FX Project

To start with I put together a drum loop and a bass line, pretty simple but I like them. I added a quick guitar part and messed with the pitch, settings, and effects endlessly and finally got something I was good with. I intended for it to be in the background like a few Muse songs Ive heard. I put phaser on the riff, it totally changed, it sounds nothing like it now. Its much more apparent in the mix and even harder to call a guitar riff. I had to turn down the volume from slayer each time i touched it since the effect made the riff totally tune out the other patterns. It sounds more like something that would be coming from a keyboard, not a guitar. I finally deleted another guiatar riff that played along with everthing since it only sounded nice when it was very high pitched, but my headphones couldnt handle it or something and it quickly faded out, even when played alone. The guitar part shifts alittle in the middle of the song along with the bass. the bass changes up again which gives the two patterns a slightly different sound. Then I had to put together a bass [solo/fill]to get back into the main loop. The bass line I tried to do everything to but since its mostly the same repeating note, nothing made a big impact so I left it. I put reverb onto the snare drum, I thought it was fine but I needed some more effects so I tried and it stuck. The main loop towards the end of the peice is the same as the beginning but I added delay onto the cymbals, It basically sounds like a totally new loop. The cymbals also have alot of feedback to them, so when I dropped the other parts of the loop the cymbals echo out for awhile. I had to put in an empty pattern a few seconds after the others stpped to capture this fade out. I Love sitting in my room, turning up the amp, hitting a power cord and listening to it very slowly fade away. All songs should end like that. I finally deleted another guiatar riff that played along with everthing since it only sounded nice when it was very high pitched, but my headphones couldnt handle it or something and it quickly faded out, even when played alone.

The Chop and Transpose Tools

My second assignment here was to incorporate the chop tool and the transpose tool into your loop. This assignment proved difficult and time consuming to me. I finally got some sort of inspiration or influence from Psyclon Nine. I am very happy with how the drums worked out, I tried to go for the slow but harsh beats they use in Psyclon Nine. Although my drums dont sound anything like theirs, id still say I was influenced. Also the fuzzy guitar parts came from P9, again though i couldnt get a heavier sound like them since I was falling behind on this assignment. The chop tool was my worst nightmare, I had thought it would be eay enough to let the computer make some long notes into a nice riff, but I was not happy with any of them. I finally just picked one and let it go. I used the transpose tool on the bass part but splitting the riff in half, lowering the first half by an octave, raising the second half by two octaves from their and then returning. Matching the chopped guitar with the chopped bass was also difficult, i couldnt use the same riff but they couldnt sound too different. I started and ended the song with a simple drum piece, slowly added in the bass and then the guitar.

Drum Loop

The first thing I decided when making this was to contentrate on NOT allowing it to sound like any of the bands I listen to. Whether or not I truely like what I was going to make, I didnt want to just copy somebody else. For the first pattern I tried to refrain from using snares, I wanted it to sound less active like rock. I used toms as a substitute to get a more free flowing sort of thing, since the toms rang out longer. The second pattern sounds alot like to first due to the same sounds going off at close to the same time, but its slower and simpler sounding while keeping that same flow from the first pattern. I tried to get the first fill to make the second pattern seem less slowed down, since the first fill is fast. The second fill was meant to kind of erase what you just heard so the third pattern didnt seem so foriegn.

Test

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