Final Project

So a lot of thoughts went around my head when trying to decide what I wanted to do for my last project. I finally came on the decision of trying a kind of mash up compilation of one of my favorite bands Republic of Loose. I decided to pick three of their best hits and sample then to try create something new and interesting. So, I picked the steady song, shame and comeback girl as the songs I wanted to experiment with. All of these songs are listed below in case you fancy a listen, they're great songs. Anyway so in the end everything did not go exactly quite as well as I wanted it to. I felt the first two samples worked out quite well but when it came to sampling the third song comeback girl I hit a brick wall. No matter what I did I couldnt get it to sound the way I wanted it to. At this point I had already composed over half the song so I figured I'd just have to make do with what I had done. In the end it didnt work as well as i hoped but I feel that I learned a lot from the whole experience. I even found myself with a greater appreciation for guys like girl talk. Regardless of the criticism guys like him get what he does is not at all easy even if its not entirely his own work.

Anyway, let me talk a bit about what went on in the song. I worked primarily in reason but ended up finishing the piece in logic. I figured reason would give me a better handle of using the samples I wanted which ended up working out quite well with Dr. Rex. I used recycle to divide up my samples which I put into Dr. Rex. So the song starts off with a hip hop drum beat in redrum, I had 3 drum loops which came in as the intro progressed. I then added in a nice synth line in logic using the synth bells. I then let the drum beat drop temporarily and started to bring in one of my samples. After this I then brought it all back together with the drums, synth bells and a few samples of the song blended together which I feel worked out really well.

After this piece runs out I brought in a new drumline in redrum with a unison effect. On top of this I added a subtractor with a flanger effect. I really liked how this worked into the sample I used as I feel the sample had a type of sound that ran really well with the flanger. So as this particular section ran out I started trying to work on the third song but to no avail. It just wasnt working for me and it ended up wasting hours of my time before I realized that my hopeful plan wasnt to be.

So for the third section I tried to keep the idea the same even without the samples I wanted. I kept a similar drum beat as the earlier section and put in a nice effect with some of the pads in logic. On top of this I threw in a guitar instrument in some form of an attempt to keep the idea flowing from earlier in the song.

Overall I can honestly say that I'm not as happy with this project as I'd like to be. I felt I had a good original idea going into to the project and put in a lot of hours in trying to make it work. However in the end it wasnt to be. I even toyed with the idea of scrapping the whole thing and trying to do something simpler like a trance song but I figured that I liked my idea and I feel that for the better part of the song it worked out quite well. Anyway thats about it for me. I loved this class and its gonna be a shame to see it go. Cheers for everything Matt.

So here it is, let it run for a few seconds before it starts,



Also the songs themselves,

Blog 5: Chemical Brothers Galvanize

I went to see Chemical Brothers play at oxegen musical festival last summer. It was pretty ultra. At the moment Chemical Brothers are easily one of my favorite electronic groups out there. They provide one of the best electronic sounds with a hip hop flavor. So when they opened their set last summer at oxegen I was pretty pleased to hear Galvanize blare into the night. The lights came on and that famous string sample just pumped through the air.

So the song kicks off with that famous bizarre sounding middle eastern string sample. It's such a unique sample to use in an electronic song but it just works so well. Drums start to pump into the song with a big emphasis on clap effects. I felt that with the songs slow tempo these claps gave the impression of a faster moving song while still preserving its unique rhythm. This really funky bass line moves in sounding like something off an old school synthesizer. It sounds like something that came off a moog and works so well into the song. This bass line doesn't have an immediate impact at the start. It kind of hides behind the claps. But don't despair, they're just saving it for later.

Synth pads play a big part in this song. Some of the effects these guys use are just mind bending really. The synth kind of gives off this dripping effect after the funky bass line, something like Tobin's Kitchen Sink. Claps start to come back and then we get a sweeping in effect before our old school sounding bass line moves back in. Then it all drops. All we're left with is a light snare drum beat and a few synth pads. Then one of my favorite parts moves in. If you remember my 3rd assignment then you should find a familiar sample. A light snare beat moves in as we get the famous album title from the Chem Brothers, "My finger is on the button". This sample hits us about 4 times before we get this huge drum build up with big emphasis on bass and claps. Then for the last time we hear that string sample sounding louder and better then ever before. As it fades away the song rolls out on that funky bass line that was so often hidden in the background for the majority of the song. As the song concludes it comes right to the front and seals the deal for an epic tune.

