It’s getting close to deadline day for the project, so I’m pretty flat out trying to make sure I have enough material recorded. So far I’ve got 4 tracks that I have recorded myself, primarily using virtual instruments. I want to add vocals to some of these, (I’m not sure which songs yet) and a guitar track on one song to replace the virtual guitar that’s on there at the moment. It’s not bad but it’s not quite there, so I’m hoping my son Tom can add the momentum it needs.
I’ve also got 3-4 tracks which I have ‘upcycled’ from jam sessions with my own band. Two I’m very pleased with (albeit I’ve had to sing on one of them) and a third is great, but 11 minutes long, so I’m really not sure about that one. I’d like to go with 4 of my band and 4 of me (with guests), but I’ll have to see what I can achieve in the next few days.
It occurs to me that I’ve not really looked at the process of recording songs using the virtual instruments, so I’m going to take a quick look at that today.
I think with these types of tracks, the idea usually starts with a phrase or a particular sound. One track which I’m pretty confident will be on the final project is (currently) entitled ‘Hubris’, and the basis for that was a chord sequence I stumbled across.
I quite liked it because I was using a minor scale, which as a non-musician (drummer) is quite exotic!
I then noticed that if you arpeggiated the corresponding chord, you got a nice little melody going.
I though it had quite an uplifting but wistful quality, so I decided to add a few more things.
Bass, following the piano left hand
And using a plug in called Sptifire LABS, some guitar
LABS provided a strumming effect, which is quite rare in guitar plug ins which mainly concentrate on tones, however the tone was a bit lacking so I augmented it with Guitar Rig.
Finally I added another layer, using a strings setting built in with Logic
So far everything was playing the same thing, but added together to layer the sound and create some interesting dynamics, however I felt I needed to see where else I could go with it, so a chorus seemed a sensible next step. By just rearranging the notes I got this
At this point I realised that I already had the chorus, and in fact had just written a verse!
The idea was now coming to me as to how the song should sound. The first part I’d written was quite uplifting, so I felt that I should go all in with the verse and add even more layers. I doubled up the guitar tracks and panned them fairly wide and added a lead/solo synth to take the whole thing up a notch.
This latter was really a matter of selecting a tone with a lot of presence and adding some extra reverb and using the MIDI arpeggio effect. With a bit of trial and error, it ended up sounding like this.
I added a drum track using a selection of different clips from the Logic library and cutting them up a bit, which got the song really bouncing, then I turned to thinking about how to sustain an arrangement over the course of the whole song.
I decided that I’d use some fairly incongruous sounds, so plumped for the flute and mellotron to give a contract of delicate and slightly ominous. These I added into a ‘breakdown’ section towards the end, which could then lead into an all out finale!
Finally I decided that the verse section needed something to add interest so I though something quite low key and delicate would contrast well with the chorus. I selected a Celeste setting using the OBXd Oberheim soft synth, which is a favourite of mine and again added the MIDI arpeggio effect.
The result was this, which I thought was perfect for the verse.
Putting all this together I have the basis for a song. I have structure, rhythmn, melody, and because using virtual instruments almost necessitates tweaking the sounds and demo-ing how they sound in the mix as you go along, a reasonable first mix.
I feel there’s a lot more that can be done with this, not least I’d love to add some vocals, (my daughter’s not mine, I should hasten to add), but I think it’s the most ‘poppy’ or ‘commercial’ sounding song I’ve created and perhaps that stems from starting with a phrase that sounded nice and building from there.
Phil Wakely Audio 