Basically brooding from having watched the news in concert with despair over my present financial circumstances and the seeming marriage between them coupled with my own understanding of the looming crises and how easily they could be resolved, I came to the conclusion that my own unhappiness had more to do with my own inadequacies and less to do with events in the world. I quickly sublimated this conclusion, however, and projected the emotional discomfort which it aroused onto the inadequacies I perceived from the most prominently featured pundits and the tepid cauldron of idiocy they represent. I then came to the conclusion there was nothing I could do for these idiots and subsequently, a decision to begin work on a new song with which to temper my discomfort and project it into the small circle of people who might actually listen to an instrumental piece.
Hence, the working title opened from a template, replete with buses, I've been developing in my DAW (Sonar).
I actually started playing a piano part, trying to emulate a composer I'd heard on NPR a couple of days prior. He, too, had reasons to brood, although his were actually far more compelling and had far less to do with the circumstances he had actually created for himself. My dribbling idiocy would never actually form a coherent melody the likes of which I'd heard, so I just began randomly poking around a slew of VST's I had appropriated from KVR-Audio's plug-in database.
I fiddled around with a few of the presets but settled on #2, which seemed to suit my self-indulgent mood. I toyed around with it, playing various arpeggios and chords that eventually informed the harmonic structure of the dyadic interplay beginning at 1:57, which is the basic theme I built the song to its current point with.
Knowing where I wanted to go, but not really having a context for it, before I got the theme recorded, I wanted a very rudimentary rhythm section to play to. I started on the kick drum using another plug-in I found at KVR.
In my terms, this is what I call the primary kick. It is the most prevalent, most elemental kick and is fairly determinant of what I call the secondary and dominant kicks are going to play. I'll cover the thinking and implementation behind the secondary and dominant kicks in future installments, but for my purposes, the primary kick (8 bars long, beginning at 0:00) is what I start every song with.
Like the hi-hat pattern and possibly the snare, the kick pattern will have progressive evolutions, in the future, but, for now, it's a single pattern repeated to the song's end. It is a little rough and nasty so I will be tempering it with a second unison layer. I still like the texture.
The plug, itself, comes with a nasty click I didn't like, that along with some high-end hinkiness, I wanted to filter out.
I always use the high-pass filter, set at 30Hz, and have recently started using a much softer Q'ed shelf to roll off the low end frequencies in order to maintain the thump. I don't really have a protocol to follow in cutting/shelving the high-end so just did a cut and moved it down the spectrum until I obtained a more desirable sound. The pop is still audible, and to some degree I still want it there, but it's much less obtrusive.
Here's the compressor I used for the kick:
No 'special' rules, here other than the fact I always use compressors with kicks to help improve its prominence in a mix and generally shape the sound to taste. The compressors I use on kicks almost always have their signal gained. The track is in mono and also routed to a bus designated to provide additional processing (not yet applied) for kicks.
For all of its functional nastiness, I like this plug-in for kicks because you can have it play for the duration the note, which allows for varying expressions to be captured, opposing just a solid thump of fixed duration. There is also no pitch setting. Instead, the pitch correlates with the note which is played. For a free plug-in, it does quite well.
Hi-hats were made using Session Drummer.
I don't particularly like the GUI but there is some control and the sound quality is excellent. I may layer these hats with others, in future evolutions of the song.
Hats: Note the variations to the central cadence, at the beginning and end.
The snare is a simple snare beat using a utility sample player (sfz) which came with Sonar and a layered snare I clipped out of a prior song.
Neither of these have any compression or EQ on them in this stage, although the snare sample, which may get layered with another (it's kind of just a placeholder, right now, but I still like it), has previous EQ and compression. As a rule, I try to do without dynamic processing, until it becomes absolutely necessary. The only sounds which get dynamic treatment, from the moment they start in the song's conception are the kick drums and the bass-lines.
Back over to the Cheeze Machine, I already had an idea of where I wanted to go, but there was the problem with how to get to that point that people hearing the song could follow. I won't belabor the philosophy of how much of that is a problem opposing an opportunity. The fact is that it's fun, getting there.
