Wow! Six months in - the halfway mark. It's kind of hard to believe I've been doing this project for 26 weeks already. The time is flying by. I'm happy that I've kept up with it, and so far there are a handful of songs I really like.
This week's piece was supposed to be inspired by frustration, but I started this last week as a song for the next Legend of the Three Fists album and really liked where it was going so I decided to keep working on it. I'm pretty happy with how far it's come, though it still needs a bit of work:
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Description:
I'm not sure I can really say how this piece came together. I didn't start out going for a particular sound, or even trying to write a song. I was just auditioning loops, and things started to happen. I started mangling things up, and before I knew it I had a pretty complete "thing" on my hands. I did a simple arrangement, programmed some automation, and voila! There are other tings that I need to do to complete this, but I'm pretty happy with how this turned out as is. Foreboding is not a feeling I was trying to evoke, but rather a feeling I applied after the song was complete as that where it takes me.
Tools:
Ableton Live 7
Smart Electronix Asynth
Time Control Productions Bizune
Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp
Smart Electronix SupaTrigga
Tobybear Madshifta
TapeDelay
Sanford Phaser CM
Togu Audio Line TAL-Bitcrusher
Camel Crusher
Martin Eastwood Compressive CM
Aixcoustic Creations Electric-Q CM
Waves MasterVerb LE
PSP Audioware Vintage Warmer 2
BBE Sonic Maximizer
Notes:
- I started with some loops, specifically a drum loop, a guitar loop and a synth loop. The bass and pad sounds come from soft synths. Then I went back and added individual kick, snare, and hihat tracks. I used quite a lot of plugins, and chaos played a big role in this piece as I wanted it to be dynamic. That's why I've designated this rendering as varation #1. If I export the track again tomorrow, it's guaranteed to sound at least slightly different. I may go through and bounce down the individual tracks to audio and edit it together to make a definitive version, but it isn't ready for that yet.
- The effects on this piece were really fun. Here are some highlights:
1. First off, the drum loop was subjected to Madshifta and Camel Crusher to totally alter the sound. I'm still not sure whether it's missing something, or it needs to be highlighted more, or it can be dropped out altogether at this point. I may jut sample out the kick and and it to the others (more below).
2. SupaTrigga came into play on the guitar loop. There's actually a rather hefty chain of FX on it including Studio Devil VGA, TAL-Bitcrusher and TapeDelay. But it's the SupaTrigga really keeps things the groove constantly changing. unfortunately the levels need some automation because it gets buried at times.
3. The synth loop is probably the closest to its original form. All I did here was use a phaser which I only activated in certain places to bring the part out for a moment. I need to automate levels to help this process more. I then put Live's Autopan effect on the channel to give it some movement and keep it from clogging up the center panned guitar loop.
4. The bass is my favorite Moog bass patch from Smart Electronix's Asynth analog subtractive emulation. To begin I jammed out the rather simple 8 bar phrase. Once I had the phrase, I again put the SupaTrigga plugin on the channel with the repeat and rearrange probabilities pretty high to really keep the part changing. Later I went back and actually automated most of the parameters. It's still unpredictable and plays back slightly differently each time, but it's more in control in certain places where I wanted to make sure things didn't disintegrate too far.
5. Next up, Time Control Productions Bizune, a very digital subtractive synth that is one of my favorites for higher frequency pad sounds. I started with the Bone Scraper preset and made a few adjustments. Then I doubled the track and panned one hard left and the other hard right with a slight delay on one side to create a wide stereo image. This is kind of backward in that I already had all the other parts so the chord progression was invented just by holding down keys until I found combinations that sounded cool with everything else. The chords ended up being: | | | |, but it's really more of a modal piece in D minor.
6. The final piece of the puzzle was to go back and create a new beat to underpin the whole thing. Despite having de la Mancha's Erratic 2 at my disposal, a multi-timbral drum machine with lots of random and probability settings, I decided for this piece to give each drum its own track with separate Impulse instruments. For the kick and snare I basically layered up a handful of sounds in each Impulse, programmed the beat, and then inserted a Random MIDI effect in front of the Impulse to alter which samples would get combined. The hihat is set up similarly, but instead of using layered samples, it just alternates between open and closed. I was pretty conservative with the settings so that the beat wouldn't completely fall apart, but it would get the occassional variation to keep it from being to robotic. I'd still like to go back and add some manual fills in a couple of places.
