SOLO SONGWRITTING TASK
The ‘Sound’ module task was to create a song or a sound design piece, using Logic or QLab to create the support for our voice.
The lyrics and its melody were the first thing I’ve done in my song. I’ve written other lyrics before and had around five different song ideas for this task but this was the last one written and that got me obsessively focused on finishing it.
This song was something that I really wanted to say in the present moment and I’m very curious about what this process is going to lead me.
The ‘felt need’ expression that Tristan was mentioning through the year, made really a lot of sense when I was writing and melody came to my head so I recorded my voice with the phone.
Afterwards, I've uploaded the voice to Logic and started working on the drums chopping the loops from Logic’s library and then recording myself playing those different rhythmic sections in the synth, using the metronome so I could pretend I was playing on time. I used mostly wooden sounds from the Latin Kit to turn the drums organic.
Because I had absolutely no music theory background before and I had no idea of what tune I was singing or what those chords were, I sang my voice melody to a tuner app on my phone so I could find the song chords and start working on the bass line.
Again, I started with the loops chopping a bass line with the same tune and with a groove I was happy about, and that put me really close to the main idea of what my song was.
I recorded my voice again and more properly in a suite studio at uni with Tristan that really helped me to put everything together. I showed him what I’ve been up to regarding this song and he showed me how he would build it up from the beginning.
Tristan corrected it all to be right on time and sound more human, and even added violin melodies that were crucial and the perfect dramatic touch that the song was asking.
Afterwards, I recorded my voice again while listening to the track we’ve just created and in the end, I had reverb on the voice and compressors on the drums and on the bass.
I have a very eclectic taste in terms of everything because I believe the more things we learn and the more we can reflect from our experience in our lives the more diverse, fun and interesting our work will become.
I've always loved when people have different tastes from mine because I can be presented with something that I wouldn’t go for on my own and allow us to discover that we enjoy something we’re not used to.
Specifically about composing songs: my brand new experience with Logic was so fun and motivating that I started playing the guitar. I’m very excited to make more music and see there are much fewer limits than we think.
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