2.5 Review and evaluate the finished project against the original brief

I did many variations of the same tune Sunset before I arrived at the final tune that I performed. I was happy with how the arrangement of the tune progressed but there would still be things that I would alter if I was to do the piece again.

I feel that the scenes could of run a lot smoother  i .e. between one transition and the next. The scene 13 to 14A could have been a lot smoother .The sub bass was good to add texture to the music and also to lift the music up and give it a bouncy feel especially as this worked well as a transition from the intro into the other sections of the music or scenes.

The Vibra Slap at scene 5 added another texture and reminded me of a rattle snake coming into the mix again adding another texture to the music.

The classical guitar played very simple at scene 6 lifted the tune up and moved it away from the Intro into another place in sound the triangle at this scene also drove the music along in a forward direction.

At scene 7 more percussion is added including a crash cymbal still with the guitar latin riff and a sub bass to drive the tune along.

Scene 8 there was another guitar riff added followed shortly by another guitar riff at scene 9.The transition between scene 8 an 9 could have been a lot smoother I felt some what.

I’ve added the sub bass at scene 10 so to lift the melody up and added another melody as a transition into the A section on scene 11.

The melody played on the guitar drops out at scene 12 and here I put only percussion and a guitar that is strummed. Congas and a vibra slap feature more at this scene. This was my breakdown section in the music to give the piece light and shade.

At scene 13 I build the music back up again and added a guitar figure playing a arpeggio section and also a sub bass line to lift the music up again this I used to build the music into the A section and lift the feel of the music up.

The A section is at scene 14 A and the melody on the guitar is the main subject here.

15 A Trem at this scenen the melody of the guitar of the A section is heared again but played on a tremolo with the fingers so to add texture to the music.

Scene 16 is the lead out or the Outtro

1.8 Creating Scenes

How I created the scenes was by adding individual clips to the arrangement of the tune by starting with an introduction which I recorded a guitar part just playing chords i.e. double stops and then I added some drums an percussion i.e. congas, triangle an guiro,darabouka,shakers and a vibra slap to add flavour to the tune. The percussion which I used as individual clips worked very well as a Latin transition into the A section to the tune and I dropped a sub bass line in to lift the tune up also adding reverb and ping pong delay on the effects in insert mode to add a deeper atmosphere to the tune and bring more live into it  so as to make it seem like it was being played in real time by musicians.

I then added a melody that I created on the guitar in to the arrangement to give it a variation and then added various other melodies on the guitar so to keep the music moving.

The ending I placed a clip with the guitar on it’s own and added delay [ping pong and also reverb] so to create a feeling of an ending in the music.

2.4 Area of Expertise

Impulse what is this instrument and how do you use it within the program Ableton Live 7. This is a blank sampling instrument that works with MIDI clips.You load samples into Impulse by using the drag an drop method with the left mouse button. By using this method i.e. drag an drop to load samples into Impulse gives you the luxury of creating a collage of sounds of all types. Short transistents such as percussion and drum hits.

Impulse is mainly used as a drum machine or a drum sampler and can store 8 individual sounds. Each sound is assigned to a box within the instrument and there are 8 boxes in total for storing and editing samples. You will find that the parameters that are used within the instrument Impulse are very similar to that of a synthesizer.

Parameters such as Resonance, Decay, Pan, Volume, Transpose, Frequency and Time are but a few of the parameters that are very similar to the ADSR envelope of a tradition analogue synthesizer of old. The parameters used in Impulse can be applied to the individual samples within the instrument i.e. slot level or they can also be applied on a global level i.e. across the scope of the entire sampling instrument. Impulse is a great tool for loading samples into such as field recordings and noise factor of all kinds. I used Impulse to trigger percussion sounds within my piece.

3.1 Setting up a controller keyboard

When you are connecting a midi controller keyboard you need to go to the options menu in live and then go to preferences and then the section on midi.
In the Input section within preferences you click Input Track ON and then look for the keyboard that you will be using to trigger the sounds that you have recorded within your tune. Connect the USB cable from the computer to the midi controller keyboard.

1.2 Load, edit, warp and save audio clips

You use the Warping method to put a sound into time using a process called Time Stretching.

How I used the Warping process within my piece of music within ableton I broke down into four easy stages.

