TASK 2: Planning and composing using experimental techniques

What will the style/genre of music be?

As to make the song I will create more interesting and experimental, I have decided to write a alternative indie song, taking elements and inspiration from classic indie rock songs and blending them with more modern ideas, features from other genres and parts that wouldn't usually be featured in the genre.

Which instruments do you want to record?

for my instruments, I would like to record drums, electric guitar, possibly an acoustic guitar, bass guitar, maybe even try recording stringed instruments as it is something I've never done before and it may encourage a different view of the songs, different ideas or encourage me to experiment.

What type of sounds do you want to experiment with (Melodies/Lead Lines/Bass Lines/Drums)?

What I mainly want to experiment with is the drums and guitar, creating different drum beats to what I usually do or different drum beats than is typically used in my genre, and for the guitar I want to explore different ways I can play which differ from my usual playing, perhaps by using different scales or modes to what I'm used to. I also feel that exploring with vocals would be interesting, as the tracks i have submitted thus far in the course don't feature any vocals.

What processes may be involved (Sampling/Synthesis/Use of effects/Use of microphones/DI boxes). Give details.

I will use sampling and synthesis within my piece. I could use sampling in this piece by: recording drums and sampling each drum hit to create the drums, or to take a speech or vocal line and put it over the song or use it as an intro. In this song i could synthesise a bass/sub, which I could then us to double up a recorded bass line to add more emphasis and power, or I could create a pad to give the song atmosphere, or maybe create a melody part. On the guitar part, I will feature effects, however I am not sure what they will be as I may decide to have it more distorted or less distorted, maybe wanting it to be more ambient, using effects like reverb, delay, Tremelo, chorus; or more driven, maybe using a crunch, fuzz or octave effect. With this piece i may also experiment by using different microphones like, for example, using dynamic mics in place of the condensers on a drum kit, maybe giving the cymbals a more washed and different sound.

Include reference tracks to help identify what will influence your music

In this song, I really like the drums and the way that they are produced, making the kick very boomy and the whole kit distorted, also keeping it minimally produced and giving it a raw feel amongst the other cleanly produced parts, making it stand out. I also really like its slow attack, string sounding pad that introduces the song, it being mixed to sound almost like its being played on vinyl.

What audience are you aiming the composition for?

I aim to have my composition targeted towards people who listen to alternative rock/indie music, however I also want to make t inclusive so anyone can listen so I will try to focus to make it the correct levels for streaming platforms, such as Spotify, and I will aim to follow a simplistic song structure and try to involve elements of pop, perhaps mimicking the pop structure in my composition.

Your own specific uses of Synthesis
Your own specific uses of Sampling
Your own specific Mixing techniques
Your own specific uses Recording processes
You must evidence 'Signal Flow'. How do you get an audio signal from the live room into Logic? What is the route. Include all cables and hardware equipment with an explanation as to what everything does. This can be done with a video in the studio or a diagram.

talk about wall ties, patching,

Explain your use of Microphones with pictures and videos
Explain your Choice of microphones and why
Explain your choice of microphone positioning
Understanding of microphone theory: Types, polar patterns and frequency response curves

SAMPLING

Found Sounds

found sounds are sounds which are generally classed as "not musical", which are used within a recording of a piece of music. the use of found sounds can be traced back to the compositional ethos "Musique concrete", popular in the 1940s, in which sounds would be recorded onto magnetic tape and hand edited. the benefits of using found sounds are that it creates interest to your music and allows the producer/engineer to explore the experimental ideas centred around its use, for example like reversing certain sounds to create risers, extending parts to create an airy ambiance etc. It is also great when trying to create original music and sounds.

MultiSampler

Most recently, I have been using Multisampler, a sampler which allows you to cut multiple audio files, map them to keys on a midi keyboard and assign them to different velocity ranges. This is particularly good when creating midi instruments as it allows you to record multiple velocities of each note or hit on each instrument and place them on to one key, creating a more realistic sound to just adjusting the volume of one audio for velocity. we can see the assignment of differently played drum hits in the zone section to velocity ranges at the very bottom of the image. Also within this image a modulation section alike to a synthesizer, featuring ADSR envelopes and a Low frequency oscillator.

