1st Film composition
I watched only one of the videos suggested and straight away had an idea on what I could do thinking of some like soft lofi kind of tune to go with what I saw to be a soft, innocent playful encounter between a little girl and a big animal. The big animal is given a deep growly voice maybe to make him seem more scary and to look unapproachable because of his big terrifying size, a complete opposite to the little girl who looks like she is a curious, caring and brave girl.
My first thought for this was to have some nice soft music with some calm nylon guitar and maybe some piano and soft drums to match the chill aesthetic as I feel this would enhance the emotion felt while watching the clip and hearing the music to go with.
Hello this is the next day and I decided to delete all I had made like the drums which where far too much heaviness when it was supposed to be soft. The guitar I had recorded when I got home ended up deleted also just to start a fresh as I just was not satisfied with the feel of it audio and film side by side. So in lesson today I went with an old soft of kiddy piano setting on Ableton which I felt held some emotion and a nice feeling of innocence that matched well with how the little girl is portrayed in the film. The notes in the first chord is a G major with notes consisting of G, B and D the next chord is F major with the notes F, A and C. To start with I just go back and forth with those chords slowly at 80 BPM and the more I use both the more I had little notes around the chords to just give it a little extra soft feeling and get it more graceful. I then looped that same part to play again straight after it while the first part of the girls encounter with the animal goes on then it gets to a part where the animal does a loud scary sneeze so to enhance it a little more to make sure there is no sound over it to give it a dramatic pause to bring out the fear in the sneeze.
Since I got home I managed to hook my guitar up through my interface and decided to try and add some chill guitar to match well with the piano. This was a challenge as im not used to working on such slow soft music but I am starting to get the hang of it, I matched some notes with the piano for a nice easy start and then branched of using a G major scale. To match with emotion after the sneeze with the piano I will using the high notes on the guitar to play similar notes just an octave or two up I feel this will really bring out the soft, playful emotion that this film is trying to capture. The next thing I plan to do in lesson is to find some nice tones and audio effects for the two guitars I recorded, Possibly even some piano lead for the section after the sneeze as well. I also put little checkpoints on to make sure I know when the scene cues are and what’s going to happen when so I can accurately add what I need.
I am nearly finished with the first film music with a few tweaks and volume adjustments so the audio from the film is not getting drowned out by the music I need to find a good balance for the sections maybe make some parts louder than others to keep the feel with it. I found some different reverb and delay effects, for the first guitar I put on dark hall reverb, subtle vibrato and 16th ping pong to give the first lead guitar some ambient comfortable feel. For the second guitar it has some similar effects on for around the same sort of feel.
With the few volume adjustments out of the way the song and film are blending together nicely I can pretty much call this project done and move on to the second film composition. Right now i’m not too sure on which one i’m going to pick but I do like the look of the star night one and the weird random collection of film shots, I think I should give them both a try and see which one comes out better so we shall see.
1st composition evaluation
The first film composition I felt went wobbly at the start with confusion on what film I wanted and what instruments would go well with the movies but after I just got on with it things and chose My Neighbour Totoro just started working. I started with the piano with some basic major and minor chords with a nice old home piano sound to add some ambience and a nice feeling instead of boring basic tone keyboard. This was not incredibly hard to do as I had previously leant how to count major chords by using the 4 3 tone count and the 3 4 for minor which helped massively with composing on keyboard as I am a guitarist. Once finally getting a good take to use for the track I went home and started thinking about what to do for guitar as I had a plan on what to do before but now I had the keys to think about as well, so I decided to make a new guitar part for the song as it would be more fitting. I grabbed my classical guitar and sat next to my keyboard to find the notes of the little parts that could be considered a melody already recorded on the keyboard, I didn’t want to go too out there for the first guitar part so I decided to replicate the notes played outside the chords recorded with the keys with a few slides and pull offs to match it well. when it came to recording this part I decided to use my electric strat as it would be easier to put effects on a guitar track. I recorded the take in pretty much the first go not too many problems with that one, the only thing was it needed some reverb after seeing a demonstration at college on how to get effects like reverb, delay and stuff like that it made it really easy to find what I was looking for instead of having to search things up when confused. After scrolling for effects in reverb for a while I found a nice reverb effect I liked called Dark Hall and then for a little extra I added a subtle vibrato effect too. Once I was happy with the first guitar part I had to start thinking about whats next, I did consider adding some drums and a little bass but I thought that would take away the soft feel of it so I left that alone. It was fun working on this film because I got to add stops in the music to make parts of the film stand out more, this was just fun in my opinion watching the little film on big screen with your music over it, feels cool. Any way after leaving a pause for the first sneeze from the monster (this was easy after adding little set checkpoints to know specifically where the stops were and where to come back in) I wanted another keyboard part just with a little more kiddish feel to it so I shifted the keyboard an octave up and played a very similar version but not the exact same (this came in handy in the future) to give a very light soft touch, after again a few thousand takes I got a good recording for the keys and I was ready to find a nice linked but different melody on the guitar. The way I did this was getting fimiler with the first set of notes I used for the guitar and then exploring tones and semitones to find a note that related the the other and eventually I found a nice balance of high and low notes to combine into a nice melody. After leaving room for the next sneeze I wanted to add a little more drama for the conclusion section of the song so after listening to the keys for a while I thought I should try play both keyboard tracks at the same time and because the slight difference in recordings made it so they sound amazing together and one keyboard fills in when the other lacks and its just a nice combination.
