Portfolio IV
Themes and Variations were the essence of this month's studies. Being able to remix an original song in different contexts proved to be an essential learning point in how to provide variations in a career type of context. Most of the tasks with this month's project involved creating Groove changes, implementing sound design, and implementing live instruments to enhance further/creatively redesign a mix.
The song I auditioned for the remix was "Dad's Glad" by Blue Lit Moon in the Cambridge Music Technology online library. I found the arrangement and genre of the song intriguing and open to interpretations/variations. All work was done In Logic X Pro for mixing tracks and creating variations.
The Original Audio
(Verse 2 --> Chorus)
My Mix (made to duplicate the original)
*used for variations
(Verse 2 --> Chorus)
For the first variation of the original project, I was tasked to add a Groove change. For this groove change, I used a mix stem I made that included the Lead Vocal, Background Vocal, Bass, and Acoustic Guitar tracks. It was essential that any drums/percussion were muted or left out of the mix in order to properly experiment with changing the groove. In order to alter the groove, a properly in-time tempo map laid out the frame work for a drummer track to be implemented. For the Dummer selection, I chose Zak (Garage Rock) from the Alternative folder. As for the rest of the Drummer settings, I ended up setting the kick, snare, and Hi-Hat to hit on 4 and setting the percussion (clap) to hit on 1. For an added touch, I Implemented a little over half of the fill's dial and aimed the X/Y pad more toward the Loud and Complex Corner.
Another type of variation that was fun to create involved the use of sound design. To start, I chose to use a mix stem which included the Lead Vocal, Drums, and Acoustic Guitar. It was important to keep in mind pitch and key when implementing sounds and taking creative approaches was greatly encouraged. Each Sound was recorded on the Zoom H5 recorder and implemented into Logic afterward. For recorded sound design aspects, I recorded myself shaking a container of peppercorns, playing with a toy drum kit Fx maker, and sliding on the fretboard of my bass. When recording the Peppercorns I did multiple takes and styles to get each sound. For example, I would turn the container differently to emphasize a build type of sound used for the transition from the Verse → Chorus and do a “Shake hit” type of motion for each hit before the transition. In addition to recording, I also slightly modified the sound of the snare and added a reverb + delay to the cymbal crash sounds in the toy drum kit to better blend the new FX into the original mix.
A third way that I was challenged with creating a mix variation was when implementing Live Musicians. The original task suggested asking a Live Musician to record in the studio. However, due to a time crunch that week, I took matters into my own hands and used some of my own musical abilities to add elements to the mix. These Instrumentation elements included a Shaker, a Bass part, a plucked Cello descending melody, Bongos, and some unconventional percussion. The Mix stem that complemented these elements included the Lead Vocal, Background Vocals, Bass, Acoustic guitar, and the re-grooved drums from variation 1. The unconventional percussion was comprised of the container of peppercorns from the sound design variation, the smacking of a metal chair in two different spots, and the tapping of my metal water bottle. Each mic positioning setup was kept generally close (around 4-6in away) from the subject each time to avoid clipping and grabbing too much room noise.