The Way
I would describe this song as a happy accident. Sometimes things just go together and that is what I found making this. Although, sure enough it came with the struggles of loops sounding off beat or outta key. When faced with this, I trashed that thought and found something even better. This lead into me finding vocal loops. The moment I heard the voice, I knew I had to make a Kanye West inspired beat. That was my goal when creating my first project.
Batman Gone Funky
I first began with the nightingale string line. This is a violin track which reminded me of the critically acclaimed The Batman movie featuring Robert Pattinson. Hence the name. I then proceeded to add more stringed instruments in order to continue this vibe. Vocals were added swell to not make it sound as mellow and boring. I edited many of the MIDI tracks to make it fit the beat better. An example being the Noise waves not lining up just right and writing in a bass and piano part for my b-section. I featured multiple instances of panning, so that all the instruments were not just getting thrown at you, all at once. Lastly I added drums, making sure that they gave good rhythm to the songs and sounded great. I extended some of them for a little drum fill and chopped them up for pauses in the song. At one point I wanted to ditch the song completely, in which I did. However after trying to start a new beat, the connection to this one stayed strong, so I had to return to it, and I am glad I did.
Dystopian Feel
As per usual, I started over from scratch after not being content with my first piece. However, I instilled parts from the first draft into my final product. This includes the "screamlead" finale that was utilized to finish the song. In order to create this beat, I used a MIDI keyboard to write my own bars of music, this being chords, melody and a beat/ rhythm. I also utilized a drummer in garage band to provide that extra feel. My favorite part of the song is the bass-line. I feel that introducing it at the beginning of the song provides a tone setting for the remainder of the beat. As far as creating the song, I would take multiple takes till I got exactly what I wanted. Then I would look at the "piano roll" to make sure that every note was on beat and in the right tune, making sure that no white keys were pressed. After that was made sure of, I corrected the instrument that the notes were being played to, in order to give it the sound I was envisioning. Lastly, I automated the tracks so that the volume rose, fell and flowed with the song. I consider that, though having brain farts at times, I worked an extended amount of time on this to make sure everything sounded right. I even worked on it a ton outside of class, taking advantage of the extra time.
(It Wasn't Me-Just the Two of Us) Mashup
This piece features a nice intro with a young boy singing a tune about being grateful. It flows smoothly into Shaggy's "It wasn't me" instrumental and features many voice recording from the world renowned Cheech and Chong movie. A big aspect of this project is the chopping up of the" Just the two of us" vocals. I had to match them with the beat so it wouldn't sound of beat and as if I just through them on top of each other. I utilized risers to try and make the transitions between songs more smooth. Something I struggled with is being satisfied with my song. I always felt like I needed to add something to make it better or change it in someway. I achieved a little satisfaction after adding the Cheech and Chong lines. I still feel I could've done better.