I imported a guitar wave into the session view as a clip in the introduction of the piece. When I played the guitar wave I found that it was not played in time on the second part of the piece that I had recorded. I double clicked on the guitar part within the clip view and the wave that I had recorded appeared at the bottom of the screen.

I edited it by placing the loop markers and end markers on the first part of the wave as this was played more in time with the music. I highlighted the loop mode so the piece could be repeated.

To bring the guitar part more into time I placed warp markers at various points on the guitar wave so to emphasize various accents on the chords that I played on the guitar.

The parameters that I used to enhance the guitar part were the warp mode and the transpose sections. As I wanted the nuance of the guitar to flow I used the complex warp mode as this mode treats the whole sound of the wave. I transposed it by two semitones so that it was in key with the other pieces of music.

When I was happy with the waveform to use with my piece Sunset and I had warped the guitar intro and looped it I then decided to cut off the part that I did not want to use as the guitar intro so I cropped it.

1.6 Adding a processor in Insert Mode

To add a processor in insert mode you go to the Live Device Browser and then to the folder Audio Effects and then to the effect that you want to insert into the arrangement view.

When you have chosen the audio effect that you want then you drag an drop the effect on to the channel of the sound which you want to alter i.e. strumming classical guitar spainishy of which I placed a compressor on as there was a bass boom in the sound when it was recorded.

I used the effect i.e. compressor by lowing the threshold of the sound on the guitar thus taking the boom out of it. This I did by highlighting the envelope peak which limits the signal going beyond zero Db.I also increased the attack and release on the compressor and the ratio which I set to 2 .

The attack time is how long the signal takes before themaximum compression kicks in on the sound being processed and the release time is the time it takes before the signal stops below the peak of the sound. Both of these I set to 1 ms for the Attack and 20 ms for the Release. I also highlighted the Makeup mode so to change the values of the compressor.

1.1 Identify key elements of the software

File Browser – This is where you see files that you have created using either MIDI or Audio on your computer. E.g Audio Clips, MIDI Clips, Live Sets

Live Devices – You can access MIDI and Audio effects within this section of the program. The Audio effects that you can access are things such as Reverbs, Flanges, Ping Pong Delays, Chorus, Compressors etc.

MIDI effects that are used within the program are things that can change a sound when put into the program such as the shape of the notes such as Arpeggiators, Chord and scale to name but a few.

 

Clip – This is an individualpiece of audio or midi that can be used within an arrangement. Clips can be moved between different slots using the drag a drop method or copy and paste method. You can edit clips by double clicking on them and make changes using the Clip View.

Scene – This is a selection of clips in a horizontal row within in the Session View. A scene can be triggered by pressing the scene launch button.

Introduction About Me

Hi,

My name is Dave and I’ve been a musician for over twenty years now.

My first introduction to music was at the age of around four when I would sit down at my mum’s piano and tinkle the ivories of little tunes that I was hearing on the radio or television. Later on around the age of eight I went for music lessons on the piano but found there to be a problem with the reading of the music as I got my left and right hands in a muddle when I was learning how to play. This was later I found out to be due to dyslexia. As a young teenager I went back into learning how to play the piano being influenced by many musical genres. I started to teach myself Ragtime piano music by composers such as Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb. And also played by ear from records on piano and bass guitar by bands that had a big influence on me such as The Stranglers.
 Later on I became interested in jazz music and wanted to learn about this subject in more depth so I went back to college to study so that I could have the key to unlock the doors into other musical worlds and have a greater understanding into modal harmony. I have worked with many different musicians and bands from all different styles of music including jazz, indie rock, ambient dance music, techno, house an r n b and seen many changes in technology .This both in hard and computer software. When I began to learn how to use music technology in the early nineties most of the music was written using hardware i.e., outboard gear such as samplers which was limited to around 15 seconds sampling time [recording time]. That was the mid nineties now into the twenty first century music is mainly being written and produced by software programs such as Ableton  Live 7 and music being composed on either PCs or Macs. Ableton Live program is far more powerful than any software program that was around in the mid nineties. Hence we are venturing into a world of the computer age an Ableton Live gives us the tools to free an extend our own imaginations within soundscapes.

Let me introduce you to Ableton. Live 7.