When using multisampler, I first started by putting 3 audio files into the zone section the first one being for a kick, the second a snare and the third for a hi-hat. I then cut these using the sample start and end and used the faders attached to ensure the sample was ending on the zero crossing line and to have less pop at the endds and starts of the sample. I also made these 1 shot so that the sample didn't end when I released the key, creating a bit more of a realistic sound.

These are the samples that were used.

After this was done, I moved on to mapping where each drum part would activate on the midi keyboard. I put the kick on C1, snare on D1 and the hat on D#1 as I found this easiest to play. This simply can be done by dragging the bars shown over the keyboard along, these bars being the samples.

Finally, I created a midi region on this track and created a drum beat with these parts.

SYNTHESIS

OSCILLATORS

The oscillator is the source and foundation for a subtractive sythesis, typically using more than one wave form of which you can control. The most common of these are the ones shown in the image, being:

SINE - a sine wave is a very simple sound, sounding very round and clean with no sudden rises in volume, making it sound very smooth. This makes this wave great when creating airy pads and is generally a go-to layer for a synth.

SAW - a saw wave has a very sharp sound due to its sudden troughs in its waveform. This makes it great layer when creating more aggressive and buzzy-sounding synths.

SQUARE - square waves have an aggressive sound, due to its sudden troughs and peaks which make it very piercing and good for creating lead synths.

TRIANGLE - triangle waves are similar to a sine wave, however with its more sudden attacks and decays it gives it a brighter and less warm sound in comparison to the sine wave, the triangle often being used in bass synths.

These images show the EQ graph for each of the basic waveforms.

FILTERS

This video shows the different parts of filter on Retrosynth.

Cutoff

demonstrated at the timestamp 00:02, the cutoff removes the higher frequencies of the synth, as how an EQ can, however unlike the channel EQ in logic, The filter in Retrosynth can't cut out the low frequency and keep the higher frequencies simultaneously.

Resonance

Demonstrated at the timestamp 00:16, Resonance is the boost of volume given to the frequencies before the cutoff point. Doing this adds more clarity and sharpness to the sound.

ENVELOPES

This image shows the envelope on Retrosynth.

An envelope allows you to control each of the different phases of a sound, these phases differing from synth to synth, however the most common phases are:

ATTACK - attack determines how long it takes, after the initial press of the key, to reach its full volume before moving on into the next phase, decay.

DECAY - decay determines the length of the drop from the peak volume.

SUSTAIN - sustain determines the volume after the decay and before the release of the sound, this volume will continue until the key being pressed is released.

RELEASE - release determines the length of time it takes for the sound to end as soon as you release the key being pressed.

(ADSR as a shortened name)

In this audio, the ADSR is set to the specifications shown in the image above, this being a 1700 ms attack, a 1100 ms decay, the sustain is set to 0.11 (this being on a scale of 0 being the minimum volume and 1 being the max), and the release is set to 360ms.

LFO

(How you can attach them to parts of the synth to change the synth during it being played)

An LFO is a Low Frequency Oscillator that you can attach to certain parts of your synthesiser to make your synth modulate during the lengh of it being played. For example, you can apply a tremolo effect to your synth by attaching an LFO to the volume on the synth, making it modulate in and out. Alike to other oscillators, the Low Frequency Oscillator has other options of waveform, although the options vary from synthesiser to synthesiser. (the image is of the LFO on Alchemy)

In this image, I have selected the volume knob on the saw wave, which has opened it as Volume A in the modulation section, allowing me to attach the volume to the LFO named LFO1 (Sine), which is show next to this. In this modulation section we see a depth dial, this allowing us to select, in this scenario, what amount of volume will be reduced. If set to 100 it will be from its highest volume to no volume and if its set to -100 it will go from no volume to its highest.

In the LFO section, there are 4 Knobs:

Delay determines when the LFO starts after the initial hit, Attack determines how quickly the LFO output fades in and in turn widen its modulation depth, Phase adjusts the start point of the LFO from zero to later in the cycle, and Rate determines the LFOs rate or Frequency.

Example with LFO on volume, Depth at 100%, LFO decay at 1/8, LFO attack at 1, LFO phase at 0 (didn't apply) and LFO rate at 1/16.

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