Task 1: Three Minute Song Production (70%)

Task 2: 1000 Word Write-Up (30%)

For You is a collaboration between myself and Donahi Soriano, who provided vocals and lyrics for the track. Lyrical themes of the track include long-distance relationships, and the associated emotional difficulties, with references to gravity and weightlessness. To compliment that, I aimed to compose and produce a track with dramatic dynamic shifts, with an underlying sense of space/distance, and melodic elements that convey a sense of levitation. The genre of the track falls within a blend of contemporary Pop and EDM, with a BPM of 120, and a swung (triplet) 4/4 feel.

Given the limitations in track length, I chose an alternative structure to a traditional verse-chorus, focusing on one verse and pre-chorus building intro a drop. This drop is then contrasted by a bridge rather than a second verse, to avoid repetition and introduce a new vocal melody. The second drop acts as the song climax, and an evolution of the first, before a subdued vocal outro reprises the pre-chorus and concludes the track.

(Seen above: Full Project Overview).

For the sampling section of the assignment, I took drums from the introduction of Guiding Light by Muse (Appendix A). I chose these drums to compliment the cold, distant, and echoey nature of the composition, as while Guiding Light itself has warm tonalities, the drums featured in the intro offer sharp, crisp transients that lack the inherent low-end warmth of the rest of the track. For the processing, I took a hi-res lossless version of the original song. I wanted to take from the highest quality source possible (CD) as to not limit myself with processing, having the cleanest possible template to start with. From there, I separated each individual sound in the intro before auditioning them in Ableton Live’s Drum Rack sampler. Drum Rack acts as a MIDI instrument, allowing me to seamlessly replace samples and choose the correct sound for the context with minimal effort. Additionally, Drum Rack offers the ability to add separate filtering to each sample, which I utilised to give the drums tonal cohesion with the rest of the composition. Beyond this, I then used the fade-out knob on each sample to re-introduce more natural sounding decay to each hit, and finally automated a Low Pass Filter (LPF) over the entire channel for variety, which can be heard in the introduction to my composition.

These drums are then layered with 808-style drums in the ‘drop’ sections, offering layered textures and syncopated rhythmic ideas. Two sets of hi-hats were panned to opposite sides to compliment the width of the synths.

Here is the original, unedited intro to Guiding Light (Muse, 2009).

Here are the samples I took, unprocessed and played in sequence.

Here is a solo’d example of my drum resampling in For You, with subtle layering, reverb and delay added. The snare sound in particular is noticeably pitched up and filtered.

(Seen above: Examples of sampling methods and LPF cutoff automation).

Low Pass Filter (LPF) cutoff automation is something I use in lieu of traditional volume automation, as it offers a unique ‘underwater’ quality to most sounds. I used it in the bridge to offer a drastic dynamic shift and give the vocals room to be reintroduced as the main focus. These filters are opened-up towards the second drop, in such a way where they overwhelm the vocals for dramatic effect, before being silenced.

(Seen above: More filter cutoff automation).

Arpeggiated synth lines have become a part of my signature sound as a producer/composer. For this track, I used a clean “nylon strings” MIDI instrument, which I found had a dreamy quality, complimenting the verse vocals. The arpeggio in the second drop is a square wave with a high shelf to allow it to cut through the mix. This arpeggio doubles as a lead line, as the top note of each arp cycle changes to follow a melodic pattern.

For the entire track, I had two auxiliary channels – one reverb and one delay. I did this to give the track coherence, as though every instrument is located in the same space. This also avoids multiple effects clashing, eliminating ‘muddiness’ and offering a clearer soundscape. The long decay of the reverb compliments the idea of ‘floating’ proposed in the lyrics.

Vocals were recorded with an AKG C414 patched into a Neve 1073DPA Pre-Amp. I chose the C414 for its versatility as a capture method, as our recorded layers varied in vocal expression and loudness. This is evident in the bridge, where a louder central performance is complimented by two softer takes, panned equidistantly from the centre.

(Seen above: Recording vocals with Donahi).

Commercially, the song parallels instances of 2010’s Melodic EDM and Progressive house, such as Clarity by Zedd and Foxes (Appendix B), a song which sits at over 400 Million views on YouTube. Clarity was released during a time where the tropes of Melodic EDM were in demand from radio stations and music festivals such as Ultra Music Festival, EDC and Tomorrowland. To that end, the difficulties with marketing a song such as this would lie less in the artistic approach of the song, and moreso in the ever-changing landscape of popular music genres.

When sent to a friend for feedback, he found that For You was most engaging during the bridge and second drop:

To that end, I perhaps could’ve done more to engage listeners in the first verse. While I believe the song flows well, parts of the first verse lack the same degree of variety that latter sections do. Much of the commercial viability in this song comes from its lyrical content, with the aforementioned themes of emotional/romantic struggle being common if not stereotypical to popular music for decades. That being said, I think the composition and production of the track compliments those lyrics and their emotional weight, subsequently reinforcing its commercial potential.

1022 Words (Including quotes from screenshots)

Appendix

A) Muse – Guiding Light – https://youtu.be/jCnjC8knH2U

B) Zedd – Clarity (Ft. Foxes) – https://youtu.be/IxxstCcJlsc