MelMostly Audio
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Is That It? by MelMostly
Tempo: 125bpm
Key: Cmaj
Chords: C | G | Dm | F
Diatonic: Am| C | Em | F | Bdim
I had a lot of fun revisiting my track 1 project from earlier this month. I feel like I learned so much between track 1 and 2 so it was nice to revise the piece to reflect where I am after not just 4 weeks but in reality months of this course. I can see myself going back to this piece and continuing to modify it as I learn more and allowing it to become an every changing marker of my progress. I think this track, like most I’ve created in this course, would be best in a video game scenario. I can absolutely see it in a side scroll bit throwback.
When I came to the Rhythm section, I love how the second 16 measure really kicks off with additional toms etc because it shows how I became more comfortable moving outside of the kick/snare/hi hat only style. I added it all in by ear and really had a blast trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t. When isolated the toms both sounds primitive and almost childlike in its simplicity but when combined with the rest of the Percussion and the Bass it really gets your shoulders bopping and the mid tom especially adds a rich deep beat that compliments the piece throughout.
For some reason my biggest delay in this track was wrapping my head around the use of the diatonic chords. Working through how to use them made for a really great feeling of satisfaction when it worked. The first 16 are in C Major Chords and the second are diatonic chords in C Major as well. I remember in an earlier lecture being told that if we were new to music theory, C Major may be the right choice. While I have started to experiment taking the training wheels off on personal projects I felt this was my best bet here. The order of both C Majors Chords and the Diatonic Chords are above and I loved the way the harmony came together. When it came to the melody I wanted the feeling to be similar but opposite of the initial 16 measure. You’ll notice the notes look almost reversed and I think it had a great effect on the sound.
Recording the Allen audio in track 2 was a funny experience and my first recording another person. When watching the lecturer use a sample in the final project zoom, I realized I now had a sample of my own. I clipped “That’s It” and experimented with looping it, slicing it up, modulating it etc but in the end it really was best as a single outro with a fade out. I added a ghostly plucky Vox to the quick sampler track and I feel like it gave me something I was missing - it really complimented the first 16 and helped give me a sound I was looking for to tie it all together. The 2 synth tracks were hand claps - I was originally trying to add this in to the percussion track but couldn’t get the sound right until I tried it as a synth. The I clipped 5 measures of the melody and completely reworked it as Synth Keys, looping it the full 32 measures. It elevated the melody. In track 1 I used a Daffodil Violin audio loop and when working on the back 2nd 16 for the majority of the last week I had a totally different violin loop in there that overpowered the track and was too dissimilar to the first half. It wasn’t until recently I tracked down another daffodil cello loop in the key of C that had a similar styling and I love how it was the same but different.
I then added buses to the closed hi hat to add on a Glimmering Chorus and I added one to the Synth Keys to give it a Warm Jet Flange. I also added a Channel EQ to the Synths and the Plucky VOX sampler. The “That’s It” sample got a Space Delay and Channel EQ I was happy with. There was a sharpness in the last 4 measure or so I had trouble tracking down, but I’m pleased with the final results.