What Went Well?
I would say I definitely enjoyed making this first composition, it felt good to be able to actually be able to use a DAW and actually have half a clue with what I am doing. I think I captured the emotion of the film well in my song, I think the light keyboard chords and the slow relaxed guitar to go with really blended well together. I remember after first hearing it with the guitar it reminded me of Minecraft or the Elder scrolls game soundtrack which I thought was a good thing as I feel this song could easily (with a few adaptations to fit the game) be heard in the same game and fit fine with the other songs and be relevant for the game. Putting down the little checkpoints really did help me so Im glad I did that because if I didn’t I would of spent a lot more time finding the right placement for the track to be on time with everything on screen. I was impressed with the melody for the second guitar part in my opinion it sounds really good and fits great with the musical context of the rest of the song. i am pretty happy with how this 1st one came out.
What Went Wrong?
One thing that sticks out for me massively is on both guitar tracks with the reverb effects on both it sounds like it kicks in half way through the note being plucked if that makes sense, I could hear a little crackle when the guitar is supposed to come in which is a little off putting to hear and slightly takes away the light feel due to the error. The problem was I didn’t know how to fix it or even how to specifically find the thing causing the bad sound, if I want to try produce my own music I am going to need to know how to fix this because it will definitely come back in future producing projects.
What Could You Do To Improve?
I wish to learn more on how to fix the little problems with effects and sounds like how to deal with little crackling sounds and other little clashes with effects I feel this would be beneficial to me and my quality of producing when it comes to little imperfections. The song would of sounded a lot better with a wide range of different instruments maybe even playing similar things or to signify a pause with a symbol or to add some light violin and things like that I feel would have made a drastic difference in the level of my composition so I look forward to learning the skills to be able to do this (possibly even get more instrument and effects packs/plug ins for a wider range of sound instead of the basic techno stuff on there.)
2nd Film Composition
Since I found out we had to make two film compositions I have been a little lost trying to find the right film scene choice for me out of the selections given however I was messing around with the riff I started out with for the other film and I was able to develop it with some help I really like the sound of this guitar tune and may use it in a new song to release along with my others. Right now I think i should keep developing this guitar song into something memorable and work from there when I am back in college I will work on the keyboard parts maybe try make it better by adding notes and chords that blend and does not clash with the guitar parts.
I have chosen temporal distortion for my film composition because it provides me with me the most feeling when I watch it. At first my main focus was just trying to create different parts to somehow piece together a good song structure. This did not work so I tried to just distract my self from the actual notes and focus on some drums and rhythms to try find a nice balance between soft and calm to portray the dark sky in a calm, warm way and then as the sky and locations get more brighter and it feels a little more intense I will add a marker and make the drums have maybe some high hat or shakers to slowly bring things to feel faster paced and to bring out a little more intensity.
In this screenshot I was changing the length of the notes to all start a little in front of the other on the keys as it seemed a little off and I am making all the notes end at the same time so it starts at different times and finished at the same I think this will sound cleaner. After trying this I can agree that it made the song sound so much better some notes were changed towards the end of each guitar loop to match the barre around the 5th and 7th fret. The way I did this was just finding the root note which is A and B on the low E string and then found the notes on the keyboard a few octaves lower for a nice deep bass sound to support the first section continuing to the repeat before finishing the loop to go to the next section I then finding the rest of the notes on the keyboard and finally I counted the chord to find a A minor and held it over the last repeated section, the keys continue to do this throughout the song for that repeated section.
In this image I am adding bass notes to the second lot of chords to give the song a little dynamics as it could get boring. I explained briefly in the photo above I added bass notes with the key section to give the guitar some more power. the image shows how I changed what the first boring keys part which was a little off with the chords causing a crap sound and changing the lay out on the left to be in a diagonal line almost to make it seem almost like a roll of the fingers on the keyboard. With that section at first I had to chords for the keyboard.
