1. Title:
Running Guitars (5:49)
2. Description:
As in most of my compositions, my samples consist of almost all guitar recordings. I also used some drum samples found in Abelton Live. To get my guitar samples, I recorded myself playing for a while trying to come up with original riffs that sounded good. After several minutes I stopped, played back the recording, and started to think about how to arrange the parts i liked. After listening to a few different arrangements, I came up with one I liked, and formed the rough outline for my final piece (which turned out to have the nearly inevitable golden mean curve). From there, I started building up the song with more recordings, more layers, some abelton effects, and many midi drum beats.
I organized my samples in different audio tracks based on what their future purpose would be (main track, back track, etc) and this is how I decided upon effects. My 7 audio tracks each have different effects ranging from slight to dramatic. In general, i wanted to fatten my back tracks, and brighten my main tracks. I did this using various effects such as echo, delay, flange, reverb, etc. In addition to effects, I also used a lot of volume level automation to get levels sounding good (at least good on my Klipsch’s). I also added effects and changed some properties of the drum kit I used to get it sounding how I wanted.
3. Originality Description:
I give this song’s originality a 7. I wrote each guitar part without referencing other riffs/songs/etc. Also, I made every drum beat except one by simply trying different patterns and deciding what sounded good. That one drum beat is a modified version of a generic beat i found on the internet. However, the structure and instrument usage of the song are not very original. The structure of my composition is a golden mean curve, making it have similar structure to basically everything. Also, just the fact that there is guitar, bass, and drums gives it a familiar sound. In terms of influences, I did not have a specific influence for this piece, but my background of listening to mostly different forms of rock is definitely there.
4. Screenshot:
5. Audio Files: (http://mstroz3.tripod.com/Running_Guitars.mp3)
Filed under: Final Project Postings