The sound emanating from the Cheese Machine is nicely boomy but I still need to add a bass-line and, for current listening purposes, it has far too loud of a bass response so I went ahead and rolled off the bass with the cut's Q around 110 Hz. I will probably have to shelve some of the lower frequencies past that and may even have to raise the cut, as parts are added which clash with it, but for now it has a working presence in the mix.
There is also the delay. This will probably be the only time this particular delay configuration will be used and/or as present.
I have both read and been advised, for the purposes of getting music down, that time based effects should not be used until the mixing phase. For the purposes of certain parts in certain songs, I couldn't disagree more. Don't get me wrong. I think one should listen to every part, dry as a bone (both soloed and with the other parts), to make sure that notes are where they're supposed to be, but it helps to record the MIDI in a wet environment so that, when you're doing rhythmic articulations, you can have a reference point as to how it will sound. Apart from that, however, it helps one to aesthetically envision how the rest of the song will sound and hence, map out an appropriate plan of action for additional parts.
The lead is pretty much the functional framework that the rest of the song will build around. The introduction was relatively simple and took maybe three or four passes on the keyboard before I obtained something I was relatively happy with. It's basically just a very abbreviated version of the main theme it is introducing through a soliloquized call and response.
Expanding into a notion of part or track consciousness, where each of the individual parts functions as a pseudo-conscious entity unto its own, the lead will be instructive to the bass-line and all the other parts (e.g. arpeggios, stabs, pads, et al) occurring around it. My plan is to introduce them to the mix in a way which is only loosely related to the phrasing of the lead and then, as things progress, let the lead 'instruct' each of the parts as to how each will fit in once the introductory build is complete into the body of the song, in full tilt.
At full-tilt is where the concept for the song was born. In a sense, the song-writing portion of this began, at the beginning of the middle. If you're thinking to yourself, hey, this sounds remarkably like the work of Matt Darey, even if it's attached to a clause resembling, mangled under the stark weight of EZ's jaw-dropping ineptness, you're absolutely correct. To be sure, I'm not really certain exactly where the fully formed idea came from, other than a standard refrain I plink out on my keyboard when I'm warming up that was never fully refined until now. I will concede, however, that the hook is an extrapolated exploration of the one from Darey's production of Lost Tribe's "Gamemaster".
I am planning on layering it with another synth. If you've heard it, you may have picked up on the fact that the lead synth isn't monophonic. I'm thinking of layering it with a monophonic synth so that the mono-synth will choke to create an interesting contrasting layer. It may sound really cool. It may sound absolutely awful. I will make sure it can be heard.
Regardless, I tend to get unhappy hearing a hook with no variation, what-so-ever, so while the first theme is 16 bars long, there are three functional variations to it which serve to reinforce the over-arching melodic structure while providing subtle variety. The first variation repeats itself, previously soloed with and without delay, but only for the purposes of this installment. Surprisingly, I'm happy with it as a reflection of my mood on the day it was started, but then at least I'm happy with something.
That said, the song is still in its infancy. The version utilized for the purposes of this tutorial on how I make a song, not to be confused with a tutorial on how you should make a song, is the current version.
I have a few decisions to make before I proceed further with it. This version ends in a vamp which I plan on using as a spring-board for the next evolution of the lead. Will it descend into a cell-phone waiving, hands in the air break? What will happen with the lead after the rhythm drops back in (or without a break, next)? Should I work on additional parts, before or after I finish the melody line, to help inform a structure for the second part of the song?
Whatever the answer to these questions, I will post them in this thread. I've tried, very deliberately, not to use too much jargon (e.g. vamp, dyadic, over-arching melodic structure) which is above my pay-grade, but there are certain concepts I was speaking to for which these words seemed to apply much more efficiently. If I've misused them or you have an idea about how to better proceed, please feel free to put it in this thread.
kevin shawn
I have gone to work and came home and this thread has no replies yet?!? I think everyone's intimidated :toocool:
Interesting insight into your work flow I love to see how others come up with their ideas and get them into something audible. Next time give us a "In the studio" video :p
Last half seems uber passionate about your music, very in depth. Did you take your meds today? (jk jk )
Beatflux
Were you really bored? This seems like a blog post.
Kysora
I never liked Cheeze Machine but I like what you did with it. it's neat seeing how you approach music, it's nothing like how I do it.
cryophonik
Very cool idea, EZ! It's doubly cool for me because I get to see how a fellow Sonar user works his madness. ;)
EddieZilker
quote:
Originally posted by kevin shawn
I have gone to work and came home and this thread has no replies yet?!? I think everyone's intimidated :toocool:
Interesting insight into your work flow I love to see how others come up with their ideas and get them into something audible. Next time give us a "In the studio" video :p
Last half seems uber passionate about your music, very in depth. Did you take your meds today? (jk jk )
:stongue: Currently, I'm running on 24+ hour sleep deprivation and a foul, foul mood. Does that count? In spite of these very real factors, I humbly appreciate your comments.
Personally, I love "In the Studio". My studio, however...
I'll humbly say, it's also where the magic happens. [Cue video editing of multi-segmented, cut-spliced panning shot, to a hip-hop beat, of my bedroom with lots of freeze-frame zooming.]
On second thought. That's probably not such a good idea.
quote:
Originally posted by Beatflux
Were you really bored? This seems like a blog post.
Obligatory, you should write a blog post. Honestly, I thought about preemptively declaring it a blog post but it would have taken the fun out of it for you. ;)
quote:
Originally posted by Kysora
I never liked Cheeze Machine but I like what you did with it. it's neat seeing how you approach music, it's nothing like how I do it.
CM isn't much on features but it does the few things it really does, really well. There have been so many times I've tried to bring it into another mix where it really just didn't fit in with the other instruments I was using.
quote:
Originally posted by cryophonik
Very cool idea, EZ! It's doubly cool for me because I get to see how a fellow Sonar user works his madness. ;)
In full disclosure, there are a few tricks I learned (as in stole) from you ;). I will endeavor to point those out. It's such a powerful platform that as well as it integrates your full-blown, gear saddled mega-hit factory, it also provides a nice virtual studio.
Thanks for the comments, all. I've had an absolutely horrible, yet suitably ironic, Labor Day. A real-life intersection of epic -ups, real-life idiocy, malignant audacity and generally ty human behavior. About the only thing good, I can say, is that 99% has nothing to do with me, other than getting financially ed for a pittance worth of work. I am in the process of transference, currently, going for an even more melancholy, brooding and self-indulgent evolution of the lead.
tehlord
Epic post EZ, although i'm not entirely sure how all the paragraphs and examples fit together at this point!
The idea of a timed comment SC tutorial is sound however (no pun)
I'll have to re-read this several times I think
:p
theterran
Interesting and englightening insight into the mind of EZ along with his production flow.
Sorry your labor day sucked m8. I'm sure you already know that stress and all of that can really fuel some of that deep melodic fire. Harness the rage and insert it into the music. Most oft it benefits :D.
I'm tempted to post something similar on how I go about my track making :D. (Automation practice is best practice)
david.michael
Hey yo EZ!
Hey man, why don't you come off the piano for a minute and bust this crazy .
Owsey2008
It's really cool to read posts like this. I think we need a lot more of them from people like yourself.
EddieZilker
Thanks for all the interest in this. I just got to another stopping point and will be making some edits to show off the creative process behind the bass-line. I've also got the rest of the lead developed - excepting the outro and will be revealing that - well, the first part of it.
Part three is going to be percussion only and part four will be additional parts and the break. Part five? I'm not sure yet but it should have something to do with the mix along with some other finishing touches...
@Tehlord: I was basically trying to tie the sound-cloud timed comments in with the narrative of the post - if you get my drift. It's a huge expanse of ground to cover and I'm trying not to leave anything out. I'm even planning on appendixes for things like the finer points of scrubbing MIDI. :D
Kysora
Hmm. I almost want to do one of these with my own creative process, since I think I do things kind of differently from most people here
