Assignment 4Â (Recording Assignment)
Click the soundcloud logo to listen!
Which sound did you use and why?
I decided to go with a house music sound for my song. I was scrolling through the Ableton loops during one of the previous assignments, and I found one I thought I could make a good song out of. The loop was the "Stutter Fmin", and was my base to start with followed by my drums. After that I added my bass and then following that my synth. Lastly I did my audio recordings. I did my audio last because I already the idea in my head for what I wanted to do, but I wanted to get my song structure set up before I started messing with the voice recording parts.Â
What steps did you take to make it work in a musical context?
I started with my loops to get a base line for how I wanted the songs to sound. I then added some audio effects to my "Stutter Fmin" loop, as there was something I felt was missing from it. I then used Ableton's MIDI keyboard for bass line, and the keyboard roll for the MIDI synth. Once I got my other instruments set up, I did my voice recordings. For my voice recordings I also added some audio effects to make it fit more in the style of the song. I think the effects really helped match the vibe. Â
Synth Loop
Do you feel that you were successful?
Absolutely! I really enjoy the song I created, and am very proud of my creation. I really think the last assignment really helped me get MIDI skills in order, and helped a lot making the bass line and the synth in my song, and they both compliment the song a TON. I really enjoyed the whole creative process and B30 as a whole!
Drum Loop
Audio Track Effects
 MIDI Synth Effects
Bass Line
Past Blogs/Assignments
Before
As with my last assignment, I used Ableton for my DAW of choice. I first started by finding three sounds I liked in Ableton. Then I went through each one modifying it (check the bottom of this blog to see my modifications) till I really liked they way they sounded. After that I tried making a melody I liked, followed by the bass, and then my chords. I used my the piano roll in Ableton for my melody and my bass, and Ableton's musical typing for my chords, as my MIDI keyboard I bought online, did not arrive on time due to the holiday this weekend.
I used Ableton's musical typing for my MIDI. I made my chords using this method, and it was honestly fun, even for a simple set of chords. I cannot wait to use my MIDI keyboard once it arrives early next week.Â
What software instruments did you use and why?
I used three different types of piano sounds for my instruments. I used an electric piano, an organ, and a synth. Knowing the criteria included shaping the sounds in some way, I specifically sorted through piano and synths on Ableton, because I knew I could manipulate the sound to make them sound more like various instruments, and thought that could be a fun challenge to try and do.
Do you feel like the end result was satisfying?
Honestly, I'm very 50/50 on it. I think it was satisfying creating sounds in a MIDI format, but I'm not particularly satisfied with sound I created, and I feel there is a lot of improvements to be made, but due to the time constraint of this assignment, and it being a very busy week for me, I couldn't get around to making it better.Â
What would you do differently if you had unlimited time and ability?
Remake my melody from scratch and try something new with it. Like I just stated, the time constraint did allow for me to really put my full creative thought into this project. I think I could do far better, and really wish I was able to. Although I don't hate my project, I just know I could do better given more time.Â
Where did you get your MIDI from?
Chord Keys
Assignment 3Â (MIDI Composition)
My Thought Process
My Sound Shaping
Week 3 Synth is below this blog
Electric Piano Keys
Click the soundcloud logo to listen!
Chord Keys
Electric Piano Keys
Organ Keys
Organ Keys
After
Week 3 Learning Synths
Synth Playground
As an electronics major, this assignment really interested me. Last semester in my AC Electronics class, I learned all about this, but not from a musical standpoint. Ive made countless circuits using with low pass and high pass filters, low frequency oscillators, and manipulated sign waves to make square, saw tooth, and some other pretty cool sine waves. I knew AC messed with music, but synths use just about every aspect of AC to manipulate the sound of it.Â
Distortion
Distortion was really intriguing to me because, finding out the different sine waves have varying effects on the sound is super cool. Each wave has its own unique personality and sound to it, that depending on the sound your going for, can be used in an wide variety of situations,Â
Variability
This was something I was kind of going for in my MIDI assignment. I wanted to use a synth to make different instruments for my song. But it amazes how much variety there really is behind it. You can make so many different instruments using a synth, it honestly blows my mind. I would love to try and make more instruments and sounds out of a synth on my next assignment to challenge myself even further
This assignment was lots of fun to do! I chose Ableton live as my DAW to use for this assignment, and it was lots of fun and extremely interesting to learn on. Although, using Ableton for my first DAW definitely had its challenges. Even though it was challenging, I'm glad I stuck with it and persevered, because the knowledge I gained will definitely help in the long run. Ableton offers a lot of different sounds, samples, instruments, and so many other helpful tools. The variety of different sounds you can choose from is very awesome, and allows for any type of music to be created that you desire. When choosing between what loops I wanted to use, there were so many different genres and so much variety to pick from, I honestly had struggled to pick what genre of music I wanted to create.Â
How did you approach creating a structure?
The very first instrument I knew I wanted to start with was the drums. I think it really helps to lay down ground work for what your trying to make. Because different drum kits can sound so different and versatile, I knew finding the right one would help build the foundation of my song. After I found my drums, I heard the conga and tambourine and felt like they blended very well together. Once I had those two, I had ground work I was happy with and started looking for other instruments from there.Â
Do you feel like creating music in this way is a legitimate form of musical creativity?
I think it is, but to an extent. I don't think I would make music entirely based off preset loops, when I start making more music. I think the usage of loops can be very helpful to lay down the ground work for your song, but using all loops, is where the creativity falls flat. I think if you can imagine a beat in your head on the piano or guitar for example, build that, then use a couple loops to support that beat. At the same time though, this doesn't apply for everyone, and every song. There are probably some great examples out there, of people making songs with just preset loops. If you have the mind to be able to put different loops together and make something great, all power to you!
Conclusive thoughts
I really enjoyed getting to mess around with a DAW. Its something if watched my friends do, and have always to give it my own try. This assignment allowed me to do that, and gave me the push to do so! Before I even started on the assignment, I tried to familiarize myself with Ableton and get a feel for it, and that really helped me to be able to do this assignment. Overall, I don't know if I'd produce music like this. Like I stated earlier, I think using a couple loops to help set up your song, is definitely a good idea. But using just loops to make a song, isn't my style personally.Â
Which loops did you use and why?
Assignment 2Â (DAW Loop)
Introduction
Click the soundcloud logo to listen!
Drum Kit Loop
Conga & Tambourine
Electric Piano
Vocal Loop
Bass Guitar
Electric Guitar
It was honestly difficult to narrow down a couple things I found exciting about this topic, as everything I read was extremely interesting and fun to mess around with. The two things that were most interesting to me were melodies and the 1-5-6-4, chord progression. Melodies were lots of fun to mess around with and create multiple different melodies. After a bit of messing around creating my own, I started to trying to recreate songs I listen to, on the playground. The 1-5-6-4 progression interested me because of how widely used it is, yet all of those songs that use it, sound so vastly different. I want to try and create my own sound using the 1-5-6-4 some day, and see if I can create something unique out of it.
Exciting Topics
Assignment 1Â (Learning Music)
The two topics that were most challenging for me where, the nineteen tone scale and creating a bassline. Nineteen tone scale seems challenging to me because I don't currently play piano, but want to learn soon. I think despite its challenging aspects, I am excited to learn more about it and better my understanding. Another challenge for me was creating a bassline I thought sounded good. I know that the bassline is the backbone of every song, so creating a good sounding bassline is essential. The problem for me was that I couldn't design something that sounded good to me. I would really like to practice more on this and try to experiment with different pitches and styles.Â
Challenging Topics