With its pounding rhythm backed up by rapper Q-Tip, Galvanize is a song that will stick in your head for days. It has a that funky, pumping bass line, those killer string hooks and some epic breakdowns and buildups. One of my favorites out there. Give it a listen. The video is also class. I also found this pretty cool trance remix if you want to have a listen to that too. This remix is really something I'd like to model my final project on. I'd love to take a few samples from a song I really like an incorporate them in an entirely different way. We'll see how that goes.

Assignment 4 TRANCE

After composing my 3rd assignment I was quite certain that I wanted to compose a techno song for this assignment. However after our trance lecture I was swayed entirely. Listening to Ferry Corsten's Beautiful as well as Armin Van Buuren's Namastai really made me realize how much I enjoy the genre of trance. I decided to follow a trance pattern for this assignment and ended up really enjoying it. I listened to a lot of different trance songs as well as doing a lot of reading from the Snowman book to try to get a grasp for what I wanted to do and ended up learning a lot from that experience. Although what I ended up with may not be quite at the same level as Paul Van Dyk or Ferry Corsten; its something that I'm quite happy with. I wanted to try something new so I worked the whole project through logic, so let me talk about that first.

I decided to avoid a slow buildup and jump into the fast drums straight away. I kicked off the song using a trane remix kit in ultra beat. I then layered a synth pad using the majestic sweep synthesizer with a delay effect over this drumbeat. As the song moved on I added a square wave bass line which formed the rhythmic section for the entire song. I really like the sound that the square bass line gave to my song. Even with the ultrabeat, the synth and the bass line I felt that the song was still a bit bare. I fixed this by adding a church choir chorus to the mix from the orchesral section. As the song moves through I dropped the drum beat and introduced a synth line using the classic trance synthesizer. I added a lot of effects to this line to give it its kind of powerful and forceful feel. I did this by adding a compressor and a limiter along with an enverb effect. As the line progresses it drops so as all we can observe is the synth pad. I let this run for a few seconds before the song reached its peak with a new drum beat and a heavier trance line. For this part of the song I really wanted it to feel powerful as it reached its climax. I used a differnet ultrabeat which I added a goldverb effect to. I also used a heavier synth line with an echo and delay effect to make it feel what I wanted to be "epic". As the song reached the end the drums go and the song begins to fade out until all we hear is the memorable choir orchestral. This was a part of the song which kind of feels distant throughout the song despite having a significant importance. I decided to bring it to the front at the very end just to remind the listener of the impact that this orchestral section actually had in the song.

So after all that here it is. Enjoy.

Blog 4: A Tribute to Chris Scavone (also a bit on my final project)

Yo Yo Scavone. I just listened to this piece and it wihtout a doubt tops nearly all of the other projects I've listened to. Nice job. I'm still going to analyze and review it though.

So the tune starts off with a nice little drumline with an emphasis on claps and hi hats. Then he introduced a simple bass line and topped it with a great piano progression. And then here it comes, that sweet synth line that carries out through the rest of the song, really loved that. It kind of had a MGMT feel to it, just a really simple but incredibly effective melodic synth line which really stands out.

So about half was through the song mixes up a bit. The synth line gets dropped and in comes a kick heavy drum beat pattern which keeps the original bass line in tact. Then we get a new melodic synth line complete with hand claps. As this part of the song progresses a lot of effects come in and the use of a synth pad. I also loved the way the song ended with the drums finishing up but keep the synth line in it till the end. Great job.

So the best thing about this project in comparison to other projects Ive listened to is that this really sounds like a song, its smooth progressive and could realistically be heard on the radio. My only critique is that from the middle of the song towards the ends it just gets a little repetitive. Although a few effects come in with the use of pads I just felt more could have been done to keep the songs progression moving in the last half of the song.

Still though I give it a whomping 10/10

Final Project:

So from doing this project I got a much better grasp of reason and kind of got a better idea of what I wanted to do with this project. I realized that often simplicity is the way to go with these projects. Keeping a melodic synth line simple or keeping a simple rhythmic bass line can often stand to be way more important then trying to complicate things. I heard a lot of projects that tried to do to much and more or less ended up sabotaging their projects.

