Key

Are you ever not drunk?

P A N

yo! been awhile. anyway. i've listened to the first two tracks you've posted here. so far it's kick*ss! so clean! i'm on my way out but i'm leaving this open for when i get back.

Freebase Dali

It's definitely a rare occasion.

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Freebase Dali

Thank you! You seem very familiar. I've not conjured a context for that, so you may have to remind me. But your words are appreciated.

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VEGANGELICA

"Beautiful Anger" almost ties with "Variable 55" as my favorite Weekend Astronauts song.

As you probably already know from making "Beautiful Anger," the contrast and interplay between the beautiful classical piano/strings and the intricate, "angry" drum beats make the song fascinating to hear.

I've listened to the piece several times to trace the overall composition and notice all the different sounds. Each time I find something new in the song to concentrate on, but concentrating on one aspect is difficult because quickly some new sound is introduced.

I like the way the song begins and ends with the same piano passage. The passage's somber ending first transitions into the frenzy of the drums (a great moment) and then later serves satisfyingly as the actual end to the song. I also like how portions of the piano passage appear throughout the piece. I like how the notes of the percussion/bass beats relate to the piano tune.

I especially like a midway point in the song where there are well-spaced piano chords with an overlay of strings and drums, all meshed together.

The song has power as well as subtlety, which I appreciate, and it seems easier to listen to than some of the other breakcore I've heard (Igorrr) because it doesn't include *as* many odd elements. Your song leans quite heavily toward a pure classical sound, which I enjoy, but I like the funky percussion passages just as much.

The only thing I might change with the song would be to use real string instruments, if you had them, because I'm a purist when it comes to strings and like their less even sound. But I'm just quibbling, because the string sounds in the song are very realistic.

"Variable 55"

You haven't discussed this song yet in your thread, but I will anyway because it is my favorite of all the Weekend Astronauts songs you have posted so far, and I want to learn more about how you made the song, and tell you what I like about it (in the hopes of influencing you to make more like it).

"Variable 55" begins with a delicate, almost eerie melody of bell-like notes reminiscent of drops of falling water and so beautiful that it made me want to cry...especially when an undercurrent of lower sounds begins to swell underneath the bell tones.

My favorite moment is around 0:55 when the warm sound of several long, cello-like notes enters, creating a slight sense of resolution at 0:57 before continuing. A really lovely moment, it reminds me of how some classical music pieces contain a very short, unique passage lasting just several seconds that seems especially emotional, memorable, meaningful and beautiful...almost painfully beautiful. For me, that moment in your song is 0:52 through 1:06.

The song then subtly transitions to include lower notes and interesting rasps and clicks that sound very organic, like insects or woodpeckers, and finally the drumming enters, all over-lapping.

Again, each time I listen to the song, I hear something new, which is a great quality in all your songs. It encourages me to listen again and again to discover some new aspect I hadn't noticed before. The changes within the song rivet my attention.

The interesting panning of the sounds, for example, is one intellectual level I liked to consider, such as the panning of the bell-like notes around 3:15. The layering of different passages is another, such as when the cello-like sounds first appear and then reenter the song to help stitch the various parts of the song together into an integral whole.

This song also used an element I don't hear often in music: a noticeable tempo change within a song. The moment at 3:52 when the song slows down is especially intriguing to me, since it sounds like time taking a breath. I love when songs have tempo and time signature changes. This one pause was very surprising, which I like. At first I thought maybe the pause was a song glitch due to my computer, but I hear it every time, so I decided it was intentional. I'd enjoy hearing a song that plays even more with tempo changes to give the feeling that the song is sometimes holding its breath.

I'm curious which elements were sampled and which were original in both songs. I assume you and your fellow musician are doing the guitar work as well as the drumming and are modifying them with the computer to get the sound and speed you want.

I feel both of these songs are excellent because they stir my emotions and have an intricacy level on par with classical music, which makes the songs feel contemplative and meditative. The songs contain a high density of thought, and I can hear and appreciate that.