7. Despite all this audio manipulation and sonic destruction, I think what I'm happiest with in this mix are the bread and butter effects - EQ, compression and reverb. The reverb was mainly handled by Waves MasterVerb set up on a send, though a couple of tracks had their own reverb as well. The EQ duties were handled by Aixcoustic's Electric-Q CM. I know it's probably not the best practice to use the same EQ for everything, but it's so easy to use, and I found it did what I wanted in keeping different frequency ranges uncluttered. I did use a variety of compressors on different parts. This piece really seemed to gel together, and even though there are a lot of parts going on at once, it sounds balanced to me.
8. At the end of the chain I stuck with Vintage Warmer and Sonic Maximizer on the Master channel. I could probably EQ the overall mix and put it through a limiter too, but I didn't want to get into that yet. I actually set up a bus for the drum parts and ran them all through Camel Crusher and Sonic Maximizer before sending them to the Master channel. I also used Vintage Warmer on the pad and synth sounds individually before sending those to the master channel as well.
- So, I need to do more automation, add some fills, and probably bounce down some of the randomness as audio. The arrangement could be more interesting too. 1:20 before the beat comes in is probably too long, and all it really does is build up, groove for a little bit, break down, and then build back up to a final groove. This is where having a collaborator would be good.
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2009-06-25
2009-06-18
Week #25 - Paranoia
Consider this the first step in the process of creating a piece. I know it really doesn't evoke paranoia at this point, but I'm in Atlanta until Saturday, and thus cannot finish the whole thing this week. Also there is no mixing on this piece save setting the levels and pan. And the only FX used is the amp sim on the lead guitar and the reverb on a send.
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Description:
The idea for this was to take a fun little acoustic trio piece (bass, piano, guitar), and then gradually warp and mangle it to create a paraniod aura. Unfortunately, I spent a lot more time messing about with microphones than I thought I would. The good news is that I learned a lot of great things about my recording space - it's kind of a tricky room and most of the recording I've done is electric bass and guitar plugged directly into the system. Though I've recorded acoustic instruments on two previous songs on this project, this is the first time I actually took the time to do it right, and I think the results show the improvement. Anyway, I only got the first phase of this song done - I got the acoustic instrument parts recorded. I did not, however, make it to the mangling stage. That will have to wait for another day.
Tools:
Ableton Live 7
Propellerhead Reason 4
Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp
Waves MasterVerb LE
Presonus FireStudio audio interface
Audio Technica AT2020 microphone (x2)
Audio Technica AT2021 microphone (x2)
sE Electronics IRF Reflexion Filter (x2)
Takamine acoustic guitar
Epiphone Les Paul electric guitar
Notes:
- The basic parts are a 12 bar verse, 10 bar bridge, and 8 bar chorus.
Verse: B7 | Em | Am | F#-B7 | B7 | Em | Am | F#-B7 | B7 | Em | F# | fill |
Bridge: Am | B7 | Am | F# |Am | B7 | Am | F# | F#-G#m | Am-Bb7-B7 |
Chorus: Em | Am7 | B7 | Em | Em | Am7 | B7 | Em |
- I started with the acoustic guitar parts. Once those were recorded (see below), I used a Reason patch to add the bass. I'd have liked to work on a recording setup for my acoustic bass as well but didn't have time. Next, another Reason patch provided the piano, and finally the electric lead part was added using the Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp plugin and my trusty Les Paul. Upon second listening the lead is probably a bit to loud. I'd like to write vocals for this as well, but again that will have to happen on another excursion.
- All of these parts were sent to the same reverb on a send to try and bring them into the same space and make it feel "live".
- Detailed notes on the Acoustic Guitar Recording Setup:
1. 4 microphones - 2 large diaphragm condensers for the room, and 2 small diaphragm
condensers for close miking the guitar.
2. 4 separate inputs on the FireStudio (phantom powered), and 4 separate channels
activated for record in Live.
3. Mic placement:
Mic 1 (Sound Hole): small diaphragm condenser (AT2021) with IRF
- point just to the bridge side of the sound hole.
- 4"-6" away from strings
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live 15 right
Mic 2 (Neck): small diaphragm condenser (AT2021) with IRF
- point at guitar right where neck meets body
- 4"-6" away from strings
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live left 15
Mic 3 (Room mic left): large diaphragm condenser (AT2020)
- place about 4' behind close mics
- move about 2' to the left (facing the instrument)
- knob on Firestudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live left 50
Mic 4 (Room mic right): large diaphragm condenser (AT2020)
- place about 4' behind close mics
- move about 2' to the right (facing the instrument)
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live right 50
It seems best to make an equilateral triangle with the room mics and the instrument -
i.e.keep room mics same distance from each other as they are from guitar.
