End of the Year Wrap Up

This has been quite the year. I feel that I have really grown since the beginning of this year and the monsters that were my Ok Go and White Knuckles remix. I really brought myself back to easier styles of music and worked myself up from there. I took a look back at some of more successful projects from last year and used the good elements from those in my newer pieces. This year I also entered the realm of evolving drum loops and the mixer. The main inspiration for a lot of my music this year was Daft Punk. I always wanted to try to match their style but I couldn't quite figure out how they did it. In the process of making my third Poizone project, I discovered that Daft Punk occasionally uses the plug in Gross Beat, which soon became my secret weapon. In my final project I really tried to combine everything that I have learned this far. Noise Envelopes, Filters, Automation Clips, Frequency Modulation, etc. But my music will not end here. Over the summer I will be checking out indaba music and definitely want to participate in one remix project or another. Next year I will take a look at the music tech blog and possibly do some of the assignments. This year was only the beginning.

Poizone 4: Modal Chords Complete!

Here is the completed version of my Modal Chords progression. Gross beat, and Maximus were used on my main melodies, a Bass Booster was used on my inverted melody, and a Fruity Phaser was used on both the chords and drums. I compressed the drums specifically using a fruity limiter and then compressed the whole piece with another fruity limiter. Initially, I wanted the chords to be quiter than the melody. However, once in the mixer, I began to change their volumes and soon discovered that the peice in its entirety actually sounded better with the melody being a little softer than the chords. Enjoy!

Poizone 4 Sample

This is a sample of my work in progress, Poizone 4: Modal Chords. I have decided that I will not be using pitcher in this project and save it for the next project. Saving pitcher for the next project will enable me to throw the focus of this piece onto modal chords, instead of spreading the focus across modal chords and pitcher. I start off this piece with a noise envelope and jump right into my chords and bass line. The bass line hangs out around Bb but is complex enough to become the focus of the song later on. The bassline continues to evolve and change throughout the song and eventually, an inverted bass line kicks in later in the song, in in a different octave and using a modified version of the bass synth. Gross beat is used to remix the third progression of the bassline. I am still working on an ending to the song, and it will probably involve a little gross beat in one way or another. I hope to have the song completed by next week. Enjoy!

Poizone 4: Modal Chords (Possibly a visit from Pitcher?)

I have begun work on the 4th Poizone project, involving modal chords. As of right now I have two synths. One, a bassline with a longer attack and a rougher, louder lead synth. I am using the dorian (Bb) modal chord progression with the bassline playing two different major triads, and the lead playing a descending melody that mainly hangs around Bb. I am still expanding on this project and am currently searching for more ideas. Pitcher may be used in this project if I can find a good vocal track. All the same, I hope to get a sample out sometime next week.

Poizone 3: Finished!

After making a slightly more complex drum loop (because 4 consistent kicks does get boring after awhile), compressing the drum loop, and compressing the entire piece itself it's finished. As mentioned before, gross beat was used in this project with three different variations on my melody (using variation patterns 3, 4, and 11). Four or five automation clips were used throughout the piece, namely on the 'cycle' synth, the kicks, and the 2nd bass line. The LFO was used on all of my synths and is clearly noticeable on my 'cycle' synth. It is hard to hear on the other synths due to the Gross beat and only slight changes in the lfo modulation. My main inspiration for this peice was Daft Punk's Derezzed. Somewhere along the way, gross beat was added into their song and was used multiple times throughout. Whether or not they use FL studio entirely is unclear. Nevertheless, Enjoy!

Poizone 3: Nearly Finished

This project is rapidly nearing its final verison. I've extended the ending greatly with a new bassline. Towards the end of the song, I cut the two basslines down (each with progressing parts) and alternated them with eachother. This almost switches the focus of the song off of my melody accompanied with gross beat to the alternating bassline, which I find to be a cool affect. There are still some balancing issues, and I still want to throw in some effects to my peice, but as always enjoy!

EDIT: For some reason the sound cuts out at around 39 Seconds before my second bass synth kicks in. Not sure of why but this will be fixed in the final version.

Poizone 3: Sample

After a week and a half of working my project has certainly grown. I have changed around the C to Bb bass line so that the LFO A and B Oscillators with alternate giving it a subtle wobble effect. My melodic riff is still the same. However, (correcting what I wrote in my last post) it is actually a C to D# to F back to D# to G melody. I have left the intro "motorcycle" rift the same but have added a volume automation clip. With it, I have made the motorcycle synth sound as if it is driving by you and driving away (crescendo and decrescendo). I still hope to expand on this peice after the final crescendo and am still experimenting with what to do next. Suggestions are always welcome and as always, enjoy!

