The first track in My Portfolio is my first real attempt at going outside of my comfort zone. I normally write metal or punk songs, and this is a good first attempt at trying to do something different. I was trying to go for a sound in the style of classic 16-Bit era games and producing a modern sound out of it. I can see this piece being in place of a main menu theme or first world track at first, and then the second half of being part of the end credits or a track that plays before a certain boss battle. Being a bass player, I wanted to put a focus on the bass and melody as these were also emphasized then too.

 

Starting out, the track has a 4/4 tempo with a structure of intro, verse, break, verse 2 with a sudden end to top it off. For the rhythm tracks I chose a Portland drum kit and a Taureg Moon Bass for the synth. The Taureg was the closest that I could get to a retro synth sound that I liked. The Portland drum kit wasn't too harsh and sounded punchy for what I was going for. I wanted to also make it have a upbeat pattern throughout that still gives it the same vibes throughout.

 

Next, the tempo for the track is 110 BPM in the Key of C Major which then changes to A minor for the second half. The chord progression is a I vi IV V (C|Am|F|G) for the first half, and the second half has a V III V vi viio (Em|C|Em|F|G) chord progression. With the first half’s chord progression, I wanted to use a well-known structure that could be hummed along with and that is catchy. For the second half, I experimented on different chord progressions before I chose a rising structure that sounded good with what I was working with. I used an arpeggiator with the Jazz Organ B3 Piano to create the melody. I created a rising melody for the song, and I like the emotion it gives off throughout on both parts. I felt this paired well with the bass to make it sound pleasant and enjoyable.

 

For the audio tracks, I used a couple Apple loops and recorded myself doing some claps for the start of the second half. Track 14 is a Fat Maracas Apple loop at the beginning of the song that act a percussion tool, and track 13 uses the Communication Static apple loop to transition the song from major to minor key. It took me a couple tries to get the right sound for the clapping, but I feel this was my best take in the song. The synth tracks that I have set in place in the second half, serve as enhancers for the kick track and the harmony parts that come in on the bass between measures 24 and 30. The rhythm synth, which is track 11, fattens up the kick drum and the harmony synth on track 10 give emotion on the 4 bass parts that come in that help the main harmony. I used ESP synths for both parts with the white noise slider maxed out for the rhythm and a mix of triangle and rectangle parameters to achieve the sounds I got. I decided to sample my stingray bass on track 12 with the Q-Sampler to give extra low end to the bass track in the second half and I wanted to blend them both together to produce something different.

 

And lastly, the processing that was used in this was a noise gate, compressors, stereo delays, and reverbs to help piece everything together. I used a hard floor noise cut preset from the noise gate with a compressor on the audio track to cut out unwanted noise and to make it not sound thin. I added the stereo delay and a reflective hall reverb to the melody and harmony synth to make it lively and room to breathe. I added a compressor to everything except the harmony and rhythm synths, bass track, and apple loops. I did this to smooth out any rough edges that come about and have an easier time mixing and mastering.