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Piotr_13

Thanks for your kind words, and I hope your holidays went well!

I don't usually post on here, but I frequently stalk Freebase, and this thread.

I can't really speak much of Beautiful Anger, as it was Freebase's brainstorm and absolute drive to create something. Maybe he can get on here to discuss it more in the future.

Variable 55 was created a few years ago. Back when I used to use FL Studio. I've since upgraded to Sonar so Freebase and I can exchange projects with ease.

The main bit was majorly a synth from a program called Synplant. At the time, it was a new and exciting thing for me to use. It started with the tingly sound, and then I added some pingy synthesizer sounds that blended together quite well.

I sent the intro to Freebase, and we went back and forth for a few days creating it.

Around the time the "time bend" happens, was a drumming idea. I had a stock beat loop that I glitched using "Gross Beat" with some automation.

In the beat, there was that "vinyl time dip" that you hear. It wasn't intentional at first, but I thought it sounded cool.

Freebase took that sound, with his own beat, and emulated it along with the atmosphere creating an entire time dip that I think sounds fantastic.

For Variable 55, everything you hear, was sampled. There are no instruments involved that were physically played.

As for the title, "Variable 55?"

Well it's quite simple. The original project tempo was 110 BPM. So in order to create things more brooding, we halved some of the sounds to 55 BPM. Hence the song being in a Variable 55 tempo.

You've actually provoked me to look into my old FL Studio project folder, and low and behold, I actually have the original draft of the project!

Of course, a lot of the sounds have been deleted, misplaced, and lost in random browser cleanups, and one hard drive crash, but I've uploaded the main bell part for you to check out.

https://www.mediafire.com/?d3da467vt6v2x2p

Enjoy!

Freebase Dali

Variable 55 and Equation for Sundays is my fave! Actually, it kinda changes as new songs come out. I have emotional ties to 55 and Equation that have kinda been around for a while, but newer songs like Plastic Bells edits are getting up there. That's basically our approach. We just try to make music we like. If we like it, we have succeeded. If others do as well, then that's icing on the cake. So, thanks for the icing!
Yea, I agree about the realistic strings thing. Unfortunately I don't have much access to them. I do have a few patches in Dimension Pro that are actual recording of strings, but I think I went with a patch that is my go-to solely for the ambiance of it. The piano is actually from the same synth, which is a sampling synth, so the sounds are generally sampled from the real thing. However, the patches themselves modify those sounds to achieve something of a hybrid approach. Basically giving you synthesizer control over real sound.

Anyway, I enjoyed working on that song. I'm always a melodic person by default, and I love classical, so I like to play with the things about music I love and put them together to see what happens. Igorrr is a bit of inspiration for that song, for sure, but like you said, he's a bit more complicated. But I think there's something to say about simplicity as well, even if it comes in moments.

As Piotr said, the song is all created in synths or using found samples creatively. I realize that there is a respect for performance, however, I feel as though the production of a song using either found material or creating material using a program... well, that's kinda the performance. To me, it's like being a director in a way. Except you not only shape the way the song happens, but you are creating the melodies and progressions by hand using sound that is already recorded. I guess you already understand that part, but I just wanted to say it.

I'm about to post a new song that we've had in the works with my buddy's guitaring, however, so perhaps this will be a nice change of pace? We're thinking about incorporating actual instrumental performances into our music lately. The song I'm about to post is the first of the bunch, should it become a thing.

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Freebase Dali

If I can't see you, you can't see me.

Here's a song just completed.
The other half of Weekend Astronauts is on the guitars. Just a little tune that could mean anything.

Weekend Astronauts - Hidden Faces

This one follows our typical approach, except we used an actual (not perfect) recording of his guitar licks for the main idea then built around it. This is another song that I utilized sidechain compression, using a copy of the kick as a trigger. You should hear it in most stuff, barely. I have the entire music routing through that sidechain. It ducks the kick only. More of a creative effect, I guess, but it does make the kick more apparent what with not being drowned out via frequency overlapping.