So I really wanted to go for a techno sound, I liked working with techno sounds on my last project and really enjoyed using the synths with a techno feel to them. One thing I wanted to improve for next time was working with drums. I felt I was still quite new to throwing in different drum loops and I feel next time that I will have a much better grasp of using the different drum kits.

In terms of tempo my last project was a bit slow, I think for my final project I'm definitely gonna up this a bit. It was nice having a slow tempo for the reason project as it gave me a chance to get a good feel for the program. Now that I'm more comfortable with this project I feel much happier moving faster.

So on a final note I definitely want to work on a really good synth line for next time. Scavone's project shows how important this can be. Especially if you listen to MGMT you can see how important this can be to a song.

Assignment 3

Assignment 3

So we were asked to use our knowledge in reason and logic to compose a one minute techno song. At the start I had a bit of trouble simply trying to remember how everything went together in reason, I had things I wanted to do which I just didn't quite know how to do. So after sitting in the lab in Stoeckel for hours on end and reading quite a lot of the user manual everything came together. It took some time but I'm happy with how it all turned out.

So I started out by laying down a melodic line with the malstrom synthesizer. This melody repeats throughout the song and although isn't a typical techno song in the sense of tempo, I feel that it give the song a great techno feel with a slower tempo. I then added a redrum loop with the techno drum kit to lay down a beat for the first part of my song. I added in the thor synthesizer with harmonic pads which I jammed with effects to give me the sound I wanted. I applied a simple loop using the thor which repeats throughout the song. I used the scream 4 distortion effect which kind of gave the loop fuzzy sound using the overdrive facility on the effect. I also included the RV-7 Digital Reverb and D-11 Foldback Distortion to this loop to give it a kind of a grainier sound which I feel worked out quite well.

About half way through the song my first redrum loop ends and after a short pause it kick in with a heavier redrum loop with a greater emphasis on bass. I felt that this gives the song a kick in intensity about half way through. I also added the PH-90 Phaser effect to this second redrum loop to add to its kick.

So after all that came the sampling. I struggled a lot to get to grips with the DR Rex loop played. I decided to include my sample from the Chemical Brothers tune Galvanize. I liked this loop a lot even though it took a lot of time to get right on DR Rex I think it worked out ok. I think the sample gives the song just that little bit extra despite at times not fitting in quite as well as i wanted it to.

Anyway after all that here it is, its not gonna have you up and dancing which is what I was going for but you can just sit back and go with it.

Blog 3

So from looking at the YDN (Yale Daily News) over the last few days, Spring Fling is one event which is getting a lot of attention. For those of you unaware of what spring fling is, it is a big outdoor music event which takes place on Yale campus every year. Previous acts to feature in this event include Ludacris and other big names. I found myself looking at the list of potential bands playing this year and was starting to get pretty pumped for the whole thing. On the list were some of my favorite bands including muse, bloc party, MGMT and vampire weekend. Although a lot of these bands are probably nothing short of urban myths, the idea of someone like muse playing in yale is just unbelievable.

Muse aren't too big in the states but back in Europe these guys are kings. They sell out stadiums and headline the biggest summer festivals. I've been lucky enough to see them play twice in Ireland. Matt Bellamy, lead vocalist and lead guitarist is forever pushing the limits in relation to the sounds he can produce from a guitar. Despite not being a strictly electronic band, there is unending effects used in their music, synthesizer etc all play a huge part in their music. They are also renown for having the sickest live shows going. Lights and stage design play a huge part in their shows. This is a video of a live performance from the European music music awards. Learning about synthesizers in class has given me a greater appreciation for their roles in music and this song is a great example. If you want to see the sick light shows I'm talking about then skip to 1.30.



Can you imagine these guys playing Yale?

I wanted to end this blog just by talking briefly about house and techno. I used to listen to a lot of this when I was younger and the last few classes really made me realize how much I missed it. Looking forward to creating a few bangin tunes on reason that when I'm done will sound like this.

Assignment 2: Clicks

Click 1


Click 2


Click 3