DOOM Eternal is a soundtrack that is very experimental and incorporates techniques from many other music genres into it’s music. The two genres that are mostly evidently included in DOOM’s soundtrack are glitch and Dub-step. Especially in the Icon Of Sin soundtrack Mick Gordon uses dub-step rising effects to build tension as well as dub-step stutter effects to create a chaotic theme in the music. Researching these two genres of music may give me a better insight into how they work and allow me to include certain techniques used in this genre in my music.
What is glitch music?
Glitch music is a music genre that is known for it’s chaotic sounds and aesthetic of failure. To expand upon this point glitch music uses sounds such as: stutter effects, live feedback and off time instruments in the music that usually don’t work in a typical song structure but sound good in this genre of music. A stutter effect is a widely known term for glitch fans as it is so popular in the glitch genre, a stutter is when a particular sound repeats the same sound over and over. In most cases the stutter will stop and the sound will continue to finish what it was trying to play. Many famous glitch artists you may know are: Venetian Snares, Aphex twin and Tim Hecker.
Aphex Twin
Aphex twin is a British music artist, electronic composer and DJ other wise known as Richard David James. James was born on the 18th of August 1971 he is now 47 and still making music as his stage name Aphex Twin. James specialises in: techno, electronic, EDM, ambient and experimental music genres
Aphex Twin- Come To Daddy Analysis
The introduction to the song is pianissimo has a very eery and ambient atmosphere to the music. The instrumentation in the music creates an ominous presence within the music. In the opening Aphex twin uses the sound of live feedback as an instrument in his music, this sound is dominant in the introduction the music. The feedback adds an eery atmosphere to the music and makes the listener feel unwelcome in the music. In the opening there is a droning vocal playing the same note all the way through the introduction, this creates an ominous and unnatural feel to the music. This is because the vocal has no breathing space throughout the entire opening, this is very unusual from music as usually the vocals have to stop to take breaths in the music. There is also some hissing percussion in the opening to the music that is being panned left and right to create a disorientating atmosphere in the music. In the introduction you can also hear some environmental sounds of objects dropping and being shifted around the ground, this adds a theme of the unknown in the music and also gives the music an unsettling atmosphere. The texture of the intro is thin throughout the entire only consisting 2 to 5 audible instruments. The harmony is very subtle in the intro as the vocal harmonises with the deep growling bass notes in the opening. There is no melody present in the opening of the intro making it feel empty and quiet, in this case this makes the music sound even more spooky as the instruments are creating an unsettling theme.in comparison of the introduction of the music it is created to make the atmosphere of the music feel unwelcoming to the listener and make them uncomfortable.
The next part of the songs structure is a chorus, this is where the music get’s even more disturbing that it was in the opening section of the music. In the build up the chorus some TV static noise comes into the music with a stutter effect, this reflects on the image of a broken TV. In the chorus the main vocals come into the music, they repeat the same disturbing lyrics for the whole of the chorus. These lyrics are saying ‘I will eat your soul’ this phrase is very disturbing and makes the music have an even more terrifying theme that it did in the introduction. Along side the vocals plays a very aggressive bass line that raws through the mix of the song. The aggression of the music comes from the rich harmonics screaming out from the bass line, this sound is very thick in texture and fills up a lot of the instrumental texture in the music. Aphex the stutter glitch effect on this bass line to create an uncontrollable theme of chaos, once this stutter effects passes by the fast paced aggressive drums come into the music. This drum beat is primarily made up of high-hats, cymbals and crashes, this makes the drums sound aggressive and in turn makes the music feel the same way. On this track there is a lot of vocal experimentation used to create disturbing themes and sounds in the music. The vocals early on in the pre-chorus play out a lopping feedback that echoes through the space of the music making the music sound chaotic. A synth comes into the music that uses it’s feedback into the music resulting in a build up of tension. After the build up the percussion becomes louder in the mix, this makes the aggressive drum beat shine through the other instrumentals, this works very well as it fills the music with a catchy rhythm and aggressive tone.
