Hello everybody,
this is my (final) entry for this month:
WAV-Version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B3ko3e ... share_link
First, let me apologize for my singing. My intonation and my timing are all over the place, and software can only correct so much.
It is only a mockup to give you a rough idea of how the melody would sound like with the lyrics.
As chord progression tool, I used WAProduction's Instachord 2, preset "RF 32 Arp Amadd9 - AMaj9Sus4 - FMaj7b5 - E - Dm - FMaj7 - G#Tritone - E (harmonic min)"
There are two EMaj chords in the sequence, so I looked up inside Instachord 2 what other chords were suggested and replaced the first EMaj with E7Sus4.
For those who are not familiar with WAProduction's Instachord 2:
Instachord 2 splits the keyboard in different parts by octaves. One octave on the keyboard will trigger the chords of the progression (e. g. C1 = AMinAdd9, D1 = AMaj9Sus4, E1 = FMaj7b5 etc.) and the keys of another octave will trigger strum patterns, rhythm patterns or arpeggios (e. g. C3 = strum pattern 1, D3 = strum pattern 2).
The Instachord 2 preset came with different Arpeggios. I chose Arpeggio 016b, because it would play all notes of the chords and not just the first 5 notes.
Then I "wrote" some Midi, containing only two notes, that would trigger this Arp with the different chords.
I routed the Midi from Instachord 2 to my goto instument AAS Lounge Lizard EP-4, this time preset "13 Model V", and recorded the actual midi notes coming out of Instachord 2.
I split the progression into two 8 bar parts,
the "Verse"-Part
AMinAdd9 x 2 - AMaj9Sus4 x 2 - FMaj7b5 x 2 - E7Sus4 - EMaj
and the "Chorus"-Part
DMin x 2 - FMaj7 x 2 - G#Tritone x 2 - EMaj x2
and structured the song
Intro 4 x AMinAdd9
Verse x 2
Chorus
Verse
Chorus x 2
Outro 4 x AMinAdd9
I copied the whole chord progression and song structure and routed it into Soniccouture's Music Boxes (Instrument for NI Kontakt). I panned the E-Piano a little to the left and the Music Box a little to the right and added the Ableton Live "Velocity" MIDI tool to the E-Piano to introduce some randomness to the velocity of the notes.
The drums are IK Multimedia's ModoDrum, "Black Oyster"-preset. For the rhythms, I used Midi loops from the YurtRock "Clyde Stublefield"-pack, which I edited to work with the ModoDrum mapping. I added the Ableton Live "Velocity" Midi tool here as well to randomize the velocity of the hits a little. The drum bus is compressed with HoRNet Plugins MultiCompPlus MK2, "OPTO" compressor type.
After that, I recorded some guitar melodies but ended up deleting them again.
Then I recorded my Ibanez Soundgear 505 through my Zoom H4n Pro recorder, comped some of the takes together and added a low pass filter, the brainworx Ampeg B15N for flavour and the Ableton Live compressor.
I added some Native Instruments "Session Strings Pro 2" Celli, starting in the first chorus, playing the lowest two notes of every chord, adding additional layers in verse 3, and going back to the two lowest notes in chorus 2 and 3.
As I had only written one verse, I decided to write an instrumental part for the two other verse parts in the song. I experimented with different instruments for a solo and chose AudioThing's "Pong Glockenspiel" (Instrument for NI Kontakt) for its crispy attack.
The chorus is repeated 3 times with a little variation at the end of the second chorus.
The vocals werer recorded through the microphones of my Zoom H4n Pro, run through Audified ToneSpot Voice Express, "Pop Modern Dry"-preset, Brainworx bx_crispytuner for intonation correction and Ableton Live's Utility for gain correction. For the chorus, I copied the vocals on two additional lanes, panned hard right and left, and run them through bx_crispytuner and Applied Audio Systems' ObjeqDelay, "Moon Echo Chorus"-preset, 100 % wet, very short delay time (around 5 ms, a little differently timed between left and right).
My master chanel setup
Hornet ThirtyOne MK2 EQ
TBProAudio ISOL8 to check for problems after the equalisation
Brainworx bx_masterdeck True Peak to make bass <121 Hz mono, to adjust the loudness and to enhance the stereo and glue compress everything.
LUveler to set the target levels
SPL Hawk Eye to check for problems after the mastering plugin
YouLean Loudnes Meter 2 to check for loudness problems
Lyrics:
► Show Spoiler
Verse:
A child's world is filled with wonders
there's somthing new to learn every day
I believed in powers beyond us
that would protect me on my way
Chorus:
But when I grew a little older
the world grew a little colder
and soon, routines were taking over
Where have wonders gone?