4. Put a reverb on a send, preferably a good quality one with a hall setting,
and send the room mics to it pretty heavily. Send the close mics to the same reverb, but a bit less of the signal. This really helps with the monitoring while recording too.
5. To widen the stereo image at the mixing stage, delay the tracks on one side -
close mic by 4 to 16 milliseconds and room mic by 16 to 64 milliseconds. This can also help eliminat phasing, but you have to be careful not to introduce phasing as well.
6. Turn down monitors when recording, and make sure headphone level isn't up too high or the close mics might pic them up the playback - especially important if playing to a click track.
7. Use top quality mic cables (I use Monster cables) - they really do make a difference for a clear signal. The IRF reflexion filters make a huge improvement difference on the close mics too.
8. It still needs to be EQed a bit. Of course, having a better quality instrument would help.
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Description:
The idea for this was to take a fun little acoustic trio piece (bass, piano, guitar), and then gradually warp and mangle it to create a paraniod aura. Unfortunately, I spent a lot more time messing about with microphones than I thought I would. The good news is that I learned a lot of great things about my recording space - it's kind of a tricky room and most of the recording I've done is electric bass and guitar plugged directly into the system. Though I've recorded acoustic instruments on two previous songs on this project, this is the first time I actually took the time to do it right, and I think the results show the improvement. Anyway, I only got the first phase of this song done - I got the acoustic instrument parts recorded. I did not, however, make it to the mangling stage. That will have to wait for another day.
Tools:
Ableton Live 7
Propellerhead Reason 4
Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp
Waves MasterVerb LE
Presonus FireStudio audio interface
Audio Technica AT2020 microphone (x2)
Audio Technica AT2021 microphone (x2)
sE Electronics IRF Reflexion Filter (x2)
Takamine acoustic guitar
Epiphone Les Paul electric guitar
Notes:
- The basic parts are a 12 bar verse, 10 bar bridge, and 8 bar chorus.
Verse: B7 | Em | Am | F#-B7 | B7 | Em | Am | F#-B7 | B7 | Em | F# | fill |
Bridge: Am | B7 | Am | F# |Am | B7 | Am | F# | F#-G#m | Am-Bb7-B7 |
Chorus: Em | Am7 | B7 | Em | Em | Am7 | B7 | Em |
- I started with the acoustic guitar parts. Once those were recorded (see below), I used a Reason patch to add the bass. I'd have liked to work on a recording setup for my acoustic bass as well but didn't have time. Next, another Reason patch provided the piano, and finally the electric lead part was added using the Studio Devil Virtual Guitar Amp plugin and my trusty Les Paul. Upon second listening the lead is probably a bit to loud. I'd like to write vocals for this as well, but again that will have to happen on another excursion.
- All of these parts were sent to the same reverb on a send to try and bring them into the same space and make it feel "live".
- Detailed notes on the Acoustic Guitar Recording Setup:
1. 4 microphones - 2 large diaphragm condensers for the room, and 2 small diaphragm
condensers for close miking the guitar.
2. 4 separate inputs on the FireStudio (phantom powered), and 4 separate channels
activated for record in Live.
3. Mic placement:
Mic 1 (Sound Hole): small diaphragm condenser (AT2021) with IRF
- point just to the bridge side of the sound hole.
- 4"-6" away from strings
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live 15 right
Mic 2 (Neck): small diaphragm condenser (AT2021) with IRF
- point at guitar right where neck meets body
- 4"-6" away from strings
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live left 15
Mic 3 (Room mic left): large diaphragm condenser (AT2020)
- place about 4' behind close mics
- move about 2' to the left (facing the instrument)
- knob on Firestudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live left 50
Mic 4 (Room mic right): large diaphragm condenser (AT2020)
- place about 4' behind close mics
- move about 2' to the right (facing the instrument)
- knob on FireStudio around 3 o'clock
- pan channel in Live right 50
It seems best to make an equilateral triangle with the room mics and the instrument -
i.e.keep room mics same distance from each other as they are from guitar.
4. Put a reverb on a send, preferably a good quality one with a hall setting,
and send the room mics to it pretty heavily. Send the close mics to the same reverb, but a bit less of the signal. This really helps with the monitoring while recording too.
5. To widen the stereo image at the mixing stage, delay the tracks on one side -
close mic by 4 to 16 milliseconds and room mic by 16 to 64 milliseconds. This can also help eliminat phasing, but you have to be careful not to introduce phasing as well.
6. Turn down monitors when recording, and make sure headphone level isn't up too high or the close mics might pic them up the playback - especially important if playing to a click track.
7. Use top quality mic cables (I use Monster cables) - they really do make a difference for a clear signal. The IRF reflexion filters make a huge improvement difference on the close mics too.