After the chorus the bridge comes in which in where the vocals say the lyrics ‘come to daddy’ for the beginning of the bridges structure. The vocals use stutter effects and pitch bending to create an unnatural and evil theme to the music in the bridge. The rhythm of the drums in this section of music reflect on the on the actions going on in the music video, the action I am referring to is when one of the dwarfs run across the prison gate while scarping a stick across the bars. The rhythm of the drums are on beat with every time the sick hits the bar, this is a very cool interactive moment between the music and the music video. The music pans around a feedback sound around the stereo field in this song, this creates an unsetting theme of disorientation within the music. The vocals also rise in pitch each time they stutter around the time marking of 2:45 this creates a chaotic and uncontrollable theme within the music that makes the music unpredictable. After 3 mins the music takes a sudden change and all the instruments drop out and and the music plays a nursery inspired tune with only vocals and bells as instrumentation. This is very unnatural and sounds like a totally different song to the last, this is almost like the TV has changed channels in the music video. I believe this musical transition is another example of a creative transition reflecting on the theme of the music video.
After that the chorus comes back playing the same instruments and structure, this brings the music back to its ominous and aggressive theme it had before the nursery interval. Not long after the music goes into another verse where all instruments drop out except for the aggressive bass instruments, the bass plays a slower bass line which has an ominous and scary tone to it. The slow bass line makes us think something is going to happen in the music after we heard only fast rhythms since after the introduction. In this section of music it teases the drum beat, making us think the music is going to move on in the songs structure. This gives the listeners false hope and makes them uncomfortable as they cannot predict the songs structure. A screaming vocal drones through the music making the music sound unsettling and scary. In the music video when the demon starts screaming it is more loud and aggressive in the music, this reflects on the animal inhumanity within the scream, this scream a lone sounds terrifying in the music. Aphex uses effects such as distortion and stutter to make the scream sound even more unnatural and scary. The scream is constantly escalating and decreasing in pitch making it unpredictable and scary to listen to as we do not know what is coming next. When the scream end it echoes through the music with delay and reverb creating a sense of space.
The music then goes to an outro which is thick in instrumental texture and very aggressive. In terms of rhythm and instruments this section is an inversion of the of the verse that played earlier on in the music, however in this section there are audible sounds of laser beams being panned around the stereo field this makes the music sound very disorientating as well as aggressive. This is because the laser beams stand out in the music and put emphasise on the drum beat therefore making the music sound more aggressive. Towards the end of the music the instruments and vocals begin to glitch out more with glitch effects such as stutter this makes the music more chaotic. The music also adds live feedback to further emphasise the disorientating atmosphere of the music. The song ends with a loop of live feedback off of the vocals building up in dynamics and pitch, this gives us an unresolved ending as the feedback is still building tension at the end.
How to make glitch music
Glitch music is full of unpredictable rhythms and sound the music of glitch, this can lead to interesting compositions of music where the listener does not know what is coming next in the music. Using computer software and hardware there are ways we can create our own professionally sounding glitch music. Drum beats in glitch music are primarily made up of bass drums, snare drums and hi-hats. Glitch music often uses a lot of drum fills and variations to make the music unpredictable and more interesting to the listener, a drum fill is a short improvised drum sequence often used in transitions between song structures. Glitch music can also have randomly quantized drum beats, this means the drum beat will have no fixed beat instead it will be completely random. If this is used throughout the whole song it is not pleasing for the ear as there is no pattern to the music making it hard to keep track of and listen to, this why it is important in glitch music to find a balance between the predictable and the unpredictable. Micro variations are when your music is generating new rhythmic patterns for one instrument instead of multiple, if you did this on an instrument such as a hi-hat it will most likely be less dominant in your mix and be less noticeable. If you use too much variation in your music it can sound un-organised and messy making it hard to listen to.
Adding random samples into glitch music is not uncommon as it adds an element of surprise into your music and can make your music interesting all the way through. Using modular hardware you can programme samples to be played when a specific instrument has been played. An example of this which is used in the video is maybe that you want a sample to be played every time the snare drum is hit in your music. To do this you will put a cable into the snare drum as an input and assign the sample pack as an output, this will mean the sample will play once the snare does. If you own a sample pack you can make it so a random sample is played out of that pack instead of one specific sample. Picking a random sample would add an element of unpredictability into your music, which has the potential to make your music interesting. However the element of predictability you would have in your music would be that one sample would play every time the snare drum does. This element of predictability will allow the listeners to still follow the music’s structure despite the elements of unpredictability from the random samples. This is because our brains will pick up on the pattern of the sample coming in on every snare making the songs arrangement easier to follow than if it was completely randomised. If you add snare fills into the music this will mean more snares will play in a shorter space of time, with the pattern of the sample playing on each snare this will mean there will be samples being played rapidly in the snare fill this creates a very glitchy atmosphere in your music.
