Divine Affliction Video Tutorial Series: Perception Through A Feminine Lens
Divine Affliction: Perception Through A Feminine Lens Part 15
Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens Blog Series presents an expansive view behind the music production of album Divine Affliction. An expression of the feminine aesthetics in music. A sonic portrayal of the duality of divinity and affliction. A journey through the female experience. The album is a shorter album consisting of seven songs and would be defined as experimental electronica with raw, introspective, brooding, emotive music. This album presents an aural representation of the female processes and application to music production. The musical compositions are inspired by my own experience of the intersectionality of gender and music production along with the preliminary research uncovered in the 1st four theoretical blogs of this series. The previous blogs dissected my creative process, narrating my music-making processes and highlighting how I implement the song concepts into the musical composition, audio processing, and lyrics. Along with blogs discussing; the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethos used for the production of the album and project; demystifying the mastering process and polishing the final product ready for release; and how to independently releasing your music to the industry, with great resources and information to aid in understanding this process. This final blog of the series contains the Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens Video Tutorial Series. Observe the creative experience through the lens of a female producer.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial Series: Perception Through A Feminine Lens
The upcoming video tutorial series Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens is set for release in 2020. The video tutorials will be covering practical accounts of the technical processes covered in the music production of album Divine Affliction. With an observation of the creative experience through the lens of a female producer, deconstructing elements of the title track ‘Divine Affliction’. Experience her story of music production through a feminine lens, a feminine perception of music production, educating females on how to make their music and embrace the realm of music production. The album Divine Affliction is a musical expression of the divine feminine and afflictions she faces. The tutorials include; How to Start an Audio Project Using the Logic Pro X Digital Audio Workstation; Drum Production and Composition; Bassline Production and Composition; Melody and Harmony Production and Composition; Lyrics Composition and Recording and Processing the Vocals; and The Mixdown. The tutorials will be released weekly so please subscribe to the Orthentix YouTube or Vimeo channels. Here is a teaser of the opening credits for the Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens Video Tutorial Series. Following this are the video tutorials.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 1: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
How to Start an Audio Project Using the Logic Pro X Digital Audio Workstation. With an explanation of audio production including; audio formats; signal processing and sampling rates; the Nyquist frequency, analog to digital/digital to analog converters (D/A and A/D converters); audio interphases; optimum listening levels for mixing; audio samples; recording found sounds; and sound synthesis.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 2: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
Drum Production and Composition. With explanations covering; drum sampling; drum synthesis; song tempo and BPM (Beats per minute); song structure; music theory; and groove of the song. This tutorial breaks down how I created the drum section of the song ‘Divine Affliction’.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 3: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
Bassline Production and Composition. With explanations covering; bass synthesis; software instruments; song structure; music theory; and the rhythm section of a song. This tutorial breaks down how I created the basslines of the song ‘Divine Affliction’.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 4: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
Melody and Harmony Production and Composition. With explanations covering; melody and harmony synthesis; software instruments; song structure; and music theory. This tutorial breaks down how I created the melodies and harmony elements of the song ‘Divine Affliction’.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 5: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
Lyrics Composition and Recording and Processing the Vocals. With explanations covering; vocal recording; lyric composition; song structure; and processing the vocals to tape and from tape. This tutorial breaks down how I created the lyrics and vocal elements of the song ‘Divine Affliction’.
Divine Affliction Video Tutorial 6: Perception Through a Feminine Lens
The Mixdown. With explanations covering the final mixdown process in which you finalize your track and prepare them for mastering. This is the stereo mix that you listen to out of your speakers. A good mixdown can truly make or break a track. “The mixdown is also the point where the art and the science of audio and music meet. It’s a technical process, requiring awareness of frequencies, tonality, dynamics, and harmonics, as well as a degree of skill in using the tools required to mold and shape these concepts” (Nolan, 2019). This tutorial breaks down how I proceeded with the final mixdown of the song ‘Divine Affliction’.
Watch the whole tutorial series once released on youtube via the following playlist and please subscribe to the Youtube channel above for more from Orthetnix — https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDgSoQuoxdmI4x7ntYDWskWpJb4jDuxNB
A Female Music Producer in Her Realm: Reflection on My Creative Practice of Music Production
The Divine Affliction album was released and available on all music streaming sites, online stores, and on my Bandcamp. This album is part of my final graduate project for my master’s degree. The graduate project is a practice-led research project based on the intersectionality of gender and music production. To address the gender inequalities within the industry and create a space for females to access music production, I have produced and published this blog series and video tutorials. Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens has hosted deconstructions of my music-making process as an educational source to music production from a feminine perspective. The blogs have also contained scholarly research and autoethnographic and art as research reflections on my practice. I am currently finalizing my thesis document (exegesis) Divine Affliction: The Intersection of Gender and Music Production which covers; a prelude to the project; an overview of the project; a rationale to the study; the conceptual framework of the study; the methodology that was used in the undertaking of the research; the theoretical paradigms and disciplinary landscapes of the study containing the scholarly research covered within the first four blogs of this series; perspectives through a female and feminine lens with analysis from ethnographic interviews with nine female producers from Mexico, USA, Netherlands, and Australia; perception through a feminine lens with my own autoethnographic and art as research reflections contained within these blogs; along with the final conclusions of my research findings, a final reflection and a postlude of the study. Part of the analysis from these ethnographic interviews has been submitted for publishing via Routledge Publishers in their upcoming academic book titled Gender in Music Production. I have gained a great sense of fulfillment from gaining this publication, achieving confirmation that this project has purpose and significance within the academic sphere, along with recognition of my hard work.
