Assignment: Create a piece of music that uses stereo output
Idea and Process
I decided to start using Ableton Live for this assignment after years of working in Logic Pro. Although switching DAWs is not like starting from scratch with a new instrument, it still takes time to get up to speed with the logic (no pun intended) of the new software. Not only do you need to re-discover where the features you’re used to are located, but build an intuition for what the new software’s opinion of music-making and workflow is. Especially for these first few days of working in Ableton, I feel like — and will continue to feel like— a beginner again.
I started playing violin when I was 3. I took lessons with teachers who followed the Suzuki method; an opinionated approach to teaching music that emphasized learning through playing by ear. Reading music could come later — training the ear to hear music and repeat was more important, just like the early days of learning a spoken language. I would go to group lessons, stand with a bunch of other kids with my violin and repeat notes over and over, focusing on bow technique, then pitch, then phrases, until eventually I could play songs.
Around the same time as I was learning to play violin in the early 90s, my older brother (also a violinist) was listening to a lot of New York rap when we weren’t practicing classical music. The Wu-Tang Clan was at their peak, and their prodigal producer, the GZA, released Liquid Swords. I knew a lot of the lyrics, even if I didn’t know the meaning, of the eponymous title track off of the album; it’s remained one of my favorite + most-quoted songs of all time.
For this assignment, I wanted to start the process of switching to Ableton, knowing full well that it might not be pretty initially. I will likely use Ableton as we move to exploring 4+ channel output, so I wanted to start to develop a workflow to work in stereo-and-beyond.
I chose to sample audio from a Suzuki lesson during which Suzuki instructs kids on the bow motion needed to play Jingle Bells. I also took the drums from the end Liquid Swords; in typical early-90s fashion, it’s repetitive and only really has a kick and snare. Working with these samples is a reminder that it’s going to take some time to have my output sound the way I want it to; I need to practice + have patience.
I focused on learning how sampling works in Ableton. I chopped the audio from Suzuki and Liquid Swords and mapped it to my MIDI controller; it’s easier to do and more fully-featured than in Logic. I played with random panning and spread on the Suzuki vocal samples, two features that are immediately accessible in the sampler, but would have taken work to access in Logic. I was also easily able to take the violin samples and map them to a scale using the transpose pitch feature.
I also started to work with the EQ effects. I know I have a lot of work to do to make the mix sound good, but I started by trying to place the drums, violin samples, and vocals in different parts of the stereo mix. I then used the EQ effect to cut or boost different parts of the frequency spectrum for each of the sounds. I also created a mid-pass filter at the beginning to create some contrast on the drums/violins/vocals before the beat really comes in. The EQing could use a lot of work — I’d love to get some tips in class for how to approach EQing.
Ultimately, I wanted to create a groove that you could bop your head to and maybe even have a friend freestyle on, while trying to get sounds to have a clear sense of place within the space inside the mix. The violins were meant to gradually get more spacious and disoriented as I applied more echo/reverb. I’m not sure it fully succeeded in any of these goals: the piece has a bit of motion as different drums come in, but could stand to have a bit more variation, and could definitely have a cleaner placement of sounds. The violin volume levels aren’t quite right yet. I’m still happy with getting off the ground and making something I can build off of. Looking forward to spending some nights getting lost in learning Ableton and getting better at production!