I chose Casino Royale as my movie of choice and I am making my own soundtrack to go over the (rather long) chase scene. I want some form of rock jazz to accompany the scene, but as I have no idea how to use Logic, I must resort to using the automated drummer to get an idea of what I want – I will add in my own notes and beat soon enough, but for now it suffices.
I only have bass and drums done at the moment but I am preparing to make some guitar and piano chords to accompany the piece.
At points where I think is appropriate, the drums have changed and gone softer or less complex, and I implement this around the times where there is no running, or there is a lack of things happening (ex, climbing up the ladders).
My bass pattern is something I made up after playing around at a high tempo for about 20 minutes. It is in 1/8ths with a descending melody, with a two large jumps near then end, dropping a whole octave and then some for the final note.
I tried adding a guitar but a melody is too difficult for me to produce on logic. I find this program difficult and frustrating to get to cooperate – as a result, I will not do it today.
I have added a guitar but I do not like the melody that I have produced. Because of this I will be tweaking it even further to make it fit with the rest of the song – I am still keen on the bass notes that I have added.
28/11/23, I have removed the auto drummer. While I do like the beats that play, I find it much more rewarding to be my own work and have my own fills that I want – plus, trying to get it to work infuriates me. What I now have is a drum pattern that is in different speeds with a strong feel to it. I am happy with what I have made, and I have three differing sections so far.
All the sections mean different things, as in the first 12 bars, the action is just beginning – so I want there to be some toms to symbolise that the hunt is on, and give the song a sort of primal feel. I make them into half notes and play them between the gaps of the ride cymbal that I also included, which gives the drums some complexity when they’re listened to. For purposes of increasing that feeling of a hunt beginning, I have increased the velocity of the toms.
For this, I have used the pen tool and copied/pasted alot of the beat over and over.
The kick has a simple four to the floor beat and the snare plays every other 2nd click.
From bar 12 to 17 there is a break in the action as the man being chased hunkers down behind some pipes and scouts around, breathing heavily. For this, I have created a buildup on the floor tom and snare, including the kick as they all play the same amount of notes at the same speed. It ends with a few toms and a snare, finalised with a crash to allow the next beat to come into order, and is a good way to introduce more action, as I have turned the velocity up on these notes too. The buildup goes from 1/4 notes to 1/8ths, and once the crash is done, it becomes 1/16ths on the ride.
Here I have a more “funky” pattern that lasts from bar 17 to the end of bar 24. There is currently a lack of toms that I want to add, but I can always make additions in the final touches. For this, I used the MIDI keyboard to play 16th notes as I cannot do it with a pen. I value my fingers.
I will link the bounce below and have it be available for listening.
2nd WIP for Casino Royale
4/12/24, I have added a fair amount of guitar parts to my piece, but in turn I have had to rewrite my bass parts as they didn’t match well. But, I have created a pattern that I like, and after adjusting dynamics, I have a display of a melody, chords, and power chords in my guitar channels.
The fourth channel that is “Melody” has power chords that allow there to be a break in all of the short, rapid changes of an 1/8th note, which means the song isn’t all about being fast. The power chords kick in once James Bond is actually over the fence and eyes his target, and then the rest of the song continues after. For the chords, I used the MIDI keyboard to find out what worked well, but for the individual notes, I used the draw tool to draw them in.
I have tried to keep the notes in the same range and octave with minor changes, because I want a deep and desperate feeling to the piece. I copy pasted these and shifted them around until I found what worked.
For bars 17 to 18, the guitar begins a pattern that repeats, ascending for the first 6 bars and then for the remaining five, a new pattern that cycles twice, descending back down to the right key/keys.
My bass is now a more simplified version of the guitar’s melody and for the power chords, I simply removed the topmost section of the chords (see below) to turn it into single notes, as I don’t want the bass to clash with the guitar. It is a better feeling for the song, but I feel as if the ‘jazzy’ element has been taken out of the original copies.
Past bar 30 I have implemented a tempo change to 157 that isn’t going to be in this bounce, as I need to add both bass and the two guitars in. I want this tempo change to make the chase feel more desperate as James Bond can’t seem to catch up – as the parkour gets more risky and dangerous to their safety, I also want the tempo to signify that it’s no longer a matter of running across a construction site.
Below I will link the bounce for the third WIP of the piece.
3rd WIP for Casino Royale
5/12/23, I feel satisfied with what I have produced – the piece lasts for 42 bars exactly and has a distinct shift from section to section, and the tempo change allows the intensity to ramp up when it needs. I have added one more ‘fresh’ section in to the tempo change before the song has a cut off, and that is the reworked notes and chords from the beginning of the song.
For comparison;
What I did for this was replace the melody that begins the verse with four chords that last half a bar each. Once I had done this I began drawing in chords thinking of the original notes of the melody to make something that didn’t stray too far from the original group of notes. My reasoning for this is because with the original melody, it would sound too rushed at the tempo of 157; I need it to be audible and not a jumble while still going faster.
To finish the song, the drums have another tom-filled fill that lasts two bars. I need to ask for help on how to allow it to fade out with effects.
While I did not include the James Bond leitmotif in this piece, I am confident in its ability to get me a good grade, so I will not stress about it.
Below is the finalised bounce of the song, with the video accompanying it and without.
Unfortunately the tracks messed up and I had to redo the process of exporting the movie, and mp3 file. After realising that, I made corrections.