Effect automation is when you turn effects such as: delay, reverb and distortion on and off at multiple points in your music, this can create very interesting sounds in your music and make it unpredictable when listening to it. With effect automation you can turn effects on and off rhythmically, for example you can make an effect last on 2 beats and then turn off on the third beat. With effect automation you can also programme a sequencer to activate a new effect straight after the previous one has been deactivated, this can create a very glitchy atmosphere in the music as a new effect will be constantly coming into the music after 2 beats. If you are using delay effects for the technique I just mentioned this can create chaotic rhythms that will most likely be off time with the music, but this may be okay as a lot of glitch songs are experimental and push the boundaries of music. Using a lot of delays can also add a lot of texture to your songs as the delay effect will be filling in the silences in your music.
In the video I was getting my information from by Andrew Huang it is clear to see he is using a modular sequencer, this means a lot of the techniques he mentioned may be easier to use on hardware. However he did mention that is possible to incorporate these techniques using software but it may take more time possibly decreasing workflow efficiency. A side from that the techniques I have mentioned are only a few of many different techniques that you can use when creating your own glitch music drum beats.
Dub-step
Dub-step is musical genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 90’s of south London. As a genre dub-step was born when artists tried to add new unique sounds to the rising 2-step music genre, from these sounds the genre of dub-step was born. By 2002 dub-step was a genre name used by record labels widely and by 2005 dub-step was rapidly climbing in mainstream popularity. Dubstep songs are often identifiable by their reverberate sub bass frequencies (Norman. 2019). The sub bass is often reverberate at different speeds throughout the song to give the music as sense of movement and insistence. A typical dubstep track has a high BPM of 138 to 142 beats per minuet giving the music a sense of energy through the fast tempo. Some popular dub-step artists you may have heard if are: Skrillex, Bassnectar, Nero and Skream.
Skrillex
Skrillex is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, musicians and DJ. Sonny John Moore is the real name of this talented artist where as Skrillex is his stage name. Skrillex has worked on numerous albums over the years and featured with many other talented artists, some of the albums Skrillex has made over the years include: Recess (2014), My name is Skrillex (2010, EP), Bangarang and leaving. The main genres Skrillex specialises in are: EDM and dubstep music.
source list: Google.com. 2021. Before you continue to Google Search. [online] Available at: <https://www.google.com/search?q=skrillex&oq=skrillex&aqs=chrome..69i57j46i433j0i20i263j0j46j0l5.2424j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
Skrillex- Bangarang analysis
The opening of the song starts with a catchy and high pitch guitar solo that has a warm and energetic sound in the music. Before the vocals come in their is a sound effect for a small riser that builds up the songs intensity before introducing the vocals into the music, this helps the song develop in terms of progressing through the structure of the song. After the riser the music begins to build up on intensity, this is where we are initially introduced to two new instruments. These instruments are the vocals which play the main melody of the music and the sub bass. The sub bass frequencies are carrying the songs rhythm and adding texture to the music by filling the low end frequencies in the music creating a sense of fulfilment in the music. The texture and intensity builds up tension to go into the next part of the songs structure which is the chorus, one way the music does this is by adding more instrumentals to the percussion this includes sounds such as hi-hats and claps sounds. The instruments begin to rise in dynamics and then they all drop out into silence for the entirety of the lyrics ‘bangarang’. After that lyrics is over the music progresses into the chorus. From listening to the music the sample that says ‘shout out to my boss boys’ has been re-arranged and edited to fit the rhythm, melody and form of a song through sound design. This is the case with most of the samples that are used in this song.
