout the years since 1967.
This presentation will also be uploaded on the blog as a video recording.

Exploring A Radio Station: My Findings

Throughout the last few weeks, I've been working on my exploring a radio station presentation. My radio station is BBC Radio 1.
Here is what I've managed to research from the internet and my own knowledge of the station:

Exploring a radio station

 

BBC Radio 1

 

BBC Radio 1 was established in 1967 together with BBC Radio 2.

The station was established as a successor to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and entertainment shows since 1945.

Radio 1 was launched at 7am on Saturday 30^th September 1967.

The first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1 was Tony Blackburn, whose cheery style was first heard on Radio Caroline and Radio London.

His style won him the prime slot on what became known as The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, however, its original title was Disc Delivery, but Blackburn himself referred to it as “The Tony Blackburn Show”

The first words on radio 1 were: “… and, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1”

The first complete record played on Radio 1 was “Flowers in the Rain” by The Move.

 

Radio 1 Programmes

Radio 1 has a very wide range of presenters and programmes.

All the Radio 1 programmes are in some way based on music, as this is a current music radio station. However, a huge range of programmes on Radio 1, especially on daytime radio, is based within the entertainment zone.

Radio 1 also has a range of specialist music programmes, for example, the Rock Show with Daniel P Carter, or the BBC introducing shows with Jen Long or Huw Stephens. These shows allow people who want to put their music out there to the listeners to be heard on national radio.

Radio 1 also has specialist new music programmes like the Zane Lowe show where Zane showcases the freshest music around from big names like Jay-Z, Eminem and much, much more.

Apart from general new music, BBC Radio 1 also has specialist new dance music shows as a part of 12 hours non-stop dance starting on Friday at 7pm.

Lots of radio 1 programmes include interviews not only with big names in the music industry, but also with big names from the world of entertainment, film and TV. Also shows like Greg James, Scott Mills, The Matt Edmondson show and the Radio 1 Breakfast show, include lots of entertainment features, such as Call or Delete and Innuendo Bingo.

In Summary, radio 1’s programmes are mainly based on new and upcoming music and on some radio shows entertainment.

 

Radio 1 Audience profile

Radio 1’s official audience target market is young people aged 15-29. However, lots of radio 1 content could suggest that Radio 1 aims to cater for listeners not as old as 29 but younger.

Radio 1’s age range of target market used to go over 29, however, last year a review into radio 1 has enforced some changes to the target age range, and in affect to radio 1’s presenters.

However, Radio 1 is a perfect station for people who like new and upcoming music, and these people are not always matching the desired age range, but still help radio 1’s listening figures.

As for general target audience, BBC Radio 1 is for people who like new and upcoming music, and entertainment.

 

Radio 1 Audience figures

TSA:

This radio station broadcast to a total survey area of 53,205,000 adults (aged 15+).

Reach:

It was listened to by 10,825,000 people (20.%) each week.

Hours:

Each listener tuned in for 6.3 hours per week - a total of 67,899,000.

Share:

In its area, it had a 6.6% market share.

 

 

Production Processes

All radio 1 shows go out live on FM, Digital, TV and online. However, the contents of some radio shows may be pre-recorded. This usually happens in cases of interviews or outside features. Radio 1 also has live sessions from different artists; however, some sessions are also pre-recorded. But the majority of contents broadcast by Radio 1 are live.

Lots of interviews, especially with big names, like the Zane Lowe interviews with Kanye West and Jay-Z this year, are also pre-recorded since the artists may not have time to do a live interview.

Another reason for some interviews to be pre-recorded, is that when some artists, mostly with a large fan base come to radio 1, the fans course trouble outside radio 1, sometimes forcing roads around Radio 1 to be closed off.  

My video presentation on radio 1 will be uploaded to the blog as soon as possible.

