Dominic Price

The concept behind the piece

My love of electronic music, namely dance music, stems right from the very beginnings of the disco, hip-hop and other subsequent genres. When new forms of creating music electronically emerged, resources were limited and technology didn’t have as sophisticated a grasp as it does today. Loops were common and instrumentation was minimal. Despite the enormous change in the development of music technology today (with personal laptops containing far greater processing power than entire recording studios in the 70s) I wanted to explore that type of ‘minimalism’ in my own work.

So I decided to construct this song around a single, looped drum sample and a looped piano riff, with the goal being that I would try to reference the early days of dance music by reconstructing a disco song stylistically. The main aim is to how interesting and engaging I can keep the track without losing momentum. And being anchored in a very much ‘pop’ sensibility, I wanted to keep it sharp, to-the-point and thus under five minutes.

Instrumentation and execution

I knew that I wanted a distinctly disco quality to the track, and that began with a solid beat. I searched through the data files in Ableton Live but I couldn’t find anything that suited the track, so I trawled through my songs to see if there was a sample I could nab – and there was. (So for fears of breaching both domestic and international copyright laws, I’m not going to mention exactly where this sample came from but also claim that the part of the song I have used is insubstantial enough that I believe that the original artist wouldn’t be able to recognise it out of context.) Now that that’s out of the way, I could finally provided a backbone to what would ultimately carry the song.

I already had a stalwart drum kit that I’ve been using a lot lately. The whole kit is bright yet full, with the attack on the kick clear enough to cut through the mix without its bottom end blowing everything out. It has a nice, clean, fat snare and clap sounds, and its hi-hats aren’t too abrasive or too metallic. It’s a dream to mix! I threw together a simple kick-snare beat, with some ornamentation in places from the claps and toms. All set to the backdrop of the sample, a decent percussion section fell into place.

The piano riff was easy enough. I’d already written it some months ago with the intention of turning into a full song, but just never got around to it (no surprises). For the specific piano sound though, I used another favoured stalwart of mine, the IK Multimedia Philharmonik orchestral plugin. From there I chose their version of a Steinway piano that had a very rich, reliable sound that wasn’t too synthetic and gave a great sense of verisimilitude. The synths that appear in the latter half of the song that ‘replace’ the piano were mixed fairly identically so as to be taking the piano’s place both in the arrangement and sonically.

So there were my two loops done! To now give the song a real disco flavour, there of course needed to be strings. I again used the Philharmonik and blended together several of their violin and ensemble string sounds as no standalone version worked well enough. I selected five sounds to use in the end: first and second legato violins, first and second detaché violins, and a full string ensemble to fatten it all. The legato violins provided enough sustain and air while the detaché violins provided the attack and body to create a thorough real-life string ensemble.

For the bass, I chose what sounded a fairly common bass in 70s and 80s electronic music, something with a resonant and twangy attack but with a lot of body. I also selected some other synth sounds that in the latter half of the song replace the piano riff, again felt very reminiscent of the 80s decade. The lead synth that plays the main ‘chorus’ line in the song was a simple square lead I also found in Ableton (which I later modified).

And then I threw in a choir line from the Philharmonik as well to fill out the whole song.

Mixing

Admittedly the hardest part of the whole song to mix was the main chorus line (that comes in about 1:15 minutes into the song). It was either too far back in the mix or far too prominent. And if it sat back in the mix, the only way to get it to sit comfortably amongst everything else was to bring out the higher frequencies, which just made the overall sound harsh. So I compromised. I allowed for the main line to be a decibel or two too soft but at least I kept the fullness of the square.

As for the percussion, piano, strings, the bass and the synths, I took my cues from a number of websites that I’ve included in the hyperlinks above.

Finally Done

You find the song’s SoundCloud can be found here.

Reworking:

For this assignment I chose the String Medley to remix for two main reasons: firstly, that it gave me more creative freedom in that all the MIDI files were provided, and secondly, that I have a love of strings. Because of this love, I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into writing and composing my own music outside of class using strings. In order to do so, earlier this year I purchased the IK Multimedia orchestral plugin Philharmonik, arguably the most realistic MIDI plugin for traditional orchestral sounds. I wasn’t going to let an opportunity of playing around with string pass me by, so I jumped at this option.

Likewise, I had also installed a variety of synth packs in Ableton Live that I hoped to incorporate into the new mix of the song; namely the lush, Roland-style basses. There were a number of changes I made to the arrangement to the piece with the intention that I achieve and cohesive style overall.

Strings:

Arranging the strings was simple enough, with the MIDI files already prepared for me in the DropBox file. Philharmonik gives you several options when choosing string sounds. Not only can you pick from full sections and ensembles, but also multiples of a single instrument and single instruments as well. I selected single violins, a cello and a full ensemble for my arrangement. Doing some simple research online I found a number of sites that could inform me of the best way of mixing strings, such as here and here. So once all the strings were selected and in place (while also having briefly remixed some other instruments too) I then placed some compression with a fairly high ratio, some EQ and reverb too (one that had a bit of chorus and a delay of about four seconds). I chose this style for the Bitter Sweet Symphony and Pachelbel sections of the song.

For Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (Winter), I stuck with pretty much the same compression and EQ (only slightly modified) with the reverb dialled back, and switched the violins from legato to staccato that lent to a much smoother sound.

Percussion:

I decided not to change any of the existing samples that came as audio files in the DropBox download. I felt like they retained the original flavour of the song. The fake drum kit, however, had to go. Given that there was an already established interplay between the drums and the samples, and that my final product would be one made “in the studio” as opposed to a live piece, I figured I could take cues from the conventions of hip-hop. I replaced the “natural” kit with an imitation TR-909 and emphasised the sample, plus adding a tambourine sample to give it all some more movement. I kept the original beat of the MIDI drums, altering it to suit the 909.

Synths & Bass:

I preserved most of the synths that already came with the audio files, but turned parred them back, as I didn’t want them to be so prominent in the mix. I wanted to show off the strings, really! The synths like the pad and harmony components were retained as their original audio files, and I did away with most of the rest as they muddied up the arrangement too much.

I found some wonderfully deep and full bass sounds to carry the mix. Inspired a lot from typically 80s sounds (such as the ‘Jaco Bird Bass’ that appears in the Vivaldi half of the song) complemented the vintage throwback established by the 808 and samples.

Rearrangement and finalisation:

I had to do some trial-and-error when figuring out the BPMs of both halves of the song, eventually landing on ones that did fit the timing of the audio samples so that they and the MIDI could sit comfortably together. I stripped away the synth sounds at the beginning and open straight up with the strings, as I wanted them to be at the forefront of the song. Ultimately, I like to believe that my remix has done the original justice while also allowing me to contribute my own creativity vision to the medley.

The Idea Behind It All 

Before doing this, I had never given myself the opportunity to create any type of electronic music. That is, proper, traditional electronica, filled with industrial and atmospheric sounds. I’d always dealt with the more pop element of electro, using 80s-style synths and imitation 808 drum machines. Learning about how to manipulate sound to engineer particular soundscapes has been hugely informative and beneficial for ongoing works I may do.

The piece that I have created pays homage to Gavin Bryars’ Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet. We looked at this song earlier in the semester and although it is not a piece of electronic music, the playfulness in the way Bryars illustrated psychoacoustics really piqued my interest. I describe my piece as being a ‘deconstruction’ of the original (quite a generous description on my half). I wanted to take elements of JBNFMY and subsequently structure a song around that, much in the same way Bryars constructs the orchestral arrangement around the vocals of the unknown homeless man. The song was to use both orchestral and industrial sounds manipulated in ways that give a sense of unexpected interconnectivity like the original.

The Creative Process

I began my construction of the song by simply listening to Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet and trying to see which aspects I should use:

• I downloaded the track and bounced the whole thing into Ableton Live. (Don’t worry, I only eventually used a few seconds and didn’t violate copyright law!) I then had the whole track warped so I could then go through and locate the best transients to use where there were also the best dynamics. The sample I used was one only about eight seconds long towards the end of the song when all the orchestral swells have built up, reaching its climax.
• With the sample I now had, I reduced the transients by about 90% so that all that was left was the attack and some of the tail. The result was a very melancholy, disjointed sounding series of orchestral hits. It was from this I was to structure the rest of the song, using it as the base (like the vocals were in the original).
• I then effected the sample by first placing a preset vinyl distortion, followed by erosion and lastly a ping-pong delay. The scattered effect sound that resulted works in contrast to the rest of the tightly structured percussion and pads that it swirls around.
• This was designed to be my take on the playfulness of Bryars’ original. Scattered parts of the sample ‘seep’ through and around the rest of the arrangement in the same style as the imprecision of the vocals moved around the orchestral accompaniment.

Then I had to figured our which sound would ‘anchor’ all the rest of it, so I decided to make a pad:

• In order to create a pad of my own, I used the operator function in Ableton. I chose that because it easily lets me build my own sounds, which is particularly useful if none of the presets contain one that I like.
• I simply then channelled two sine waves through each other, one coming out of the first output and the second routed through the first. I then placed over that sound a minor state-variable filter. The end result was a subtle yet complex layering that sounded much like an organ.
• To complete the sound, I then ran the operator through a large space reverb, coupled with some chorus modulation, to give a shimmering, expansive sound for all the rest of the instrumentation to be structured around.

Lastly, to hark back to the orchestration of the original, I wanted to reference the delicate harp that danced around the vocals, yet also relate it to the new context it was being placed in.

• Using an orchestral plugin that I had already purchased, I found the ideal harp sound I needed, and wrote out the same loop the riff that appears at 0:28 in the song.
• I knew I wanted the harp to be unpredictable, to contrast against the structure of the rest of the arrangement, which is when I realised that I could use the beat repeat function to engineer the randomness. I was unfamiliar with it, having never used it before, so I did some research and found a YouTube video that spelled it all out for me.
• Now that I had my randomisation, I tweaked the sound using EQ to get rid of all the middle frequencies and emphasised the higher ones, put on some erosion, saturated the sound so I could still get a fuller body, then used auto-pan so I could have the instrument branching out into more of the space.

You can find the end result here!

Putting together all of the drums, synths and guitar, the song has finally come together. It’s become much more of an instrumental of a pop song rather than an actual pop song. This is largely because I haven’t been able to track the vocals. Between working and uni and finding a suitable room and equipment to record, while also finding time where I wasn’t annoying my housemates, it proved more difficult that I had anticipated. So I just let the track be what it is. Simple instrumental.

Making the guitar sit in well in the track was the biggest challenge. I was trapped between EQing it so that the higher frequencies came through and gave the guitar prominence, but then it would come out too piercing, or I could EQ the piercing quality but then the guitar would be overwhelmed. However I was very proud of the percussion production. The kit always came through strongly right throughout the track.

As much as I would’ve like to have included everything, I’m still super pleased with the result!

Selecting which style of drums I would have for this track was quite easy. I was tempted to find an audio sample in my iTunes or online somewhere in which I could isolate the drum track. But I figured that didn’t give me very many options for panning or equalising each individual component of the kick, nor any overall equalisation. I really wanted to practise that aspect of production, so I then ruled out sampling. Alternatively, the opposite would be far more difficult: recording a live kit. I don’t have any experience with recording an instrument as dynamic as a drum kit, nor would it then be considered as an aspect of digital production either. I would have been far too cumbersome and unnecessarily hard. So I opted for the middle ground by using a midi kit in Ableton. I eventually located a nice, tight kit that wasn’t too boomy like a rock kit, and not too weak like a jazz kit. I found some preset midi loops as well, tweaked them a bit to fit the style and structure of the song and I was set!

I researched online to find any articles on equalising a drum kit and I found a particularly helpful one from Sound On Sound that was just helpful overall. I knew I wanted a bright attack with the kick to really cut through the mix and be heard, while also retain its fullness and bass quality. I’m also very fond of the type of lo-fi live-kit-meets-drum-machine feel that’s been super popular with bands in recent years, (like the Preatures’ Is This How You Feel?) In order to do so, I compressed the original kit’s snare and sidechained that with a 909 snare. The mix of the original’s attack and the 909’s body gave the whole thing a really good feel.

Next came tracking the guitar takes. I used a 1983 Japanese-made Fender Stratocaster paired with a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amplifier for the base of my sound. To record this sound, I used a Shure SM57, a good workhorse of a microphone. This was all routed through a Scarlett 2i2 audio interface from Focusrite. I wanted to keep the takes as clean as possible, which meant forgoing my pedals. (I was planning on using a Boss CE-5 chorus, a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay and an Electroharmonix Holy Grail reverb, but it ended up muddying up the sound too much in production.) I parred back on the bass and middle dials on the amp and bumped up the treble by about 2 or 4 decibels. This gave a nice clear sound on the attack of the strings when strummed.

I then used some compression to tighten it all up, with some in-the-box chorus (which I preferred as I could control the modulation to synchronise with the BPM in Ableton) followed by some ping-pong delay and a touch of reverb that all came together to form a bright, shimmering, expansive sound. I took a lot of inspiration from MGMT’s 4th Dimensional Transition.

I’m a couple of weeks into this assignment, and yet this is my first blog post. (Quite telling, isn’t it?) There have been a lot of hurdles with this assignment, but with that came some very steep learning curves. This assignment was the best opportunity to piece together all the aspects that I’d learnt from this course, particularly using compression and EQ. Until now I’d had a very ad hoc approach to compression, and I didn’t even touch EQ. I basically saw compression as a way of making things louder, which in a very basic and poorly mixed track comes in handy when you’re trying to make everything audible. EQ I felt was the preserve of proper producers and DJs. Learning how to use the most basic equalisation has seriously improved every aspect of modifying and manipulating sound.

I began writing this song knowing that I wanted a very clear mix of both synthetic and organic sounds. I knew I distinctively wanted a fat, pulsing bass line to push through the song à la Depeche Mode (or even Taylor Swift). Alternatively, I knew I wanted a gentle string quartet to place at the backdrop that all the rest of the instrumentation would sit against. And finally, I knew that I wanted round, punchy sound of a brass hook to tie it all together. How I would put these components together I would come to figure out later.

The bass line was a result of watching several YouTube videos on how to make a strong, deep synth line using Ableton Live’s operator device. I chose this approach because, while there were several bass plugins available, choosing how much of each component I used made the process far more versatile.

As for the strings, that would prove more difficult. Thankfully a while I go I purchased a fantastic orchestral plugin from IK Multimedia, the Miroslav Philharmonik. It has the closest replication to real strings for any plugin of its kind. I then simply loaded in all the parts for a quartet and wrote each instrument its respective part. I always find that string plugins emphasise the higher frequencies unnecessarily, giving a piercing, tinny sound. Dialling back on the instruments EQ solved the problem very easily fortunately.

Using the same Philharmonik plugin for the strings, I started working on the main brass line that carries the song. Synth brass is notoriously bad. I’ve had my fair share of bad experiences trying to get some semblance of reality into computerised brass. Unless you try to use the sound as a instrument in and of itself, separate from imitating real brass, then that can be fun. So, I went to write the brass line with that in mind. Philharmonik is good for orchestral brass, with long, crescendoing french horns done well. Short, staccato hits and punchy trumpet lines are not its strong point. In order to get around this problem, you have to layer. There were some brass options that has a more metallic timbre, while others offered muted, resinous tones. EQing the specific tones that need to be brought from each layer, piling them together and placing a soft synth staccato at the front of each note to give a more uniform attack, and voilà! It worked! (As well as it could). Panning each of the several layers either side and keeping the staccato down the centre finally brought the sound together.

I then moved onto drums, guitars and vocals.