This thread is inspired by @oivavoi’s video of a song he composed. What is the process by which music is created?
As points for discussion I cautiously submit a couple of small snippets of music I created 30 years ago, using a Commodore Amiga and an Emu sample player.
The story here is that I was very keen on synthesisers and sampling, and set out to create some music from scratch that would sound like real music played by real musicians. The music was composed using a MIDI sequencer program called Music-X, plus a 5-octave MIDI keyboard. The sample player output went into an Alesis Microverb and then to a cassette deck.
In the end, I found the creation of music this way quite arduous, and so I only ever produced a few pieces of music. But, I learned a lot.
These two snippets might be the closest I ever got to something that sounded like real music.
https://soundcloud.com/user-283664774%2Fdetective-theme
I did a short piece titled “Detective Theme” because I found that not having an ‘assignment’ usually made it impossible to create music – too many possibilities. I also found spinning out a track to four minutes very difficult while keeping it interesting and non-repetitive – it is possible to plonk down 8- or 16-bar sequences with a transposition (instant key change) and make a piece that way, but I was trying to make it sound ‘organic’. So I set myself the task of doing a TV theme tune, as I recall vaguely inspired by the title sequences for ‘Shoestring’, ‘Hazel’ etc.
I think this was a ‘mouse’ composition with not much live playing of anything. I think I plonked notes down on the screen with the mouse, guessing what rhythms might sound interesting, and then moved pitches and timings around on the screen until it sounded a bit like music. I would then have added in the little one-off drums, cymbals, bass harmonics, etc. on the screen with the mouse - again trying to make it sound ‘organic’. And finally the saxophones were programmed in by mouse, including the slightly complex runs – which serendipitously sounded sophisticated and as though I meant them. The process was without much structure, with me just following where it went, playing back the latest few bars, moving stuff around and then keeping what sounded ‘good’ or at least plausibly like music. It was weird how I could be almost disconnected from what was going on, but it still became a piece of music by filtering.
The next snippet was the biggest fluke that happened to me. Somehow I produced a bit of music that sounded as though I was controlling it rather than the other way round. I can tell you that I know nothing about walking bass lines, jazzy piano, perky string backings but I do have an affinity with pentatonic scales (or I think that’s what they’re called) and the music of John Barry (which the little segue at the end sounds like, I think).
https://soundcloud.com/user-283664774%2Fextract-0
I think that what happened was that I programmed the drum loop with a mouse, then played each instrument live on the keyboard - but more as an aspiration than a performance. Basically I played the rhythm with a token gesture as to whether the pitch should go up or down, but all the notes would have been wrong. Quantisation was applied. I probably played several versions of each instrument and muted their recorded tracks or not. Then I went in with the mouse and started moving the note pitches around and somehow made it sound like real music – I am still bowled over by the string backing that sounds as though I knew what I was doing. I then spun it out a bit by repeating it some of it maybe with key changes and mixing up which track played with which loop. Or something like that.
Anyone else on ASR with some snippets of their own music to share?
As points for discussion I cautiously submit a couple of small snippets of music I created 30 years ago, using a Commodore Amiga and an Emu sample player.
The story here is that I was very keen on synthesisers and sampling, and set out to create some music from scratch that would sound like real music played by real musicians. The music was composed using a MIDI sequencer program called Music-X, plus a 5-octave MIDI keyboard. The sample player output went into an Alesis Microverb and then to a cassette deck.
In the end, I found the creation of music this way quite arduous, and so I only ever produced a few pieces of music. But, I learned a lot.
- You don’t need to be a trained, qualified musician to produce something that sounds kind of like music
- You can imitate the playing style of real musicians using a mouse – but it’s an ‘intellectual’ satisfaction and not much fun to do
- Amateur bungling can end up sounding like music
- Serendipity happens; but you couldn’t make a career from relying on it
- The notes are what is important; good ‘notes’will shine through poor production.
- Unconnected sequences played in parallel can sound as though they were meant to happen.
These two snippets might be the closest I ever got to something that sounded like real music.
https://soundcloud.com/user-283664774%2Fdetective-theme
I did a short piece titled “Detective Theme” because I found that not having an ‘assignment’ usually made it impossible to create music – too many possibilities. I also found spinning out a track to four minutes very difficult while keeping it interesting and non-repetitive – it is possible to plonk down 8- or 16-bar sequences with a transposition (instant key change) and make a piece that way, but I was trying to make it sound ‘organic’. So I set myself the task of doing a TV theme tune, as I recall vaguely inspired by the title sequences for ‘Shoestring’, ‘Hazel’ etc.
I think this was a ‘mouse’ composition with not much live playing of anything. I think I plonked notes down on the screen with the mouse, guessing what rhythms might sound interesting, and then moved pitches and timings around on the screen until it sounded a bit like music. I would then have added in the little one-off drums, cymbals, bass harmonics, etc. on the screen with the mouse - again trying to make it sound ‘organic’. And finally the saxophones were programmed in by mouse, including the slightly complex runs – which serendipitously sounded sophisticated and as though I meant them. The process was without much structure, with me just following where it went, playing back the latest few bars, moving stuff around and then keeping what sounded ‘good’ or at least plausibly like music. It was weird how I could be almost disconnected from what was going on, but it still became a piece of music by filtering.
The next snippet was the biggest fluke that happened to me. Somehow I produced a bit of music that sounded as though I was controlling it rather than the other way round. I can tell you that I know nothing about walking bass lines, jazzy piano, perky string backings but I do have an affinity with pentatonic scales (or I think that’s what they’re called) and the music of John Barry (which the little segue at the end sounds like, I think).
https://soundcloud.com/user-283664774%2Fextract-0
I think that what happened was that I programmed the drum loop with a mouse, then played each instrument live on the keyboard - but more as an aspiration than a performance. Basically I played the rhythm with a token gesture as to whether the pitch should go up or down, but all the notes would have been wrong. Quantisation was applied. I probably played several versions of each instrument and muted their recorded tracks or not. Then I went in with the mouse and started moving the note pitches around and somehow made it sound like real music – I am still bowled over by the string backing that sounds as though I knew what I was doing. I then spun it out a bit by repeating it some of it maybe with key changes and mixing up which track played with which loop. Or something like that.
Anyone else on ASR with some snippets of their own music to share?