The chorus is the part of the song that has the most energy and instrumental thickness, the dynamics are also the loudest in this section of music. The music uses samples in the chorus to create an energetic atmosphere to the music, it does this by playing over the music in a rhythm that matches the instrumentals around it. The samples are also somewhat chaotic due the effects such as stutter and pitch shifting that is used in the music, this gives the music an element of unpredictability and makes the song overall more interesting to listen to. In this section of music the main melody is carried out through an aggressive and fast paced bass synthesiser, this instrument has raging harmonics and a thick instrumental tone. This bass synth alone contributes a lot to the thickness of the songs texture. The main harmony of this section comes from the vocal samples and synthesisers that harmonise around the bass melodies notes, the harmony is very subtle and simple changing chords every 1 to 2 bars.
After the chorus all the instruments drop out out the mix, this leads the songs structure to return to the instrumentals from the opening of the music. These instruments include the vocal sample, the guitar, drums and the sub-bass. This part of the songs structure acts as a cool down from the intense chorus, as this is an EDM song Skrillex may have chosen this structure so that the people dancing to this song in the club may catch their breath. Not short long after this section has began the music rapidly becomes much more intense as all the instruments play in unison on every beat. This creates a very distinct and heavy rhythm formation in the music, this technique is used by many music artists when transitioning between song structures. On all these beats of unison the bass frequencies are emphasised the most by the heavy sub bass and bass drums, all the other instruments in the music also play on this heavy beat section.
The melody of the next section of music is played in a higher frequency range than the one in the previous section, however it still carries out a similar level of aggression and energy. This instrument sounds like a synthesiser with a scratchy tone to it, this is what makes it sound aggressive. The drum beat in this section is very simple, made up of a sub-bass and and a snare drum, this is drum beat is very simple but effective. The drums have a very strong and dominant rhythm in the music which makes the song easier to listen to as there is a lot of complex instrumentals going on at once. Just before the music moves onto the bridge in the song’s structure the drums play a small fill, this is very common in music when songs are trying to transition from one part of the songs structure to the next. Skrillex is using a lot of experimental samples in this section of music before the bridge, he is using this create glitchy and chaotic rhythms within the music. He does this by adding stutter effects and using random variations on the samples, this randomises the audio and can create very interesting and chaotic rhythms. This technique is found very often in glitch music to do the same job of creating chaos within the music, in this specific song the samples also make up al lot of the instrumental texture within the music.
The bridge section of this song has a very distinct pulsating rhythm throughout its lifetime, this is mainly caused by the bass lead within this section. The texture of this section is thin in comparison to the section before it, this is because the only audible instruments are: guitars, samples, drums and bass synth. These instruments are very quieter but build up in intensity as the structure of the bridge develop. As with many bridge sections in music, this bridge builds up intensity to prepare the listener for the next part of the songs structure. The most noticeable way this song builds up intensity is by bringing in the vocals that say ‘shout out to my boss boys’ this samples gradually increases in dynamics as it repeats it’s self on loop. Raising dynamics is a common way to build up intensity as it naturally builds suspense in our ears.
After the bridge the song returns and plays out as usual until the end of the song, in the last 10 seconds of the music all the instruments drop out and only the vocal audio sample stays in. This sample acts as the outro to the music and plays through with no distortion or glitch effects, this gives the music a resolved ending as we can finally hear audio speak without being cut off. The end of the speak has delay on it which creates a sense of space in the music as the last word of the audio rings out into silence in the music. My overall summary of this song is that as a EDM hit the music uses certain sections of the songs structure as an opportunity for dancers to cooldown. The main instruments that are most dominant in the mix are the heavy bass lines and the audio samples that have been cut up and re-arranged. The samples are unpredictable as each time they play they have different effects on them or have been arranged differently, the samples are used often to build tension within the music and make the listeners exited. The tempo of this music is very fast which is expected of a dubstep dance hit.
Reading List
Aphex Twin, 2018. Come To Daddy directors cut. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ827lkktYs> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
Huang, A., 2018. 5 steps to make awesome glitch beats. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yv1HSl_oA4> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
Norman, B., 2019. What Is Dubstep?. [online] LiveAbout. Available at: <https://www.liveabout.com/what-is-dubstep-1013080> [Accessed 26 May 2021].
Skrillex, 2012. SKRILLEX – Bangarang feat. Sirah [Official Music Video]. [image] Available at: <http://youtube.com/watch?v=YJVmu6yttiw> [Accessed 26 May 2021].