Hi Guys, I'm back.

Recently, I wrote a track in its entirety. I started off enjoying the track, enjoying what I had written but by the end, the track was not greater than the sum of its parts. So I made the decision to put that track on the proverbial shelf and get cracking on my next 'masterpiece'. 

So yesterday (as of writing this post, yesterday was the 20th of August) I began work on 'Life After Death' and so far, so good. 

Recently I have been quite a bit of musical soul searching, as a direct result of writing an entire track I wasn't happy with. I've been working hard to hone my craft, learn to write my music better and more importantly, making it more effective. 

I began by doing what most people find tedious, research. Someone truly inspiring, a rung or two above me on the ladder, Alex Moukala. Before I carry on, credit where credit is due: here is his channel.

Now the thing I like about Alex's YouTube content is that he isn't some big Hollywood composer, but he is talented and a professional film trailer composer. And whats more is that he started dreaming of working as a composer one year before I did. 

So Alex has a series of 'How To's' in specifics, like writing effective brass sections or percussion sections. So whenever I struggle with something, I can go back the expert, so-to-speak, and figure out where I'm going wrong. 

I suppose one of the key things, that I've considered, is less is more.

So here I am writing this new track, and with every subsequent track, I am going to take at least one lesson that I learn through research, whether Alex's YouTube content or through analytical listening to music and apply it to my music.

The Melody

To begin with, I need a nice simple melody, that can both carry the track and be strong enough to lead the listener through the track, from Act One, all the way to the Trail. 

The melody is simple, obviously within the key and uses a simple easy to remember rhythm. The chords below the melody, on the piano, are the root of the key, D and it's 5th. These intervals firmly root the key of the track in D, without complicating the track or muddying up the mix.

Marimba, Tempo & Rhythm

This is the Marimba I used to set a particular rhythm, tempo and general feel in the first Act. The part is also played subtly on the piano as you can see in the image above about melody but doubling it with an added texture makes the part just a little bit more interesting. For those not clued into the wonderful world of complicated music theory, the part above is basically, a note every half a bar, in the time signature of 3/4.

An interesting timbre - Retro Synth Arpeggio

Recently, I discovered the Retro Synth in Logic Pro X and I love it. So, again, I am using it on this track. The part is playing an arpeggio of the chords/scale that I am using on this track but has small alterations at the end of every 4 bar passage.

The image above has automation every 4th bar, which simply changes the timbre of the sound to make the parts particular sonic quality stand out every 4 bars. 

Sub Bass Booms

While I was doing some of my 'research' I experimented with creating my own custom Trailer Hits. Trailer Hits are usually bought as a library of samples, or a bespoke library of trailer hits. Trailer Hits are sometimes a relatively thin sound, sometimes they're a full frequency sound. 

As you can see from the image above, I took a relatively small/thin sample from my Spitfire Audio Albion One Library, specifically their Easter Island boom, which is a low-bass/sub-bass heavy sound. These patches from Spitfire are rather demanding on the CPU of any computer, never mind my trusty MacBook Pro, so I bounced it down to an audio region, instead of playing a frozen, or even non-frozen MIDI region.

I have the booms, at least in Act One, on their own. The frequency Spectrum is covered for the most part but there are only one or two elements in any particular frequency range, at least this early in the track and Sub-Bass Boom's are enough to create the desired impact at this point.

I have the booms spaced every 8 bars for two reasons. These are the optimal points for impact in a roughly 32 bar Act and any more frequently would create too much mud within the mix as the sounds are very wide, even though they're only being used for a specific frequency area at this point. Sounds complicated but trust me, less is more sometimes. 

Viola Shorts

The Viola Shorts, or rather more specifically, the Spicattos, are doubling the rhythmic arpeggio that the Retro Synth has carried. The reason I have the Violas double the part is for texture and for layering. 
Initially, the Violas come in quietly, gently layering themselves on top of the Retro Synth part that does not change. The Violas come in 8 bars into the track, raise in volume and expressiveness for a further 8 bars and finally come fully into the mix for the latter 16 bars of this Act. 
This subtle layering effect adds character to the part, another dynamic level and allows me to bring in extra colours to the palette without crowding the mix or indeed, using unusual instrumentation choices.

N.B. A final note about the Spic Violas is that the notes themselves are exactly half the length of those from the Retro Synth part. This does not effect the composition of the part, as they are still functionally the same, but the shorter note values make the Spic's sound more realistic, as a note played spiccato is much shorter than that of a staccato note, which means the spacing between the notes needs to be longer and the length of the notes needs to be shorter. This also helps the MIDI region play a more realistic sound, triggering MIDI on/off messages at a more realistic speed.

Percussion

A criticism of my music thus far, at least from myself, is my poor usage of the percussion section. This is something I need to improve and it is something I will improve. Not only do I need to intelligently utilize the frequency spectrum when I want to make a particular impact but I also need to use more interesting rhythms, with variation, so they don't become too repetitive.

The image above shows two groups of notes. The lower octave notes (in the MIDI region, the notes lower down vertically are lower in octave) are the accents of the rhythm. The notes above, (vertically higher in the MIDI region) are brushes and sticks playing on the off-notes, the notes between the accents, creating a particular rhythm. They also serve to fill in some of the higher frequency spectrum as that is where the sticks and brushes naturally sit.

N.B. An important note about the percussion section and something that you can actually see the image above and my above explanation is that lower frequency notes, especially boomier sounding notes/parts, should not be played with fast rhythms. If you used a Sub Bass Boom playing 16th notes for even a single bar, the mix would get extremely muddy, as the low-mid frequencies of the part would start to blend, both with the ambience of the recording and the reverb, natural or digital.
Alternatively, the brushes and sticks, for example, can more comfortably be relied upon to play faster rhythms, because their frequency ranges are technically thinner/smaller and therefore muddy the mix far less. 

So this is what 'Life After Death' looks like so far. As the keen-eyed among you may have noticed, there is already more to come. This is part one of a series (again) and I hope you'll stick with me through this tracks conception and execution. Please like and share this post, so others can see what I am up to and maybe learn and share some skills.