Whatever Chords Are....

This is the post for project 6. For this project I started out just figuring out what key I was gonna use. I chose C just for simplicity. After I decided on a chord progression, put the chords into a cool little rhythm and used the preset from Sytrus called Smooth 3. Next I made a simple drum pattern with just the kick drum and a tom. Then I made the bass keep pumping out a C. For the next section I used some arpeggios on the plugin FL keys. I changed the drums and bass to fit the arpeggios. For the final section I had FL Slayer play the arpeggios and the piano do some background chords to fit the guitar. I kept the bass and drums the same. Overall I think it came out pretty good. maybe sometime I'll go back and record a real guitar track for the last section instead of the plugin but for now i want to move on to another project. A month on this one has taken it's toll on me :P

AWOL

This is the post for project 5a. This is my version of a song called AWOL by Broadway. I really just added the static as an extra to transition between the lone piano part and the lone guitar part. I just used the intro to AWOL as a constant throughout the whole loop and added a guitar solo over the piano playing the looped part. I ended the loop with the guitar harmonizing the piano and then fading out and the piano holding a C after playing the loop after playing one more time after the guitar faded out.

My Little Synths

I've just finished woking on project 5, so here's the blog post. I kinda went for a spacey theme while writing this just because that's how my synths came out. For the saw wave I made the envelope two hills which gave it a cool sound to it with the effects I added. The effect that I added was a chorus with an order of 5 with delay and a bit of reverb. I used this synth as a lead part in my loop. For the sine wave i left most of the settings at default. The effect that i used was a chorus with an order of 9 with delay and reverb. This was the rhythm part in my loop. For the lead synth part I wrote it myself rather then having a chopped or generated riff. When I wrote it initially it sounded kinda empty so i added a harmonizing part to it and it sounded much better. For the drums i went into FPC and found a pattern I liked but I can't find right now. Then, I wrote a pattern with chords that was later refined with the sine wave to be kind of a rhythm part. Also, for the synth patterns I transposed them 3 half steps up to make a easy second pattern before the bridge. For the bridge part I had the drums drop out 1 measure before and the rhythm faded out just before it started. I wrote a slower part for the saw wave synth. Then, I made a long held out chord for the rhythm synth to hold for the rest of the loop and that faded in over 2 measures. I had the drums come back in when I had the lead synth went back to pattern one. Finally I had everything fade put to end the loop.

Now You're thinking with Filters!

This is my blog post for project 4. This feel I get for the final product is very similar to the music found in a video game called Portal. For pattern one I went into the riff machine with slayer and kept randomizing until I got something that sounded pretty good and then transposed that 3 times in the pattern. For pattern 2 I went into FPC and took the pattern called FPC Hardrock 06 because I thought that it complimented the guitar nicely. For Pattern 3 I made a pattern for a rhythm guitar. For the final pattern I took the synthesizer 3xOsc and went back into the riff machine until something that worked popped up. Next, I added a master volume automation clip to make the track fade in at the beginning and then fade out at the end. Then, I sent the lead guitar through a filter to give it a more techno sound. I then added an XY-controller to the MODX and MODY filters on 3xOsc and made an automation clip with that. Finally, I doodled with the tempo and lowered it to 100 BPMs which really made it sound like that game. Overall, this project was extremely fun and I am very happy with the way it came out.



Here is an alternate version without the rhythm guitar and drums. I just wanted to mess about and see just how close I could get with this to being like Portal's music.

Update on Project 4

I started project 4 this week. One of the main reasons its not done is because I only had 2 days to work on it in class this week. Its coming along nicely and the only part left to go, I believe, is the synth requirement. So, yeah this project is one of the more fun ones if done. Sounds pretty good to me so far with the 2 guitar part and drums all done.

Automation is Cool

For pattern 1 I just went into FPC and chose Metal 7 as the drums to play throughout the song. Then I went to SimSynth and put it into the riff machine. After a while I got a 4 measure pattern that I liked a lot. I cloned the Synth pattern and put it up 3 half steps. I added a bass to go along with both synth patterns. For the automation I used the cut off frequency of the SimSynth. I started it low and then after a bar I put it up a little and dropped it after another. I kept that pattern through that automation. Finally, I made a steep drop in master volume to end the song.

Chopping Project

I used the transpose function to make the guitar and bass sound like they were in a Drop C tuning and made a 3 measure long pattern of just chugging.

For the 3 measures before the synth came in I had the guitar start the chugging and had the bass do the same to make it sound a little deeper and more full. The FPC drumloop goes throughout the entire song and doesn't change, but I really like how it compliments the rest of the song. I used the chopping tool on C with the PoiZone synth to make the synth part that comes in on the 4th measure. After 3 more measures I added a 1 measure guitar fill made with the chop tool to bridge the transposition from C to F. The F part goes on for 3 measures and then I let the drums continue though a break for the other instruments for 1 measure. When the instruments came back they were back in/on C, continuing the same pattern. After 3 measures I let the synth and bass drop out. I made a shortened pattern for the guitar to stop the song. I had the drums cut out just before the final 4 guitars note came out to end the song.

First Project

 While making this drum loop I was thinking of sounds I hear while listening to simple punk rock. With the fill I tried to make the time stop a little bit and introduce the bass drum in as the new main drum for the contrasting pattern. The 1st pattern I used had a kick drum on every beat and the hi hat being hit every other beat. Also in this pattern I added a little pattern of ride hits on top of the kick and hi hat.The alternate pattern to this kept the kick drum and the ride hits the same and added a 'clap' on the first beat and removed the hi hat hit that was there. Also the hi hat is hit three times in the 3rd beat. The contrasting pattern I made took out the ride cymbal completely and moved the focus to the bass drum and tom. The bass drum takes the same pattern as the ride cymbal had in the previous pattern.The tom gets hit with the bass drum in the first 2 beats and on the last hit in the measure. The last pattern is used to ed the loop only using the first two beats of the previous pattern. What I tried to accomplish was to create a completely contrasting pattern that sounded really good together. ENJOY! :D

TESTER :D


YAY MUSIC TECH CLASS!