On Ableton i plan to make a drum and bass track. I like this genre because i can be very experimental and go outside the usual realm of what is considered normal in music. When doing this i plan to add samples and edit them to get a unique and fresh sound.
I personally enjoy listening to remixed songs such as makkas on the packet by drinks on me and runny egg by vibe chemistry witch features good use of samples. I will take inspiration from these songs as they have good structure and are interesting to listen to.
Thursday 21st November:
In todays lesson i learnt how to use the basics of Ableton. One thing that i learnt witch will be helpful in my final piece is learning how to add effects on to my tracks witch will help me create a unique sound thats refreshing to listen to. I also learnt about the simpler feature witch will be helpful when making my drum track because i will be able to take a nice sounding drum and only use the parts that i want from an audio. I can also do this with any other audio file. I learnt how when i press tab it takes me into a different format where i can further adjust timing and placements of the tracks witch is useful if i want to use syncopation or cut out certain parts. This might come in handy in my final piece if i decide i want the music to cut out at some point, before a beat drop for example.
Next lesson i need to improve my confidence while using all these features while i’m making my song. There is also a lot more i could learn about logic and i will watch some youtube videos at home to develop a more in depth knowledge of Abletons capabilities.
Every thing i learnt today was through the making of a very rough around the edges track but it did help me learn about the DAWs capabilities.
Thursday 28th November
In this lesson i improved my knowledge of making dumb beats as this sets a good structure for whatever I choose to put over it. I also sped up the bass drum and added a riser to lead up to the beat drop. I did this successfully but I could have reduced the reverb so that it when silent before the drop. This would build more tenchion and I could also add a sample of a vocal that I like before the drop.
Thursday 5th December:
In this session i developed my original drum beat into a more structured intro to the song. I did this by duplicating the drum beat and removed the final bar of the sped up kick because it sounded way to fast. i also added a melody using a wave table synth and added bass using a bass synth. I added an interesting synth melody before the beat drop as well, this is important because it captures and builds the listeners attention.
I think the drums sound weak. To fix this i need to develop the beat further by adding more high hats and syncopated beats. I could do this by adding another drum track over the original, it is vital for the drums to sound strong and powerful to match the DnB genre.
I would also like to add a vocal sample witch i can cut and edit to get the ideal sound and make it unique to my song.
Thursday 12th December
This is the finished product. I added some vocal melody’s whitch i sourced from a longer stem, i cut them down into individual notes and sounds and repeated the ones that i liked. This ostinato adds a nice layered effect witch fits in with the instrumental build up. I added some reverb to establish the depth witch certain instruments were lacking. The stem already had some electric effects and eq added to it witch i decided to keep in as it fit nicely with the sound i was going for. I did struggle transposing parts to the correct tempo so in future i will just make sure to line up the tracks better and shorten or lengthen tracks as needed. I should have also had quieter dynamics on the vocals before the drop because they sound overpowering in the mix.
To make the drop stronger i added another layer of drums with a quick rolling hi hat to strengthen and develop the drums, this strengthens the crescendo and thickens the texture.
