'Nova Wave' - New Original Music! - Electronic/Chill/Instrumental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

This song was finalized last night

and I am really happy with how it came out. It's definitely the most instrumentally dense song I've done in a while, and that paid off, the layering worked out well, and gives a really full, spacey sound to the whole thing. Let's go through it!

Listen to Nova Wave here.

We are in G minor,

and Track 1 plays a single G which swells in every 16 bars. Track 2 is some audio clips grouped together (some reversed, some sped up/slowed down), which provide a sort of clicky rhythm through the track, though the volume drops when the full drum beat comes in. Track 3 is another set of audio clips, all weird glitchy, digital sort of sounds, which help build up the backdrop of the same.

The main progression, Verse into Chorus, described below.

Tracks 4, 5 and 6

essentially follow the same progression, with the ORANGE verse parts playing G, Eb, F, and D, and the GREEN Chorus playing Eb, F, C and D. These instruments are all really spacey and floaty, and really sounded good together. Tracks 7 and 8 are the drum beats, which begin with just kicks, then a full beat that comes in for the rest of the song. Track 7 is an acoustic sort of kit, and Track 8 an electric drum kit sound. The beat is interesting, as we don't just have snares on the 3, the first time around it comes in on the 2 beat, but then comes in later, giving us an off-kilter sort of effect.

Listen to Nova Wave here.

Tracks 9 and 10 play

a little melody every other measure, with Track 14 mirroring this, but only playing on the measures in between, essentially filling in the gaps. Tracks 11 and 12 are the same instrument, just panned left and right, which plays little diads throughout the progression. Check the screenshot below and you can follow along with the riff.

Tracks 11 and 12, described above.

Track 13 is just used to swell

and transition into certain sections. Tracks 15 and 16 mirror the progressions in Tracks 4, 5 and 6, but use different instruments. 15 is a deep, distorted rhythmic synth sort of sound, and 16 is a spacey, arpeggiated sort of synth. Both of these are sidechained with compressors to other tracks, so they just fill in the background in between rests.