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Self Remix

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Ambient Song

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Found Song

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Real vs. hyperreal vs. surreal

Realistic: North Side Gal- JD McPherson : one of my favorite artists ever and a true lover of retro. This song was performed live in the studio with his band using all analog equipment, vintage gear and vintage mics, which I read about in an interview. His studio can also be seen in the below video: https://youtu.be/aZGn4LncY0g

Hyperreal: You Ain't The Problem- Michael Kiwanuka: this song is so interesting because of its wide range of sounds and effects. This can surely be replicated, but not to a T with a regular sized band. The layering of voices, all the different layers of percussion, creates such a loud, vast sound. The tracks of background singing and the different effects of the way the percussion is micced, fading in and out with the synths and the loud distorted guitar :https://youtu.be/2yEeF65NnyI

Surreal: Black Out Days- Phantogram : This electronic duo is a master in samples and layering. There are loud distroted percussive loops, vocals tracked in loops bevcoming the main motif of the song. The main vocals have heavy reverb and delay to create an atmosphere. The beats are made to sound fake, the fat synth sounds dominate this track. Its layering and form, is so interesting, you are constantly being greeted by new motifs and new iterpolations of the occurring ones. https://youtu.be/G3OihW5MPKA

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Sample

I am a huge King Crimson fan. In The Court of The Crimson King is one of my favorite records ever. A friend showed me the song Power by Kanye West and I heard something very familiar. In my opinion, it seems almost like a very oddly places, choppy sample, because 21st Century Schizoid Man doesn't seem like a song you could grab a clean loop from, only if you took from a lengthy section, it doesn't seem like a short sample would blend in. And to be honest, it really doesn't in Kanye West's song. It alarms the listener, and perhaps that's the effect he wanted. But, the pause of the "21st century schizoid man" is not long enough, so he kept the second of the band coming back into the song. I'm on the fence of my opinion of thinking whether or not it works, because it really isn't the cleanest sample, but if that was the effect he was going for, it definitely caught my attention, even if I didn't know about the King Crimson song before.

Interpolation/Quote: A very slight interpolation, but I completely knew it was a reference from the first time I heard it. I believe that was what was intended when he added it, he knew that a lyric from a Beatles song would not go unnoticed. This song has such a good groove, and the background singers add a lot to the song. He uses the lyric "I heard the news today oh boy"

Young Americans- David Bowie

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Production Analysis

For this post, I decided to choose a song from an artist I've been following since 2016, the Swedish- American duo Flora Cash. Their song 'For Someone' is a beautiful case of 'acoustic meets electronic'. I saw them live performing this song. The guitarist just plays guitar and sings the main melody, while little snippets of synths and piano tracks are triggered from the computer. There are lots of layered vocals, sparse bass, and piano that utilizes different sounds to create something atmoshperic and moving. They are great at creating space, using the electronics in ways to enhance a sound I both heard performed acoustically and with the electronic elements and loops. Which version I liked better? It might be a little biased since I am an acoustic guitar player.

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Sampling Ethics

Should sampling without permission be allowed? My answer is no. As a songwriter, you spend so much time to get to your final product. So much work and revision, the effort that represents yourself. For someone to take fragments of your work and repurpose it for themselves is unethical, and should be looked down upon.

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My Original Song: Winter Sun

I wrote this song last year and kind of forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I was showing a friend some acoustic songs I wrote. I decided to keep expanding on the idea and record it.

I used Pro Tools First, my Scarlett interface, and my Shure SM58. My first step was recording the main guitar and vocals together in a stereo track. I like to do these together as it gives it the quality of performance, instead of just recording separately, which could sound more stale. The bleed from the guitar into the vocals adds an interesting, tiny nuance. Next, I worked out two parts of harmony, 5-6 tracks altogether of me singing it in various ranges. I added sparse guitar to complement the main guitar.

The harmonies were intended to resemble an ambient drone, or wind. To give that effect, I added a lot of reverb and no compression, and EQ.

When setting my levels, I accidentally brought up both inputs too much because my vocals were very soft during the first verse. Because of this, I almost went into the red when I got into the bridge, not backing away as much as I should've. Instead of redoing what I considered to be a great take, I brought down the vocals by a lot while mixing so it wouldn't be so jarring compared to the rest of the song.

Because of my issues with the levels in both the main tracks, it left me with 2 options: redo hours of recording and start from scratch, or try to fix my mistake. I decided to salvage the great take of the song. First, I set a level for each track, and separated the bridge that got up into the red from the main vocals. This allowing me to lower those parts even further. After setting a level, I made the main tracks mono and panned the harmonies.

The first effect I added was reverb, sparsely on guitars, a lot on harmonies, a good amount on the main vocals, but not enough to draw too much attention to. After, I utilized the EQ presets to enhance the levels. Compression was used mainly on the main vocal track to make the vocals more defined in the quieter parts.

Overall, I still see some things I could work on, such as making the harmonies quieter and bringing out the vocals more.

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While this was a fun process, as well as a challenge trying to add nuances within the looping, it was a complete different experience from when I usually try and write a song. Usually, it's me playing some chords and humming over it, trying to sing phrases searching for ones that stick.

In this process, I was searching for music through existing sounds available to everyone. One thing I always try to enforce as a rule within my music is to separate it from a song I like. I want to make completely original ideas. This project needed a different, more open mindset.

I do appreciate electronic music like Phantogram and Dee-Lite, and they sure know how to find interesting loops and make it into something original, and that is the true struggle with this type of music. That is the creative aspect of the genre, finding signature, independent ideas, and interpreting things out of the box.

At first, I started with a drum beat and then searched for a bassline I thought fit well with the beat. Generally, I have always been a fan of open space in music, and you will definitely find it demonstrated in this project. I want to find sounds that work together, but I do not want to have them compete with each other. I wanted a lot of percussive elements as well. I wanted to create a main theme, as well as add some variety to keep it from being too boring and rigid. The drum loop that I used throughout was called Atlantis-Jays. I used a total of 15 different loops on Soundtrap:

Atlantis-Jays

Bass- Sub Disco (Gm)

Bass-Beach (Gm) - Added variety so I didn't keep the same bassline going for 3 and a half minutes

Piano- Moon (Gm) - The main 'melody'

Brampton - Melodic Beat 3 [Gm] - Layer of percussion

Red - Guitar & Vocals 1 [Gm] - Gave it more atmosphere

Drums - Vintage 15 -Layer of percussion

Spirit - Kope (Hi Hat) -Layer of percussion

Prism - Cinematic Future Trap 02 (Songstarter) [Gm] - Ambience

Milky - Pad 1 [Bb] - Ambience

Synth - Dozy [Gm] - Ambience

Red - Beat 1 (Tops) -Layer of percussion

Milky - Break 1 (Full) -Layer of percussion

Beanie - Beat 3 (Kick) -Layer of percussion

Drums - Got Roots 1 -Layer of percussion

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Favorite and Least Favorite Songs

Favorite Song: Grace - Jeff Buckley

This song exhibits raw, powerful, dark emotions, mixed with beauty and dissonance. The nuanced layers of guitar, cascading drums, and vocal tracks truly bring this song to its highest potential. Jeff Buckley's sorrowful lyrics collide with soaring high notes and the raspy cries reminiscent of grunge. One of the best songs to come out of the 90's.

Least Favorite Song: Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

Billy Joel's music reminds me of unseasoned chicken. Leave it up to the "piano man" (very humble of him) to write another lazy piano ballad. The heart attack-ack-ack-ack part into the chorus almost gives me just that. I had to play this on guitar when I subbed for a band once and I was cringing at every practice.