'Phased' - New Original Song/Demo/Idea! - Electronic/Experimental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

This song began with the first

2 tracks, both electric pianos, but upon hearing the same progression with the synths in Tracks 3 and 4, I decided to scrap the original idea and start with the synthy stuff. This is definitely a demo/unfinished, and I am not super keen on the drums, but the progression was really cool and I like how thick the tone of it is. There is so much low-end you can't even hear the kick drum haha, so it needs to be changed up a bit when I finalize it, but let's go through what I have so far!

Listen to Phased here.

I began this song doing something

I don't normally do: I mapped out a C Phrygian Mode in 2 octaves, then clicked the "fold" option on the midimap/piano roll, so it just showed the notes I had selected, then built a progression out of that. While I wouldn't do this all the time, it was a fun way to limit myself and come up with ideas that way. This song is in 4/4, but the progression is FIVE 1/8th notes long, so it has a crazy rhythm to it. Essentially, every Track from #3 to #6 is playing the same riffs, either LIGHT GREEN or DARK GREEN, and they alternate/harmonize with each other. Each of these is just a heavy synth tone, and play in either bass or mid/high range. One of them is SO subby, it completely overpowers all the low stuff haha. So that would need to be EQ'd out probably in a final version.

LIGHT GREEN MAIN RIFF.

Listen to Phased here.

DARK GREEN MAIN RIFF.

Tracks 7 and 8 are the drums,

and are duplicates of each in tone but and rhythm, but as you will see, they dont use the same "parts" of the drumkit at the same time. Track 7 is a midi mapped drum kit, and I added a 'pitch shift' midi effect to it, but upon using it, realized instead of shifting pitch, it shifted which hits were being played by the map, as each hit (kick, snare, clap etc) is set to a different "key" on the midi-piano. This actually turned out pretty cool, the "beat" doesn't change, just the things playing it do, which has an interesting random sort of effect, without losing the rhythm.

Listen to Phased here.

Track 8 comes in playing

the actual beat, without the above effects. I honestly don't feel like this kit fits too well with the heavy synths, it needs to be dirtier and darker I think, but in the mean time, this isn't a bad placeholder. Tracks 9 and 10 are little transition sounds, one is a theramin, the other sort of a hissy noise, both of which just swell up in volume at certain points. Our last Track is #1, ALL the way back the beginning. This was the original Track, but after I finished all the synthy stuff, I went back to this, adding the same progressions, but double-timed. This fit into the background pretty nicely, I like how it builds a bit to the break, when it plays by itself.