Final Project

My final project of the year is a pseudo 90's mash-up of Jay-Z's "Encore," Ben Folds' "Brick," and Tupac Shakur's "Changes".  The songs for each can be seen here:

Here is the basic breakdown of the song, in its simplest form:

1) Introduction with Violin Riff

2) Verse 1 (w/ Tupac Shakur)

3) Chorus

4) Verse 2 (w/ Jay-Z)

5) Chorus

6) Verse 3 (w/ Tupac Shakur)

7) Bridge 1

8) Chorus

9) Verse 4 (w/ Tupac Shakur)

10) Chorus

11) Verse 5 (w/ Tupac Shakur)

12) Chorus

13) Bridge

14) Chorus [end]

Now in terms of specifics...

The beginning of the song begins with a violin part sampled from Talib Kweli's "This Means You".  After one loop of this sample, the chorus verse from "Encore" comes in on top, using an a cappella sample of the song.  Twice through here, the song builds in volume and ultimately resolves to a starting verse featuring the lyrics of "Changes" and the piano melody of "Brick".  For the percussion part, the drum/bass/trombone line from the beginning of Dr. Dre's "What's the Difference" is paired with a simple pattern from Reason's ReDrum, using ReWire.

After this first verse, the song shifts to the main chorus of the song which is the following:

1) The "Can I get an encore? Do you want more?..." line from "Encore" repeated twice through.

2) The main chorus line from Brick that goes "She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly..."

As the tail end of the line trails off, the next verse begins with a rap verse by Jay-Z under the same "Brick" piano melody and the same percussion part as before.  This again transitions into the same chorus as before, but this time the chorus adds a small vocal sample at the end to transition into the next Tupac Shakur verse.

After this 3rd verse, the song transitions into a bridge, where the sample from Ben Folds' "Brick" is the sole track being played, and this climactic change in the song leads to a much louder chorus part.

This bridge leads into the final two verse of the song, both of which are rapped by Tupac Shakur.  The overall song is a bit louder in these last two verses and the choruses in between each are slightly different (some samples being repeated, while others are delayed and some completely omitted).

Afterwards, the second bridge comes up with a similar sort of feel to the first bridge - its main purpose is to create a sense of tension and build to the final chorus that ultimately ends the song.  This bridge is a similar Ben Folds sample but it has some repeated loops that fit nicely to create a sense of anticipation for the final refrain.  Going into the final chorus, the sample from "Encore" chorus is snipped then repeated over and over just before the chorus to really end the song "on a roar"

In terms of effects used for the song - lots of automation was done to control the volume levels of each track to make sure that the most important parts within the song were emphasized.  For example, towards the end of the song, the automation within the bridge slowly ascends upwards for the volume and the volume automation for the tracks in the final chorus were all amped up.

Additionally, the "Compressor" was heavily used to control the volume output so as to reduce "clipping" and to generally make the sound of the project sound smoother.   The Ben Folds sample, especially, had to be compressed judiciously because its melody carried great importance to the flow of the song and the song couldn't afford for it to be either too loud or too soft - the Compression allows for the sample to project without being too overbearing.  Some "Pan" automation was also used to create cool sweeping left-to-right effects for some of the vocals in the chorus.

While these effects helped to smooth out the song, the true work in the song was done by matching up the rhythms of the songs, while also making sure that the songs were (roughly) in the same key - if they weren't, the pitch adjuster in the Sample Editor was used to change the pitch by a few cents or so.

The main purpose of this project was to create a hip-hop song that had different feels to it at different points in the song.  Many hip-hop songs can get repetitious because the beats remain the same throughout and the lyrics may be somewhat uninspired.  But I thought the musical ability of Ben Folds' "Brick" track paired with Tupac Shakur and Jay-Z's  lyrical ability in their two respective songs would sound great in a pseudo-mash-up of the three.

Hope you enjoy.

Ghostwriter by RJD2

In this blog, I will be reviewing a song made by hip-hop DJ RJD2.  

