dance notes
Form Object
Produced by: Madmusik
46 Devonshire Road
Bath, BA2 6UD. +44 (0)1225 313082
46 Devonshire Road
Bath, BA2 6UD. +44 (0)1225 313082
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3:37; med-slow 4/4; dream-like, meandering, contemporary; loops, bells, chimes
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Composer's Blog
Spot the deliberate mistake! Here’s something I’ve played around with before but I’m particularly pleased with the results this time. I began, as usual, by switching off the click on my DAW and improvising on a high-quality piano sample, using my beautiful full-size, weighted keyboard. I do this, so that I’m focussed on what comes out, rather than trying to play along to a pre-defined tempo. I just let the track run until I find an idea I like, then I generally identify the tempo and re-record to click. In this case, however, I’ve just taken the improvisation and quantised it to the default tempo of 120 bpm (although that wasn’t the tempo at which I was playing). I have then applied a loop at that tempo. So, the loop is playing in strict time, whilst the piano is quantised to the same eighth-note divisions but goes across the beat.
It struck me that the result was rather like a peel of church bells and how they tend to go out of phase, so I applied some bell sounds to the original piano part. I noted how as the piece grows in strength, there were some pedal tones that built in intensity, so I’ve used horns to accentuate these a little. I’ve added some choir, to pick out more of the mid-range and this also seems in keeping with the church theme. Then there is a bass strings section to add some bottom-end weight as the piece progresses. Nothing has been edited, so there’s a nice little moment of bi-tonality in there as well.
Download Track
Subscribe
Composer's Blog
Spot the deliberate mistake! Here’s something I’ve played around with before but I’m particularly pleased with the results this time. I began, as usual, by switching off the click on my DAW and improvising on a high-quality piano sample, using my beautiful full-size, weighted keyboard. I do this, so that I’m focussed on what comes out, rather than trying to play along to a pre-defined tempo. I just let the track run until I find an idea I like, then I generally identify the tempo and re-record to click. In this case, however, I’ve just taken the improvisation and quantised it to the default tempo of 120 bpm (although that wasn’t the tempo at which I was playing). I have then applied a loop at that tempo. So, the loop is playing in strict time, whilst the piano is quantised to the same eighth-note divisions but goes across the beat.
It struck me that the result was rather like a peel of church bells and how they tend to go out of phase, so I applied some bell sounds to the original piano part. I noted how as the piece grows in strength, there were some pedal tones that built in intensity, so I’ve used horns to accentuate these a little. I’ve added some choir, to pick out more of the mid-range and this also seems in keeping with the church theme. Then there is a bass strings section to add some bottom-end weight as the piece progresses. Nothing has been edited, so there’s a nice little moment of bi-tonality in there as well.