8. It still needs to be EQed a bit. Of course, having a better quality instrument would help.
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2009-06-11
Week #24 - Emperor Norton's 4
I didn't even title this week's piece because it isn't really a piece. It's more like a selection of fragments, none of which really do anything for me. I actually spent a fair bit of time trying out ideas.
This first three 8 bar sections are in 8/8 - differentiated from 4/4 in that they really have a 3 beat pattern: 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2. (Okay, so the first part really did end up being 4/4) Anyway, the last two sections, a 16 bar sections followed by a 9 bar section, are in 12/8. It was a useful excercise so even though it didn't really produce a song, I decided to post what I had. Here it is:
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Tools:
Propellerhead Reason 4
Garritan Personal Orchestra Refill
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This first three 8 bar sections are in 8/8 - differentiated from 4/4 in that they really have a 3 beat pattern: 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2. (Okay, so the first part really did end up being 4/4) Anyway, the last two sections, a 16 bar sections followed by a 9 bar section, are in 12/8. It was a useful excercise so even though it didn't really produce a song, I decided to post what I had. Here it is:
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Tools:
Propellerhead Reason 4
Garritan Personal Orchestra Refill
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2009-06-07
Week #23 - Emperor Norton's 3
Having gottne my computer about halfway back to functional, I decided to take a break from the monotony of software installation and go ahead and finish this tune up. It's another piece for Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band, this time in 12/8:
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Description:
This song was inspired by a painting, Flin Flon IV by Frank Stella. (It's similar to this one at the National Gallery of Australia - I'm not sure why ours hasn't been photographed.) I actually haven't seen the real things, but the crate for it has been in one of our back hallways for awhile now. It has a reproduction of the painting stuck on the crate, and I walk by it all the time. It has the same form as the one linked above, but I like the color combination in ours better. Anyway, looking at this the other day inspired this piece.
Tools:
Propellerhead Reason 4
Garritan Personal Orchestra Refill
Notes:
- I started this tune in Bb, but I really wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. I decided to switch it to the relative minor (Gm) and threw in some accidentals here and there. There's still something kind of trite about it, but I'm hoping that it's just the generic sample sets that are the issue, and that in the hands of some really talented musicians it might be more worthwhile.
- As for chords...
Verse (12 bars):
Gm-Bb-Dm-Eb | Am-Cm-Eb-Gm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Dm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Gm/Bb | x2
Gm-Bb-Dm-Eb | Am-Cm-Eb-Gm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Dm | F-Am-C-Dm/A |
Chorus (8 bars):
Gm (Dm) | Eb (Bb/F) | Gm (Am) | Bb (Gm) | Cm (Eb/Bb) | Am (Bb/F) | Gm (Bb) | Cm-Dm |
*the ending just adds: Eb-F | Gm |
Break (8 bars):
Gm | Eb | Gm | Cm-Dm | Cm-Dm | Cm-Dm | Gm | Dm |
- I was listening back through a bunch of the things I'd written for ENSMB, especially the things we rushed through at the last minute for Mischief in the Machine last year, and I was doing a lot of 12/8 and wanted to get back to that. I wanted to focus more on the melody this time and build things around that, and I also wanted to try out different feels. So the verse changes chords each beat and has a fairly staccato , while the chorus is a little more drawn out. Both of these sections stick to standard triplet rhythms, and I felt they worked well together, but for the break I wanted to try breaking up the rhythm into different variations. While it's just a standard unison riff, I like the way it worked out and would like to more of this type of thing using 12/8 but with a melody/counter-melody and more interesting bass line as well. So I think I'm going to stick to 12/8 again this coming week.
- I wish we could get our score translation issues resolved as I'd really like to try mixing different time signatures together. I was really happy with Peg Leg Waltz, and I think I could do more interesting things like that.
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Description:
This song was inspired by a painting, Flin Flon IV by Frank Stella. (It's similar to this one at the National Gallery of Australia - I'm not sure why ours hasn't been photographed.) I actually haven't seen the real things, but the crate for it has been in one of our back hallways for awhile now. It has a reproduction of the painting stuck on the crate, and I walk by it all the time. It has the same form as the one linked above, but I like the color combination in ours better. Anyway, looking at this the other day inspired this piece.
Tools:
Propellerhead Reason 4
Garritan Personal Orchestra Refill
Notes:
- I started this tune in Bb, but I really wasn't happy with the way it was turning out. I decided to switch it to the relative minor (Gm) and threw in some accidentals here and there. There's still something kind of trite about it, but I'm hoping that it's just the generic sample sets that are the issue, and that in the hands of some really talented musicians it might be more worthwhile.
