Weekly Beats 28 (Unrest)

Week 28 (Unrest)

During making last weeks track I found allot of versatility in the vocal sample I had recorded into the OP1. When pitching it down to a lower octave and more of a bass range it sounded completely different then its original sample and I started to toy with it. After creating several different melodies with the vocals I tried to find accompanying instrumentation that would suit the piece and continued to do this for the rest of the week.

On the weekend I went into the mixing stage. I had created over 20 different melodies with different instrumentation that all lasted around the 6 minute mark. As the sound of the track was driven by the repeating vocal melody and I had a lot of different textures already, I decided to leave drums out and make it a more Ambient affair. I played all the individual stem recordings and mixed them live into a master stereo recording of the track to create a more drifting reactionary sound. After several different attempts at a mix down I was happy with the result and this is the one you can hear below:

TOTW: Bon Iver_Heavenly Father

Bon Iver Has released a new track, part of the soundtrack for Zach Braffs new film “I wish I was here” and it’s another winner.

The way Justin Vernon blends his soulful voice and traditional folk aesthetics with modern electronic forms of production always lead to new and exiting things. Heavenly Farther is another example which shows a development in his work.

He has always played with his voice in production especially with autotune in the past. In this track he implements a sampler to turn his vocals into a large collection of elements within the track. This and the addition of a heavily compressed kick drum make for some unusual choices. But these are choices that work and have led me back to multiple listens of the song.

I look forward to his next full album but untill then this is a great piece of work to tide me over:

Weekly Beats 26 (Signing Off)

Week 26 (Signing Off)

This week measures the halfway point for the year and the last track in my Spring collection which will be up on bandcamp as an album for downloading soon. The aim for the spring collection was to release a track each week that contained at least one instrument with a coiled spring as its sauce (namely Guitar or Piano) and I achieved it.

Signing off was a way to send off things with a more ambient sound something of a pallet cleanser before the summer collection which will roll on next week. Have a listen bellow:

TOTW: Solar Fields_Puzzle

My Love for the FEZ soundtrack has been mentioned many times on this blog and it deserves to.

Disasterpeace managed to create a soundtrack that both suits the game perfectly but also stands the test of time for its own with instrumentation and melodies that manage to excel for remixing.

Solar Fields did this as part of Side F of the Fez Remix album for the track Puzzle and turned an uplifting and bouncy track into something slower and allot darker. I really like the sence of power throughout this track as it slowly ebbs and flows to its conclusion:

Weekly Beats 25 (Shadows On The Silver Screen)

Week 25 (Shadows On A Silver Screen)

During this week I got hooked on the repetitive dark bass line that opens this track. Yet again teenage engineering OP1 provided the background to most of the synth noises and an electric guitar crashes into the track halfway through turning the whole thing into something new.

TOTW: Royksopp & Robyn_Monument

The opening track from Royksopp & Robyn’s mini EP is an absolute stunner. A masterclass in restraint, you get a track over 9 minutes long that teases but never follows the traditions of a floor filling lead synths. Instead we get a brooding soundscape with great stereo extension of vocals mixed with woodwind instruments and a pulsating bass line that drives the track along:

Röyksopp & Robyn – Monument from It’s Forever Kids on Vimeo.

 

Weekly Beats 23 (filament)

week 23 (filament)

This week was a bit of a struggle. I almost came to the completion of a track by Wednesday but didn’t like where it had gone. However instead of scrapping the whole thing I stripped down and sampled all the individual instruments to the core elements I liked.
I then added these fundamental samples to a collection of drum racks in ableton live and by triggering the samples with ableton push created a new track from the core ideas of the original one. The majority of sounds are from the OP1 with a sampled 909 for the drums and guitar played by myself and then chopped up for the new track: