I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am to be working on another piece with Shadi! :-] I was thrilled with her selection of Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry for The Wind Will Take Us and even more delighted with her outstanding vocal performance.
This is VERY early in its development. Shadi hasn’t even heard it as I upload this, but I’ll drop her a DM on Twitter in a moment and keep my fingers crossed. Right now (as usual) there’s no thought been given to arrangement or mixing. This is simply a preview of some of the instruments and the overall theme of the track. Brain dumping indeed.
Update: [25/11/2009]
Took on board Fernando’s comments below and added a filter and sequence to the opening bass line to give it a little more groove. Responding to Doyle by lifting the vocals and EQ-ing some of the instruments to give them more room. Also glitched up the percussion track and generally remixed (levels / EQ / some compression on one of the other bass lines).
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Update: [24/11/2009]
Now mixed with vocals (thank you Shadi!!!). MP3 below is not mastered. Any feedback very gratefully received. Would love to hear from you so post a comment below. Do it!
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Update: [27/09/2009 Arrangement 1]
I’ve added drums, worked on a couple of extra layers and put together the first arrangement. It’s a preliminary mix and in terms of levels / EQ, I’m going to leave it pretty much as is until the raw vocals are back. I want to hand over to Shadi now for her input.
Shadi: Keep in mind that the mix / arrangement is still very fluid and can be amended in way you like.
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Update: [18/09/2009]
Not a huge amount been modified since Wednesday’s update and since I’ve been full of a cold, I suspect the mix might be very weird. Feels like my head is stuffed with cotton wool!
I was inclined to agree with Fernando’s comments about the piano, so for now, I’ve deleted it. Sounded a bit Happy Mondays to me and changed the feel quite a lot.
Still just a collection of ideas and with the Great North Run on Sunday, I don’t think I’ll be moving this one on much until next week now. (Sorry Shadi!)
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Update: [16/09/2009]
I’ve lifted the tempo by 6bpm to help this one groove, but it still isn’t gelling for me (yet). I’ve got confidence in the track and I’m sure it’ll pull together, but right now, it’s just not happening. Being full of a cold and having had a couple of very intense days at work, guess I can’t really expect to be in the most creative of moods. Probably best to leave it for now.
As per previous posts, should point out that this is still not an arrangement. Just some of the possible themes for the final piece. Zero attention has been given to the mix (levels or EQ).
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Update: [13/09/2009]
Uploading a couple of additional parts, though must stress that this is NOT an arrangement at all. The piano is unlikely to kick this track off (but who knows!) and some of the synth sounds still need lots of work (EQ too). What’s more, this is a VERY rough mix. Levels are all over the place. Drums are toppy (but expect to hear another drum part too, this is mainly percussion for texture). Definitely needs a lot more sub/bottom end and bigger drums. I can hear the SBB sequencer drifting slightly out of time too. Loads to fix!
The feel of the piece has changed quite a lot over the weekend. It feels much brighter and lighter now. I’m not sure that’s entirely the direction I had planned, but I do kind of like it. Let’s see where it takes me next!
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First Upload: [11/09/2009]
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Thought I’d try my hand at a more minimal piece and created the following which I’ve called Cyrodilic Brandhi (don’t ask). It’s not really a serious attempt, so I won’t mind if you snort with derision after 16 bars, assuming you make it that far.
Not much to say about this really. I suspect I’ll ditch it but salvage on or two elements for another tune, so this is just brain dumping again really. As so often in this category, it hasn’t been mixed so not only will there be lots of EQ glitches, the levels are probably all over the place too! And the pitch bend is an assault on the ears. Apologies over. Here you go:
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OK, the post title is overstating things a little because I still only have 48 bars. But they’re at least 48% better than the 32 bars I had 48 hours ago.
I’m sure there’s a GCSE maths question somewhere in that first paragraph.
It’s building quite nicely now. There’s still much do in terms of mixing, modulation and EQ, but I’m not going to give a moment’s thought to that until I’ve got the main part of the piece composed and recorded. Please – it’s very raw.
Oh and I managed to resurrect the lost chord – the one I stumbled upon when plinkety plonking on the the piano and couldn’t press record for fear of losing my place on the keyboard! Had to remember four notes until I could jot it down into a Cubase file and save it for later. It’s the second of the two prominent chords on the Crystal AtmoEPiano part.
As ever, any feedback would be very welcome.
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