More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

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protozone
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More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

Post by protozone »

Well, I've decided that I might not add lyrics to some of my tunes just yet.
It's really hard for me to do vocals, and I don't own a proper microphone.
To make matters worse, the guy I live with is really loud with power tools and movies and stomping around. :shock:

On the plus side, he doesn't mind if I work every day for several hours straight, on my tunes :lol: :D

So in honor of continued music-making, no matter what, here's a couple of fresh new tunes for ya!

FREE downloads, of course: hooray! :mrgreen:

https://hearthis.at/protozone/dropper/ ("DROPPER")
https://hearthis.at/protozone/hyperspac ... rapnelmix/ ("HyperSpacing Out", shrapnel mix)

The mixdowns were difficult, especially on "HyperSpacing Out". I almost threw that tune away because I almost lost a working mix entirely. It took some hardcore EQing to deal with some issues which were finally fixed. If it sounds wierd on your system, let me know and I'll try to prevent it from happening in the future.

"DROPPER" wasn't as hard to mix and was a lot more fun. It sounds a bit scatter-brained, but that's the type of feel I'm actually going for these days, literally! :D :lol: I'm trying to shatter expectations and limits. I want tunes to be surprising even for people watching the future waveforms scroll by (don't do that!).

Enjoy. Feedback is welcome, of course. But I can't guarantee that I can implement any suggested changes.
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Re: More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

Post by lilith »

Great!! You used EnergyXT? How have you done the Drum n Bass beat?
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Re: More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

Post by Michael Willis »

Great work. Out of the two I liked Hyperspacing Out a bit more. I'm not sure what it was about it, but something vaguely reminded me of the soundtrack of the adventure game Machinarium.
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Behind the Music

Post by protozone »

Great!! You used EnergyXT? How have you done the Drum n Bass beat?
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. I use both EnergyXT and REAPER, and sometimes Qtractor or LMMS to generate parts. I think I made some stuff with Hydrogen too.
That's not easy to answer briefly, but I'll try. Not necessarily in this tune, but in more successful tunes by me and others we...

0) program some rhythms from scratch that you expect to use and archive them.
1) download a variety of "breaks" (drum rhythm loops) from the internet or get them from royalty-free sample CD-ROMs.
If you happen to have DnB specific tools such as HammerHead or TunaFish from Brambos, those can do wonders!

2) match the rhythms to the main tune "grid" (BPM match). In some DAWs you can do this time compression/expansion both manually and automatically.
This is one of the only reasons why I use REAPER, but EnergyXT does it somewhat easier to a degree.
3)...
In both programs, you can then dice up the rhythmic loop on the grid into a series of 8th, 16th, and/or 32nd notes (or finer detail).
I make it a point to stick with BPM's that I like, and this is also so that DnB techniques are possible. I often work at 70-80 BPM because this tempo can be doubled easily without conflicting with the slower halved BPMs. This is pretty common, I sure didn't invent the technique.
4) put beat notes that are off-beat on beat to match the grid better. REAPER can do this nicely with stretch markers, but I don't use them as much as I could.
5) EQ what you have and render the output, or render the output and then EQ it afterwards.

This is actually one of the most important parts! If you don't EQ the rhythms into different zones, when you layer them you'll have way too many hihats and cymbals mushing together. Probably a better technique is to literally chop out the hihats and cymbals as much as possible from the original loops. That way, when you then get to step 6 it will sound better!

6) layer different rhythms on separate multitracks and experiment with multiplexing the rhythms and bringing parts in and out to diversify the resulting mixture. This is the part that's fun and where you can hear the better techniques. Also, you can shift some rhythm loops forwards or backwards in time and trim their starts and stops so that they seem OK. Just like legos, a great opportunity to just grab some beatnotes and rearrange them.

7) as you mix and match you'll notice which parts are too bassy or too trebley or too midrangey. It's very useful to use highpass and lowpass filters and steep/deep graphic EQ to make the mixture sound good even if and especially if the individual parts sound muffled or thin or like a telephone (midrangey). The main idea is to get rid of the harshness.

8) keep arranging. When the rhythm is working pretty well, completely chop out the parts that fail and only leave the good parts.

9) overdub some just plain kicks and put them exactly where you want them; maybe do the same for individual main snare or individual main hats. If you successfully filtered the bad stuff out, when you put these elements back in manually or play them in via improv, the results will sound A LOT cleaner.

10) After you got the tune flowing, take long breaks for hours or days and come back to it later and decide again which parts to keep and which parts to re-edit or re-generate. Always save into a folder whichever elements seem OK as riffs or loops identified by BPM and key.

11) compare different versions of the tune and mix and match (comp/composite) the good parts and chop out the bad parts. Fill in missing parts with new material if you need to.

12) at every step you can overdub! You can even carefully overdub onto the final version if you're really really careful with the dynamic range

13) read from sites like IDMforums.com, DogsOnAcid.com, etc. Learn from mistakes.