There will also be a short poetic documentary released in January to give insight into the song concepts and myself, a female producer. “You can’t be what you can’t see” (Wright Edelman, 1959). My hope is to inspire more women into the realm of music production through these representations and be a role model for those wanting to get into music production. Subscribe to my YouTube for updates and releases http://www.youtube.com/c/Orthentix
Following is a video containing information about the greater project Divine Affliction: The Intersection of Gender and Music Production, and all the different elements it contains including; the Divine Affliction album; the Divine Affliction poetic documentary; the Divine Affliction: Perception Through A Feminine Lens Blog Series; the Divine Affliction: Perception Through A Feminine Lens Video Tutorial Series; the Divine Affliction: Perspectives Through A Female and Feminine Lens ethnographic interviews and chapter; along with the Divine Affliction: The Intersection of Gender and Music Production exegesis. Please keep in mind this video was created while still in the production phase of the project.
This project and finalizing my master’s degree is my biggest life achievement other than raising my amazing daughter. I just want to give a massive THANKYOU to all those that have supported me through this. With special thanks to; Wayne McPhee for the documentary filming, editing and being a rad director; Danielle Snowflake Aston from Fresh Media Hustle for the graphic design work on my logos; Jamie Barber from House of Phoenix Eleven for her amazing photography skills; Bez (who sadly passed in 2015) for his drawing of my Orthentix artist logo which is a cartoon of me in his depiction; Jodie Taylor for her mentoring, she has been an endless pillar of support and inspiration; Jens Schroder for his encouragement during this project; Michael Worthington from Soundworthy Mastering for his skills and patience with me as a client; Kim Thompson my father for his pride and respect, and at times financial support to this struggling artist and single mother; my partner for Andrew Pegley for coming into my life, with his love, support, and consideration of my studies and music; and finally to my daughter Charli Gaiter for her pride and understanding for her mum’s studies and music, which consumes much of my time, she can percieve the greater picture with what I do.
To purchase or stream the album head to my website above and click on the music page — then click on the Divine Affliction Vol 1 & 2 albums on the music page. The links to online stores are on the music page along with the merchandise page. To find out more about the greater project — click on academia, scroll down and click on the study button. Alternatively, I have shared links as follows to Soundcloud and Bandcamp to stream or purchase the album.
Conclusion
This is this final blog for the series. Thank you to all who have read, followed, shared, and been inspired by these blogs and the music from the album Divine Affliction. Please comment below or follow me on social media to keep updated with future projects and music releases, social links are also on my website. Cheers!
Read the previous blog: https://medium.com/orthentix/settings/feature-pages/divine-affliction/edit
Encore
Divine Affliction, experimental electronica with raw, introspective, brooding, emotive music. A journey through the female experience. A musical expression of the divine feminine and the afflictions she faces…She finds strength in her vulnerability and turns her affliction into a virtue.
Reference List
Nolan, Paul. (2019). How to do a mixdown of your track [Blog]. Retrieved from https://blog.native-instruments.com/how-to-do-a-mixdown-of-your-track/
Orthentix. 2019. Divine affliction Video Tutorial Series: Perception Through a Feminine Lens — Opening Credits [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBhlMSa_IxY&list=PLDgSoQuoxdmI4x7ntYDWskWpJb4jDuxNB&index=3&t=0s
Orthentix. (2019). Divine affliction: The intersection of gender and music production [Review]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/330911199).
Orthentix. (2019). Divine affliction album volume 1 [Bandcamp link]. Retrieved from https://orthentix.bandcamp.com/).
Orthentix. (2019). Divine affliction album volume 2 [Bandcamp link].Retrieved from https://orthentix.bandcamp.com/).
Orthentix. (2019). Divine affliction album volume 1 [Spotify link]. Retrieved from https://orthentix.bandcamp.com/).
Orthentix. (2019). Divine affliction album volume 2 [Spotify link]. Retrieved from https://open.spotify.com/album/42suiny8bkX4JXP5Y3VKOm).
Wright Edelman, Marian. (1959). Marian Wright Edelman quote [Website]. Retrieved from https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/marian-wright-edelman-2254.php
Image References
Figure 1. Divine Affliction Promotional Image. Image was taken by House of Pheonix Eleven. Copyright Orthentix, 2019.
Figure 2. Me, a female producer. Image was taken by House of Pheonix Eleven. Copyright Orthentix, 2019.
