Week 7

Week 7 updates!

I tried to make the 2 sections match a little bit more with more common themes in both sections. I don't know if it works or if it became too noisy. I removed/softened most of the "old themes" from way before event he first draft so I could add those new themes. Do I have to change the chord progression totally?? :O

It's really interesting though how we create a sound or two at the start and end up not using them at all.... Yet, the piece actually stemmed from those removed themes. Even though it sounds nothing like the first idea, writing one part led to the next, which led to the current, where it was only right to remove the starting themes.

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I added a second bass to have greater depth at the lower freq, and just more power in my piece.

Then I worked on the EQ. This is probably the most amazing part in terms of hearing the change of sound!! I realised most of my instruments were going way over the dB limit and by simply changing the EQ, I actually had to decrease the volume controls back into the "normal -3 to -6 dB range". In fact, some are going way below -6. will that cause other kinds of problems?

The bass and xylophones especially became much clearer and like what I wanted.

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I really like my group mate's Tze Yuan's dance piece so I'm happy I got to learn some effects from him. Like using Big Room GB to create drum hits and adding MIDI FX. I haven't figured where to put drum beats, and my music is getting full already, so I don't know if I still want to add kick drums for a more 'dance' feel. Hmm... Anyway this is what's up for now (draft 4 because 3 was not good).

P.s. Going to listen to it after a day or two and decide if it's too noisy and if I should remove the effects...

P.s.s. Andddd I changed the ending :) I think it's interesting like this but if it is too weird, please let me know. Thank you!

Week 6 - Updates

Did:
-Re chose a few instruments
-Added a line for the verses because of mismatch previously.

Here's the latest update!



Need to do:
Add more bass/double bass and make it more interesting.

So I have decided to use the Echo Lead even though it's a very staccato lead...


Problem: I wanted to do electronic music but I think it's far from it (ohno! hahaha)

Week 6

See Draft 1 for latest updates as documented in the last post. Thanks!

The lead used here was Pharoah's Lead. But still deciding!



Drums
Base, Snare - accents (1 - 2 - 3 - 4)
Hi-hat - time feel and keeper

Week 5

Two notable things I did last week:

The first was to complete the pre-chorus and chorus. With this I have the intro | verse 1 | verse 2 | pre-chorus | chorus.

I now have a melody line in the pre-chorus/chorus but the choice of instrument still bugs me... At first I used the Echo Bass, and I rather like the sound, but it is kind of a inappropriate lead? However, I have not been able to find wind instruments (as discussed in class) that seem to fit the sound of the piece. I will report what instrument I've decided on on Thursday together with the upload of the latest song. (Sorry, I did not manage to save the file and will only be back in the lab Thursday!!!)

In the added sections, I have also tried out the call-and-response technique. At first I used the guitar and flute combination like in my reference song. But the flute sounded too full compared to my other instruments :( I switched to a Xylophone variation instead.

Secondly, I cut a few (quite many) things from the earlier parts. E.g. with the introduction of the ultrabeat drums, the introduction pad sounded extremely weird and mismatched. But I like the beats over the sustained pad, so I'm scrapping the pad!

I also cut one instrument in the second verse (the one that originally had clashes back in week 3).

However... because the method I wrote the verses vs the chorus was different, the two parts are extremely mismatched now. I need to do something about that for sure. Recap: the verses were random ideas while the chorus was done after I did the bass.

Working from bottom up was definitely the "right way" for a starter like me. I spent considerably less time creating a melody + rhythm in the right key than struggling to create everything else from the melody line alone. So perhaps it'll be better to just rewrite the verses in this "right way" that worked for me.

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Finally, I changed the 3 4 time in the chorus back to 4 4 time.

I will be duplicating what I have based on my earlier proposed form. In the interest on time, the outro may be cut or kept very basic, and what I have will be the working file for production.

I also looked at this sound designer talking about music production and the creative aspect of music production (which was what I struggled with most). As he mentions in the video, most 'tutorials' are done after a song has been produced, so they skip discussing the creative process and making decisions, but focus on what to do to create x and y sounds. He also mentions not touching EQ (automation etc.) that should be left to the mixing stage.

These all overlap with what you have discussed in class/your advice to me.

After listening to his song, I concluded it has similarities to my reference song.
- Having a simple distinct /contrasting sound (water droplet / gun load sounds)
- Having breaks between verses/chorus
- A phrase repeated (the scale sound)

I would like (when I get to mixing) to try out 2 or all 3 techniques in my music to keep interest.


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Class notes:

Mixing
Sub-bass: double the bass, not too loud

EQ: Volume control for frequencies
1. Graphic EQ: E.g. Room EQ

2. Parametric EQ:
- Center Frequency (Hz): The peak
- Gain ( + / - )
- Q (width): how many decibels (dB) to decrease/increase
-- lower it: width is wider (think plateau)
-- increase it: width is narrow (think sharp peak)

3. Shewing EQ

4. Filters
- Hi pass filter
- Lo pass filter

Week 4

Last week, I have been adding a bass line as recommended.

The main chord progression I've chosen to work with is one I've encountered before: doowop progression/50s progression (I vi VI V)

By Hyacinth at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10298735

I've chosen it as it's really famous and I've also watched some videos about how so many tons of music use this chord progression, so I want to experiment with it and see how I can work with this progression to create music. I want to find out for myself why people keep using this over and over again -it is easy for composers? Does it just sound nice naturally, like the pentatonic we heard last week? While it may be a bad choice if I don't have melodic ideas to make my song sound unique, I hope I will be able to work it well too.

I was also interested in Pachelbel's Canon chord progression as the Canon in D is personally one of my favourite classic of all time. I'll see if I can find any segments to use both, or is that not advisable?

"Almost the godfather of pop music because we've all used that in our own ways for the past 30 years". -Pop music producer Pete Waterman (2002) speaking about Pachelbel's Canon in D

Back to my bass line:
- I chose a bass guitar
- Not the whole song uses the doowop progression. I've used it in the pre-chorus and chorus so far. The first part, since I've written a melody, I've added the bass line as such: E-D-C transposed into my song's key. Not sure if there is a name for this?

I've re-enabled the drum beats I made with ultrabeat as recommended to add a pulse to the intro. I modified it to make it less noisy and random (last week, I was just testing it out and not serious about using it in the song). I like how it fits in now that my direction of the song is changing as I progress. However, I can't figure out if I can actually turn the ultrabeat drums off at some parts of the song?


Other things to look at next week:

1. Quantize: playing in time
2. Groove quantize: drummer and bass to play in same time
3. Strength
4. Range