A completely different technique, is to do the above but only using original materials and no phrase sampling. Also, some folks like to put different parts fo the rhythms onto different tracks and have different effects upon each track. I did that a bit for parts of "AquaMan". I need to do more of that; it's a fun easy technique. I don't do a lot of DnB because I really don't want to be using other people's materials. However, it's a tradition to recycle freeware drum loops and the internet has tons of them. If you chop and process and filter and layer them enough, then the results will sound more original. And if you completely perform some of your own rhythms as edited overdubs or totally from-scratch stuff, then the audio clarity can be a lot better than what I had for this tune.

My tune "MasterClass" is a better example of rhythmic originality even though it's not really DnB.
Great work. Out of the two I liked Hyperspacing Out a bit more. I'm not sure what it was about it, but something vaguely reminded me of the soundtrack of the adventure game Machinarium.
I'm happy that you liked it! I have to admit, I accidentally re-performed part of the theme to "Star Trek" {facepalm}. But I left it because it works and it's not a cover nor a sample nor a rip-off. It's just the same brief 4-note harmony.

As mentioned above, when I first made it, I was too sloppy with the layering, so I got way too much mushiness. However, I did intentionally try to make the cymbals wierd on the sides with flange and phasing. Unfortunately, on some systems this will sound like regular old MP3 aliasing of cymbals and people will think I used a bad codec. But in reality, I was trying to make the "sides" seem wierd and splashy.

What worked better was to go back into the tune and figure out which notes I actually played, mark the areas with colors and labels, and then do 100% new overdubs and mix them back into the tune at low level only for the specific parts which needed them, leaving the other parts untouched.

For the vocals, I used Linux's GeSpeaker :lol: If you put GeSpeaker through BitSpeek it still sounds like a real person :lol: even though it really ought to sound more machine-like hehehe. I think I may have also used AnalogX's "SayIt". I plan on doing more stuff like that.

If you listen carefully, there's a voice saying "12-Dimensional Time"... that's GeSpeaker from Linux (mbrola). I used a German setting. Also, I admit that I sampled a guy on YouTube who happened to say "Listen..." but I heavily processed that so that I'm not stealing his thunder. It's just that one word. He's a decent vlogger and I don't want to be nabbed for copyright infringement. After time compression/expansion, drastic EQ, mixing, and special DSP of just one word, I don't think it's a problem. It sounds like it's computer-generated somewhat. I guess that's controversial or not(?). But honestly, most of the voice was GeSpeaker (totally computer-generated and copyright free, not nabbing and changing stuff). I will be doing more of my own voice soon as I get the hang of it.

Anyways, I know you didn't ask about that stuff, but I figured i might as well tell somebody since it was fun.
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Re: More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

Post by Michael Willis »

protozone wrote:I accidentally re-performed
Ha! I think that happens to everybody. I've come to the conclusion that pretty much everything is derivative. Instead of fighting it, I try to embrace the music that influences my own, and hopefully put enough of my own spin on it so that I'm not just blatantly copying stuff.
protozone wrote:Anyways, I know you didn't ask about that stuff
Yeah, that's fine, it's fun to read about other people's creative processes. I admittedly have very different musical ambitions, mostly virtual orchestration and recording acoustic instruments, but I do dabble a bit in electronica and have some ideas about mixing some more synth-like sounds into my compositions. I try to collect inspiration from all over the map, with the hopes that it will help me develop my own sound.
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Re: More scatter-brained tunes for ya!

Post by protozone »

@Michael Willis

Thanks for your reply. I will check out your music! Sounds interesting. :D

I think you're right about how just about everything is derivative.
The more I research how my favorite bands of the 80s and 90s and early 2000s work(ed), I find that they had the same issues as us and just happened to handle it in such-and-such ways.

Just recently I've been noticing that even in some very high-profile commercially successful bands I can recognize some VSTi freeware (and payware) sources. And also, I spent a couple of weeks trying to attain a certain popular type of synth sound only to realise that I didn't need to buy NI Massive or whatnot; I already had a nice one-trick-pony VSTi freeware that does the sound I was looking for :lol:

Also, for some odd reason lately, when I listen back to my tunes some of the stuff sounds like I sampled a familiar technique, but it turns out that it was just a VSTi synth preset which happens to sound like that "in the mix". For example, I used mTheory in that last tune for a brief section and it sounds like DJ scratching with reverb or trancegate(?!!). Wierd. But I didn't sample any DJ scratching (yet!). :) 8)

i've got tons of plans for my next 40some tunes.

14 good individual tune projects are already started, + about 10 random performances to edit and fix, + several prepared riffs and rhythms + a whole new library of VST instruments + a few samples and REX files + plans to remix ALL of my previous tunes... + about 12 remixes already partially perfected just needing lyrics or some type of better EQ or specialized overdubs that I can't attain yet.

I am SO HYPED! Thanks for listening and reading.

I think I may purchase studio time next month for $50 to just run in, yell and talk and chant, and then run out with the results on DVD-ROM/flash so I can finish it at home. I could really get crazy if I put my mind to it.

You guys will be the first to hear the results sometime by the end of the summer, I hope.
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