- As for chords...
Verse (12 bars):
Gm-Bb-Dm-Eb | Am-Cm-Eb-Gm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Dm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Gm/Bb | x2
Gm-Bb-Dm-Eb | Am-Cm-Eb-Gm | Eb-Gm-Bb-Dm | F-Am-C-Dm/A |
Chorus (8 bars):
Gm (Dm) | Eb (Bb/F) | Gm (Am) | Bb (Gm) | Cm (Eb/Bb) | Am (Bb/F) | Gm (Bb) | Cm-Dm |
*the ending just adds: Eb-F | Gm |
Break (8 bars):
Gm | Eb | Gm | Cm-Dm | Cm-Dm | Cm-Dm | Gm | Dm |
- I was listening back through a bunch of the things I'd written for ENSMB, especially the things we rushed through at the last minute for Mischief in the Machine last year, and I was doing a lot of 12/8 and wanted to get back to that. I wanted to focus more on the melody this time and build things around that, and I also wanted to try out different feels. So the verse changes chords each beat and has a fairly staccato , while the chorus is a little more drawn out. Both of these sections stick to standard triplet rhythms, and I felt they worked well together, but for the break I wanted to try breaking up the rhythm into different variations. While it's just a standard unison riff, I like the way it worked out and would like to more of this type of thing using 12/8 but with a melody/counter-melody and more interesting bass line as well. So I think I'm going to stick to 12/8 again this coming week.
- I wish we could get our score translation issues resolved as I'd really like to try mixing different time signatures together. I was really happy with Peg Leg Waltz, and I think I could do more interesting things like that.
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2009-06-05
Week #23 - A punt for now
I'm punting this week. Maybe I'll post two songs for next week, maybe not.
First off, this was not a good week for composition. There are peaks and valleys in any project, and I'm definitley in a valley. Feeling like last week's song really failed to come together has carried over to this week, and I just haven't had any good ideas. I've noodled and dabbled and started a few ideas, but all attempts have ended up in the bin. Either the idea just didn't go anywhere for me, or it went someplace utterly trite and boring, or I took a decent idea and ran it into the ground.
It hasn't helped that I'm constantly screwing with my setup and ended up in a position where I couldn't post a song even if I wanted to. One of the side effects of building my own computer seems to be the never ending need to keep tweaking it. In messing about the other day I managed to lose the sound output altogether so I spent most of Wednesday night cursing under my breath trying to get it sorted. By the time I finally got everything working again, I was so sick of everything that I couldn't even work on writing.
Then Thursday night, I started working and the computer told me it needed to reboot. Fine, I reboot, only when it comes back up the drive that has all of my music projects on it has disappeared. In trying to figure out what's going on I end up rebooting again to check the BIOS, and to cut to the chase it ends up not being able to boot up at all. So I'm going to spend this weekend starting from scratch setting the whole system up from the ground again. Hopefully I'll get it right this time. If so, I'll be back to posting next week, and I'll try to finish up something from this week as well as doing a new piece. If not, well, I'm not sure yet. God, I hate computers.
So all that is to say that, yeah, basically I'm punting this week.
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First off, this was not a good week for composition. There are peaks and valleys in any project, and I'm definitley in a valley. Feeling like last week's song really failed to come together has carried over to this week, and I just haven't had any good ideas. I've noodled and dabbled and started a few ideas, but all attempts have ended up in the bin. Either the idea just didn't go anywhere for me, or it went someplace utterly trite and boring, or I took a decent idea and ran it into the ground.
It hasn't helped that I'm constantly screwing with my setup and ended up in a position where I couldn't post a song even if I wanted to. One of the side effects of building my own computer seems to be the never ending need to keep tweaking it. In messing about the other day I managed to lose the sound output altogether so I spent most of Wednesday night cursing under my breath trying to get it sorted. By the time I finally got everything working again, I was so sick of everything that I couldn't even work on writing.
Then Thursday night, I started working and the computer told me it needed to reboot. Fine, I reboot, only when it comes back up the drive that has all of my music projects on it has disappeared. In trying to figure out what's going on I end up rebooting again to check the BIOS, and to cut to the chase it ends up not being able to boot up at all. So I'm going to spend this weekend starting from scratch setting the whole system up from the ground again. Hopefully I'll get it right this time. If so, I'll be back to posting next week, and I'll try to finish up something from this week as well as doing a new piece. If not, well, I'm not sure yet. God, I hate computers.
So all that is to say that, yeah, basically I'm punting this week.
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