Project 4- Automation

Once again, the hardest part of this project for me was coming up with the inspiration that would actually get it started. I had a goal that for this project, my loop would have a slower drum beat and just be more "tame" overall. I finally got going after I picked a base sound and a chopped melody that I liked. I ended up picking 4 chopped melodies that sounded good one after the other and using the bass sound for them. The bass sound doesn't really sound like bass, actually, but it is. It ends up sounding more like a piano in my opinion. After I did this, I transposed each of the 4 melodies down a level and had them play in the same order as the first ones. This made up the bare bones of my project. After this I added in the drums. My drum patterns alternate. The one that plays second has 2 snares and a tambourine hit that sound at the same time, which I put reverb on. I chose to have another bass sound fade into the beginning (using an automation clip) as an intro. Also, Mr. Rabuse helped me add an autogun sound over the top of my chopped melody. That's the two notes you hear repeating throughout the loop. I kind of wish I had made them quieter, though, so that you could hear the bass better. I put a phaser on both the bass and the autogun. Finally, also with the help of Mr. Rabuse, I used an automation clip on the sound "fieldchorus" to make the volume go up and down quickly. This plays through a majority of my loop. Finally, I made the whole song fade out at the end using the automation. This is something I wish I knew how to do sooner, because I think my second project would have benefited from it. All in all, my loop reminds me of those movies where 2 people see each other from a distance and start running towards each other in slow-mo. I picture two people running across a field towards each other, with the camera switching back and forth between them. This probably seems pretty strange, but hey, it's what I see.

Project 3- Effects

So, this was definitely my favorite project so far this year. I feel like I understand FL Studio more with each project. As always, the hardest part of this project for me was just getting it started. In every project I've done so far, I've basically wasted a whole class period trying out different sounds and waiting for inspiration to strike. When I find a sound I like, I still end up starting over because I can't find other sounds that will work well with it. Eventually, I came across the sound you hear in the very beginning of my piece, the kind of creepy, haunted house-ish sounding (to me, anyway) sound called "tollings". When I heard that I knew I wanted it in my loop. To start, I put it in the beginning, and that's where it ended up staying. I decided to go for a creepy, Halloweenish sound throughout the loop. I came up with a few drum patterns, trying to go for deeper sounds (footsteps?). I also tried making them more complex than the ones in my last project. The new clone selected thing came in handy for these drum patterns. I put reverb on the drums because I still wanted each beat to be clear (delay didn't work so well for that) but I felt they needed something. I don't know how to explain why except that it sounded good. I tried a bunch of effects before deciding on that. Originally, I had only the really fast tom beats to transition from the drums to adding in the bass. Later Mr. Rabuse showed me how to reverse the crash sound, which made it all the better. It sort of sounds like a sharp intake of breath, but I'm probably the only one that thinks so. Because the crash sounded pretty good, I went and added in some high hat into my drum patterns. I put a delay on them to make them less clear and give them more of a ringing sound. The bass sound is just a chopped melody (called Superstition- fits in well with the Halloween feel I was trying to get ;) ) transposed a couple times. It sounded a bit flat and boring initially; that's where the phaser came in. The phaser fixed the boring aspect and just made it sound better overall. At around 20 seconds or so some new instruments come in. At the beginning I had just an orchestral string sound come in and use the same melody as the bass. The strings have the same phaser effect on them. This sounded okay and I was ready to call it finished. Then Mr. Rabuse suggested that I add a melody over the top of it. He added the airy- kind of sound (I'm awful at identifying instruments) with the two notes that you hear come into the melody over top of it. This also has a phaser effect. Mr. Rabuse also tried out the whistling sound but didn't put it in. I did that later. I wasn't sure on it at first, and I'm actually still not sure I like it. I meant for it to sound ghost-ish but maybe it just sounds silly. I'm not sure. I put the phaser effect on the whistler also to give it more of a shaky, eerie sound.