“Time Floats By” – a piece about the passage of time

I decided to make my final project in Tracktion Waveform 11. My piece for my final project is titled “Time Floats By”!

I wanted my final project to be somewhat of a companion piece to my Homework 3 submission. While my Homework 3 submission, “Revolve Around You”, revolved around the theme of space, I wanted this piece to instead focus on time instead of space.

I wanted this piece to be indicative and evocative of the passing of time. So, I made my piece in 120 BPM (a multiple of 60 BPM)—with 2 beats being exactly one second—so I could use the ticking of a clock and the passing of seconds as the driving beat. I used a sound sample of the ticking and swinging of the pendulum of a large wall clock (like a grandfather clock) as a snare drum sound (https://freesound.org/people/straget/sounds/405423/), and used a sound sample of the ticking of a kitchen timer as a hi-hat (https://freesound.org/people/maphill/sounds/204103/).

In general, another major theme I tried to also convey with this piece is the subtle oddities in the way time flows (and how we perceive it). I had fun with slowing down time through the somewhat atonal clock-slowing sample “Time Slow Down” (https://freesound.org/people/PatrickLieberkind/sounds/392408/) and playing with the listener’s expectations while still keeping that ticking driving force. That sample, “Time Slow Down”, still had some pitches to it, so I used Pitch shifter automation (from –0 to –8.3 semitones) so the last “pitch” played lands on the tonic of the minor key of the piece.
I’m a big fan of odd time signatures—especially uses of odd time signatures in ways that are able to sound natural even to those not well-versed in odd time-signatures. So, while a majority of the piece is in 4/4, I wanted to have a bridge section in 7/8. …However, one of the skills I learned is it’s important when working in odd time signatures not to disorient the listener too much. Thus, so the transition to the bridge (both the different melody and the 7/8 time signature) isn’t super abrupt and jarring to the listener, I put the first two measures of the bridge melody into 4/4, before going into 7/8.

While the piece is in a minor key (G minor), I used the G major chord as an unexpected first chord of the piece and as a major part (pun intended) of the chord progression.
I used a Subtractive synth to create a reverse-reverb sounding pickup going into the first appearance of the synth melody before it comes in.

One of the things I wanted to work on with this piece was streamlining my process a lot more. I Something I struggled with on my previous two Waveform assignments that I wanted to accomplish here was not having more tracks than I needed to. On my Homework 3 submission—which I am proud of—I had a wild 82 tracks (actually, in the file there were 117 tracks, but 35 of them weren’t in use and only contain previous recordings I didn’t use), making for a 6-and-a-half minute piece overall. I did slightly better in accomplishing this on Homework 4 (which I’m even more proud of: a MIDI track inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and racial equality protests of 2020).
Here, I wanted to stay more streamlined, and I committed myself to not going overboard this time! I took this as an opportunity to learn to cut stuff, instead of drowning an already good piece in filters and additional tracks of diminishing returns. I’m happy that I was able to overcome this, make a piece with only 13 tracks, show what I’ve learned, and still make a piece of music I’m really proud of!

Thank you so much for an incredible and unique first semester; it went so quickly (I guess you could say time has really flown by)!

Here’s my final piece, “Time Floats By”:

List of Tracks and their Different Instruments, Filters, and Plugins, etc.:

