“Revolve Around You” (a love song from Mars to Earth) – entirely out of samples + my own recordings

Homework 3 (Waveform Project 1) – “Revolve Around You”
a love song from Mars to Earth (made entirely out of samples and my own recordings)
created by and lyrics written by Mark D. Williams
2020

In the library SSLIB, within the folder “Prime Loops”, in a sub-folder titled “Snooth Keys” (and yes, the folder is spelled “sNooth” and not “sMooth”), and finally within a sub-folder called “Smooth Key Loops” (back to “sMooth”, I guess), I found three samples that spawned and inspired an entire piece in my mind:
“Bpm085_JazzyVamp_Gm_PL_1”, “Bpm085_FunkyVamp_Gm_PL_3”, and “Bpm095_AfterParty_Gm_PL_3”.

I heard those three samples and immediately had an idea. 

I began to build an instrumental around those samples, and those instrumentals called to mind an idea of a slightly-jazzy, slightly-cheesy, showtune-esque love song, in 85 BPM in G minor. I wasn’t originally planning on adding lyrics, but those small few samples had immediately inspired me.
In my opinion, I think it’s cool when pieces are able to obscure or shroud the feelings and emotions of the lyrics behind an overarching metaphor: so Space became the theme behind my first Waveform project, entitled “Revolve Around You”. 

So, in addition to the song being an attempted confession of love from the song’s singer to the subject of their affection (from the view of a hypothetical character, not me!), the lyrics would also tell a story: a love song from a personified version of the planet Mars who has feelings for his close friend, the planet Earth.
It’s written from the point of view of Mars, an awkward and aloof nerd but a genuinely sincere friend and idealistic dreamer and aspiring explorer. Mars has developed feelings for Earth—becoming completely flustered (as the Red Planet’s face “goes red”) whenever Earth floats by—and is failing to find the words to tell his true feelings to a close friend he cares deeply about (and wouldn’t want to ruin his friendship with).
Meanwhile, Earth is silently struggling with very real feelings of depression (the Blue Planet feeling “blue”). Earth, like many Earthlings in real life, is afraid of being alone—both emotionally, and in the universe at large. Mars feels a similar way (wanting to know if there’s anyone else “out there” in space), and as an idealistic adventurer, wants to explore and see what’s out there as well. Both have unknowingly going through similar hardships and feeling similar feelings as the other (and, unbeknownst to either, both harboring feelings for each other as well).
While Earth is struggling to find the words reach out for help, Mars notices and reaches out to Earth, and opens up to them—not about his romantic feelings for them, but instead about his similar experiences with feelings of depression. It’s only in both reaching out on their silent struggles with mental health that they’re able to push past and deal with some of their anxiety, mention what’s been on both of their minds, and realize that their feelings are reciprocated—and it’s actually Earth who confesses their feelings to Mars!
They both mean a lot to (and inspire) each other: Mars admires Earth’s perseverance in the face of being continually worn out by and having their resources drained by Life, while Earth is inspired by Mars’s ambition and ability to remain optimistic even when Mars is dealing with struggles of his own.

 

So, anyway, the contents of the piece:
It starts off with the ethereal reverb-adjusted sounds of Waveform’s “Afloat Pad” sample (with a name fitting for the track’s space theme), as two voices (a melody and a harmony) ask each other “Can you hear me?” and “Are you out there?”.

I used the quiet, stripped-back percussion of Waveform’s “Ghostly Beat” drum sample.

The celestial sounds of Waveform’s “Afloat Pad” sample transport the listener into outer space.

I even used my own voice and instruments to recreate other instrument sounds I wouldn’t have access to otherwise—while I love using MIDI, I avoided using MIDI entirely for this project!
That “trumpet” sound? That’s actually my voice (doing my best trumpet impression), with reverb and a low-pass filter. That plucked instrument (creating a syncopated 4:3 rhythm against the main 4/4 time signature) playing in a descending pattern? It sounds somewhat like a mandolin, but it’s actually a sample of me playing my violin pizzicato, holding it and plucking the strings like a ukelele!

 

I was somewhat inspired by the spacey sounds (and frequent usage of overarching metaphors) of musician Louie Zong, some inspiration from the soulful keyboard-heavy tunes of Ray Charles, and added a few musical/lyrical references to “Help!” by the Beatles, “Just the Two of Us” by Bill Withers and Grover Washington, and “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane (with the reference to “Help!” fitting with the theme of asking for help, and the reference to “Giant Steps” pairing well with Neil Armstrong’s famous quote “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind”.)

