Project & Portfolio I:
Final Track Project

This Project is the Final Track assignment for the Project and Portfolio I: Audio Arts course. When starting this project I did not have a plan of action. I started with a a simple backbeat, and then built off of that. As I reached the end of my project, I would have to say I am pleased with the end result. I hope you would agree, and thank you for taking the time to read this, and listen to my work. For this track I used the standard 4/4 meter with a tempo of 80 BPM. To build the drum rhythm, I started with a basic backbeat set up with the kick on the 1 and 3 of each bar, and the snare on the 2 and 4 of each bar, hi-hat foot close on every other count starting at count 1, and hi-hat closed on every other count starting at count 1e. For Bars 2, 6, 10, and 14, I added two 1/32 note kicks at the 2e and 4e counts, a 1/16 note kick at the counts 3e&a and 4e&a, and for the hi-hats at the counts 4e& and 4e&a I changed the 1/16 notes to two 1/32 notes. The remaining bars of the track received a similar kick drum pattern, with the differences of the sets of 1/32 note kicks happening before the upbeats at the 1e&a and 3e&a counts, and the 1/16 note kick at the 3e&a count is moved to the 4e count after the upbeat, and the two 1/32 note hi hats happen at the counts 2e&a and 3 and have 1/16 note hi hats at the counts 4e& and 4e&a. For bars 1, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, and 16 I changed the last hi-hat closed to a hi-hat open to create a noticeable cycle and end to the drum rhythm. For the drums sound I started with using the SoCal kit and set the kick and snare drums to the first SoCal setting options. I chose this set up because I prefer the sound of an acoustic drum kit, especially with the kick drum. The bassline occurs in pitch C3. I copied the kick drum notes to align the bass notes with the kick drum. I then moved all of the notes of each bar to the proper key matching the harmony, with the notes occurring in the 3rd-4th counts of the bar rising or falling to the key to the following bar. I then extended the notes to meet each of their following notes. I created this bassline with the intention of adding to the energy of the drum kit by highlighting the rhythm of the kick drum. This track is in the key G Major and the relative key E minor. For the harmony on bars 1-16, I used an 8 bar count with the chord progression of: |G  |C  |Am  |D7  |C  |Bm  |Em  |G | For the harmony on bars 17-32, I used an 8 bar count with the chord progression of: |Em |Am |F#° |Bm7 |Am |G |C |Am | I liked how the Major keys start the track off bright and bubbly, and then the second half of the track becomes more dense and emotional with the change to the relative minor chords. I recorded the chord progression in the pitch of C3. I wanted to utilize the deep lower frequency notes to add depth and emotion to the track. From bar 17-32 I added a Synth harmony with the same chords as the main harmony, and simply decreased the volume of the Main harmony so the sound can still come through while allowing the electric sounds to have more space to be heard. When creating the melody, I followed the bassline as a guide to pull all of the pieces together with an ascending and descending flowing melody. I recorded the melody in the pitch C4-C5, to allow it to stand out more from the harmony. For the audio aspects of this track I utilized apple audio loops, and also use live recording to create the tracks. ‘Abstract Atmosphere 014’ is what I selected to use as the intro for this project, because I felt it was a great way to grab the listeners attention. ‘Deep Connection Percussion Snaps’ is aligned with the Main Melody to give this part of the song more attention and energy. ‘Tyson Lyric 16’ is the background vocals added in-between the Main Melody sections to create identifiable breaks. ‘Appollo 11 One Small Step for Man’ is the adlib vocals added to the second half of this project. I loaded the two vocals audio loops into Quick Sampler, manually sliced into small sections, and recorded the sections I preferred into the MIDI region to create the male vocals in the project. For the female adlib vocals, I recorded myself saying various phrases, I cut the recording down to the phases I liked, and placed them within the second half of the project to accent the adlib male vocals. For the harmony and melody in bars 17-32, I created my own Synth sounds utilizing the ESP plugin, and adjusting the settings to create the deep electric sounds. At the end of my session, I started mixing by adding Channel EQ to the individual tracks. I started with this dynamic processor in order to take away any unwanted sounds and boost the sounds I wanted within my track. Next, I added compressors to reduce the dynamic range of the final track and increase the overall emotion of the project. After compressing, I then set the pan levels to give each sound their own space to be heard and set dB levels for all of the tracks to ensure all of the sounds are coming through clearly and without causing any clipping. I then went through and added Multipressor to add another layer of boost to the frequencies I wanted, and decline to the ones I did not. Then I created a bus and loaded a Flanger and channel EQ in order to boost the attack of the kick drum and snare, then set the send levels. I also set the send levels for the Hi-Hats, Bass Guitar, Piano, Acoustic Guitar, and Background Vocals to the preset buses with Space Designer preloaded with slight adjustments to the parameters. I then created another bus for the recorded vocals, and added a reverb before setting the send levels. I utilized the buses to added shape to the over sound of the project. The final step of my mixing process was adding volume automation, and setting/adjusting the pan, dB and send levels until the project was what I wanted to hear. I created a slow fade in for the drum kit, bassline, and harmony, allowing for the Echo Boom audio loop to start off the project. I added a fade out volume automation to all of the tracks at the end of the project to create a uniformed slow descending volume of the entire project.