Complicated MIDI

TRACK 1
This track was a bit of a struggle to get my head around. My style of music is a mixture of hip-hop, RN B and Drum & Bass. With me, I am not good at creating a drum beat, as I struggle to compose it and to give it a good BPM. It started off with me going onto the drum loops and basically playing through them, until I came across Morden Rock Drum. So I dragged onto my track and play it on loop so I can come up with some ideas to record. Then I felt that it needed a bit of ambient sounds so I used the Mayday Generation instrument. I started to just make a simple melody. Then I looped it.

Then I added strings sounds so I went with the Pop Cello Solo. So I doubled it up onto a new track and took some notes out of the new track. Then I added some keys using Studio Pop Piano and create some chords together and copied and paste it in designated areas. Then I added more string called hip-hop from the EXS Strings 2 and quantised them to 1/16 of a note.

Then I felt it needed something to fill up the track a bit so I wanted to add some choir sounds using the Church Choir instrument. Looped it until, I felt it wasnt required. Then I added some bass using the Megfat Superstrings sequence and changed it to bass instrument, Upright Bass!

With this track, I kept running out of ideas. So I did another track. By the time I had completed the other track I realised that I had to complete this track in a short time. Eventually, I had some ideas of how to make this track. The first thing I was to change the megafat instrument to other instruments but kept the sequence. So I used the Beach Bells and quantised the notes to 1/8.

Then I copied this sequence to a few new tracks and changed the instruments using Pop Cello twice but different sequences and the Upright Bass. With the piano track, Yamaha Grand Piano, I created a simple melody. Then to save me thing of more and more melodies, I decided to use it on other instruments like the Mayday Generation Synths and Upright Bass instrument. With the Church Choir Instrument, I felt that it was used too much so I decided to change the melody. This was only used twice in the track, as I wanted to make a change to the song. The more I listened to the track, the more I realised, it wasnt working and it felt dull. So to make it easy for me, I decided to make a structure of intro, verse, chorus and outro.

As you can see, I decided to start with the intro, I decided to use the Megfat Strings sequence but change the instrument to Beach Bells. Then with the Box Organ on two different instruments, the first one, I used it for the Pop Cello Solo and the other for Cello (Arco). I kept the church Choir in the same position as I felt that it worked in the track and for my bass line, I used Megfat again but used

Upright Bass. Also, just before starting on my verse, I decided to use the Yamaha Grand Piano sequence and copied on another track but using a different instrument of the Mayday Generation. For the 1st verse, I didnt want too much instruments to be playing through the track, so I used the Yamaha Grand Piano sequence on the original piano, the Mayday Generation, Beach Bells and the Upright Bass. But on the drums, I decided to make it play differently. As you can see, there is a gap where, no drums play. With this, you could hear it cut off easily, so I decided to use the fader tool, so that it flows through the track. For the chorus, I kept the drum beat going but added the intro part with it. For the 2nd verse, drop out some drums for the 1st bit and the bells, bass and the church choir instruments were cut out completely. End the track was the hardest part, as the track had to be 2mins, 30secs long. I made drums drop in and out a few times. Added the beach bells, the Yamaha Grand Piano and the Upright Bass back to the track until music was finished.

Then I concentrated on the automation and the channel faders. On the automation, there were certain instruments that were over taken the song. Some that were too quiet that you didnt hear what was being played. So with the drums, I felt that it needed to be heard, so as you can see, I turn them up, but I needed to use the fade tool because when it finishing playing, it clips so I fade them through to reduce the clips but it plays smoothly. Then with the Beach Bells, I felt it over-powering the track, so I turned them down on the automation and fade it out when it finishes. On the Pop Cello Solo, I also made them play quietly in the background.

As it comes to the end, the hard part for me was to ensure that it ends really well. I put a loop on the part where it ends, then went on automation again, and went through each instrument and started to fade them out. To more realistic, I have tremors in my hand and I had to keep my mind focus on ensuring the fading out goes well. This took time to make this work. Kept play it over and over agin to ensure it plays right.

Then to ensure I got a good mix, I went onto the mixer and start to sort out each instruments volume and the overall sound. Them I remember how Andy taught us about using the panning. So played through each instrument and seeing which needed to be panned either on the left or right side or both of the speakers.

For both speakers I used it for the drums, Pop Cello 2, Church Choir. For the right speakers, I used it for the Pop Cello 3 and the Upright Bass. For the left side of the speakers, I used it for both of Beach Bells tracks, Yamaha Grand Piano and the Mayday Generation. Then I sorted out my overall mix and my master mix.

TRACK 2
This track was far most the best track that I produced. Similar to the 1st track, the genre created was Hiphop. To make it easy for myself I created markers to show which part of the song was playing. It starts off with the chorus, then verse 1, chorus, verse 2, chorus and outro. Usually, Id work on my first track as first but because it was a struggle, I decided to this track as a way to get some inspiration for the first one.

This is the list of instruments that I used for my track.

The trance chord as my synths, the hip hop beat loop as my drum beat, my fm synth brass as another synth, my double bass as my strings, my sparkling organ as an organ, then choir sounds, the beach bells and my bass as basement bass. With this track, it starts off creating a chorus with the drums to start off with. As I said before, I am not good at creating drums so I used a drum loop called Hip-Hop Beats. Then I thought of adding some synths, so I went with trance chords. So I recorded some simple melody and copied it twice. Then I wanted to use the same melody sequence but with a different instrument so I added another instrument, copied the sequence onto another instrument called the fm synth brass. Then I went onto another instrument called the sparkling organ. Copied all the instruments again but this time I added bells sound using beach bells and I recorded another melody. Then for the 1st and 2nd verse, I felt like it needed to be simple. So I decided to just have the drums, organ, bells and bass playing. I did this because I imagined that if I was recording an artist and what it needs. For the chorus, again it was the same for the first play but the second play, I added an organ. With the outro, all I did was have the organ, fm synth, trance organ and basement bass until song fades out. Quantising of instruments The Trance Chords were quantised at 1/8. So it can play each note on time.

The Basement Bass were also quantised at 1/8 note so it can sync in with the other instruments but also stand out.

The FM Synth Brass at 1/8 note. It was set to tempo time because it as it was playing at the beginning of the track, it needed to sound on time but also give it an good intro the song.

The Beach Bells were quantised at 1/8 of a note.

The Church Choir were quantised at 1/8 of a note.

The sparkling organ was quantised at 1/8 of a note.

The Double Bass (Pizzicato) was quantized at 1/8 of a note.

Automation of the track

With the double bass, I felt that it could make the song original. The sparkling organ was played softly, as the instrument is very soft and it didnt need to loud in the track but the Church choir had to be heard because it wasnt loud enough and I tried ways for it to be heard so the only options was to turn it up. With the beach bell, it was too harsh and loud so I turned them down so that it you can hear the other instruments playing.

The trance chords were turned down because it was too loud and also this sort of instrument is known to play quiet loud. With the drums, I turned them up because, it was the main instrument and also it helps to ensure that it plays the other instruments in time. The FM synth brass was play also quietly because it was used as background music. Mix down of the track

As you can see, this is the mixer. With the trance chords, church choir and basement bass, I panned them either to the left or right. I did because I remembered, how panning make a difference when you mix down. Also I ensured that all the instruments were playing at the right level.