Here’s my 13th free track written within a week.
Aims for this week
Things I don’t usually do, for this week:
- Generate melodies and harmonies, rather than sequencing or playing them
- Alternate keys throughout the track
- Write at a faster tempo than usual
Reckons
I quite like where I ended up this week, although it sounds pretty messy to me. In particular the deliberately big, wide chords seem kind of unruly and a bunch of the generative stuff doesn’t quite work for me. I considered exporting all the note data for one software-generated pass and then editing it to make it better, but that was going against my aims and I just wanted to say “done” and move on.
Process
I arbitrarily started at 132 bpm.
Central to the generative ideas was using a preset I found online that picks the next note, using Markov chains. Because it’s using probability it doesn’t run the same each time, which is fun. For the tuned content of this track I didn’t play or draw in any notes. I just used copies of the Markov chain preset and various methods of modulating or shaping its outputs.
I built out the chords first. The Markov chain generates the root notes and I built repeating envelopes every 8 bars that change the speed at which different notes are selected, so there’s more likely to be faster progressions towards the end of every 4 and every 8 bars. Then the patch is built so that every time a note plays it actually plays 5 copies of the same synth all at once, and I spread the pitches so those 5 notes span about 2 octaves.
I configured the whole project so all the generated notes would be forced into a scale, and then configured the project so the key/scale alternates between F Dorian for 4 bars and F Mixolydian for 4 bars. These scales are the same except Dorian has a minor third and Mixolydian a major third. So they sound very consonant but it does make things a bit ambiguous and intriguing.
Next I added drums, using samples of an old analogue drum machine, the Roland TR-66. I sequenced a beat the traditional way, drawing it in with my mouse on a piano roll. Remembering at this stage the track was zipping along at 132bpm, I found the drums felt too fast for the chords. I tried a half-time version of the same beat and really liked that. In the spirit of the generative patches, I configured some modulation to switch between the half-time and normal time sequences every 11 dotted 8th-beats (every 33 16th beats). Because the main track is in 4/4 this creates an evolving beat that unpredictably slows down and speeds up. Good fun! I fed the drums into AudioThing’s Reels, which is a tape emulation plugin, and set it to provide a bit of gritty echo.
Next I created the generative bassline. I copied the Markov chain patch that generates the chords’ root notes, pitched it down an octave, and create a bass patch on a soft synth. I did a similar technique where I used a multi-stage envelope to speed up and slow down the rate at which new notes are played and then quantised the results.
I cloned the Markov chain patch again and wrote a higher, faster melody. I configured the patch so that notes would just come through for the last 4 bars of every 16. I sent the synth patch into a nice big reverb, Valhalla’s VintageVerb plugin.
At this point I arranged the track on a timeline and figured out the structure. Because I was using generative patches, I mostly just used automation to trigger when the Markov chains were enabled or disabled. The drums were really the only exception, where I laid out loops for so long as I wanted them to show up. I added further automation for variation, for example fading out the hi-hats for 4 bars at one point, and cranking up the tape echo effect on the beats at the end.
Once I’d got what felt like a finished track sorted, I exported the whole thing and listened to the WAV file in an audio editor. It was still a bit hectic and weird-sounding in a way I didn’t like, so I tried listening to the entire track at half speed. I liked this a lot better, but it was probably too extreme.
I went back into Bitwig and slowed everything down from 132bpm to 95bpm.
I pitched down all of the sequences just 2 semitones, so the finished track alternates Eb Dorian and Eb Mixolydian. A whole octave down had been way too muddy and there was nothing bothering me about the frequencies of the tuned content. But, I had liked the sound of the drums pitched way down, so ended up with them pitched down 7 semitones. A few final EQ tweaks to try and make things sit nicely, and I was done. Re-exported, converted, uploaded!