SHR4C004M-002 Composition & Production Template

Upload your composition in the block below, please refer to the assignment brief for the specific file specifications.

Synthesis process evidence

Below include information on the synthesis processes incorporated within the composition. You may add any media that is appropriate using the block menu on the left-hand-side.

The creation of this song was heavily influenced by Ryuichi Sakamoto’s 2017 album “async,” in which he conducted extensive experiments combining synthesizers with piano recordings. The title “yamaha” refers not only to the brand of the piano I played in the recording but also to Ryuichi Sakamoto’s preferred piano brand. In producing this track, I utilized two DAWs: Ableton Live and Logic Pro. Ableton Live was responsible for the primary production and mixing, after which I imported the stems into Logic for automation and audio editing.

The first half of the song is centered on my piano performance, which is a product of semi-improvisation and semi-composition. While improvising on a Yamaha grand piano in Room 218 at school, I developed several motives in D major that I found very satisfying, so I recorded them using the Dolby On app on my phone. The piano section features a direct modulation achieved through a suspension, shifting the key from D major to E major.

I selected the final segment of the audio and reversed it to transition into the pure synthesizer section. At the beginning of the song, I used Arturia’s Augmented Yangtze to embellish the piano. I chose patches that simulate Chinese instruments—the Xiao (flute) and Pipa—using synthesis. I automated the Morph knob to modulate the Pipa’s arpeggios so they would complement the piano’s melodic line. Simultaneously, I recorded automation for FX A and FX B to refine the sound according to my vision. Finally, I turned the built-in reverb and delay down to nearly zero and replaced them with Valhalla reverb and delay. Because the patch contained a lot of mid-frequency information that tended to clash with the piano, I used EQ to cut the conflicting frequencies and boosted the highs to give it a “floating” feel above the piano.

The subsequent Erhu is not a synthesizer but a sample library. By adjusting the arpeggiator, I found a suitable pentatonic motive and repeated it during the Erhu’s second appearance. For this second entry, I duplicated the Erhu track, panned them to opposite sides, and applied different reverbs and effects to achieve a unique overall timbre.

Following the reversed piano recording, the song enters a pure synthesizer section featuring three distinct patches I designed using the wavetable synthesizer Serum. The most prominent is the ambient pad. For this sound, I aimed to simulate a string ensemble using synthesis. I started with a basic sawtooth wave because its rich harmonics closely resemble the spectrum of real strings. I then used Unison and Detune to simulate the minute frequency deviations that occur when a string section plays together. Regarding the envelopes, I set a long Attack of approximately 1.5s to simulate the sound of bow friction, along with a long Release to mimic the natural decay of strings. I then added a Low Pass Filter controlled by a dedicated Envelope 2 for the cutoff frequency; this envelope has an attack of about 1s, allowing the timbre to swell from dark to bright, simulating the increasing pressure of a bow stroke. Finally, I mapped the MIDI velocity to the filter’s volume so that the dynamics of my playing are reflected, better simulating the feel of real strings.

(sorry for the Chniese ver. serum… I dont’t konw how to change it to English because it’s a mod)

The second sound is a tonal synth SFX derived from a Serum preset, created by applying a low-pass filter to SID noise. I slightly adjusted its ADSR and used EQ to isolate the 200Hz to 5000Hz range, which produces a “space-like” atmosphere. The third sound is a Lead that appears briefly twice in the middle of the synth section as a sudden embellishment. I set its Unison to 7 to achieve a fuller tone. Since it is dominated by high frequencies, I filtered out everything below 1000Hz and added a specific amount of reverb to create a floating, decorative effect.

The operations described above were completed in Ableton Live. After importing the stems into Logic Pro, since the basic mix was already finished, I primarily focused on fine-tuning the automation for each track to make the transitions more musical while ensuring the peak levels did not exceed -6dB.