Myles O'Callaghan (09004044)

Student: Myles O’Callaghan (09004044)
Chosen blog: Music Production Tips & Techniques
Chosen post: Stereo Spread - Timbaland Style

This blog can be found at:
www.modernbeats.com

- The blog I have chosen was started by Peter Kirn. It aims to keep people up to date with advances in technology with respect, in particular, to music technology and music production. It is a reasonably busy blog, with on average, a blog a day as there are currently many other contributors to it.
- It seems to me that the target audience for this blog is home producers and people producing semi-professionally.

- The blog itself doesn‘t seem to have any strict form or layout but there are regularly hardware and software reviews, production tips, interviews with well known producers and discussions between amateur home producers. The “News” and “Features” sections are most active.
- The thing I liked most about this blog is that it is very easy to read. The vast majority of the posts are written in layman’s terms meaning that even those who are not that familiar with some of the more high-spec production programs can understand the idea or concept behind the post. Many of the posts are also accompanied by a link, youtube video or picture which gives a greater insight into the topic being discussed.

- My favourite post in this blog was probably the post on Timbaland’s stereo spread. The post was made by a member of the Hit Talk staff and breaks down the process behind the panning in many of Timbaland’s produced tracks such as “Bounce”. It explains how he uses the Ensoniq ASR-10 which allows him to work with two copies of one sample. They are panned left and right respectively and then a stereo image is created by delaying one in respect to the other. I have never been a fan of the genre on music typically produced by Timbaland, however it was very interesting to get an insight into how he works in studio and to test the techniques he uses when, in this case, he creates a stereo spread for his tracks.

My comments on blogs:
Comment 1: Mastering Sound (Awaiting Moderation)
Comment 2: Essential Hip Hop Rhythms
Comment 3: Propellerhead Software Record