Week of November 27th - December 1st

My time was limited during this week, mostly due to the field trip to the MX4D theatre for the viewing of Justice League, and all of the in class assignments that followed that. When I wasn't working on those assignments and activities, I wanted to work on my music. There are several projects I am working on through out the rest of the year, such as a documentary with Wes, two music videos (one of which with original music that I want to submit to eMagine), and an album/EP. 

This week I wanted to work on my album, specifically the style that I wanted to approach. I pictured in my mind soundscapes sculpted by synthesizers and field recordings. I want my songs on this album to create an living environment of sound that demands and rewards attention. However, at the same time, I wanted the actual structure and melody of the song to be simple enough to be replicated with simply one's vocals and acoustic guitar/piano. The song must be able to be stripped down, but have the environment of synths add to the music instead of take away from it.

This was my first attempt at this concept. I created my own synth patch with a strong LFO that controls a low-pass filter with high resonance, so it has a certain growling sound. Building off of this, I added a basic echoing melody, consisting of a simple descending chord. I also added a growing pad to give it more depth. I threw in an occasional bass line to make the progression of the song more interesting. The last thing I added was a preset arpeggio that combined pretty chords with water sounds. Overall, I thought that the end result was alright but not what I originally intended. I feel that the sounds that I created were not provoking enough to capture one's attention or imagination. The basic song structure was also very lacking, although it did follow a simple structure and was pretty. I will use this as a learning experience in going further into interesting soundscapes, and try to replicate ones from favorite artists as well as research interesting ways to change up one's sound.