I'd like to start off by saying that RJD2 is one of the most ridiculously talented artists of our time.  He is well-known for being one of the most incredibly gifted artists that samples random pieces of audio and skillfully manipulates that audio to fit into his pieces.  It's a bit of a shame that he's now retired from the genre of sample-based hip-hop and is now doing solely acoustic-oriented music.  But regardless, the guy is phenomenal at what he does.

"Ghostwriter" is arguably RJD2's most recognizable song.  It has everything you want in a hip-hop song (even if it is instrumental-based): It's got a fantastic beat, great instrumental parts, spooky but colorful vocals, and pristine mixing that makes the song sound crystal clear.  Here is the song itself:

It's also been used as the background music for several television shows and television ads (some you may not even expect).  For example:

So, as you can see, the song has been an incredibly popular song because so many elements of the song sound so vibrant and attractive.  Let's explore why:

The beginning of the song starts out with an acoustic guitar playing a very simple riff.  To give the sound a very vintage feel, RJD2 added in scratch sounds from a vinyl record playing to give it those subtle "sparks" that make the sound so interesting.

At around 0:06, a new sound seemingly sweeps into the sound of the song, possibly used by a low-pass filter being used on a high-frequency sound.  A muffled-trumpet part (it also sounds like a trumpet part that has been reversed) comes in, almost cacophonously, as it does not correlate with the melody whatsoever.  But it certainly adds to the spooky feel of the song.  Several of these quick sweeps are introduced back and forth until at 0:20, the background vocals come in at a crescendo and start the beginning of the song.

At this point, the percussion part starts: a simple bass, closed hi-hat and snare drum are played continuously at a very casual, relaxed 70-80 bpm.  At 0:31, the bass comes in to supplement the sound of the still-going acoustic guitar and adds a little more depth to the sound.

At 0:39, the bass drops out and RJD2 includes a weird collection of almost bird calls/children yelling but all at a somewhat inaudible level.  The guitar then fades out and echoes for a bit at around 0:45, which then transitions into the lead vocals that come in at around 0:48.  

After the lead vocals hum for a few seconds, there are three vocals that come in, with the last one being an old Sam Cooke sample.   The second time through, these vocals play through once more, but a harsh and "crunchy" electric guitar sample comes in.  Shortly after, a crescendo-ing sample of girls seemingly cooing leads into the next sample at around 1:23.  This cooing leads into a quick succession of trumpet samples beginning at 1:27 that lead into the CLIMAX of the song at 1:32.  

This part of the song has the following layers to its track: 

1) a bright trumpet part that takes the lead

2) a strong bass

3) the same drum, closed hi-hat, snare combo from before

4) background vocals

and

5) the gritty electric guitar from just earlier

Intermittently, RJD2 includes great muffled samples of another electric guitar that come in at random points.  

At around 2:14, the song slows down a bit as the trumpet part is slowly repeated as it decrescendos into the next vocally-dominated section of the song.  After several riffs, a quiet piano part comes in at 2:41 and quickly trails off, just to add enough subtlety to make the riff different, but not changing it completely.

At 2:46, the vocals transition into a violin-dominated section, with a trio of violins playing against the already-going percussion line from before.  This part ends at 3:04, with the sound of a synth bell, which then leads into an electric-guitar dominated part of the song.  

At 3:25, a strong bass line comes in against the electric-guitar and plays through until 3:50, where the lead vocals come in to replace the bass.  At 3:56, the vocals are interrupted by a man shouting "And I know!" almost in perfect rhythm with the rest of the song.  Similarly at 4:01, the sample of this man is used but he says "But I feel!".  

Everything in the song starts slowly dropping until the vocals are just left there by themselves.  But at 4:30, the vocals are then interrupted by a quick succession of trumpet samples that leads into the final climax of the song at 4:37.  This riff plays through until the very end...

