Wednesday, September 10, 2014

inorganic lemonade


Been a while. Hope you've been doing great. Here are two things I've been working on, both attempts to teach myself music production through trial and error.

The first is an unfinished synth etude with only two chords (E minor and D major7).  Not a complete song, just futzing around for a few hours. 

Lesson learned: a little sound can go so far in electronic music. The formula:
  • simple sine wave repeating theme (the octave leaping clear tone)
  • staccato saw wave synth playing ornamentation (high "tip tip tip" sound, just improvising on the chord notes)
  • slow tremolo strings with long attack and decay playing four-note chords
  • synth acoustic bass sound
  • synth drumset (only the kick drum and closed high hat strike sound, playing simple rock beat)
  • synth brass harmonizing the vocal track
  • nonsense vocals + nonsense vocal harmony

If you isolate each element you need no more than basic skills on the keyboard to play each one. 



The second is a song for M's sister's daughters, on the occasion of the birth of the younger.  She's the blurry blob in the extreme foreground.

I recorded this about six months ago. Things I'm happy with: use of brass sounds and transition to ska section; catchiness and age appropriateness.  (I recently sang the song with the older girl! She sang along with all the repeating parts!) Things I'm dissatisfied with: my inability to find the pitch with my voice, poor mixing, overlay on certain frequencies muddying the sound.