See previous posts about the lockdown that occurred in spring 2020 and how I used the time spent at home to study Ableton Live 10 at a well known music education institution. Below are my comments on assignment 10, which asked us to create a new piece which eventually will be performed live. This was an assignment spanning three lessons which led us through the stages of pre-production, production and performance.
Assignment 10 – production stage of a new piece
I have posted a draft file that is an attempt to makin a nu jazz tune based on the analysis I made in Assignmet 9. My arrangement opens with a soundscape based on a drone, a pad and some glitch drums. This is the stage where I also introduce the main theme played by the piano. A crucial element is the bass pattern that I ended up borrowing from the track I analysed. I recorded and transposed the bass pattern to follow my chord changes, which is different from the track I analysed. I realise that I may have to further adjust the timing of the bass to fit 100% with the drums. I struggled for a while trying to record the drum tracks my self. I just couldn’t make it swing, so I browsed the packs that I have downloaded and came across some MIDI clips that I started re-working and splitting between an electronic and an acoustic drum track. More work needs to be done to boost the energy that resides in the interplay between bass and drums, and the mix/effect settings there of. I have added 3 synth textures that is supposed to add a sense of forward motion by pan, filter envelopes and arpeggiators. A piano solo is played over the changes | Dm9 | Eb7#11 |. On my master channel I have added a Saturator before the mastering preset Meaty Analogue Master. I think it will be possible to perfom live the Glitch drums in the intro, the piano part, and perhaps some of the synth textures may be worked on also. A note to myself: try to explore the Instrument rack and the Chain selector to conveniently switch between sounds for my main controller keyboard.
