This is my final piece of work for my Logic composition. I am extremely happy with how this turned out; being the first actual song I have produced in this way, I’m really proud of the fact it sounds professional and of a high standard. It resonates with the intended genre as this is actually how a trap producer would make their composition sound as it has many stereotypical features of this genre like a sub-bass and complex drum beats. I think my favourite parts of the song are the hi-hat rolls because I learnt how to make them myself, they are really effective and very typical of a trap song; this is why I decided on calling it ‘The Roll’. I am also really happy with the overall structure of the song; it has an actual set structure that I planned before and it doesn’t get boring or repetitive. This is what the composition looked like after the final week:
This week, I added another recorded sound, this being a guitar melody in the choruses and breaks. This is because I wanted to add a new melody and I had this idea in my head, but it just didn’t sound right on any of the midi sound packs. Recording it using a guitar was a lot easier as I am more confident in playing that over a keyboard, so laying it down was quicker. It did take a few takes and some quantizing post-recording, but I think it adds a whole new texture to the song which is unexpected and breaks the conventions of a trap song. I said last week that I wanted to add something to the chorus and bridge, and I think I did this fairly well!
As well as a melody on this guitar, I also decided that a solo at the last chorus would be beneficial for the song as Guitar solos can really make a song unique and keep it interesting, especially when the song is close to ending; as the last chorus wasn’t different to the other ones, I found it quite boring towards the end. The solo took a lot of takes to get perfect even though I was just really going up and down on a pentatonic scale, it was more of a timing issue more than playing the right notes. Recording on time and to a metronome is something I’m looking to improve on, especially when we will be recording in the next project!
After recording all the guitar parts, I started to add some final touches to the composition. I knew I needed some effects on the guitar to get rid of the raw sound, so the pedal plug-ins I used can be seen pictured below. I decided to go for an airy feel, so using chorus effects like ‘The Vibe’ and ‘Heavenly Chorus’ was vital. To add to this, I used the ‘Tie Dye Delay’ pedal to add to this atmospheric feel. As you can see, I did experiment with a wah and distortion pedal but soon realised it did not really fit with the song. I think adding these effects made a dramatic change to the sound and I am interested in buying an actual chorus pedal for my guitar because I loved the modulations it made. I think having pedals will also help when we get to project three so we can easily change the sound of our song whilst in the live room.
If I was able to have more time working on the track, the first thing I would have done is sort out the timing for the guitar. I am happy with the actual melody and its effects, however, I think it could be synced to the metronome better and it sometimes starts too early. I could have just taken out the guitar but I had spent so long working on it and it is just a small error which I have then identified and could be fixed easily by quantizing the recording a little more, and moving the region so it matches perfectly with the start of the beat.
I have said this a lot in my previous targets; I want to get to the point where I can spend time on mixing my track, therefore making it sound more professional. As much as I wanted to do this to show my knowledge in mixing a song, I unfortunately didn’t get enough time to do this! Even though it already sounds good, I am quite disappointed because adding effects like an EQ and compressor would help the song so much more and I feel like this is a vital part of producing a song. I also wanted to add panning, like I said last week, but I didn’t have time to. Panning would have helped this composition as it has so many drums and complex rhythms going on, which I could have moved to different positions in the speaker or even used automation to change the panning of an instrument during the actual song.