Track	Instrument (4OSC / Subtractive)	Filters, Plugins, Automation, etc.
“grandfather clock”	— (sample) “Wall Clock Ticking.wav” by straget on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/straget/sounds/405423/ (with +Gain turned up)	it was incredibly quiet, so I turned up the Gain on that specific region there was this semi-annoying  background hiss around 3100 Hz, so I used the AUGraphicEQ plugin to filter that frequency out + delay (echoing exactly one clock hit—2 beats—later, to counteract the fact that every second clock tick in the sample is slightly quieter) aux bus: (aux send)
“gfather clock SLOW”	— (sample) “Wall Clock Ticking.wav” but stretched to half-speed with Elastique (Pro)	it was incredibly quiet, so I turned up the Gain on that specific region there was this semi-annoying background hiss around 3100 Hz, so I used the AUGraphicEQ plugin to filter that frequency out + reverb aux bus: (aux send)
“ticktickticktick”	— (sample) “Kitchen Timer” by maphill on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/maphill/sounds/204103/	there was a bit of ringing and resonance at around 1400 Hz, so I used AUGraphicEQ to turn down the 1.2k Hz bar (but not the 1.6k Hz bar, as doing that also changed the shape of the sound)
“drums”	Drum Sampler: a modified 808	+ reverb + lowpass filter
“melody 1”	4OSC Basic Lead 2	panned slightly Left + reverb + lowpass filter
“melody 2”	a modified 4OSC Basic Lead 3	panned slightly Right (harmonizing the above in a different part of the soundspace) + reverb + lowpass filter
“Subtractive pickup”	a modified Subtractive MINI BASS	+ lowpass filter automation (sweeping from 231 Hz to 22,000 Hz upper limit)
“padsynth 1”	a modified 4OSC Basic Poly	+ reverb + lowpass filter
“bassynth 1”	4OSC Pick Bass WMF, modified to be able to play multiple notes at once (“Poly” setting)	+ reverb + lowpass filter
“7/8bridge melody”	a modified (differently) 4OSC Basic Poly	+ reverb + lowpass filter
“breakdown bass”	a modified 4OSC Basic Bass	+ delay + reverb + lowpass filter
“slowdown”	— (sample) the sample “Time Slow Down” by PatrickLieberkind on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/PatrickLieberkind/sounds/392408/ added Pitch Shifter automation	+ reverb + Pitch shifter automation, from –0 to –8.3 semitones (so the last “pitch” this semi-atonal sample lands on is the tonic of the minor key of the piece)
“BUS: clock”	aux bus of “grandfather clock” and “gfather block SLOW” tracks	aux bus: (aux return) + reverb

CREATION and Process LOG:
A Mostly-complete Log of my general process:

Version 1:

• exactly 120 BPM, so that each two beats are exactly a second (the passing of time)
• in 4/4, in G minor. Might have a 7/8 bridge later on down the line
• bass, melody1, and melody2 for now

Version 2:

• made the bassynth’s instrument a modified “4OSC Pick Bass WMF”, fiddled with it
• tried to change the resonance on melody1 and melody2 to make them sound different
• modified melody1 and melody2’s instrument “4OSC Basic Lead 2” to take multiple notes at once (“Poly” setting)
• harmonies leading up to m.41
• idea for a section that feels like it’s moving in half-time at m.41 or m.49

Version 3:

• creating a section that feels like it’s moving in half-time at m.41 or m.49
• creating a 7/8 bridge

Version 4:

• actually, changing that moment to technically being 7/4 so Waveform doesn’t double the speed of things copied
• made the first quarter of the 7/8 part into regular 4/4 measures so the listener can adjust to the new section

Version 5:

• some drums on the 7/8 part to help the listener keep the beat

Version 6:

• adding an ending that goes back to 4/4
• added the sample “Wall Clock Ticking.wav” by straget on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/straget/sounds/405423/
  • it was incredibly quiet, so I turned up the gain on that specific region
  • there was this annoying background hiss around 3100 Hz, so I used the AUGraphicEQ plugin to filter that frequency out
• also added the sample of “Kitchen Timer” by map hill on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/maphill/sounds/204103/
  • there was a bit of ringing and resonance at around 1400 Hz, so I used AUGraphicEQ to turn down the 1.2k Hz bar (but not the 1.6k Hz bar, as doing that also changed the shape of the sound)

Version 7:

• Added a half-speed version of the grandfather clock (with Elastique (Pro))
• Added lowpass frequency automation 

Version 8:

• Working on an ending

Version 9:

• Working on an ending
• And ending the whole thing with two measures of the clock ticking at the end (matching up with the beginning)

Version 10:

• Removing blank tracks
• Added a reverse-reverb-sounding Subtractive synth as a pickup to the first appearance of the main synth melody
• Leading into the half-time breakdown, I added the sample “Time Slow Down” by PatrickLieberkind on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/PatrickLieberkind/sounds/392408/
  • added Pitch Shifter automation

Version 11:

• Fixes and filters!
• Finished!