Concept
I started by using the keyboard and trying to come up with chords that I liked. I came up with a chord progression and a melody, and I put those into MIDI (which took a long time!). I experimented with a few different sounds on Subtractive — I wanted something relatively clean/natural-sounding (because I liked how the piece sounded on piano), so I clicked on “Clean” under the character category and found Classic PWM JH (which I used for the chords — though I did end up later adding some filters and it no longer sounded as natural). For the melody MIDI, I used “Turn Me Loose Gliss Brass” – it had a more pointed feel, which I liked for the melody.
2 MIDIs – Melody & Chords
- I wanted the piece to start out relatively quieter, and I thought that the chord MIDI was too brassy, so I applied a low-pass filter (which was very effective!). I additionally applied the filter to the melody MIDI, which was also a little too brassy.
- I wanted the second 4-measure phrase of the melody to be brassier, so I increased the cutoff frequency
- In the chords MIDI, I wanted the 3rd and 4th 4-measure phrases (counting from when the melody comes in) to be lighter, so I used a high-pass filter to reduce the lower notes; however, I wanted the last D major chord before the next section to stand out, so there I increased the low-shelf gain
- I also played around with panning in the beginning, having it go from subtly left to subtly right a few times (using “Automation Write Mode” in the bottom right corner)
Panning in the beginning - I randomized the velocities for the MIDI clips (but couldn’t completely hear the difference)
- There were specific notes in the chords (around middle C) that I wanted to emphasize, so I used an EQ filter and changed some velocities
- I experimented a little with “Nonlinear Space” (because I wanted to experiment with the space of the sound), but wasn’t a huge fan of how it made the MIDIs sound, so I turned it off
Percussion/Sounds
- I used “CM 7 Kicks” from the SSLIB because I liked the sound — I used the Time Warp filter to change the rhythm to fit my project
- When I added reverb, there was a high pitched snare-type noise, so I used EQ to emphasize the lowest frequencies
- I also used “Ambition Beat” from Waveform itself – I wanted to emphasize the higher-frequency noises, so I used EQ (see picture below)
- I added a “whoosh” noise (SWEEP003 from SSLIB) to end the first section, and then added an “A” played on the harp (also from SSLIB) to add some texture/variation to the second section
Challenges/Issues/Errors
- With the melody MIDI (Turn Me Loose Gliss Brass), at first when I had two notes at the same time it slid from one to the other (ex. I had a B and then added an A halfway through, and it slid from B to A) — to fix this, I changed “Glide” in Subtractive to 0
- Errors
- I had a weird error: with the notes [c bflat c], the b flat wasn’t playing; to fix, I quit and re-opened Waveform
- I had a strange error when I was quitting Waveform — no idea why it happened (see picture below)
- For a while I was writing automation but wasn’t able to hear it — I realized that I had turned “Automation Read Mode” off
- in the picture to the right, the top left is “Read Mode”, and the second button in the first row is “Write Mode”
- in the picture to the right, the top left is “Read Mode”, and the second button in the first row is “Write Mode”
Overall
Overall, I enjoyed the freedom of using MIDI to be able to write my own melodies/chord progressions. However, it was definitely a lot of work to input each note individually! Hopefully, in the future, I’ll be able to use a keyboard or other instrument to input notes. With more time, I would have added strings and other instruments to the project and experimented more with the settings within Subtractive itself.
The Final Project
Hi Iris, I really enjoyed listening to your piece! It reminded me of the music in retro video games, and I thought your piece had the same soothing and clarity effect. Musically, I thought it was interesting how you transitioned from the initial more minor key section to the section with major chords, and then back to the minor key section. I also really noticed the use of panning in the beginning and for the plucked strings, which added a neat touch. I agree with you that entering each note individually is such a pain since it’s hard to get the right note length the first time around, and hard to tell how long the note is depending on the zoom. As for suggestions, I just thought the melody part might have been a bit too quiet and might have been a bit overshadowed by the kick and drums.
Hey Iris, I totally agree with Bill that this gave off a really vintage, comforting vibe that reminded me of music from games like Final Fantasy. Musically, your piece is also really interesting, and I loved how you modulated and expanded your main themes into new keys, moods, and variations. I also loved the juxtaposition of little snippets of live instruments amidst a largely electronic soundscape. You might want to try inputting with your Qwerty keyboard to make it easier – it definitely saved me a lot of time. Besides a few points where I felt like there may have been some errors inputting (some rhythmic idiosyncrasies, mistake in harmony, overlapping notes etc.), this was really well done and I really enjoyed listening to it!