SHR4C004M-002 Composition & Production Template
Synthesis process evidence
Within my composition, ‘Never Mine’, I decided to programme and use analogue synthesisers instead of digital synthesis as that compliments the disco/funk style of my song. I used two analogue synthesisers in Studio 109; the Roland Juno 60 and the Korg Minilogue Polyphonic Synthesiser. There were two specific sounds I wanted to use within my song, including an organ-like sound for sustained chords and a synthesised Wah clav sound which is common in Disco music. Firstly, I decided to produce the organ-like sound using the Roland Juno 60. I produced the sound through experimentation of how different processing effects changed the sound on the synthesiser’s manual mode. I was aiming for an ambient, organ-like sound so chose to use a Sawtooth wave and a small amount square wave sub-oscillator. I didn’t like the effect adding noise had so decided to keep that at zero. In the high pass and low pass filter effects, I wanted to keep the sound as full as possible so put the HPF at just above 1 and boosted the resonance in the VCF. I boosted the LFO as I liked the Wah/wobble effect it gave and thought that was fitting with the genre of my song. I had the rate and delay time high on the low frequency oscillator and did not turn on the arpeggiator option as I wanted this sound for chords not rhythmic accompaniment. I liked the effect of the chorus and decided to use the highest option to make the synth sound fuller. Finally, on the envelope section of the synthesiser, I programmed a fast attack, slow decay and sustain and a slow release to create the ambient sound I wanted while keeping a fast attack for impact with the chords. On the DAW, I further programmed the sound by adding a delay and reverb onto the synthesiser’s insert channels to create a sustained effect and used the pre-delays to add depth to the overall mix. After recording, I added compression and corrective EQ to the sound to place it further back in the mix and panned the channels hard left and right for an ambient effect. After creating this effect on the Roland Juno 60, I looked through some of the preset options and found a sweeping sound I decided to use in the introduction to make it more interesting. I recorded one note and cut up the sound, so the sweeping ascending sound built with the drums and bass before the instrumental chorus. Finally, I used the Korg Minilogue Synthesiser to produce a Wah clav sound that I wanted to use to play an alternating octave pattern common in 70’s Disco music. For this, I found a preset sound that I developed as I did not like how harsh the preset sounded and wanted to reduce the resonance of the wah effect. I adjusted the rate and size of the LFO to reduce the wobble effect and used the EQ processors to make it stand out and sound less harsh and bright. On the DAW, I processed the alternating wah pattern by adding compression with fast attack and release to make it sound pulsing in the mix to add to the rhythmic accompaniment. I took inspiration from older Disco music and panned it to one side so it would have a rumbling effect in the mix and add depth. I then decided to use both sounds at the end playing the same line as the bass and saxophone to enhance the riff change and have a larger dynamic crescendo within the arrangement.
