Introduction To usic Production – Michael Yemane

Tag: Personal

  • Introduction

    Introduction

    Hi my name is Mykul/June and I’m a music producer of 5 years and visual artist of 6 years (whilst also being an intermediate vocalist, guitarist and pianist). I don’t like to have a defined music production style since I always enjoy stepping outside of my comfort zone, though genres I would describe myself with are lofi, hyperpop, digicore, shoegaze, indie rock, ambient, edm and glitch. I’m very inspired by internet aesthetics and subcultures with artists such as Quadeca, Jane Remover, Porter Robinson, EDEN and Joji being big inspirations for me in both my music and my visual style. I have released one song officially so far called 8teen and for now it serves as my artistic portfolio as it shows a very high point in both my music capabilities and visual capabilities (especially the second half of the song which is the best thing I’ve ever made in my opinion). 

    8teen by mykul

    SKILLS AUDIT

    DAW: 5 
    I am very confident in Logic Pro X, it’s what I’ve been using from the start, and I’ve become very loyal to it. 8teen is a very clear example that I know my way around the software. I also do have experience in FL Studio since I must use that sometimes in certain situations. 
     
    Recording Techniques: 4 
    My own experience alongside taking A level Music Technology makes me very confident in recording techniques. Especially as of recent I’ve been recording my vocals and guitars more than ever (my SoundCloud recently has housed many of these tracks, link below). I still feel like there are a lot more things I could learn but I believe I am confident in recording.  
     
    MIDI Sequencing/Programming: 5 
    With the list of genres I am very inspired by, MIDI is a very big part of almost all of them so understanding it was a must. Most tracks I make and put out today are very MIDI centric with a guitar, vocal or maybe even a melodica or ukelele recorded in. I’m also very confident with the MIDI transform tool in Logic using it heavily to create more interesting MIDI clips. 
     
    Sampling and Synthesis: 4 
    This year I put a heavy focus on sampling and synths. My sampling was fine before however I fell into the trap of needing everything to be unique, however now sampling has been normalised due to me understanding the process of some of my favourite songs (such as when Jane Remover broke down their album Frailty). On the other hand, my synthesis improved drastically this year, I’m very inspired by dubstep-like, growly sounds so that really pushed me to have a deeper understanding of how to create synths. I feel like I’m very close to reaching my ideal skill level in synthesis but for now I still want to improve on it. 
     
    Mixing and Effects Processing: 5 
    My mixing has also improved drastically this year, very likely due to the A Level Music Technology Component 1 and 2 submissions as well as 8teen since all 3 songs required a good mix to get a good grade/good reception. I have also mixed songs for a few friends in the past. However, effect processing is the strongest part of my musical skill set. Most sounds in my songs are just normal instruments put through insane effect racks to create very glitchy, crunchy, spectral sounds. Effect stacking in a very important part of my workflow as it very often leads to new ideas that can be used elsewhere in the song or in another song entirely (fall is a big example of this since some glitchy sounds lead to cool ideas). 
     
    Critical Listening/Analysis: 4 
    Like my mixing improvement, A Level Music Technology really forced to have a critical listening ear. Sometimes I catch myself hyper analysing every piece of my favourite songs trying to piece together how they work at all. 
     
    Collaboration/Communication: 2.5 
    This is something I really want to improve on this year. I rarely collaborate with anyone simply because I don’t like to ask. I’ve already started changing that with me now entering production events and having more collaborations lined up whilst also starting to collaborate with some long-time production friends. 
     
    Organisation/Workflow: 3.5 
    I can be insanely unorganised at times, I am a very forgetful person in general, and this can and has affected me many times before. However, this inorganization has led to a workflow pattern where ideas can morph on their own and find their own identity. Of course, sometimes I go into songs with a plan to make a certain kind of song (long day and sickrn (unreleased) are examples of this) but I find that letting songs develop on their own, birthing from a single idea, can be a much better writing device than trying to follow a script. 

    https://www.youtube.com/@CTSCSmykul
    https://soundcloud.com/ctscs

  • Reflection On This Unit

    During this unit, I have learned how to source and refer to information and use them alongside my own understandings of the material to create a piece of writing that is backed up by  numerous sources. These new skills will greatly help my practice since I can now create better piece of informative, reflective and analytical writing due to this increase in my  researching and writing skills. However, something I would like to  greatly improve in is my range of sources. Many sources throughout this piece of writing have been articles and interviews; I would like to branch out into other forms of writing to research from such  as  books,  but I understand that will take some time for me to get to grips with due to my predisposition to not like big walls of text. On the practical side, I have used many workflows that I haven’t tried before, whilst songs such as the breakcore track were relatively in my ballpark, other tracks such as the Moor Mother track were very different and cause me to think of things from a new angle which is always a fun challenge. Finally, my presenting skills did receive a boost as well, whilst I still think that my presentations had a lot to be desired and I was very critical about my performance whilst presenting, I understand again that things will get better with time and I will have more opportunities to present.  
    Overall, whilst I still believe writing and presenting are my weaker skills compared to practical music production; I think I’ve improved on my skills a lot whilst also understanding I can improve more in the future.