Freebase Dali

In this thread is electronic music a friend and I make together as a group called Weekend Astronauts, details about production methods, and a free bonus downloadable clip or loop used in each project posted. Discussion encouraged, enjoyment required.

Our Soundcloud page:
https://soundcloud.com/weekendastronauts

So let's get to it.

First up is something I just finished mixing today, as the first "side" of a song based on what ultimately came to existence from playing with a softsynth and coming up with a lick I enjoyed. And it didn't even start that way. I was browsing through old projects and happened to love the tone of a synth I had in a project, and I decided to change the melody, then became something I wanted to follow through with. That melody is the first thing you hear in the song below:
(It's just a SoundCloud page, don't worry!)

>>>> Weekend Astronauts - Plastic Bells (Sunrise Edit) <<<<

Hear that intro? That's what inspired the entire song. In fact, in the next post, there's a different song based solely on that synth line. Although the song is VERY different in character.

PRODUCTION METHODS
My music buddy and I both use Sonar 8.5. The cool thing about this program is that you can export an entire project and the other person can open it up and work in that project. This helps us because we're geographically far apart. We use Dropbox to exchange projects and clips, and there's never any problems.

For this song, the main bell-type synth line is constructed in Dimension Pro in Sonar. However, you could get this sound with any software (or hardware) synthesizer because it's a pretty basic set of layers. Of course, in Dimension Pro, we don't have the ability to create sounds from the oscillator up, because it's not that kind of synth. It's based on samples that you manipulate and layer. But if I were to guess, I'd say that there's definitely a sine on the top for one of the oscillators, Maybe a lower one too. As far as the dynamics of it, that's all controlled in Dimension regarding attack, decay, etc.
The patch was made from various layers of stock sounds that ship with Dimension Pro and tweaked. If anyone wants it, send me a message and I'll upload it for you to use in Dimension Pro.

DRUMS...
Ok, this is the thing I'm providing for download. Mostly because it's awesome as hell, but also because I had absolutely nothing to do with those drums other than editing them to work right in my project. For the drums, you're hearing Bernard Purdie's famous shuffle. Here's the Youtube video I sampled them from:
Original Purdie Shuffle
Because he's drumming for real, and real people aren't completely and totally on time in terms of a programmed electronic music project, some work had to go into it in order to have the drums stay consistent. In the bonus download link at the end of this thread, you will have the main portion of what I edited in the song for the drums. They are EQ'd and processed, but that may not be to the fit of your project if you want to use them. In that case, well, you have the Youtube link.

The rest of the elements are rather straight forward. They're more "supporting roles", as it were. All are programmed in Sonar using various softsynths, both integrated and 3rd party. I do have to give a shout out to Waves, though. I use (extensively) Waves H-Delay. There's a feature in that delay plugin to do pitch modulation of the delay, which allows you to make really dreamy and almost dischordant ambience on basically anything you slap it on.
TIP:
If you don't have that plugin, you can hack it together by creating a delay buss for your track in question via a send, adding a normal delay, then adding a pitch adjustment plugin after that delay and automating the pitch knob. Once you have what you want, bounce that clip out and import it into your project, and run it parallel to your original track and EQ it in. (You may not hear this effect prominently in this song, but you will hear it in the next.)

OK!
Since there isn't much to this song, I'll just cut it short and provide the drum loop I've edited together, which exists quite naturally at 98 BPM.

LOOP DOWNLOAD - Purdie Shuffle

Bernard Purdie Shuffle - Edited - 98BPM

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Freebase Dali

B side? Or A side?

This is the the other end of the yarn. The original post was the song that created the idea, yet this one improves on it in its own way. We're unsure whether it's a positive direction or not, but honestly, we don't care. Because we like it.

>>>> Plastic Bells (Moonlight Edit) <<<<

Totally different direction. Yet it's built on the same foundation. That synth.
It's slower, yea. That version of the synth clip didn't even start off with intent, but it got used.

Pianos are from Dimension Pro. "Alien Piano 3" with the fx part taken out.
I'd have to ask my friend about the source of the vocal weirdness. I modified it, but I don't know where it came from.

Here's a tip for more ambient types of music. Find your best synth line, make a copy of it, and reverse it. Then line it up so that it works with the main synth, just existing a little underneath it in terms of EQ and level. You can also create a buildup by raising its volume on an incline. It creates interesting interplay with its original, I think.

What about the download for this one?
Ok, I gotcha.

Loop Download - Wub Bass

Wub Bass... the whole thing.

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Freebase Dali

It's always inconvenient when the world ends.