In this image I am attempting to put another section on the song to make it less repetitive. To talk from the start the first idea for this I first wanted a different section to make the main guitar part less repetitive, a break from the main riff or a possible section for the song, maybe a verse, chorus or bridge I was not sure I just knew it felt good to play sliding from high frets to low frets with a similar chord shape with a few notes around the shape, I found it like and accuracy and speed test. At first I couldn’t even play it properly but I knew the idea of how I wanted it to sound so it didn’t deter me from getting it down and clean. After a few days of practicing I got the section down to a point I was happy with but I ran into a problem recording it as it was way too fast I think I had the BPM at like 125. The way I fixed this was I lowered the BPM to 65 and thats where it stayed I still struggled a little to record it but after a few thousand attempts I got it down nice.
I then realised it still was not what I wanted from the section so I messed around with a few different reverb and delay effects towards the right hand side of the screen but it didn’t seem to do much so I looked around in the audio effects and then came across an effect I liked to use for the last film composition called the 16th ping pong effect and also a new one called 3 band ambience.
In this photo I am trying to show the effects I put on the guitar part to make it be all loopy and ring through different sides of the headphones or speakers. I did this by adding a sound effect I found for the last film composition and figured it was worth a shot to see if I could fix the bad recording of two different guitars. I thought some reverb would also be good and that 3 band ambience was the best one I found so I stuck the same effects on both the blue guitar track and the light red one above it and when I did I realised it sounded great I decided to pan the blue one fully left and the red one fully right since they were flickering to loud and quiet I figured it would enhance the cool effects.
This was the first kick I added I looked into my instruments and found a really deep bass kick sound which I didn’t really agree with at first but now I feel it really gives the song a strong deep routed foundation. Once the first kick starts it sticks around for the entire main part of the guitar I think of it sort of like a heart beat for the song.
When I wanted to make things carry a similar feel to the kick but almost something that sounds like its bouncing of the foundation kick drum I spoke of above, when I wrote this I made sure to have the other brown kick track in my ear so I could make the beat to support the one above. I switched up the kit sound to something not as bass full and messed around with that foundation until I had something a little more exiting without fully relying on that first kick. It adds balance to add to instead of fully taking the beat into a new direction.
This is what I call for some reason a distraction a beat people think will remain and be the main hook for a drum part if you will, I think this is good for a few reasons being like it fills time and carries the song a little and I think it brings out what I consider to be the main beat that goes with the guitar riff at the beginning. (That is the beat underneath this one, thats what i’m talking about).
This is what I consider the main beat. Its catchy and its not too overwhelmingly filled with beats and noise there is gaps which lets it breath. I sort of tease the beat before the second guitar part in pink above the blue track I think this is beneficial as it teases the audience for whats to come and gives then something to look forward to.
This is the finished product. One thing I can say while watching it back is I am really happy with the end (other than the fact that the video keeps going for some reason) the light melody on the keys on the last bar or two really fit with the fully transformed imagine being bright and show really nice colours that fit great with the song and really creates a feeling. I feel the music could possibly help a listener connect their own personal feeling/ meaning with the music I have made I think it would help them maybe relate to it in someway.
Evaluation for the second composition
I would say I found this composition harder as there is a lot more intricate things going on with some of the keys and drums and some stuff I have not tried before with that being said I do think I have done well creating this and I am proud of it, I would say its one of the best things I have come up with working on a DAW. With the keys first I was really lost on what to do so I decided to start off with a really basic chords figured out from the root notes on the guitar and worked with that after coming home and having a real listen I realised that some of the notes within the chords really clash in my ear so I dedicated some time into finding out all the notes within the chords I was playing and then adjusting the previous MIDI recording to what fits with the guitar and after that I still was not happy with the dull sound so I arranged all the notes in a diagonal pattern decreasing some length increasing others for every note until that section sounded fitting for the guitar and the amount of delay and reverb on them. For the guitar side of things I really like the notes used and how there is some slides to fill in blank silence while the chords are changing. The 2nd section of the guitar I guess you could call it a short verse or bridge of sorts was the biggest challenge to record as the guitar part I would say it is one of the hardest guitar parts I have ever written and I continue to play and practice it even now, but it took me a lot of attempts of recording to realise I could be recording it with a easier way by recording the bass notes and other notes in the chords but leaving out they added higher string section in a separate recording and then putting them together to make the full section. I found this so much easier then trying to push past what I cant play in a short time which is unrealistic. After getting the recording finally I found some reverb and delay effects to bring an entirely different feel to the song than what I was originally going for with what was a declining pattern on the higher strings that blended with the bass notes but now the effects make it so it repeats the pattern back to you whilst declining and this is what gives the section a trippy and almost psychedelic feel. I would say im proud of the drum beats in this song as I have made a few different beats and found a way to use them all on the track, with the track with only the bass drum on being a solid foundation to using 3 different other beats on top of it to take it to a new direction with a different kit. I found it really fun making the drums and taking the time to change little things about it or one extra beat was really fun to play around with and I think the more I do this the better im going to get at using Ableton drum tools.
