WEEK 1 -BASICS OF MAKING A SONG
In our first week of logic we learnt the basics of logic this included making a basic drum beat as a song foundation. We then added other instruments to create a song structure. We were also tasked to take our ideas from the drums and instrumental parts to organize them into a structure such as choruses and verses. I was not successful in this task, this is because I spent too much time on the drums. The drums ended up not working out, and my time was wasted. This lead to me having to rush the whole thing, resulting in a poorly structured piece of music. If I was to do it again I would not think about it too much, and not try and make it advanced as I was trying to make it. This would give me more time to make a SIMPLE song.
WEEK 2 – REMIXING
On our second week on logic we were tasked on making a remix of an already existing song, this song was called ‘I can’t feel my face when I’m with you’. In the fist part of the lesson we were given words and phrases we had to cut out of the logic track using the snip tool, we had to make it seem like the word never existed. I think I did pretty good at this for my fist time, as I nearly cut out all the words I was told to. I am sure if I was to do it again I would work faster at it. After that we got told how to change the frequency of the voice using a logic plug in, this was very fun to play around with. I raised the frequency to make the voice seem feminine and duplicated the track to make it seem like a duet. After that we also got told how to use the auto-tune plug in we then learned we could turn up or down.
After we learned all that stuff we set off to make our own remix, I was not very successful in this. In my head I wanted to turn it into a trap remix, but I did not know how to do that ,so I wasted a lot of time duplicating track segments. In the last 10mins I realised I should try and deconstruct and reconstruct the track in my own style, but sadly I ran out of time. Next time I do this I will use change the track to my own style, including instruments and drum beats.
WEEK 3- SONG MAKING CLIPS
In the third week we were given the task of creating 3 mini song segments in different style’s, I choose to do funk, rock and pop. This was my best session in my opinion as I knew what I was doing a bit more. We mainly used what we got taught to make these tracks from the previous lessons. When I was creating these tracks thought about the Instruments I should use in the genre’s. For the funk genre I decided to use; A horn, synth, and drums. This was my proudest track as it sounded the best. I used very simple notes for the horn as I didn’t have much time. I built everything else off of the trumpet creating a track that worked off the lead trumpet. The drums had to be improved as they sounded off, and not fitting of a funk track. My pop track was the worst, which is funny as pop is meant to be the easiest genre. I ran out of time this point, I got a chord progression. But know I had to add instruments, which was were I got stuck. I added a simple drum beat and guitar but it sounded bad. I think if I had more time I could have made it sound good, but unfortunately I did not. My third track was a rock track, for this I picked the basic; bass guitar, electric guitar and drum kit. This track wasn’t bad sounding either. I had a basic drum beat and bass line. And I had a simple guitar track that was just waiting to break loose into energy. The rock track definitely has potential. We got peer feedback on the tracks, here is my feedback that is shown below.
PEER REVIEW – Ellis Hardy
rock song– On your rock song you have a good thing going there try and work out the drums to match the guitar maybe add a bass part to go with the synth, on your drums try and make them more loud in pitch
pop song- You have done a very good job with the production on your pop song. Try working on the Harps solo. may be think about adding the drums when the harp is playing to really live things up you have chosen good chords o go with your piano
funk song- You have well matched the song it does sound like a funk song well done. maybe try working on the drums to fit everything else other then that I really do like this song.
WEEK 4-MIXING
This week we had to mix a song from the Umbrella’s year 2 performance of the song ‘Chelsea dagger’. We started this lesson by using the snip tool to delete parts of the tracks that had no audio on them. The keyboard and lead vocals had nothing on them so we deleted the tracks as a whole. the lead vocals were on the background vocals due to a mistake. We did this as they were useless, and the only thing tracks with their instruments not playing is encouraging spillage. After that we went on each individual track and altered their frequency graph, this can be used to amplify or decrease length and volume of bass and treble pitches. For example the kick drum’s noise is deep in pitch, so for the frequency we dragged the 120hz wave on the graph up to increase the dynamics. But if we dragged the wave down the kick drum would get quieter.
Next we opened up the mixing board by pressing x, on here we could alter volume, effects and organize them. First off we organised the tracks by putting them in bus’s. It is important to put them in bus’s because it allows you to alter the master volume and other effects of the bus, but when you do this to the bus it also carries over to all the other tracks on the bus. We arranged the drum kit into one bus, this allowed us to change the volume of the whole drum kit, this made it sound more like one drum kit track. After that we put the over head drums 1 and 2 into a bus, and panned them left and right. panning is a technique used in music where you can hear the track bouncing from your left ear to your right ear, this is a highly engaging musical tactic. An example of panning is in the operatic section of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ where you can hear the different vocals bouncing around you ears. We then put all instruments such as guitars and bass into a bus, where we could adjust the master volume of the bus after adjusting the individual instrument tracks. Last but not least we put the vocals into a track were we could add many effects such as reverb and auto-tune.
Before we played the full tracks again we must make sure we have changed the all the bus audio outputs to stereo to make sure we get the correct sound of the music.
WEEK 5- MAKING OUR SONG
For my song I decided to make a song inspired by 80s synth wave music. I wanted the song to have a happy and energetic tone to it so I decided to write in the key of G major. I also mimicked a lot of 80’s drum beats by adding a four to the floor drum pattern, which is simple but also gives you a lot of rhythmic freedom. In then added a synth lead which was very popular in the 80s, the lead has taken ownership of the frontline of my song. The lead is simple but has a nice tone and rhythm to it. I added a funky bass line next that will go with the lead and the drums, it is a little out of time so I will have to fix that next lesson. I created 3 structure patterns for the synth lead which are; verse, bridge and chorus. This allowed me to give my song a full structure of; verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, verse.
Next lesson I will add a bass pattern for the verse and bridge, because my chorus pattern is sorted out and in time. I will also try and add some chords played by an electric guitar or synth keyboard. My goal for next lesson is to have made a full dance track that sounds good from a decent stand point.
NEW WEEK
This week on logic I focused on finishing my song, I had the structure now all I had to do was add rhythm and harmony to finish it. First off I decided to add a bass line to the alarm lead section and textural section to give the song more of a groove. The bass line is very simple but also fits so I left it as I didn’t have time to go for advanced instrumentals. I then added harmony through chords and bell instruments. The pop trumpets part was slow and almost like a rest in the song so I went and tried to make it sound more calming. So searched around and found calming bell, which I used as a harmony for that part. The textural design part is the most intense so I decided to add some chords to harmonise with it, I used the sparkle chord which has quite a sharp sound to add more of a rough feel to the section. Finally at the end of the song I tried to add a fade, I would have added a diminuendo but sadlyI ran out of time.
To improve this song I would use effects such as reverb or noise gates to experiment to get a sound I want. I would also alter the structure a bit more because the sections are long lasting and get a bit repetative and annoying . I would also add more dynamics such as crescendos or diminuendos to add more articulation and make the song more interesting to listen to. I would think of a chord progression first because I realised it is difficult to pick chords when the music is nearly finished already, It would just be easier to use a chord progression as a foundation.