 

Also, the title “Revolve Around You” has an octuple meaning I’m pretty proud of!

• (1.) If you’re enamored/infatuated with someone, your THOUGHTS often “revolve around” that person metaphorically.
• (2.) You might also be PHYSICALLY “revolving around” that person, in hanging out with them a lot)
• (3.) The SONG itself “revolves around” the person it’s being sung to, given that the song is entirely about them.
• (4.) CELESTIAL BODIES in space literally revolve around each other, fitting with the space metaphor (and the concept of the song being from “Mars” to “Earth”).
• (5.) For millennia, humans believed that the planets and Sun (e.g. including Mars) all revolved around the Earth (and right now, “Mars” is revolving around “Earth” too).
• the initials of the title are “RAY”, alluding to:
  • (6.) a literal “RAY” of sunshine (because space)
  • (7.) a metaphorical “RAY” of sunshine (which Earth is to Mars, and possibly vice versa).
  • (8.) and, this soulful keyboard-heavy tune was partially inspired by the works of RAY Charles!

So if you haven’t noticed, I’m a fan of wordplay, and just about all the lyrics have at least some space-related secondary meaning. An example of part of one of the verses I wrote:

“Houston, we have a problem
Like the sun you shine bright, with the light in your sol/soul–
–our systems cross paths, I’m in your orbit, and I’m gravitated towards it
My mind goes missing, spinning-out-of-Mission-Control”

…with a bunch of layers incorporated into it (which I’m pretty proud of):

• There’s the famous quote (which I found out was actually “Houston, we’ve had a problem”!) from the astronauts of Apollo 13 upon encountering a problem on the moon. Here, it’s the singer (“Mars”) having a bit of turmoil over these feelings for the song’s subject (“Earth”).
• There’s a fun bit of harmonic dissonance specifically on the word “problem” (signifying that there’s, well, a problem).
  • That line is Mars’s internal dialogue, and the problem is him being completely head-over-heels with Earth.
• “Sol” is an alternate name for the Sun (giving “light in your sol/soul” more meaning), and “soul” combined with the next line’s “our systems” forms the phrase “Solar Systems”!!!
• a fun rhyme between “your orbit” and “gravitated towards it”
• and combining “spinning out of control” (especially given Mars is literally spinning, as all planets do) + “Mission Control” (the HQ back home that any spacefarers report to). 

…And that’s just in those 4 lines alone.
The lyrics have too many space-related references and subtle second meanings to list here, so the full lyrics (and analysis and exploration of those lyrics) can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CDaMBHUhmoduwrt0rV9CfumN7leKxytOaiDq3GF3XvQ/view
Personally, the lines “terror forming” (“terraforming”) and “you’ve got your own Life, / while I’ve got no Life at all” (a pun given that it’s from Mars to Earth) are my favorites that I ended up writing.

I also designed characters of the song’s protagonists, “Earth” and “Mars”, made a drawing of them on paper, and digitized the drawing in Adobe Photoshop + Adobe Animate.
Side note: I put a lot into those humanized character designs of Earth and Mars! Tried to give them each their own personality in their design as well. I tried to make Earth look like an average of all of humanity, so their design is generally ambiguous on purpose. Mars has a signature “alien” antenna headband (he claims he “wears it ironically”, but he really just likes the style), also subtly references Mars’s fascination with Earth having “Life”. (Also, both designs incorporate the two planets’ alchemical symbols — Mars’s is on his shirt, while Earth has theirs on their shirt but incorporating a lowercase “e”.) …Honestly, I’m genuinely pretty proud of these character designs! Like, I’m genuinely considering making character designs for the rest of the planets (…and the sun, and the moon, and the dwarf planets, and the asteroids, and th— oh no I’m going to end up inadvertently making a whole animated series accidentally, aren’t I).

All-in-all, this piece became a passion project for me! Thankfully not all at once, the piece’s Waveform file ended up having 82 tracks (well, in the file there are 117 tracks, but 35 of them aren’t in use and only contain previous recordings I didn’t use), and overall clocks in at about 6 minutes and 29 seconds long. …Yeah. …While as a perfectionist it always feels like there’s more to improve, I gave it my all and I’m actually genuinely proud of this piece (and, as a punthusiast, proud of some of the lyrics as well). Here it is; hope you enjoy it!

 

Creation Log:

Overview:

• Initially, to paint a visual and aural picture, I started with listening to countless samples as the foundation to my computer music piece
• After hearing numerous samples, I was immediately inspired to create a celestial sound
• This evolved both lyrically and musically into a personified relationship between Earth and Mars
• Through this process of teaching and discovery, I had to do a “trial and error” process of mixing different samples and realized that it was crucial to have samples (with similar tempos) that “vibe” well with each other.
• In the process of creating, listening, and, repeating, I ended up discarding samples that I loved and was initially committed to using. This was one of the hardest, but best lessons learned—to be a successful creator, it’s necessary to be flexible and allow the music to evolve.
• Some of my creative senses better tuned after this project was incorporating both hearing and listening–hearing the sounds and listening with critical thinking to create.
• So, my successful pattern turned out to be: create, listen, keep, listen, let go, listen, shift, and repeat.

 

A Mostly-complete Log of my entire process:

Session 1:

• One of the samples I wanted to use was in 90 BPM. The other two or three were 85 BPM, so I used 85 as the piece’s BPM instead of 90.
• one of the main samples (JazzyVamp) was in G minor, and one of the two main samples (FunkyVamp) was in C minor. I ended up going with G minor for the piece.
• However, I found that the FunkyVamp sample actually sounded quite good when played in G minor and then briefly modulated to its original C minor!
• using the Waveform sample “Ghostly Beat” as main percussion and using Waveform sample “Analog Clap Beat 2” as additional percussion
  • I want the main percussion to feel light, so I threw a HIGHpass filter of around 1500 Hz on the main percussion sample “Ghostly Beat” (so only the light & loose hi-hats are heard, and the hard kick drum and trap-beat–esque claps are muted)
  • I chose to use “Analog Clap Beat 2” in parts of the verses because of its slightly-swung feel. However, I wanted to create a sound resembling light brush percussion for those parts, so I threw a LOWpass filter of around 1500 Hz on “Analog Clap Beat 2” (so the higher pitches are muffled so you’re only left with the brush-sounding lower pitches of the hi-hats)
• using the Waveform sample “Afloat Pad” (a spacey evolving synth) as ambience. It still has pitches to it, so used Waveform to auto-pitch it down –5 semitones to match the piece’s G minor.
  • It seems like it ends / cuts off pretty abruptly, though. (I’ll fix it!)

Session 2:

• CONCEPT IDEA: slightly swing-y love song with overarching space metaphor
• decided not to play “Afloat Pad” during the verses (it’s a stagnant ambient chord that felt odd on top of the verses’ current chord progression), but instead to just use it during an intro and outro (and possible bridge)
• duplicated the “JazzyVamp” section to form the first half of a Verse 2

Session 3:

• CONCEPT IDEA: what if it’s a love song from Mars to Earth, but like, also functions as a regular song
• duplicated the “FunkyVamp” section to form the second half of a Verse 2
• idea! What if I used the “JazzyVamp” sample on top of the second iteration of the FunkyVamp section, but re-pitched to fit the sequence (once in G minor, once briefly modulated to C minor)?
  • It sounds odd if the “JazzyVamp” notes hit on the downbeat.
  • What if they hit on the offbeat (the “and” of “1-and 2-and 3-and 4-and…”)? Did it!

Session 4:

• a big update!:
• Added a syncopated 4:3 rhythm of a plucked instrument in a descending pattern (F-D-C-Bb, then later G-F-C-Bb) to add on the “FunkyVamp” half of the verses. It sounds somewhat like a mandolin, but it’s actually a sample of me playing my violin pizzicato, holding it and plucking the strings like a ukelele! (While I love using MIDI, I avoided using MIDI entirely for this project!)
  • Realized it sounded good if I harmonized the second half of the recording with a displaced duplicated version of the first half of the recording. Calling this sample I recorded “Viomandolin”.
• Added some echoing spacey background vocals (with a syncopated 4:3 rhythm) which kinda sound like they’re rotating or revolving around a few notes. One vocal—the “ah-ah-ah-ah”-sounding one—hovers around a pattern of E-F-E-F (and then Eb-F), and the other—the “ya-da-da-da”-sounding one—has a pattern of A-Bb-A-G.