All plugins are either stock in Sonar or Waves. Synths = stock. Signature rise/dropper, of course that's in there. I've been using it since 2004, I'm not going to stop now! Oh!! I did finally get to use Waves Z-noise. Originally the guitars came to me with quite a bit of noise because the partner is basically just recording directly into a computer from a pedal. I knocked a lot of that out, but you'll still hear a bit of squeal and buzz in the parts that actually contain significant signal. Z-noise is a beast though. Lets you "learn" the primary frequencies of the audio over a span of time and then raise the noise reduction threshold so that only frequencies that are not part of the primary sound in the recording are then reduced. Worked wonders.

As for the free loop, I don't know which one to provide. You guys tell me!

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VEGANGELICA

Thank you, Piotr_13, for the description of how you and Freebase made Variable 55, and thank you also for the main bell part!

The vinyl time dip in the song *is* cool. I also feel that halving the tempo of parts of the piece was a good choice to give it a more contemplative feel, so I'm glad you both decided to go with Variable 55 rather than stick with 110.

The song is lovely and I'm tickled to have the main bell melody. It's beautiful.

You're welcome for the icing, but honestly I think we listeners are the lucky ones because we get to hear and enjoy the song, cake and all. I don't find many songs that I really like immensely, so when I do, I feel fortunate to benefit from someone else's creativity.

Your way of merging what you like about music into your songs and bouncing ideas and sounds off each other is resulting in unique, memorable pieces.

I agree completely and understand what you mean about the performance being the use of synths and sampled sounds to produce your own songs. What I like about musician-created sounds (like Piotr_13's guitar playing) is purely psychological: I like that the sounds are the residual left from the musician's physical motions interacting with the resonating object, much like the motions of an artist are imprinted in the brush strokes of paint on canvas.

I'm curious to hear what you both come up with next!

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Freebase Dali

May First

I started this song on May 1st. Yea, there really isn't anything meaningful in the title. Often times when I start a project, I don't know if it's actually going to become anything, so I title the project with the date in mm-dd-yyyy format. Most times if a song does materialize, I listen to the song and name it whatever sticks in my head from an impression if the song isn't themed from the outset. In this case, I forsook the format and just titled it May First. Now you have this:

Soundcloud Link To Song

Ok, so, I started the project off with just a piano. I didn't know where the song would go, but as I hadn't made any music in some time, it's sometimes cathartic to just sequence some sounds that you'd like to hear at the time. This happened in Dimension Pro, which comes with Sonar and is a sample-based synthesizer.

After the piano riff was nice and loopable without being *too* samey, I dug down into the Dimension patches and found the trusty Batman Score patch, which was used for the strings. It's a great patch. There's literally nothing else on the strings track other than the MIDI that's triggering the synth and some low cut from the strings, with a little low-mid carved out so it wouldn't muddy things up.

After that point, I still didn't know if it would be a song. I didn't think about drums or whether they should be in there at all, but at the same time, I didn't want to "commit" another song to our catalog that was reminiscent of a score for a movie scene, so I shot the project over to my buddy Piotr_13 to see if he wanted to add anything to it and spark an idea for the song's direction.

He sent it back with the drums you hear, but in full time. After a big ol' stamp of approval and a warning that I'd be changing the beat to half time, I got to work and did some mad science experiments and got it fitted in. From there, the song sort of built itself.

I was looking for some sort of movie speech clip to put in there to give everything some momentum and ended up sampling a speech from Picard in Star Trek: Next Generation, and only now as I write this do I notice that this thread is titled "log files for weekend astronauts", so it's rather fitting.

OK. Now there's supposed to be a thing where I give away something from the song. Only, I don't know what it should be, so if you want something specific, let us know! I will cut a sample for you.

And of course, since this post wasn't very descriptive in terms of the engineering process, feel free to ask anything or make scathing remarks at the horrid balance or lack of reference track usage!

Enjoy!

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