As you can see, there are many many layers to RJD2's work.  His use of randomized vocal samples is perfectly suited for filling in the many gaps in the instrumental parts of his song.  But RJD2's ear for including many different instruments is what makes this song so fantastic.  The list of instruments is pretty extraordinary:

1) acoustic guitar

2) electric guitar

3) acousting piano

4) bass

5) drums

6) trumpet

7) trio of violins

8) synth bells

... and maybe more.

Ghostwriter manages to work on many different levels.  The dynamic shifts and the different instrumental changes throughout the song make it such that song never ceases to bring something interesting to the table.  Not to mention, the middle and end climaxes to the song alone are enough reasons to listen to the song.

All in all, a ridiculously well-crafted song.  Props to RJD2.

Al Green remixed

My newest music project was a pseudo hip-hop/electronica piece that involved various Al Green music samples and the workings of both Logic and Reason.

Here is the song itself:

To start off, I had been listening to Al Green's "The Very Best of Al Green" album as I was beginning to start my music project.  As I kept listening to the tracks, I realized that the background brass parts within the songs were incredibly vivid and more importantly applicable samples.  Specifically, the saxophone/trumpet descension in the song "Sha La La" after each line was very colorful.  You can hear the sample here at 0:35 and at 0:43:

I then heard the sample to the song "I'm Still In Love With You" and I thought the beginning trumpet riff would be a great way to start my piece (from the beginning to 0:05):

The way these samples were worked in:

In the very beginning of my track, I use the intro to "I'm Still In Love With You," but I slow down the tempo to 90 bpm on logic, adjust the cutoff frequency using the "AutoFilter" insert and gradually increase the gain using to create a "sweep" in the beginning.

The next segment begins with a simple guitar riff that alternates between C major and B minor back and forth and this riff keeps playing itself until it is interrupted by a vocoder.  The vocoder sample here was created by recording my talking voice into the computer microphone on a separate track, then using that specific audio track as the "input" for the vocoder.  The vocoder leads into a simple bass line, while the guitar sound opens up a bit more (the cutoff frequency increases a bit).

After this riff plays through, the track transitions into a pseudo-solo section as the sample of the trumpet/sax from "Sha La La" enters in with a piano.  Funny enough, the solo that begins here is actually the synthesizer-based theme song to Super Nintendo's "Donkey Kong Country 2."

Thereafter, the percussion part of the song enters in as I used the hip-hop kit from Reason's Redrum, using the Rewire slave mode capabilities.  After the percussion plays with some of the guitar riff a bit more, the song transitions as the vocoder plays once more then leads into a slowed-up version of the intro to Steely Dan's "Caves of Altamira".  The sample can be seen here from 0:09 - 0:12:

The sampled is played three times through, sped up, then the low-pass filter sweeps through once more.  As this is happening, the song crescendos to a climax and is met with strong percussion to lead into the finale of the song.

The original guitar riff plays once more through, then vocoder leads into a section where an acoustic piano accompanies the guitar riff.  For the final few riffs, the saxophone samples, and at the very end, the saxophone sample from Al Green's song is extended through to finish the song on an R&B type of feel.

Assignment #3 Review

I will be discussing Matthew Gaba's piece titled "Spice Bazaar", a 1-minute song created by using the program Reason.

Matt's piece starts off with a very percussive synth lead that is accompanied by another synth pad that provides depth to the sound.  The main synth that comes in at the beginning is enhanced by a reverb effect affixed to the mixer and the resulting sound quality lingers a bit, and thus creating a very cool effect.  Additionally, the synth stays on the beat for the first two beats, but on the last two, it enters in on the offbeat, which creates a syncopated melody.

The synths are then accompanied by the actual percussion section when muffled claps slowly fade in to the sound with a sort of techno drum kit.  The claps come on the 1 and 3 beats of the 4-4 time signature, which amplifies the rhythm of the already-percussive synths.  The drum kit stays on beat for the most part, but because the rhythm involves many 16th notes, the rhythym is very upbeat and catchy.  Later on, the percussion is momentarily interrupted when a crescendo-ing synth pad enters to start the lead melody of the song.  The claps and drum kit then re-enter to provide a propulsive beat to the song.

