Category: Sequencing

The final track was recorded at 140bpm, it has a style which was inspired by a garage rock song: Your Love is a Fine Thing by Reigning Sound. This is a rough-sounding, fast paced garage rock song, the use of the snare on the drum kit and the ‘rough’, distorted sound being the inspirations to create the last track on my EP. In regards to the sequencing, it was the usage of the drums with the kick drum and snare being used together to enhance the beats that inspired me, which I then used on every 4th bar on each verse in conjunction with the two higher pitched notes played by the bass guitar lines. I did this because I felt that it would help the track to sound heavier, thanks to the fact that the distortion on both bass guitar tracks made the song very muddy (not a lot of clarity, rather mushy, and quite perfect for a rough garage rock song) which brought the drums forward in the mix a little bit while still keeping the focus on the bass guitars. I also used a ride cymbal sound during the middle and ending sections to maintain the same rhythm as the original kick drum (a ‘4 on the floor’ pattern) while the kick drum sped up to play two sounds for every one ride cymbal sound. This was done to make the particular sections sound faster and more exciting, to make up for the fact that the bass guitars were pretty much playing one note over and over again at around the same pace, essentially trying to keep the drums and bass guitars in sync with each other to maintain the songs structure.

The velocity varies depending on the 2 different sections included in the song. The hi-hat, which has the most notes sequenced out of all of the sounds in the drum kit, has the largest variety of velocities ranging from 100% down to 50%, either being really harsh on beat or having softer off-beat hits, allowing the listener to identify the emphasis of each strike on the hi-hat. The snare also includes some variety, so most of the strikes on the snare sounded slightly quieter than others. These changes to velocity were done to give some life to the track, because, as was the case with all the previous songs, I wanted to make sure the drum kit did not sound robotic and lifeless due to a lack of variety in how loud or hard the drums were played, giving them an almost human-like quality.

Track number 4 was the slowest song of the EP at 115 bpm. It was a lot softer compared to all of the other songs too, not having anything fancy with the playing or sequencing but still relatively melodic and varied enough to be enjoyable to listen to. Similar to the first track, this song was designed to help be a background track, although this track in particular was designed to be an instrumental piece of Lounge Music.

Lounge music was popular in the 1950’s and 60’s and designed to help the listeners feel like they are somewhere relaxing, such as “laying by the pool, chilling to music with a glass of your favorite chardonnay, or simply relaxing in the spring sun with your favorite book.“. One such example of the feeling I wanted to try and create with my music was a video I discovered while browsing YouTube which formed the basis of my inspiration for the song. This song was jazzy in nature, which, if I had tried to recreate that, would have made this track into the second jazz-like song in a row in the EP. I felt that doing a second jazz piece was going to be too much for this EP, because, while I appreciated the video for the relaxing vibes it had, I wanted to have a bit of variety in the songs I created. Plus, I really liked Track 3, and I did not want to accidentally make something that sounded the exact same as that and possibly ruin both tracks.

So, my sequencing choices mainly included removing most of the swing from my inspiration, and, using the synths I chose in ProTools, I chose to stick with a very simple beat with the kick, snare and hi-hat accompanying the two bass lines (the reason for this being that it is harder to relax with a hard, fast, or complex beat with anything more than that) with one crash cymbal right at the end of the song. The drums, once again, were kept behind the bass guitars because they were more melodic despite their repetitive-ness, and I wanted those to be the focal point of the song, aided in part by the kick or snare striking in time with some of the bass parts, especially when it came to the choruses and the bass solo.

In terms of velocity, some variety was used for the kick drum around the start of the song and at the chorus sections. This was done in order to diversify the intensities and rhythms of the different sounds, which helped to signify the change between the verses and choruses. The snare, on the other hand, had a much bigger variety of changes, primarily making the snare softer due to the lounge-like nature of the song. Otherwise, though, all of the drum tracks were kept quite soft until the big finish at the end, where the snare built up to a rather loud crash cymbal at the end, purely to add a nice, big finish to the song.

 

We move on to the 3rd track, which is the fastest song at 144bpm and a more jazz-rock kind of tune. You can hear from the starting riff that the notes are similar to the starting riff in Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple, which was a bizarre source of inspiration as the song itself was not at all jazzy. However, it was only the notes on the riff that really inspired me, as I really enjoyed how it sounded and I wanted to recreate it in a more jazz-like setting, which led to the creation of my third song.

The song sounded a bit more upbeat compared to the others, thanks to the jazz ride cymbal pattern (which I found on the hi-hat sound selection on the XPand!2 plugin – hence why that ProTools track in particular is called ‘HiHat’) on the drums which gives the song a sense of ‘swing’ (http://www.paulwertico.com/articles/jazzridecymbal1.php). Sequencing the ride cymbal to create this sense of swing was quite simple, especially thanks to this diagram (which I found on the website previously linked, which is an article that talks about the jazz ride cymbal pattern on Paul Wertico (a drummer from Chicago, Illinois, that won seven Grammy Awards for his drumming)s blog) that explained the pattern. Basically, I had to design the ride by applying the notes onto the appropriate ProTools track, keeping to the rhythm on the diagram but making sure it was still suitable for the songs tempo, and when compared the bass guitars rhythm.

I opted to remove the ride completely from the solo section so the bass could be clearly heard, also including a simple ‘4 on the floor’ pattern for the kick drum with a snare on every second beat. For the 7th and 8th bars, the kick drum would do a similar pattern to the ride with increasing velocity, followed by a hit on the toms, and the pattern would repeat again. This was a really effective drum line to use because it had enough swing to keep the song interesting, some variety to spice things up a little, as well as keep the structure of the song intact while the bass guitars played their parts throughout.

