Finished Piece
What I Learned
This was my first time ever playing with audio design and making music/motifs. It was my goal for this minor to learn and improve my audio skills. This isn't what I had in mind when I started the minor but it was fun and I felt like I learnt a lot of the basics in Ableton and how to blend music together better from this exercise.
I learnt how to make tracks, add virtual instruments, what beats/genre of music I like, and how to play with basic effects (velocity, volume, and EQ eight) to change how the motif sounds and build or reduce suspense. I also learnt that the adding of different beats on different audio clips can make pieces go from being very classical and slow, to being more modern and
I do think I have a lot more to learn though. I do still feel like I'm drowning when it comes to Ableton, however, my background in music theory makes me feel better about my composing and my lack of knowledge in the mechanics.
This may have been a small exercise in a class but I felt like I learnt a lot from doing this composition and learnt what music I like to compose
I first started by picking a classmate. I choose Cristina. From my interaction with her, she is a very kind and soft person as well as has an alternative appearance.
I started by creating a melody using a keyboard in Ableton. Setting up the keyboard was actually simple enough, however, I was struggling with arranging the melody in Ableton after recording the chords and notes on the keyboard. I then learnt by highlighting the whole section I wanted to edit and not just the bar, I was able to see everything in the keyboard section easier
I started by using the piano to create a simple melody and added a violin to create more depth to the piece.
I had some spare time outside of class so I tried to add violin/cello to my motif but I didn't like the sounds they were making. I learnt it was the type of violin in Ableton. I went online to find a virtual violin I liked that I could download and use in my pieces. I could not find anything but plan to ask Nathanael for help with this.
I also added a base beat to the motif to show that more alternative appearance to Christina but also couldn't get the sound right. I plan to look into it more when I have some more free time
We had a free class today so I worked on the class motif and completed it. I added a bass playing at half notes as well as a kick and it gave it the more alternative sound I was looking for
I learned that you can change the velocity of certain notes as well as use the EQ eight effect to play with the beat to make it more the way I wanted it to sound
