Wisdom Teeth

So I get a five day weekend due to getting my wisdom teeth out, and since I can barely eat I got bored real quick. So I put this together on the Fl Studio demo version here at home. Its pretty much all preset synths so I take no credit there, and I used the preset drum loops in the FPC (never done that before). Of course I had to change a couple things and do some processing. Its still pretty muddy, but thats what you get with the limits of the demo version.

Pitcher Project

I really could have used more time for better arrangment and mixing. The vocals proved to be a real pain. I only had one class period with them in there. Pitcher got a little screwy since the vocals werent perfectly on tempo so the midi loop I sent them through was a little off beat with the vocal sample. It sounds like the vocalist is drowning... I didnt get much time to do mixing stuff so I pretty much just sent it through Maximus and some other plugins. I had some little bells and whistles to add in at points throughout the song, but unfortunately never got to them. I must admit one of the synths (the one that does the long runs between the vocals is just a preset in slayer, I didnt have time to create the sound I wanted. Im really dissappointed that I could not finish this project, there are so many obvious things that need to be fixed or improved upon.

Pitcher/Newtone Project Update

I feel like its been forever since Ive had the chance to work on this song. Even worse is we only have a couple classes left in the semester... Today I did some tweaking of the song. My main file of the song somehow got screwed up and everything in the mixer got deleted (thats alot of lost info) so I am working off a different version I saved which is basically the same, but I think this version is headed in a better direction anyway. I have looked at some vocal samples and as much as I wanted to use some clips from Scala and Kolacny Brothers, the piano would have to be filtered out, and the tempo syncing would be rather difficult with that style of music. I simply dont have that much time left in the year. I have another sample im working with, and it will work, but im finding Pitcher to be a pain in the butt so im possibly going to move into Newtone. Pitcher just doesnt sound very high quality (I guess I am asking alot of it though).

Pitcher/Newtone Project

Now that my modal chord progression project is done, I have hit a wall with this project. The only two major changes to FL Studio are Pitcher and Newtone, both requiring vocals. I was considering doing something with the speech synthesizer like Kathys Song by Apoptygma Berserk, which I highly recommend listening to if you havent already. I played around with newtone and considered this style, but I figure it would simply take way too long for being at this point in the school year. So now im planning on just sticking with a typical electro style vocal, very heavily modified so auto-tune would only make it better. I had a couple beats and riffs, but im totally scratching them. I had a little over an hour to kill while waiting for dinner to be served, so I played around with the demo version, and got this [below]. The vocals actually are the only big peice I need to work on still, and I already know where im placing them, just not what they will say...

Some Chords [5-13]

I found this project very interesting because I was forced to focus more on the back bone of the song. I have been listening to alot more trance lately which influenced this piece instead of the electro and industrial that I usually stick with. The big problem I found with this project was the bass. I did not want a complex bass line because it would not fit right. Sticking pretty close to the chord progression, I played with a couple styles and although it is not a perfect fit, the sidechained bass was the best option. I also had alot of trouble with clarity between the bass and kick. I did alot of stuff with cutoff and resonance automations throughout. The chord progression is in C Major if I recall correctly, simple because im lazy. Most of the synths are poizone I believe. They are all pretty simplistic, the first lead just has the trance gate applied, and the chord backing just has alot of detune and a long release (gives the effect at the beginning). Almost all the effects added in along the way are some sort of filter automation. Any other question about the project, just comment. And im sorry if you dont like the length and repitition, I think if a song is really good it should never end (not that my song is that good).

Some Chords [5-05]

The composition part of this project is pretty much wrapped up. I have came up with the drum loops and leveled them a bit. Ive worked on the levels for the chords versus the lead synths that come in. And now I need to work on the bass. Im currently working with a sidechained bass (sidechained with the peak controller plugin to a muted kick, inverted with the volume of the hit). I pumped up the bass level coming from the kick drum, so leveling in the bass might be difficult. I have some higher frequencies added to the bass synth which I hope will help the listener differenciate between the kick and the bass. Im hoping to wrap this project up soon.