What Went Went Well?
I think the way the guitar starts on its own and then starts to have a really solid, strong kick drum that sort of acts as a build up, I feel it brings hype to the intro and give the audience something easy to get involved with either with tapping a foot or something to bob their heads to. Even after more drums come in it does not take away from what the first kick has it works around it and bounces off it to make these drums sound catchy. I also like the way I gave the end of the beginning section a little bit of the main catchy drum beats to tease the main section to give it a little more attention when the song reaches the main section. Another thing I can say went well is the high note melody in the last section of the song on the keys, I feel the high notes helps to bring emotion with how the picture has changed and how the world you are seeing on screen is evolving with the light, which is a contrast to the dark calm start in the beginning. I really like the way this song comes together although it is only short I feel it does the job for this film choice and I am proud of it.
What Went Wrong?
One thing that stands out to me is when the higher guitar section comes in halfway through the bridge with the heavy delay because the timing is not perfect the is 1 note that is slightly out of time and because of the delay effect it is really noticeable.
What Could You Do To Improve?
With the guitar fault on the bridge I would say I just need to practice more and more and familiarise myself with the song completely then hopefully I wont find the song as challenging to play. To make it better I could of done the full 4 minute track to capture the emotion of the full transition with the music instead of half. I feel like some soft bass could of added a nice touch but I wouldn’t really know how to make a good bass line yet but I will learn as I am planning on getting a bass soon so I shouldn’t be so limited with what I can produce with instruments in the future.
Full Evaluation
I have noticed this project that I am starting to get used to using Ableton, I can quickly set up all the things I might need like an interface, headphones, MIDI keyboards or just even selecting inputs and outputs. I found myself helping a lot of the other students on how to do these steps and I think thats what cemented it into my head. I like that I can confidently use different audio effects and know where to find them, for the next step with effects and things i would like to learn how to alter certain sounds like if a snare is not how I like it from a drum kit or a way to change reverb, chorus and other effects confidently to match my preference, this would unlock a new comfortability with Ableton and will make producing music and my quality of music much better. One thing I will say is that I have felt pretty limited when it came to choosing instruments and things that go with like amps and cabs and what not, I noticed I normally have to compromise with the system and settle for a worse drum kit or guitar sound than with what I had planned. From the first composition to the last I feel it would of been better with a few tweaks with sounds but like I say this is what I wish to learn so I do not see these problems again.
I think this project has been very helpful in learning how to make music for films and learn how to grab an emotion from a film whatever it might be and then try to enhance it with our music, for me it feels nice to be writing some more after it had been a while since I have come up with something half decent and I would say the compositions I have made are pretty good and it is a nice motivator for future writings. I will admit some of the moments while making the music I did find rather stressful like at first I really didn’t know what film to pick for the second composition and that led to a little bit of a delay in my progress as I was at a pause. I would say my favourite part of making the first composition was writing the guitar parts to blend with the piano and then a separate melody which was beautiful and fit in the song really well this was enjoyable to develop and also finding the right effects with reverb and delay to give it a nice magic for the vibe of the film which was innocence. I would say my favourite part for the creation of second composition was really hard to pinpoint because I had a lot of fun with this one, the main things that I would say was the most fun was making the drums because I have never made so many different drum tracks for one song and also because they all ended up fitting so well with each other. It all started with just one little kick drum and then from there I just let it play and saw what else I could come up with on top of the first kick drum. The keyboard parts were also interesting to make because I did not expect them to develop as much as they did since I just started out with basic chords as a foundation, this is was fun to do because I am not a keys player and it is pretty foreign to me but after a few basic lessons on the piano I could count loads of different chords and sort of relax and let my mind make the music instead of stressing that I am going to hit a wrong note because I am not a piano god and just focus on the chords feel and then making little melodies based around the chords was also really impressive from my perspective as I have never written any thing as complex as that on a keyboard before so I was glad I could see some big improvements there. Finally the guitar parts which was equally as fun as it was annoying to create and record, this is what was the first contribution to this composition and the main guitar part has been stuck in my head for a while now. I feel it is pretty catchy and overall just a quality guitar part, I had fun writing it and even plan to use it in a future song possibly.