As the lead synth goes along, various synth melodies underneath accompany the lead synth.  One example, in particular, enters in at 0:26, is a synth with noticeably high reverb/echo which creates a cool ripple effect with the synth sound.  This sound perfectly complements the extremely rapid movement of the drum kit underneath.  For a bit, the percussion section goes out, but a cool riff of claps brings it back in and this plays throughout for the rest of the song until the end synth part.  Then at the very end, this same clap riff ends the piece.

As a whole, the piece works as a very cool, upbeat tune that has moments of unpredictability that make it interesting.  The syncopated beats, the layering of synth melodies, and the momentary absences of sound that get released with even cooler synth leads all combine to create a full sound that works well with each other.

First Reason Song - 1 Minute Long

Disco, House, and Everything In Between

After spending the first weeks of class exploring the history behind Electronic Music, the class has steered more towards the direction of contemporary music and how the electronic music world has developed more recently. More specifically, the emergence of Disco as a precursor to house and techno inspired many musicians to create more propulsive types of beats to their music.

With beats largely following 4-4 Time, disco bands consisted primarily of: drums, keyboards, and guitars. Lots of hi hats came on the off beats, while the bass drums came on the on beats, creating a consistently energetic rhythmic structure. This newfound type of music spurred a sporadic growth within the dance club communities, with clubs such as Studio 54 and Galaxy 21 rapidly growing in popularity.

This type of growth in dance club popularity was perpetuated even more with the growth of house and techno music thereafter. Following the decline of disco as a popular form of music, the house “culture” soon took over. The quick growth in technology of important musical instruments such as drum machines paired with the emergence of the DJ culture defined the house culture. These developments allowed for even more heart-pounding beats and thereby fostered an energized dance environment.

Paradise Garage was one of the prime examples of the house culture at its finest. Led by legendary DJ Larry Levan, Paradise Garage was a haven for music junkies and those next-generation disco club aficionados. And more than anything, it set a defining precedent for other clubs and dance houses to follow.

But the evolution of electronic music didn’t just stop at house. A website titled “A Diversification of Genres” illustrates how each genre of music connected to other forms of music. Music genre titles are all over the place: house, trance, techno, breakbeat, jungle, hardcore, downtempo, europop, jpop, and even “stupid hard dance.”

One of the more popular electronic music artists now is Daft Punk, and Juraj spent the majority of one of our classes dissecting the song “Around the World.” More specifically, the sounds used in the song are: drum machine, bass guitar, synth, “wah wah sound” and vocoder voice. By rearranging these sounds in different ways, then modifying those sounds by adjusting volume and sound quality, Daft Punk achieves a relaxed, yet energized song that is easy to listen to. The cool part about the lecture was the fact that Juraj single-handedly re-created the song on Reason using the sounds themselves, and actually managed to create a successful reproduction of the piece.

In labs, we are using Reason now, after spending a few weeks on radial. The thing that makes Reason so special is the fact that it has so many versatile “instruments” (i.e. software synthesizers) and has so many abilities that seemingly combine the abilities of all the other sequencers together. Whether it be looping tracks, creating more digitized sounds, or just making simple drum machine beats, Reason has it all.

Disco, House, and Everything In Between

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3 20-second Loops

So, using a simple sample of a sequence of 4 simple "click" noises, I constructed 3 20-second loops, by modifying those samples with radiaL.  

Here they are.

-MK

Mics and Programs - what else?

Intro to Electronic Music is finally gaining some steam, in terms of how the programs are used and how the music today connects with the music from the past.  

Specifically, interactive music programs such as Reason, Logic, and RadiaL were used to manipulate specific sound files, compiling them, and then producing specific beats.  For our first project, especially, we were to manipulate completely randomized sound samples, and then use those sound clips to create some sort of rhythm.  Professor Juraj emphasized the importance of this style of Musique Concrete and how the pioneers of electronic music utilized these randomized sound samples to create some of the most fundamentally classic pieces of music.