Some Chords [4-28]

I dont have a lot to report with my project. Its going well I suppose. Its based a style of vocal trance, like anything by Dash Berlin for instance. Its mainly a heavily detuned 6 chord progression. If you wanna know what this sounds like listen to some Dash Berlin or many other trance artists. My whole project is centered around this peice. I have two riff like parts playing over this at parts of the song, butI need to do some serious leveling with this. Last class I worked mainly on coming up with drums. I have some simple loops that fit, but I need to work on more transitions (they arent necessary with my particular song but I want them). Im thinking of using alot of drum rolls with a filter automation. I also want to see if I can incorporate a backwards hit into my drum loops to add some flare. I have one part where I use one note that drones over the chord progression, I think it adds a great amount of suspense, more than you would think. The drums (the actual samples) sound pretty good I feel. I tend to struggle with drums. The main thing im struggling with though is incorporating the two riffs while keeping the focus on the main synth playing the full chords. After really analizing some other complex songs I like I am thinking I need to do two things. I need to filter out some frequencies that the two competing synths have in common and then decrease the volume of the riff synth. I think the listener will hear the new riff coming in and then will pay attention to that and it will sound more balanced (I hope). I have used alot of LP filters to introduce the new riffs, so there are probably going to be some volume issues there. If this was my first time taking music tech I would just export this project now, but im hoping to press out anything i dont want in this one and really get a decent product. Im sure it will take a few more days. I know from reading Celldwellers posts about his songs, he spends alot more time on each song (often months) so Im going to commit some more time to this one.

Envelope and LFO Project Details

Okay, the main synth (the one with the filter on it. Unison at two, even balance between oscillators. Osc. one has the ring modutator on, oscillator two is down an octave. The envelope is set for cutoff (which has already been turned down a bit) and the amount is at +30%, attack at 50%, D/S/R at 100%. The filter is a high pass with alot of automation on the cutoff frequency. The fuzzy synth that comes in to support has the unison at 4 and detune at 40% and some noise added. The envelope is again set at cutoff and all the parameters are set pretty high. Then the LFO is also set to cutoff with high amount and relatively high rate. The sound at 45 seconds has high release, envelope on cutoff with amount at -50%, A @ 10, D @100, S @ 50, R @ 25. Then there is a synth that is in the back of most of the song, but is pretty much by itself at 45 seconds in. The LFO is set on cutoff with the amount at +50% and the rate about level with that. The envelope is on cutoff aswell with the amount very low (-80%) and everything else pretty high.

Some Chords [4-06]

Chords, check. "Air" synth, check. Acid synth, check. Drums, I have some but not so sure I will actually use any. Some cool ideas, check. More on the way?, lookin good. My post for the last project, still working on that...

Update [4-02]

I still have not gotten around to posting the specifics on my last project and I am sorry about the delay. I took screen shots of all the parts of the project, then noticed when i got home to write up about it that I had taken screenshots of the new project, not the completed one...

Well, with the chord progressions project, I am definately taking a trance direction with this one. Ive been listening to alot of Armin van Buuren, ATB, and Dash Berlin among others lately. Mr. Rabuse mentioned chord leading to make smooth progressions, but I have disregarded that for the moment, the feel im hearing is more "boom, boom, boom". Id like to incorporate another progression that is more smooth later on. So far I have some synths, the main one is like the definition of trance, a ton of detune and a long release. I also have alot of automations on the sustain of the synth, the cutoff, and the resonance. I have a bass that is sidechained to the kick, and it is WAY to powerful at the moment, but Ill fix that later. I need to come up with an "acid" style synth. Luckily we have been using poizone alot lately, because that plugin is 100% aimed at acid synths. I also need to work on using cymbals more. I dont typically use them, but they are common in trance. Without them it would be like playing heavy metal without high gain amps, its do-able, but weird.

Envelope and LFO

I think im pretty much done with this project (im already working on something else). Ive posted the result below, and I will discuss the details after our next class (I cant remember the settings or details). So, that will be coming ASAP.

Envelope and LFO Stuff [3-10]

I have the most of my project done now. What I have left to do is some levels mixing, and possible run parts/all of it through the Maxiumus plugin. We only have access to the demo version, and I barely know how to use it, but it makes things sound so much nicer.

The song is pretty electronic, with slightly more complex synths. I used a sample I made on the demo version at my house, and alot of filter automations to make it more bareable. Ive been trying to stay away from filter automations because it makes it much harder to notice the ADSR stuff, but i did all that last project, so I know how to use it. I used it all in this project to, but the filter makes it less noticable.