Voice recording session Monday 21st October 2013

Yesterday, different to the usual weekly chapel session, I was given a very different task to do. I was told to take part in recording a voice introduction.
I was recording someone introducing a puppet theatre company at a festival. The voice clip was very short, so the recording procedure itself wasn't very complicated or long.
As for the technical aspect, the setting up required more time and I did experienced technical problems.
First, I had to set up a mike stand, together with a condenser microphone. I also had to use something called a pop shield, which when someone says something like "pop" the shield will prevent from the sound of the words being heard too loud through the speakers and in the recording.
Then, it was the time to test the communication between the control room and the recording studio, I was given a set of headphones, when someone was talking to me from the control room, I was told to check the quality of the sound in the headphones.  I did experience problems hearing what was spoken from the control room, so I decided to try another headset, however, this didn't work, and I had to try further 2 headsets. After trying all headphones that I had available, and none of them had a full sound quality, I was forsed to go with the flo and use one of the headsets despite the distortion in the sound coming from the control room.
However, the recording went without any problems at all, after the levels were set, the recording started, it all went fine, and the person who was being recorded was satisfied with the recording.

Exploring A Radio Station Friday 18th October 2013

In my least media session, we started to put together our first assessed project, our presentation of a radio station profile. The task is to:
Select a radio station
Research it
Find background information
Look at it's programmes in detail, including genre.
Research it's production procedures
Research the audience profile + listening figures.
The station I chose to research is BBC Radio 1, here are some interesting historical facts I've managed to find out about the station:

BBC Radio 1 was established in 1967 together with BBC Radio 2.

The station was established as a successer to the BBC Light Programme, which had broadcast popular music and entertainment shows since 1945.

Radio 1 was launched at 7am on Saturday 30^th September 1967.

The first DJ to broadcast on Radio 1 was Tony Blackburn, who’s cheery style was first heard on Radio Caroline and Radio London.

His style won him the prime slot on what became known as The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, however, it’s original title was Disc Delivery,  but Blackburn himself refered to it as “The Tony Blackburn Show”

The first words on radio 1 were: “… and, good morning everyone. Welcome to the exciting new sound of Radio 1”

The first complete record played on Radio 1 was “Flowers In The Rain” by The Move.

This project is spread across a fiew weeks, with the final presentation taking place on the 8th of November, this video presentation will be also uploaded on this blog, together with all the interesting information I manage to find.

Chapel Session for Monday 14th October 2013

Yesterday I had another great chapel session with the media team. It was really interesting, the artists we had performing this time were completely different compared to Richard Watson, who performed in the chapel couple of weeks ago.
The Selurians was the band that we were recording in the chapel this time. This bad was a rock band, so it did involved a lot more microphones and instruments being set up. At the start, we were listening to the band practising, then it came to recording the session.
 The session however wasn't as easy to record as the team expected. Despite the band sounding confident about their material, when it came to the session, the band was very disorganised.  At many times, they stopped in the middle of recording, mostly due to the timing being wrong.
The first song, due to the lack of organisation, needed 9 takes.
The second song was much better, there were only 4 takes after the band was satisfied, however, lack of organisation was also there.
But over all, the band's songs were really good. If not the organisation problems, this would've been a perfect chapel session.
But the band was great, and I would love to have another session with them.

Lesson summary for Friday 11th October

Today in the lesson, we were split into groups, and were told to research a radio programme of our choice.
My group decided to research The Radio 1 Breakfast Show.
My task was to research and put together the profile for the current radio 1 Breakfast Show presenter, Nick Grimshaw. Here's what I found:

Nick Grimshaw radio profile

 

Nick Grimshaw’s first time in radio, was in BBC Radio 1.

He joined radio 1 in September 2007.

He presented Switch with his friend and fello DJ, Annie Mac.

From August 2008 to May 2009 Nick Grimshaw hosted the weekend breakfast show.

On the 1^st of June 2009, Nick Grimshaw started his 10 till midnight slot. Following the departure of Colin Murray.

Call Or Delete, one of the features of Nick’s 10 till Midnight show, was then taken forward to the Breakfast show.

From 2010-2012 Nick Grimshaw was the main stand-in presenter for Scott Mills, now he’s been replaced by Huw Stephens.

On the 11^th July 2012, it was announced that Nick Grimshaw is to take over from Chris Moyles to present the radio 1 breakfast show.

