Sadly I didn’t meet my targets from project 1 that I have set for myself because I was so much more focused more on this project, I was mainly focused on my Ableton track which I really enjoyed making and finally understanding how to use Ableton because last year I didn’t really get the hang of it and kind of made what I could at that time,But this time I really put my head down and I knew what I wanted to make of this track.
The research I did for this project I think is enough and pretty relevant to what songs I made and what bands/Artist inspired me to make these songs. For example I made a Skrillex/NERO inspired track on Ableton and for my song composition I wanted to make a Ramones/Misfits punk song with simple but catchy riffs from Ramones and the horror themes from The Misfits.
I could of also researched one song from each band and analyse it as well but I ended up analysing Cinema by Benny Benassi which was also remixed by Skrillex.
My practical skills at the moment are ok I’ve improved on my bass skills a lot since the first project. I’ve bought my self a Squire Jazz bass to practice on and use in the next performance.
I would say I’m still at a beginner level of using software like Ableton and Logic because its my second time using these programs fully and not like last year where I sort of just messed around with the programs to make a song.
Also I feel like I’m getting better in my music theory and understanding how to make music/record using software like Ableton and Logic.
I feel like I’m pretty comfortable at using Ableton at this stage but I do want to improve in music theory and coming up with better drum beats because as of now the drum beats I made in MIDI are pretty basic which is good for my composition song but if I want to make something more complex I would need more practice in making drum beats. So I think I’ll just stick to performing songs more than composing or songwriting for now and when I get more comfortable with making electronic music I’ll be happy to release some of it on streaming platforms like Youtube and Spotify.
There was some artwork I made for my punk song in graphics with Paul.
I wanted it to be something like The Misfits Famous Monsters album and Ramones Brain Drain because these two album covers looked dark and showed of the bands horror side and I wanted to implement something like that in my Artwork.
I enjoyed making the Ableton track most because I just wanted to finally figure how to use a music software. My previous experience with music software was with FL studio and I still didn’t understand how to use it, I got my brother to help me because he used it when he was making music but I just couldn’t get the hang of it until now.
The composition I didn’t enjoy as much was the Logic film music because I changed it too many times and I didn’t enjoy using Logic as much as Ableton.
I enjoyed the whole project mainly composing my own punk song and making the Ableton track because I just had that creative freedom and it gave me the idea to make these songs. I usually get my ideas from other bands/artists and I want to make something similar to their style for example my song composition is heavily inspired by Ramones and The Misfits. The song has simple but catchy riff like Ramones and the dark/horror theme from The Misfits.
I feel like I need to improve on song writing and coming up with melodies and lyrics because this is my first time making a song by myself. To improve this I will need a lot of practice and learning how to come up with a melody first then the lyrics. Also I would like to improve on timing and recording to a click because when I was recording my guitar or bass to put into the song it was all out of time and I needed to keep recording over and over again until I got in just right with the tempo of the song.
I have some ideas for a future project. One of them is to perform a cover song and one original song with a full band. I was thinking of performing a song by Primus called Lacquer Head with Clark on guitar, Me on bass Aimee or Fay on vocals and Marcel on drums. Also if we have enough time we could also come up with an original song to perform in the final showcase.
The other Idea is to make as many dubstep songs using Ableton and showing them off in the final show case.