Student Leadership. Music Product Competition!

Transcription

1 Student Leadership Technology Program Music Product Competition School: Meece Middle School District: Somerset Independent Schools Student: Benjamin Brimer Title of Piece: The Anthem of Apollo Type: Electronic Manipulation Grade Level: 7 BENJAMIN BRIMER, 1

2 Introduction For this project, I used FL (Fruity Loops) Studio, a digital production software designed for music composition and a revolutionized way to make a variety of different electronic music styles. It has been used by many popular and modern dance artists and is an easy path for all music lovers. A snap shot of The Anthem of Apollo in FL Studio. Part 1: The Introduction The first thing I like to do when I build a song is make a beat, which I find important because it provides an outer shell that molds the song. So I made a repetitive track of kick drum and snare clap. Pfff Chsss Pfff Chsss as you can hear in the very beginning. One of the advantages of a digital production software like FL Studio is that a musician can use any number of digital plugins to create and manipulate sounds within a song. The plugin is like a filter, and each plugin filters sound in particular ways. I first used a digital plugin called Harmor to create the growling bass in the introduction. I then used another plugin called GMS to create the synthesizers (known from this point as synthes ), which are the higher pitched tones that make the melody. I then used automation clips (ways of BENJAMIN BRIMER, 2

3 Above: The interface of the Harmor plugin. Below: The interface of the GMS plugin. controlling volume, pitch, etc.) to create the high and low filtering throughout each individual sound. Next I added a high hat between each kick drum beat and snare clap to add a slight uprising effect. I still felt that the intro needed more of the effect, so on the 12th verse, I added bass using GMS and a D minor xylophone chord every third beat, which completed the song s introduction. Part 2: The Buildup Next comes the drop. As you may or may not know, the typical dub-step song usually consists of an introduction, a buildup, a drop, chorus, verse, build up, drop, chorus, verse, end. So during the first build up, I kept the bass and xylophone sound and some little tweaks from the introduction. I then added a breathy sound that I used automation clips for to have a constant increase of volume and pitch in the breathy sound until the drop. I then added a kick drum, increasing in speed one bit at a time until the drop. I did the same thing with a synth using GMS that increased (like the breathy sound) in pitch and volume. This series of sounds builds up tension to the drop. Part 3: The First Drop For the first drop, I used Harmor to create a strong bass and automation clips for the filtering. I then used GMS once again for throwing in little effects. I then used snippets and samples form the intro and buildup sections to fill in musical gaps of silence. I used two different drum beats. For the first sixteen measures, I used the classic pfff chsss pfff chsss as used in the beginning, and then I threw in the high hat, which is a repeat from the intro. For vocals, I used a recording of NASA Mission Control for the outtake, which was already built into FL Studio. I was inspired by Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11 in this BENJAMIN BRIMER, 3

4 song, and wanted to express it musically. And so in the fist drop, the ship is taking off. I then used snippets of the intro in the drop as you can hear. Part 4: The Chorus For the chorus, I used GMS to create the pad-effect along with the synthesizer chords. I used the same beat as with the rest of the song. To build on that, after eight measures, I added a bell sound with a plugin called Autogun to support the pad chords. On top of that, I added a lead synth that I created with the 3x-osc plugin. Part 5: The Bridge For the bridge, I used the same pad effect as heard in the chorus, but a different chord progression. I then used GMS to support it with volume automation clips. Part 6: The Second Buildup Following the typical pattern of dub-step, I made another buildup to compliment the next bass drop. It consists, as you could hear, exactly of the same material as the first build up, but I mixed some things up like the length as well as bits and pieces of the drums. Part 7: The Second Drop The second drop I felt needed to have a harder feel to it that the first. So, to make the first bass sound, I used a combination of sounds with the same notes at the times piled on top of each other. For the sounds, I used GMS, Harmor, and 3X-osc. With these three plug-ins, the perfect bass sound was achieved. I then used snippets from the intro to fill in the silence in between the bass. I felt the need to mix something up in the drop, so I used GMS once again to hear the screaming synth near the end. I then went back to the chords I used for the chorus and the screeching synth. After this, I dropped the drums to a lower and quieter rate. After the fall silent I kept some synth, and the bell sound I used previously in Autogun. The filtering then shrank until the last chord. Conclusion BENJAMIN BRIMER, 4

5 I hope you enjoyed this project, and I hope this journal description was helpful. I hope this satisfies all of the requirements for the Music Product Competition and that you enjoyed my work. BENJAMIN BRIMER, 5