Session 5:

• idea for an outro! Two samples that work well together (when pitched to be in the same key): “Bpm090_Bm7_Lucky_Chords_FX_4” (a mellow backing guitar part) and “Bpm090_Cm7_Gentle_Chords_FX_6” (a mellow melody on guitar). While they don’t have exactly the same chord progression, putting them together makes an interesting sound.
  • “Gentle_Chords” could loop one more time than “Lucky_Chords”, and bring back in the ambient “Afloat Pad” and self-recorded “Viomandolin” sample.
• working on writing lyrics
• figured out some words to go on top of the ambient “Afloat Pad” intro: “(Can you hear me?) (Are you out there?) (Can you hear me?)”
• That trumpet sound? That’s actually my voice (doing my best trumpet impression), with reverb and a low-pass filter.

Session 6:

• added a quiet echoey harmony to the first “(Can you hear me?) (Are you out there?) (Can you hear me?)”. Added automation to make the two pan around the soundspace.
  • It starts off with the ethereal sounds of two questions that us humans on Earth often ask and broadcast into outer space, hoping for some response from some other form of life (a response that has not yet come).
  • It’s left ambiguous whether the words “Can you hear me?” and “Are you out there?” are spoken by song’s main singer (“Mars”) or the song’s subject (“Earth”). In fact, it very well may be both asking themselves this about the other person (unbeknownst to each other), as a faint higher harmony part can be heard as the words pan around the ether.

Session 7:

• lyrics idea: “I know you’ve got your own Life / while I’ve got no Life at all”
  • I’m honestly proud of that: While the singer is saying they don’t have “a life”, while the one they’re serenading has “a life” of their own, it’s a pun — there’s no Life on Mars (that we know of), while Earth is the only planet we know of with Life.
  • recorded those lines, and gave the words “own life” a powerful wide range of harmonies backing them up, while the words “no life at all” have a dense, dissonant, barren landscape of harmonies behind them as the instrumental completely cuts out (reflecting the words themselves).

Session 8:

• recorded lyric: “Houston, we have a problem”
  • brief harmonic dissonance on the word “problem” (because, well, it’s signifying a “problem”)
• made the instrumental completely cut out during the line “no life at all”, leaving a dense, dissonant, barren landscape of harmonies completely isolated for a second.
• used Waveform’s “chords” feature to track the song’s chord progression.

Session 9:

• figuring out how more of the music will go
• recording lyrics, listening over, adjusting mixing
• working on fixing the peaking from the numerous harmonies on the line “own life”
• added a bridge that connects back to the intro and outro, using the “Are you out there / Can you hear me” motif but in a different way. It’s that “Rule of Three”: it often works well doing something three times but making the third time slightly different—then you’ve often got a cool thing on your hands!

Session 10:

• recording lyrics, listening over, adjusting mixing
• Oh my gosh, I just realized that the ambient “Afloat Pad” sample isn’t supposed to (or, didn’t originally) end / cut out so abruptly. It’s a result of Waveform trying to use Auto-Tempo to adjust this tempo-less sample to the project’s 85 BPM. It retimes the sample to be slower, but cuts itself off at its original length. Fixed!

Session 11:

• As my Bass sample, I used “gminor-funk-bassgroove-94bpm”, a bass sample by GRD-music- on freesound.org: https://freesound.org/people/GRD-music-/sounds/412842/
  • slowed down by a factor of 85/94 to get it to be 85 BPM
• added “ohhh” harmony branching off from “next dooo[ohhh]r” and continuing sustained afterwards all the way into “[ohhh]wn life”

Session 12:

• added a vocal bass on the line “in your orbit, and I’m gravitating towards it” with a descending pattern that sounds like it’s gravitating towards one note
• re-recording some “meh” deliveries of some lines

Session 13:

• wrapping up!
• I want to keep the echo delay of the last sound in the export, but it seems like the export will cut itself off when the original sound ends. To prevent this, I’ve added a blank “silence” sound so that I can easily decide when the export ends / cuts off. I used the sample “Silence- stereo and high quality” by kwahmah_02 on freesound.org: https://freesound.org/people/kwahmah_02/sounds/320807/