Project & Portfolio I

    My most significant influence on this project was to make it sound different. Through writing it, I was influenced by what the other instruments were doing. I started with the drums (tracks 1-7) and built the chords off that, then went back to the drums and added or took away things. Since we had to use “acoustic” instruments, I did not want to use some cheesy sound, so I went with horns (tracks 10-18) because the horns sound pretty good in logic. Then I added the bass (track 9) so that it could talk with the drums. The melody so that the song had a place to go. The shaker (track 31) and Egyptian Drum (track 32) added that extra fill that my music needed; putting these in the right places was crucial to make it all cohesive. That was the thought process behind the first 16 bars. Furthermore, when I was going in to write my next 16 bars, I made the choice that I was going to write a part in 6/8. I started with the drums again because I always feel like that is a good starting point. Then I was having trouble making it sound like 6/8, so I took all my kicks off and just put a kick on every first beat so that it pulls you back and shows you what time that section is in. After establishing that, I knew I wanted this section to be super spacey. So I just went into the synth instrument section and tried to find the most spacey things to layer, and that is where my Spacey chords (track 27) and Pad Synth (track 28) come from. I added the next couple of things just for layer purposes because the song needed something extra. I added an Arppagiated synth (track 29), Breath vocal (track 34), Harmony layer (tracks 19-26), which backs the Harmony horns, percussion (track 8), and the German countdown (track 33). I added the German countdown because I am German, and it gives a feel like you are on a spaceship that’s about to crash. This piece is a very non-traditional song; it builds up through the first 16 bars only to turn into a spacey 6/8 part but then hits you with an even more significant build-up that leads us to the calm after the storm with just the horns playing. This song is a journey in and of itself. I added so many elements and layers to make it gel together. It is hard to make all of these parts go together, but it works well if you think about how you can transition.

 

    Rhythm has become something I love to compose, and bass makes that composition stand out. The bass (track 9) in the first 16 bars is following the kick (track 1), but when we hit the next 16 bars, I wanted to switch it up because if the bass followed the kick drum, it would not have sounded how I would have liked it. So, in the next 16 bars, I compliment my spacey and build-up parts with a rhythmic bass feel. I also did not want to follow the drums in the 6/8 part because I didn’t want it to sound boring, with the bass doing a rhythmic bounce, it adds to the production. I chose an “acoustic” sound for my drums and bass because that’s what we had to do for the first 16 bars, so I didn’t want to switch it up for the second half. Using the acoustic drums allowed me to do some cool-sounding fills. I used an “acoustic” bass because I had to use it for the first 16 bars, so I used it for the next 16 bars. 

 

    Harmony and melody are the glue to the whole song. I came up with my harmony (track 10) very randomly. I wanted to start on the one and have a cool middle section. The key is C major, and my chords are C (Inverted), Dm (inverted), F, Em, G, Bdim, Am, Dm (inverted), C (Inverted), Am, Dm, and G for the first sixteen bars. The second sixteen bars include G, Am, Dm ( Inverted), F, Em, G (Inverted), Dm, C, and Em. As you can see, I went for a more simplistic chord progression for the last 16 bars, but that is because my spacey breakdown is only two chords, G and Am. I chose G because it was the final note on my 16th bar, so it blended smoothly. The sound I used for the harmony was a 7-piece horn section. I love the sound of brass instruments, and when Dave said that we had to do “acoustic” instruments, I knew I would be doing horns. It just makes the song sound full. I am glad I got to use a diminished chord, too, because those are hard to use unless you know where to put them. I wanted the middle of my first sixteen bars to feel dark and ominous, and the diminished B to an Am did that beautifully for me. Lastly, at the end, I added a harmony layer (track 19) because I wanted the last 4 bars to feel big yet simple, as it is just the brass section playing with a pad synth (track 28) underneath. Adding this layer of different-sounding horns makes it feel more extensive. As for the melody (track 30), I always mess around and play random things until I hear something I like then I will try to record it in one take. I just learned in class about the rising and falling melody, motif, etc. After looking at my melody, it turns into a rising melody at the end of the first sixteen bars. In the next 16 bars, my melody isn’t natural; it’s spacey and weird, and then it melts together with the harmony right after the spacey breakdown. I chose an organ sound because it just popped out through the horns when I was auditioning it, and brass instruments are hard to combat in a song because they are so forward and strong. I was having a hard time connecting my first sixteen bars to my next 16 bars, but I ended up combining them with my melody by just playing the melody into the spacey part, which became cohesive. 

 

    My audio recording was simple and effective. When it came time to record something for audio, I had no clue what I would do, maybe a clap or random noise, but I figured it out when I had the mic up to my mouth. I started breathing and realized that that could be a superb sound behind my spacey breakdown. So I set up with my condenser microphone, put a blanket over my head, and breathed to the rhythm of the pad synth in that section. My audio track is track 34. Furthermore, I added two ES P synths because they are the easiest to use for me. My first ES P synth, created on track 28, was the pad synth. I used the square wave and octave-down square waves to produce this sound. It has a little bit of wah, a low frequency, and the attack, delay, and release are super long. I also set the chorus all the way up to create the space feel. For my second ES P synth, which was created on track 29 was the Arppagiated synth. Right after we exit the spacey section, we go into the build-up, and the arpeggiated synth helps bring the tension. My settings were as follows: I had the triangle wave almost all the way up, and then I just decayed the settings on a downward slope. I had a fast attack time, slow delay, and quick release. My frequency was all the way up, and resonance was super low. Lastly, I added some overdrive to give it some bite. This created a very “natural” synth sound. Moreover, for my sampler track, I used the quick sampler on track 8 and audio that I had in the session as an apple loop, the Egyptian Drum. I went back into the loop section, found the loop again, dragged it into the quick sampler, and sliced it up. This gave me the different sounds of the Egyptian drum, and I knew adding it to the build-up section at the end would be cool. I am playing a Brazilian Funk beat, but it somehow works with the song. 

 

    Now for the bread and butter. Dynamic processing and Time-based processing, I kept it simple and used two of each. Starting with dynamic processing, on track 33, the German countdown, I used compression to make her voice sound more connected. Next, on track 34, I used a gate on my Breath vocal because I was sitting in a chair, and you would hear it if I didn’t put a noise gate on. This clears up the vocal and creates more of a focus point. Overall, these two dynamic processes are making the song sound cleaner. In addition, time-based routing is just as crucial to helping you get that perfect sound. I used two time-based effects, which were Echo and Reverb. I used Echo on the Breath vocal (track 34), German countdown (track 33), and Melody (track 30). For Reverb, I used that on the snare (track 2), percussion (track 8), Arppegiated Synth (track 29), and Breath vocal (track 34). Echo was a necessary Time-based routing for my project because I needed it to feel super spacey, and Echo does that. I also have it constantly going on my melody because the echo plug-in makes everything sound more prominent. The Breath vocal has Echo slammed because I wanted the vocal to sound big and airy. The German countdown also has Echo to create a feeling that you are in a tunnel and hearing this countdown. Furthermore, Reverb allows for sort of the same thing to happen. It makes whatever you put it on sound bigger and more open. That’s why I used Reverb on my snare and percussion because the hits sound bigger and more open, making it sound like it was recorded in a large room. The arpeggiated synth needed Reverb for that sparkle to let the arpeggiations come through. Lastly, the Breath vocal needed Reverb to make it sound so open and big and like it’s above you. Using Time-based processing always gives you that bigger sound you are looking for, and Dynamic processing gives you that clean edge, and together they work beautifully. 

 

    I hope you enjoyed my Project and Portfolio I final project.