Starting Poizone 3: LFO

With this project we must not only utilize the LFO and Envelope section of the Poizone plugin but also begin to use more chords, inversions, etc. At this point, I have 3 synths and am writing the melodies in Bb. One is a "motorcycle" sounding synth (thanks to successful use of the cutoff lfo)and will be used in my intro and as a breakdown synth throughout the project. My second synth is a deep bass with a slight oscillator a and b wobble, accompanied with a simple Bb to C melody. The third synth is going to be the main synth and is still a work in progress. I hope to bring it to the point where it will ride over the bassline with an alternating C to Eb To F melody. I'm also planning on using the plugin Gross Beat to change up some of the main synth from time to time. I plan on working on it throughout the rest of the weekend and putting out a sample early next week.

Poizone ADSR FInished!

Here is the completed version of my poizone ADSR song. From the previous version (posted below) I rebalanced the claps and kicks, fixed a melodic error in one of my final loops, rebalanced my higher pitched synth, and fixed my ending so it is no longer so stagnant. I used Maximus on my drums, Fruity Flanger and Fruity Balance on my medium bass-intro synth, the Soundgoodizer on my low bassline, and a Fruity Free Filter and a Fruity Limiter on my high pitched synth. To top it all off, I placed a Fruity Limiter on the master channel and made sure to compress my peice (specifically to bring down the volume of the higher pitched synth). Enjoy!

Poizone ADSR almost complete!

There has been a large gap in time since the last update on my song so I thought I should put out the almost complete version. Everything is the way I want it. The sounds are where they should be, balance is good, yet I can't help but want to tweak the ending even further. It sounds too stagnant for me and I want to make it a little more detailed. Suggestions as to how I should change the ending would be appricaited. Enjoy!

Poizone ADSR Update #2

After playing around with this remix for a bit, my two synths have essentially changed rolls. The synth that I thought would be my lower pitched bass (the synth first described below) has had its attack value lowered to around 25% and its sustain raised to around 75% and has become a high pitched, almost floating loop. The changes in its ADSR values really bring out the synth's violin like quality. The synth that I thought was going to be my lead (the 2nd synth described below) has been left at its same ADSR vaules but has had a slight chorus added to it and has become a lower pitched semi-rapid bassline. I'm still experimenting with a third synth for a clear lead and, after hearding my remix, would like some suggestions as to what direction I should steer my remix next. Here is what I have so far:

Starting Poizone 2: ADSR

For our next Poizone project we need to use the ADSR controls in our new poizone. At this point in time I have two synths. The first is a low bass style synth. I have the attack, decay, and release set at about 50%. The sustain is close to 100%. These settings make the synth not instantly being at its full sound, thus giving it an almost violin appeal. The second synth is a higher pitched synth with a little bit less of a "grumble" to it. The attack, release, and decay are set fairly low, with the decay set fairly high, having the synth leave a type of echo behind it. Im currently working on a third synth that will probably be a breakdown synth. I will continue to work on this over the vacation and have another update within a weeks time.

Poizone Remix is Here!

After a few days of work, my poizone remix is complete. Starting it off with the idea of only using 1 or 2 synths, I finished having four different sounding synths and four different patterns. However, I kept all of these synths revolved around poizone with the aspiration of making 4 distinct sounding poizone syths. In terms of complexity, the synths ranged from the lead (which 1 would almost call a bass) was the most complex, to 3 lesser complex basslines. I chose not to put any filters or go crazy with the effects on this one.After the poizone aspect of this peice there were just a few smaller drum loops. I enjoyed its simple sounding synths but semi complex rhythm. After the poizone aspect of this peice there were just a few smaller drum loops. Enjoy!

Starting Poizone Project

This week we have begun our poizone projects. So far mine has one basic synth pattern along with a simple drum loop. I have two different synth sounds in the making, however, my second synth is lacking a pattern as I am still debating as which will take the lead and which will fall back to become my bassline. I plan on using other channels, Sytrus mainly, along with my poizone synths to make it into a nice sounding semi-complex piece. Im also considering throwing in a noise envelope in the beggining for an added effect. As for now, nothing is official, and much more work needs to be done befor this project is ready.

Sytrus FM Modulation Remix!

With this remix, we were assigned to make 4 almost completely different sounding synths using sytrus. The first synth I made took the bass. The second one I decided to have alternate with the third as a lead. The final synth I made was more of a background part that came in every now and again and at the end to mix things up. Every written peice of this was based around my 2nd synth (the inital lead) which was made using a pattern from the chop tool. I ended up makeing about 4 different drum loops to accompany this peice. Finally, I put filters on every synth to give them an nice edge and bring them closer in a sort of techno feel. Enjoy!