This piece was originally written as an electronic composition. It was inspired by listening to some British SynthWave artists. I originally liked the darker, down-tempo feel and bass line but later wanted to push myself to take the piece in a different direction, replacing the drums, bass, and beginning melody with more traditional instruments. I think changing the instrumentation makes it more palatable to a broader audience. 

 

For the rhythm section, I initially started with a Vintage Machines electronic kit and a Big Saw Synth Bass with a basic 4/4 meter with the tempo set down in the low 90s for the BPM. After changing the instruments from electronic to acoustic, I needed to bump the tempo up to about 102 BPM to make the drums and bass groove a little more. I wanted the drums to be bright and have a bit of a natural reverb, not crunchy. I also wanted the bass to still sound a little damp but not muted.  

 

This composition and the original were written in the key of G minor. I chose a iv, v, i, VII for the first section and then borrowed the IV chord from the parallel key of G Major to create contrast and a more dominant feel as the melody enters.  I changed the key to F major for the beginning of the second part of the piece to build on that triumphant feel and after the second melody went back to G minor to resolve the song as one complete piece. I used rising and falling arch melodies to keep the feel of the overall piece consistent. 

 

In addition to the main harmony and melody parts, I wanted to add more depth by adding a live recorded guitar and tambourine track and modeled an extra synth pad using an ES Polyphonic synth that begins after the first melody to increase the feeling of the build on track 13. I also created a second ES Poly synth on track 15 to create the plucked melody in the second half of the song. Finally, I recorded another live guitar sound as a harmonic and imported it into the EXS24 sampler on the 16thtrack. I changed the original sound by raising and lowering the cutoff and frequencies, adding overdrive, and changing the envelope filters. That sound seemed a little like a harp and is used to tie the beginning and end of the song together. 

 

During the mix down process, I added an EQ and compression to all the tracks and panned them to create space in the mix. I added a minimal amount of chorus to the bass track to thicken it up and added reverb to the drums, guitar, and main melody parts to create a sense of live presence to them. I found the compression makes each part stand out on its own. I did not add a noise gate to the guitar track because I wanted it to sound natural as if you were listening to it live.