This song is in the key of A minor, and is in 4/4.
The reason this song looks like this instead of how the other two look is due to technical issues. A room in college had to be shut down, and two of my songs were on a Mac there. This meant I couldn’t do any work on my tracks for a while. When I was able to get into the room, I couldn’t stay, so all I could do was export the tracks and do the mixing in a different room. However, the Mac in the new room didn’t have the same sounds as what I have been using. So I had to export the tracks individually and have the different instruments as audio tracks instead. The other track was 100% complete so it didn’t affect that one. But this track wasn’t 100% finished, so all the tiny mistakes and why it looks different are due to this.
Structure: Chorus, Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Breakdown, Verse 3, Chorus (double the length.)
Instrumentation: Main Guitar, Lead Guitar, accompanying guitar, bass guitar, a different bass guitar for the chorus, drums, and an ambient synth.
Verse 2 adds a lead guitar riff, which is also present in the third verse. I think it is quite a weak riff, and doesn’t sound amazing, I would change that riff if I were to make the song again. The accompanying guitar plays in the breakdown and is present in verse 3 behind the main guitar to add some texture. The ambient synth is present in verses 1 and 2, it should be in verse 3 however, due to the technical issues I had, it isn’t. I did have an idea to create a guitar solo for Verse 3. However, to get a high-quality one I would have needed to ask someone else to write and record it, and due to time constraints and the technical issues I had, I didn’t. The reason there are two bass guitars is because I liked the slap bass in the chorus, but thought it sounded weak in the verses and other parts of the song. I think it’s a nice change between the two different basses.
Main guitar effects. I used a reverb, a chorus effect, and an EQ. The reverb is too high on this guitar, I didn’t hear it at the time of mixing, but it doesn’t sound very good. The EQ could also have been worked on more.
Bass effects. I used a bass amp to make it sound beefier, an EQ, and a compressor. I could’ve spent more time doing the EQ as it isn’t amazing, however, the other two effects work, and no other effects are needed.
Drum effects. I used a drum buss and some reverb. Similarly to the first song, the drums sound good however, some EQ would have sounded good.
Slap/chorus bass effects. This has the same effects as the other bass so that applies here. However, if I were to do it again I would use different effects for this different bass so you can hear more of a difference between the two basses.
Lead guitar effects. This guitar has a digital amplifier, a chorus effect, an EQ, and some reverb. I am happy with the sound of this guitar, it is still a clean guitar but has a nice crunch that makes it sound heavier, and in general, it sounds much better than the main guitar.
Accompanying guitar effects. I only used an amp, however, I am happy with how this guitar sounds.
Ambient synth effects. I just used an auto pan filter which makes the synth bounce left and right in the pan. A compressor would have been useful here.
I think this is the weakest of my three tracks, it is the last one I did so I spent the least time on it. This song doesn’t have as much of an identity and the idea of it is not as well outlined as it sounds quite messy and doesn’t know what it is trying to be. The final mix and master is the worst out of the three, as there is too much reverb and the bass and drums are too loud.