Schoolhouse Project
We used a sample pack created by YouTuber and musician, Andrew Huang entirely made from hitting school supplies and toys. I immediately knew that I wanted to use the dinosaur xylophone so I dragged all of the files into the drum rack from where the first note started and recorded the melody on the piano. I started with drum sounds from the percussion folder that I liked and pitched the bass drum sounds down. I EQ'd each sound to get the sound I want. After the main drum track, I added the electric piano and bass. These were the basis for the xylophone parts because I recorded the xylo parts with the piano and bass before I separated them so it go along when I brought everything in together.I did not plan on using an electric piano in the end, I was just using to find chords I liked but in the end the piano ended up sounding the best so I kept it. I made sure to use the TDR Nova EQ on each track and I EQ'd them properly. There is a little bit of chorus on the xylo tracks and some distortion too just to give it extra character. Panned the xylos to the left and right and panned the piano also so you can hear everything better. Before I recorded everything in the Arrange view, I sat there and planed out what scenes would go where. In this project I learned how to use the drum rack to its full purpose. I also learned how to use TDR Nova with Ableton. I learned how the chain of plugins affects what the final audio sounds like.
Phase Project
This project was inspired by the minimalism movement and atmospheric music, specifically Steve Reich and Phil Collins. I decided that I wanted to make a modern hip hop beat using my knowledge of minimalism and phasing. One thing I do to achieve this is the two synths that I used, panned to the left and right. They are very dark and atmospheric. The phasing is present towards the end of the song when everything lies out except for the main melody. There is a second version of the main melody that starts but the first beat is shifted over making it sound very interesting. The hip hop influence is the most obvious with the hard hitting 808 bass and trap drums.
Trance Project
This project was created in Logic Pro X, which is the program I use for all of my personal projects. I started with the lead synth. The melody is a variation of a song I made two years ago that was originally in a major key. The surrounding instrumentation was inspired by the work of James Blake, an electronic artist from the United Kingdom. I wanted to keep the focus of the song on the repetitiveness of the beat but with enough variation to keep it interesting. When mixing, I put basic EQ and compression that is appropriate for each track. I side chained the kick drum compressor to the bass so the it gives the bass a nice wobble and the kick drum is better heard. I put a compressor on the drum bus to give the drums a little bounce and more character.
