Project 8 - Complete

Project 8 - Day 2

Today was my last day of music tech, so I had to finish project 8. This wasn't very difficult to do, for once. I ended up getting rid of my pad sound, because it couldn't change pitches with the melody. I kept my orionstring melody and added a phaser to it, which makes it sound better. I also added in another synth sound from sytrus that plays sustained notes behind my melody. This sounded pretty good on its own, so all I added to it was a simple kick drum beat. I actually kind of like my ringtone, so it's too bad I can't use it. Anyway, this was a fun, easy project to finish up the semester of music tech.

Project 8 - Day 1

I worked very briefly on my ringtone project. I had about 5 minutes left of class, so I decided to just experiment. Because my phone doesn't accept other ringtones and I never really listen to other peoples', I wasn't sure exactly what I was going for with this project. I started it off with a pad sound and threw in a riff machine melody with the orionstring that starts almost immediately. It actually sounds pretty good so far, but obviously it needs more added to it and maybe some simple changes. I'm not sure if the pad sound works with the rest of my piece.

Project 7- Complete

Now that I listen to this with a fresh mind, I think it's a bit too echo-y. I probably should have toned down the reverb and delay settings on my main synth. It sounded a lot better with my headphones than it does through my speakers at home.

Project 7 - Day 5

Today was really annoying. I ended up with a pretty good synth to put in the little melody I wanted for my B pattern. However, something went wrong with the pitch of my synths. My second synth played a different pitch than the key you played on the keyboard. This caused the synths to sound weird when I tried to put them together playing the same notes. They would be playing matching notes, but the pitches would be different. This made the whole song "off", so I had to delete both of my synths and start over. I'm not happy about this, because I don't like designing synths. Maybe it'll be easier this time around. Anyway, For the pattern that plays throughout the song along with the piano, Mr. Rabuse helped me start designing a synth. It's a sine wave, with a little bit of chorus and delay. The chorus is set at 8, and the delay and reverb are used at the basic settings, but with the volume turned up a little. I put an SVF filter on it, but it doesn't do much. Just enough so that it sounds better with it than without it. I moved the Pan and volume envelopes a little, but I only made them longer. I didn't alter the shape at all. The sine wave itself has the following settings: shape 13%, tension 9%, skew 4%, sine shaper at 12%, prefilter at 48%, and noise at 0. The melody of the piano had to be edited in the piano roll in order to match it with the rest of the song, but it fits pretty well now. For my second synth, which plays over the melody in long notes in the 3rd measure, (the B part in my AABA pattern)I wanted it to sound very computer-y, the sound close to default that we all joked about liking. So, I kept the default sine wave shape, and added a lot of reverb and delay volume, and set the chorus level to 9. It's kind of hard to tell it apart from my first synth, especially because it's playing long notes. So, basically, my song consists of a automation clip (fade in and out), a synth that plays the same melody throughout the whole song, a piano sound with an edited riff machine melody that plays in the A sections, and a second synth playing sustained notes in the B section. For some reason, this sounds like it continues into the last A section. I'm not sure why it does that, and I didn't mean for it to. So, my piece is now AABB, apparently. It doesn't sound terrible, though, so I won't go through the trouble of re-uploading it to just change that. There are two drum patterns that alternate throughout the song, and are cut out in the end. There are chimes at some points where I wanted to make a transition less awkward. I'm not sure if that worked or not. Basically, that's my piece in a nutshell.

Project 7 - Day 4

Today, I attempted to add a new synth melody over part of my piece, because I need another synth to fit the requirements. However, I kind of failed at it. I wanted a synth sound that sounded good with my piano, but I couldn't make one. I started with a sine wave, but if I made it too similar to my other synth, it blended in too much. If I made it too different, it sounded terrible. I may end up trying to get a cool background noise using a synth like I did in my last piece, rather than use it for the melody. I'll use a different instrument for a melody if I can find one. So, this needs more work. Also, the transitions between the end of my first measure and the beginning of the second sounds awkward, so I'm also trying to fix that. Mr. Rabuse is helping me edit the patterns I got from the riff machine so that they end around the same note. I added in some chimes today, but didn't play the song through enough to see if they work or not. They might need some fixing up, too. Basically, I need to do a lot of fixing things, and I feel like I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do. It doesn't sound terrible right now, but I feel like it's no where near where I would like it to be.

Project 7 - Day 3

Today was definitely my most productive day on my project thus far. However, I should probably be close to done and I'm.. not. Anyway, I decided that my synth wasn't working as the main melody in my piece, I decided to use it to highlight something else. I decided on on a piano sound from the browser. I then chose a pattern from the riff machine for it, one that's not too slow, but not overly busy. For now, this plays through the whole song (4 times- it's 8 measures long) unaltered. I might transpose it later, but I'm not sure if it's necessary. Behind the piano, the synth I was working on plays a simple pattern throughout the song. Also, it plays the same riff machine melody as the piano for the second two measures. I altered the synth a little before I used it. I decided to use a different low pass filter (just LP, not LP 3), although it's not very strong. Also, I moved the chorus down to four. I turned up the volume on the reverb a little bit, and changed the volume envelope. I don't really hear all that much of a difference with that, however. I also played with the OSC like Mr. Rabuse showed us, I have the first 3 bars at varying heights moving downward, which gives it more of the "airy" (I'm not sure how to word it) sound I wanted. After that, I added a basic kick drum pattern with a kick every four steps. A different pattern with a snare drum thrown in every 8 steps alternates with it. This is deliberately simple to set off the busier piano and synth. I also used an automation clip to have the whole song fade in and out. Next, I want to use the other synth that I have to design (=[) as a simple melody over the top of the rest of the song. I want it to contrast the other two sounds, but still fit in with them. I might also need a little more base. That, along with a couple little additions and alterations, should finish up my project 7.