A Glimpse Of The Madness: Garageband 3.0I thought I'd try a little experiment which I'm sure will be of interest to some. I'll be posting various different stages of a composition/score that I am working on in a new blog of mine, and in a series of updates, I will recount the many adventure/blunders which are surely to ensue. I figured that it would give aspiring musicians and fellow macidolists like myself a chance to get a hands-on reference of the process. It's kind of like that RPM thing, except with one exceptional song. Perhaps the trend will catch on with other laptop beatjunkies as well. Anyway, any feedback, comments, rants, jokes, trials and tribulations are welcome.
The song currently has the pending title of "A Spot In The Shade". You can listen to the preliminary mix here. Enjoy.
PRODUCTION JOURNAL: Sunday, March 8th, 2008
So I've been assigned the fun job once again to score another film, and I've been working hard lately churning out melodic ideas. A few mornings ago I woke up with a strange melody stuck in my head, and I had to get rid of it somehow, so I recorded myself humming in a vocal track in Garageband as a reference. I then began working with that foundation by building bass and drum layers. Once the arduous task of getting the groove done was complete, I auditioned various different lead melodies and started with three different versions, until I finally I found one that I genuinely liked. Then bit by bit, layer by layer, I tested various little interesting effects to give the production the extra "wow" factor; some of which included Garageband's new automation feature and manual pitch shifting/modulation of certain notes. A few hours later, I had the foundation set in musical stone, and then the mixing/editing process began, where everything, such as the pianos, were too compressed and causing a distortion from the overcombination of loud sounds. After a few tweaks in the visual eq's, a bevy of limiters and gain control plugins, and some sidechain compression, the sound was beginning to retain some texture/flavour. Lacking in the higher trebley end, I decided to pick up the ol' acoustic and record (using the internal macbook mic I might add) various different chords intermittently, which were later cut up and rearranged. Alas, once again I have been struck with the inviting false endpoint of finishing too soon and calling it quits, yet with the added motivation of this being a school project, I think there is enough will and determination still lingering in me to get it done. I feel like I've been writing a lot of summer styled tunes lately, despite the endless blizzard outside. Maybe it's my yearning for carefree days spent in the shade.
- James
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