dannyapro-blog

[dannyapro-blog]

Falling Behind

https://soundcloud.com/dannywithana/falling-behind/s-SYtVg

I started this song messing around with my style of picking when playing rhythm guitar to come up with the chord progression and staccato vibe during the verse that I developed from the intro idea.

I wanted to change my heavy inclusion of minor 7th as stand alone chords that has occurred in some of my previous songs by differing my chord extensions and switching them up instead of staying on them, you can hear this in the minor 7th to 9th change in the verse progression after the first chord and the major 7th to major 9th in the intro guitar part.  I also wanted to freshen up my chorus chords adding dominant chords which gave the chorus a different feel in terms of the chords which I think keeps the song interesting while keeping it relaxed and added a bluesy vibe. I recorded the guitar parts  to this track through my mixing desk editing it in logic with an amp-simulator.

I wanted the drum beat to this track to hold down the beat with the staccato polyrhythms between instruments in this track and create an interesting percussive dynamic. I first found the Old school funk remix kit on EXS24 which hat a realistic drum sound that fit with the tone of the guitar and created the two main hi-hat rhythms heard in the track on one track.I then found and edited a warped piano sound that provided a resonant modulated percussive sound following the rhythm of the hi-hats and sweeping between left and right of the stereo field through automated panning. I then recorded the kick and snare parts on a different track to finish the beat changing the pitch of the kit at different parts of the track. I quantised the drums with a 16 B swing and humanised the sound by randomising the velocities of the drums.

I used MIDI to record the bass for this track using 2 bass guitars on EXS24 and a sub bass synth and blended them together to try get a full presence bass sound that fit the warm tone of the live instruments I recorded that didn’t interfere with the piano and guitar rhythms.

After getting a structure of the song sorted I organised a studio session to record vocals and piano.

Before recording vocals I set up to record the piano micing the piano up with a stereo pair of AKG 3000 condenser microphones in studio 2 which I panned in Logic afterward. My house mate and jazz pianist, Callum played multiple takes throughout the track which I comped, quantised, flexed and adjusted to get the final result you hear on the final track.

I used the Neumann Tom 103 in studio 2 to record the main vocals to this track which gave a smooth clear recording which didn’t recorded much mixing past light eq,compression and reverb and I also sent some signal to the vocal bus.

I recorded the rap/spoken verse at home using my P3 because it records rap and backing vocals well and picks up less sibilance. I panned them from left to right every 2 bars to create a comfortably shifting tone to the verse after the solo.

For the chorus I wanted the bouncy driving rhythm of the guitar to carry the melodic chord progression and  have enough space for the harmonies. I recorded the harmonies at home (also with the P3)and double tracked and panned them to give them a clear place in the mix to provide ambience and presence to the chorus and also to create a dynamic difference between the chorus and solo afterward the first chorus.

The lyrics in this song I wrote as a sort of motivation for myself after feeling lonely whilst not alone to help consolidate my changed perspective after and also a way to relate others on the fact the people all have our bad times but there’s no need to stay sat ruminating for longer than is positively necessary.

[dannyapro-blog]

Fresh Light

https://soundcloud.com/dannywithana/fresh-light/s-UP0KV

For this track I decided to go back to what got me started with production, making beats. I listened to the beginning of The Agony and Ecstasy on shuffle on my songs and thought the song was going elsewhere entirely for the first 5 seconds and after listening to it decided to try create where I thought the song was going. I sampled the first 4 or so seconds of the song (clearing pending) quantised and edited the sample with flex editing and then pitch shifted the resulting sample 7 semitones up and panning the original edited sample to the left and right slightly creating the main melody of the beat.

After sorting the main melody I looked through kits in logic till I found the RnB lo-fi kit on EXS24 which I used for most of the rhythm sections as it complimented the time-stretched tone of the sample. I created 2 tracks one for sampled breakables and the other for the kick and snare as I felt for mixing it would be better to have percussive sounds within similar frequency ranges together.

Once sorting the melody and rhythm I moved onto the bass section using a wobble bass with a “hard rough” sound I found and edited using compression, EQ and auto-filter to add resonance to the sound, set it apart it in the mix (alongside the bass parts that are in the main sample).

When the groove of the track started to come together in the parts (mentioned above) I wanted to add an intro section that set the budding track aside from just messing around with a sample so I figured out some chords that went with those of the original sample and pitch shifted sample and a simple complimenting lead part. I recorded the guitar with my P3 and it sounded dreadful, but in a way that I felt suited the vibe of the track, I used an amp simulator and I rolled off a lot of high end and low end from both guitar tracks creating a thin bright guitar sounded interesting and allowed me space add stacked vocal harmonies which are heard throughout the song and then distorted the lead part slightly.

I set the main output of all the “ah” vocals to a separate bus where I used the group compressor CLA-2A to create cohesion between these similar vocals, I then used a linear phase EQ to clear up the vocals which I could then make ambient by delaying them and adding a obviously wet reverb. This bus was sent to the output with the chorus, intro and rap vocals also being sent to this bus in appropriate amounts for a parallel link of series editing.

After the main structure of the song was finished I used EXS24 and an 808 sample to create a playable 808. The 808 in this track I feel was a necessary glue in this track to stick the chorus of the song into the rap section and sustain the bounce of the track after the first tone shift of the track.

Recording the rap vocals for this track was quite challenging and taught me the importance of diction whilst recording, as well as writing in breaks for breaths, especially when a rap picks up speed. I used my P3 at home to record this verse and then comped takes together and automated inconsistencies within the dynamics to create a pretty dope rap verse that I think worked well with the beat.

The lyrics to this song are about looking after your best interests once you identify them and the difficulty that can come in escaping comfort to do this.

[dannyapro-blog]

Eyesore

https://soundcloud.com/dannywithana/eyesore/s-Wgx0P  

In this track I wanted to create an atmospheric contemplative vibe throughout so I sampled some ambient street sounds and created a melancholy guitar chord progression and riff with complete sounding chord changes and delayed and slightly off-beat eery vocal harmonies. I experimented with moving the other dubbed guitar part in the second verse to create an alternate rhythm from the first verse.

I wanted to keep the rhythm in this track interesting by including multiple percussive sounds changing and switching them throughout. I think the track has a percussive pulse with the drums blending straight and offbeat rhythms together on one drum bus after separate mixing to bring them together.

I created a bass sound with a lo-fi distorted funky sound recorded at home and mixed in edited in logic with amp simulators pedal-board for a mix with a simulated distortion pedal and reverb to give the sound more gravitas.

I was inspired to write this song after a conversation with one of my co-workers about city planning, gentrification and the diminishing of the individual character of places with the increased commonality of large chains and whether or not some of these changes were good as well as the benefits of city innovations.