Ski Oakenfull

Apple's announcement of the Logic X upgrade last last year took everyone by surprise but was widely welcomed.

As well as many brand new features, it had a new look and rewrite of terminology and key commands.

Ski's job has been to manage the update of Point Blank Online School's flagship Logic course from 9 to X, which meant updating all terms, screenshots and the majority of videos.

This special Christmas video was broadcast live at Point Blank for the final Friday Forum Live.

My task was to deconstruct Wham's classic 'Last Christmas and then give it a little remix.

Here's the final remix which is available to download until Dec 25th

This was broadcast live on Wednesday 13th November 2013

It's the last hangout session and time to look at the final stages of production. With the advent of DAWs which offer instant 'total recall', many computer-based producers mix as they go so we will examine this process and see if there are ways to improve the overall sound of the winners' tracks. The session will also be a chance to assess how the winners have progressed through the Academy, with a member of the Armada A&R team joining the hangout to offer advice and discuss their future.

This was broadcast live on Wednesday 13th November 2013

For the penultimate EMC session, Ski will demonstrate the actual process of deconstructing a track and show how beneficial this can be for your own productions. Using the recent massive remix by Cedric Gervais of Lana Del Rey's 'Summertime Sadness' as an example, he will focus on chords, melodies, bass lines and structure. As a task, Ski will ask the winners to have a go at deconstructing a track of their choice.

This was broadcast live on Monday 11th November 2013

We kick off the final week of the academy by focusing on arranging tracks which, for many producers, is often the hardest part. Using Ramon's instrumental as the basis for the session, we will look at how to use Viv May's newly recorded vocal in the most effective way, by analysing the structure of a big selling track to use as a possible template. To finish, we will listen to the other winners remixes of Viv's acapella.

This was broadcast live on Friday 8th November 2013

Following on from Monday's hangout session with top London vocalist Viv May, we will now turn the ideas into reality with a live recording session. After a discussion on the arrangement of the instrumental track, Viv will join Ski in Point Blank's broadcast studio, and with the involvement of the seven winners, lay down some vocal takes. As an assignment, the students will then have the opportunity to take away the resulting acapella and provide a remix for the final week.

This was broadcast live on Wednesday 6th November 2013

This is a very special hangout in which German trance legend Mike Koglin will give a detailed appraisal of the class of 2013's seven winning tracks. He will offer advice on production and arrangement and assess what steps need to be taken before final submission to Armada for release. After absorbing Mike's tips, the winners will have the following week to polish up their tracks.