The velocities had a few constant parts with some minor changes between the verses, choruses and the solo too. As the image above shows, the hi-hat/ride had the most usage of this feature in order to demonstrate the emphasis of the first strike of the ride cymbal, followed by 2 quieter strikes in the jazz pattern. There are 2 parts where they fade in alongside the kick, which is at the beginning of the song and just after the solo to help build the song back up after the quieter parts. Both of these were used to add some variety to the drums, and, similarly with previous tracks, was intended to help the drums become more lifelike instead of just being sequenced into the tracks in a robotic manner.

 

Before we look at the second song, listen to the beginning of the song that inspired it.

Nirvana’s song Smells Like Teen Spirit, which was released in 1991, uses repetitive, distorted guitar/bass guitar riffs as well as rhythmic drum sounds to accompany the singer (Kurt Cobain). The bass guitar varies slightly from verse to chorus, but otherwise remain constantly playing the same riff throughout the song, while the drums change a lot more between the chorus and verse, becoming less intense for the quieter verses, only to come crashing back to life for the loud choruses. The drums, however, were not the inspiration for this track, as I was more interested in the distorted guitar sounds and the repetitive melody.

It was my intention for this 120bpm track to take some if its inspiration from Smells Like Teen Spirit (which is mainly used in the beginning bass part, leading into a heavier, distorted bass guitar line on my song), wanting a grunge-y feel to the majority of the song. To this effect, I designed the drums (which consisted of a kick, hi-hat, snare, crash and toms) to be a simple repetitive rhythm, not too far back in the mix since I did not want it to be buried underneath the bass guitars, but not as loud as the bass parts to keep the focus on them. The reason I kept it simple was because the melody and solo parts were being performed by the bass guitars, both of which were the focal points of the song, and the drums were pretty much only there to help keep the rhythm while the bass guitars did their thing. Similar to the drums in Nirvana’s song, the drums in this track were designed in time with the bass riff, working with it to hold the structure of the song together, especially during the choruses, with enough variety in the velocity on the hi-hats to help make the drums sound less robotic.

Unlike all of the other tracks in the EP, this one does not include much in terms of velocity changes, so there is not much to talk about here. It is all increased to the maximum so the drum sounds are the loudest and harshest they can be, which seemed to fit in well with the grunge-like feel of the song due to how loud it was.

The electronic instruments were all designed using sounds from the Xpand!2 plugin on ProTools, using sounds such as various kick drums, hi-hats, snares, toms, crashes, and typical electronic synth instruments. I decided to use Xpand!2 as my go-to sound generation source because it offered a really wide range of sounds for me to use in my music, and allowed me to use a nice variety of sounds which suited each of my 5 songs. With the changes in beats per minute in the different songs, and velocity changes on the different notes, I was able to sequence drums and synths to create 5 completely different kinds of songs.

The first song was recorded at 120bpm, which is a moderate pace according to the Storyblocks website. The website also states that faster songs are more exciting, while slower songs are calmer, which influenced my decision accordingly because I wanted a middle-ground tempo that did not show excitement by being too fast or seem dramatic by being to slow.

When I recorded the bassline, I wanted it to be simple, repetitive and relatively calm, becoming something that someone could possibly have in the background while they are studying or relaxing. Trying to create this feeling using Xpand!2 was an interesting challenge, because I had to try and find the perfect synth (something softer and not as loud) to try and help get that feeling across to the listener, as well as writing in a rhythmic drum pattern to back the whole track up, and using the velocity feature to help the sounds all feel more realistic and varied.

The drum tracks include a kick drum, snare and hi-hat sound, each on separate tracks to make the track easier to edit. I purposefully designed the drum parts to be rhythmically in sync with the bass guitar, in order to keep the structure of the song flowing nicely through its repetitious verses and choruses. Furthermore, it allowed for that connection between the drums and the bass to be built, making the track seem more lifelike by drawing attention away from the drums overly repetitive sounds, which I tried to minimize by using a lot of different velocities, helping some sounds play at different volumes and intensities. Using sequenced drums with real life bass guitar playing helped give the song more life as a result, which was exactly the effect I intended to have.

The synth, however, was a lot tougher to place. I had to browse the majority of the Xpand!2 sounds to find the one I wanted, which finally led me to the Polysynth sound “D Something 2”. This synth was softer (not a lot of force applied to the sound) than most of the other synthesized sounds I had encountered so far, but not soft enough to be buried in the mix under the drums and bass. It also came with its own reverb, making it a rather ‘wet’ (where the effect of the reverb is audible) sound in comparison to the dryness/lack of reverb of the other sounds. With some helpful usage of velocity, I was able to get the correct tone, allowing the synth to sound like a gently chiming electronic bell. This was the perfect sound because it was slightly similar to (or at least inspired by) a piece of lift music I heard a while ago, which served as inspiration for that one synth sound (listen to the first 15-20 seconds).

The bell sound is similar to a xylophone or glockenspiel sound, and that whimsical sound is something I wanted to try and translate into this song to help the listener feel a little calmer if they had the song in the background, similar to the purpose of the lift music. And, also similar in regards to the lift music, I wanted this song to be a way to pass the time, a background song for the more important things in someones life (getting from A to B, relaxing, studying, etc), not one that would stand out compared to the other songs in the EP. While this may not be the most spectacular song due to its repetitive and meek nature, I believe it would serve its purpose well because of the inspirations and choices made when sequencing this song.