During lab, all of the students began learning how to use the program "RadiaL," a program that simulates the disk jockeying that a DJ would do during a live performance.  Sound samples are dragged from specific folders onto the program "discs".  From here, the sound samples can be looped over and over to a unifying tempo, so that the sound samples not only match up tempo-wise, but also sound more in unison.  Additionally, the RadiaL software can be used to alter the pitches of various sound samples, and also filtering out certain frequency ranges so that only high or low values are heard.  More rudimentary sound editing techniques, such as "reverse" and "invert," can also be applied and these techniques, combined with the aforementioned editing techniques, can create great sounding samples.

In class, we are exploring the very nature of sound recording and with that, the history of sound recording and how this has affected music artists all over the world.  Juraj mentioned that there are specific types of mics that serve specific purposes.  Some mics purposefully filter out low or high frequencies, the purpose being for live performers to filter out all the ambient sound coming from the audience.  Other mics, such as professional studio mics are used to capture high-quality sound and all audible frequencies - this is possible because the environment for studio recordings is especially quiet, thus allowing the mic to capture all frequencies.

More to come soon...

Assignment #1

Check it out.

The first taste of MK's beats.

Link

-MK

Intro to Electronic Music

We've had 2 weeks of classes for Intro to Electronic Music w/ Professor Juraj Kojs, so far.  With nearly 150 kids vying for one of the elusive 40 spots in the class, the shopping period was a bit rough and the kids in the class had to write a 250-word essay comparing/contrasting two pieces of music: "Concret PH" by Iannis Xenakis and "Kitchen Sink" by Amon Tobin.  

Those pieces can be listened to here:

Concret PH

Kitchen Sink

What was interesting, though, was the fact that there was no basic melody accompanying the songs, so the only things that the listener could discern between the two was the fact that there were different beats being employed and the different forms of sound density that allowed for a variety of sounds.

The programs that we will be using this semester are as follows:  Frequency, SPEAR, Recycle, Radial, Reason, and Logic. Each has its own distinct purpose.  For example, Professor Kojs illustrated to us how certain programs are used to create basic beats and rhythms, while other programs are used to modify the sounds within a certain song to create a perfectly fleshed out song that matches the composer's liking.

After giving us a brief introduction of the course, Kojs began his lectures discussing the intricacies of sound and acoustics and how certain sounds can be artificially constructed by layering simple sounds on top of other simple sounds to create more complex sounds.  Additionally, Acoustics can be measured in four separate categories: 

1) frequency

2) amplitude

3) time

4) frequency spectrum

Frequency spectrum relates to the timbre of the sound, or it can be interpreted as the "fullness" of the sound.  This spectrum is directly connected to which frequencies are being generated at any given moment.

On a different note, Professor Kojs discussed the intricacies of the beat of a certain piece of music and how this can affect the feel of any given piece.  Specifically, Kojs cited the Mission Impossible theme song (5/4 time) and Pink Floyd's Money (7/4 time) as examples of irregular beats that work because of this tense irregularity:

Mission Impossible

Pink Floyd's Money

After delving into the specifics of what a sound consists of, Professor Kojs led his next discussion to talk about the different instruments that began the cultural phenomenon of electronic music.  Following a brief discussion about the history of basic instruments such as the piano and the violin, Kojs introduced the more bizarre, yet seemingly genius forms of music synthesis.  One example, in particular, stood out in my mind: the "Theremin"

The Theremin

The Theremin is a type of instrument, as you'll see, that generates sound based off the mere positioning of one's hands within an electric field.  Rather than being a traditional instrument where sounds are generated by tangible vibrations, the Theremin creates its sound based on the relative positioning of one's hands and thereby creates a very electronic-sounding sound that can't really be replicated anyway else.

So that's what's happened in the first couple of weeks.  The rest of the semester should be fantastic.

-MK