Nick Grimshaw’s first ever breakfast show was on the 24^th Of September 2012.

In November 2012 Nick was criticised by Magic Radio presenter Neil Fox for comments he made about Radio 1's decision to omit Robbie Williams’s  Candy from it’s A List playlist, due to that Robbie was apparently too old for the station’s target audience.

Not long after that, Nick Grimshaw was once again in the papers, as it was claimed that he refused to promote Rihanna’s Unappologetic album due to that she canceled an interview with him. This claim Nick Grimshaw later denied, noting that his snub was intended to be "tongue in cheek".

The group also looked at the show structure, listening figures and the target audience.

 

 

Media Institution Case Study

Media Institution case study

 

My media institution: BBC Radio

 

Description

BBC radio services started in 1922.

They were licensed by the government’s general post office.

 

 

Who owns it

The BBC is owned by the public who pay for BBC’s products and services.

 

List the products that the institution produces

BBC Radio produces many products.

Podcasts: free downloads of certain shows available online.

iPlayer catch up service: Allowing people to catch up on BBC TV and Radio programmes for 7 days after the programme was originally shown on TV or radio.

BBC radio also offers a wide range of Local radio stations.

BBC also offers a world wide news station, BBC World Service.

However, the main product that BBC Radio offers, are hundreds of radio programmes. BBC has programmes from all different genres, including, music, drama, entertainment , comedy, sport and much, much more. The programmes are spread across many BBC stations, concentrating on age. For example, radio 1 is famous for it’s  new music shows, including the Zane Lowe show, featuring upcoming future hits, and interviews with big names. Including Jay-Z, Kanye West and Eminem.

BBC’s radio stations include:

BBC Radio 1

BBC 1Xtra

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4Xtra

BBC 5 Live

BBC 5 Live Sports Xtra

BBC 6 Music

BBC Asian Network

BBC World Service.

BBC also offer a wide range of local radio, including:

BBC Scotland

BBC Three Counties

BBC Oxford

BBC Barkshire

 

 

 

Usefull links:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

List competitors of the institution

Competitors of BBC radio are other radio stations, mostly commercial radio stations, and commercial local radio stations.

BBC radio’s competitors are also stations from all over the world.

 

Radio Analysis

In our recent media session on Friday, we were talking about different types of radio stations, and radio shows that we listen to. Also talking about the different target markets of our favourite stations and shows. We also discussed the matters of gender, both in case of the audience and in case of radio presenters, and how does gender influence the audience and the show itself.
Then the next task was to listen to our favourite station for 30 minutes, then discuss with the group what we've been listening to. Including our opinion of what target market we think the station is aiming towards.

Chapel Session with Richard Watson

Our most recent session in the chapel, was with Richard Watson. He plays the piano, and sings his own songs.
However, instead of the students doing the recording and setting up of the session, we were told to watch what the media team was doing, so that we can see how it's done and learn from it, so that we as a team can do the same job next time.
The first song that the team recorded was called I know precisely, while recording this track, several takes were needed in order to make the performance sound as professional and as good as possible. Also for the artist to be satisfied with the quality of the performance. The media team was in constant contact with Richard throughout his session, and monitoring every piece of equipment, from video to audio and recording.
The next song was called I'll do it tomorrow, this song had to had 8 takes, until Richard and the media team were satisfied with the performance.

The last song that we watched the media team record, was called Straight To Video, this was the last song that we saw the media team work on.
It was a good session, as it gave me a chance to see how the media team records a session with an artist, and what's involved within the process. This gave me and the rest of the students at taste of what we'll have to do on the next session.

Introduction to my blog

I've had an introduction to the Chaple sessions, and examples of the different sessions.
These sessions usually consist of live music bands, with visuals for web broadcast.
We've heard examples of different sessions done in the chaple in the past. I heard different styles of music, each track was different, and unique in it's own way.
Some examples included: Rock, Folk and acoustic sessions.
Then there was the introduction to the course, which included me having to take part in the different production procedures when recording and setting up the chaple sessions.
I'll have to try two production roles, learn the skills required within each role, and evaluate my progress through this blog.