Ok, so here's something of an intermission. In fact, the previous sentence is so true, we actually called this "intermission". If you don't believe me, click on the link below:

>>>> Weekend Astronauts - Intermission 1003 <<<<

Got water? Batteries? Food? Cool. Ok, let's talk about this. Obviously the whole thing is set up on the nuclear clip. (That's your downloadable clip!) Everything beneath it basically follows the concept. Drums are composed in Session Drummer 3. Any sample-accepting sequencer will do, really. Not much to this song except for the ambiance. I'm not sure if I typed that correctly in context with what I'm talking about.

I do have to state, however, that iZotope Trash is used in this project. If you don't have it, you should find out how to have it. It's literally the top end of any bass or other element that needs a bit of grunge. Basically you just create a copy of the track you want to add some grungy sizzle to, and EQ all the low end out of the copy. Let it just live in the high range. Then throw iZotope Trash on top of it and cycle through the presets until you find something tasty. From there, adjust to taste. Also, don't forget to play with LFO-controlled filters either before or after your distortion, depending on what you want to do.

Loop Download - Spooky Nuclear Talky Things - Edited
Spooky Nuclear Things

I recommend you doing whatever you want with that clip, as it's pretty sexy.

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Piotr_13

Vocal weirdness comes from Free Loops Samples Acapellas Vocals Downloads Royalty Free Music.

I'm sure a few people are familiar with it.

Basically, it's a sample download hub. Tons of people upload free to use (some not free to use) vocal samples, and assorted other samples/songs.

The thing I like the most about it, is you can search vocals by Gender and Key.

If you want a female singing something in B#, you can narrow the search.

Just make an account, ensure that the person you're downloading from is granting permission to use it, and download away.

Plankton

Some good sounds going on here Freeb. Very well explained too. I'm always on the hunt for some good drum tracks, so I grabbed Purdie and I'll see what I can do with it.

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LoathsomePete

I've always enjoyed your music, but this stuff is absolutely fantastic.

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Freebase Dali

Thanks gents. I'll get deeper into the guts of each track in the future. Particularly for sound-design things I experiment with or try the first time and feel like it's worth sharing with everyone. Patch notes. Etc.

Of course, if anyone has particular requests or wants to talk about certain aspects (or critique them), I'm down.
Also, Piotr_13 is the other half of Weekend Astronauts, so he'll chime in on aspects that he spearheaded where appropriate.

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Freebase Dali

At least this level has decent music...

Don't die.

>>>> Weekend Astronauts - Water Level <<<<

For this one, it began with the main synth you hear in the intro, like most of our music happens to come about. A little on that. When we're producing stuff that centers itself on a particular type of feel or genre, the easiest way to build on an idea is to experiment with what would be the main idea, and for more ambient/mellow types of music, that tends to be the main synth that defines the melody.

In this case, I felt that the synth patch I used had an underwatery feel to it, so I kinda went from there. Of course, and it's probably obvious, the primary inspiration here is Tipper, but once that stage was set, additions were basically second nature.

For the beat, the primary sloppy sample is what I built the rhythm off of. That is the free sample for this song, because I did not create it from scratch. But I did edit the hell out of it. In the link below, you will have yourself the sample, at 120BPM.

The beat would have been ok by itself, but my partner added some life to it, and you'll hear this with the slight FX that put a bit of movement into the rhythm of the song.
As far as the bass, well, I'm not super familiar with NI Massive, but I gave it a shot and did a standard wobble, selecting the LFO rate that seemed to work with the rhythm of the song while not being too adherent.
For the processing of the bass, I did as I usually do and create a copy of it, then take the lows out of the copy and slap iZotope Trash on top of it and get some good distortion and layer that in on the top end of the bass.
The bends are within Massive. It's a matter of setting your voicing to monophon and then setting your osc to rate instead of equal, then adjusting the time of the pitch bends between notes.

The rest of the elements in the song are supporting characters. In the breakdown, you'll notice the main synth kinda morph into another one, then back to the main halfway through the drop. This is done with volume automation and also automating the mix knob of a filter on both tracks.

And for everything else, there's Mastercard.

Here's the free beat.
LagBeat

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Plankton

More good stuff Freeb. You get some great vibe with what you use. I worked something out with that Purdie track. I won't clutter things up here with my stuff so I just threw it into the showcase pit.

http://www.musicbanter.com/1498820-post469.html

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Freebase Dali

Just uploaded this.

https://soundcloud.com/weekendastron...eautiful-anger

I'm far too drunk to do a commentary. Will update this with a sample and commentary when able.

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