ADSR

I have to admit I didnt put the most creativity into this project. There are four poizone synths. The transitional synth is very simple. Evenly spilit between the two oscillators and some noise. LFO and envelope both play with frequencies A and B, amplifier fades in, low sustain, high release. Next comes in my "L" synth. The amplifier hasnt been changed much, but in the envelope, the attack is at about 25%, decay is at 70%, sustain is at 0% and release is about 100%. The unison is at 2 and polyphony at 4. The next synth supports the "L" synth at points. It is really simple; pulse/sync settings in the oscillators, trance gate used, and the amplifier and envelope sections are both used. Amplifier - A=65%, D=80%, S=30%, R=65%. This gives it a quick swell. Envelope has a relatively high amount, A= 40%, D/S/R= 100%. Last is my favorite this time around, and of course it is pretty simple. I used it as a pulsing bass. The trance gate does the pulsing. Amplifier; A= 45%, D/S= 100%, R= 90%. Envelope; Amount= 75%, A= 70%, D/S/R= 100%. Thats really about it this time. I did have some problems with clipping in this project, im going to look on the internet about that, I know Imageline has some really simple videos on youtube about basically everything.



Afterthough; I should have moved the very last note up a step, and added one more kick at the start of that note (making it a triplet). Im not going to waste class time to change this, export, and upload again...

Poizone Project

This project contains a total of 5 poizone synths, two of which are layered together. The drums are very straight forward, drums + reverb + EQ = drum loop. The song starts off with two synths. The simpler of the two is actually from 3xOsc, its just using one oscillator. The other is poizone, I used the trance gate, the LFO on FRQ A and the velocity tracking is all the way up, but im not so sure its doing a whole lot. The cutoff and resonance knobs are facing eachother, the PW of both oscillators is about 45%, and the unison is at 4 with a little detune. Oscillator B is tuned down a bit too. A few seconds in the 3xOsc keeps going and a two layer synths come is with this stupid little thing mean to keep it from getting TOO boring. These two synths are also very straight forward. Only oscillator A, no noise, keyboard and velocity tracking are at about 65% for both synths. The main difference between the two is cutoff and resonance. One is at 40% and 70% while the other is at half that. A little later thigns change and what your hearing is a cymbal played in reverse a couple times with some pitch change (automated). The original synths come back in here. The 3xOSc synth sounds different at parts due to cahnges in the filter settings (fruity filter). Things start to get busy again and the only snth I like here come in. Poizone again, all osc A, 100% PW, cutoff at 100, resonance at 0, no traxcking (I know, I did nothing). I played with the amplifier (fade in, resonate out) and set the LFO (destination = cutoff, very high amount, very high rate, and sine wave shape). I ran it through the stereo enhancher (one of my new favorites)and obviously the delay bank. I have a synth play a note in the background at the end, its alot like the very first poizone synth in the song, just different filter settings. I found it difficult to use the velocity tracking since one one of my riffs really utilized different velocities enough to make a noticable difference.

Poizone Project [2-15]

I have decided to scratch all the synths and such that I had been working with and just come up with new ones. There was nothing wrong with what I had, it just wasnt fitting together well. So my new synths are a bit more basic and the overall piece has a slower feel to it. This project is pretty dull in my opinion, just like all my other projects, but im just going to make some changes then put it up here. I dont have all the time in the world to really put some thought into this. Ill have it up here after next class hopefully and ill be able to describe how I made the synths then.

Poizone Project [2-06]

So far I have came up with a few synths. Three are from poizone and I have some others, I am not sure what im really going to do with any of them. I really didnt plan ahead and come up with any ideas before I started toying around with the plug-in, so the synths that i have are pretty basic. They dont take along time to fade in, the trance gate isnt used in a really complex way, little delay or any other modulations that could really limit the synths flexibility. There still is movement with each synth, just nothing that is designed to fix only one purpose. As always I had to use some effects and filters to shape the sounds a little. the poizone isnt my favorite plug-in so far but it is nice to have filters and a trance gate and delay and all that right there for you to try out. If I remember correctly I also have a single drum pattern, but that will probably not fit into whatever I decide to do with these synths (unless I decide to form everything around the drums ofcourse).