Week #28 - Ambivalence

I finally got to beta test Propellerhead's new software, Record this week so I ended up using it to put together this week's piece. As such, this piece was part exploration of feeling and part exploration of software. I want to try it out the program in different applications. The first was as a song sketchpad, and here is the sketch:



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Description:\

I admit this song doesn't really make sense. I like the verses, and I'll probably try to develop a further song out of them, but the other parts are kind of random. I somehow thought tritones would be a good device for this feeling so I was just trying out a couple of riffs using them. The results were...meh.

Tools:

Propellerhead Record beta
Propellerhead Reason 4
Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty electric guitar
Audio Technica AT2020 condenser mic
sE Electronics Reflexion Filter

Notes:


- Lyrics:

Everybody knows what you're gonna say
Every time you open your mouth.
Everybody know the kind of games you play,
The rules that shift and change with your truth.

One thing stays the same and it's constant change,
Delirious from spinning around.
Do you think that if you stop, if you don't turn the page,
Maybe someone's gonna make you account.

Hopelessness wasn't ever born out of fear.
It's the unknown that keeps us staring in space.
If we fill up our lives with distractions galore
Who's to say we won't get lucky in grace.

For Time's a man with a gun in his hand,
And he's hunting us down each in our turn.
The blood on his shoes is a visceral sign
Of our eventual impending return.

- Chord progression:
Verse: Dm - Am | G - Dm | Dm - C | G - Dm | x2
Chorus: Dm - Dm/B | x8
Break: unison riff (sort of in Dm)

- I wanted to record a bunch of things so I set this up as a pretty standard guitar/piano/bass/drums/vocals, rock-band type track. The drums (which I left out of the final mx) and the spaced out piano are from Reason, while the bass, guitars and vocals are audio recordings.

- The vocals aren't processed with much more than reverb and compression, but I like the way they came out. Simple, but I think they fit the atmosphere.

- Lyrically the words just sort of came to me as I was playing the upper guitar part. They're probably kind of obvious, but I like them.

- The piano was fun. I basically just improvised parts and ran them through this space effect.

- I'd like to add acoustic guitar at some point, as well as write a really good hook for a chorus.

- I had this wacky drum part going early on, but in the end decided it didn't work. I might bring it back in a future version, but if I add drums at some point, I'd likely redo them completely.


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