Lou Reents

Inspiration

​

My general preferences in music are for the more complex genres such as progressive ‘70s Rock (Yes, Camel, ELP) and Jazz and Jazz / Rock Fusion (Pat Metheny, Frank Zappa, Jean Luc Ponty). I look for guitar, bass and keyboards that have been massaged with effects, although not so much pure Synth effects.

 

The music example in the MP3 file linked above tries to touch on some of these aspects (to the extent of my experience with these instruments and modern DAWs and effects). I want to create music that takes the listener on a journey and relays some message of emotion to them, that they can take with them.

 

Rhythm / Bass

 

The music example above was done at 120 BPM and was a basic backbeat-based rhythm. I tried to keep the drums (Kick, Snare and High Hat) simple and used the Bass to bridge between the drum pattern and chord pattern in the Harmony. I simplified the drums in the second part of the song (Bars 17 - 32) so as not to complete with Harmony and Melody / Lead ideas that I wanted to emphasize in the second part of the song.

 

Harmony / Melody

 

The music example was performed on  the key of A minor, based on shorter, previous work I had done (not linked) here.

 

The melodic shape chord progression for the linked music example were: 

 

First Harmony (bars 1 - 16)

 

| Am | Em | F | Dm | Am | Dm | F | Em | Am | Em | F | Dm | Am | Dm | F | Em | 

 

Second Harmony (bars 17 - 32):

 

| Am | Bº | C | Dm | Em | F | Em | F | F | Em | F | Em | Dm | C | Bº | Am |

 

The combination of the Harmony and Melody / Lead for bars 17 - 32 is meant to take the listener on a journey up to a summit, spending a few moments at the top and then stepping them back down to where they started (Am to F to Am). 

 

The other musical forms and techniques that I used to support and enhance the Harmony and Melody/Lead are described below.

 

Recording / Synth / Sampler

 

I introduced several other tracks to help shape my song around the Harmony / Melody / Lead.

​

​

​

​

 

I added several Apple Loop vocals to compliment the ramp up and ramp down of the piece. It also added a more “human” touch to a mostly instrumental piece.

 

I introduced the use of an Ibanez Artcore acoustic-electric guitar mic’ed through a Blackstar Stereo 10 V2 amp and a track for recorded chimes (from a souvenir picked up on a vacation) to add my personal touch to this piece. This was an experience for me as it was my first foray into live recording of myself. These instruments were brought in as  recorded Audio tracks; Audio (Acoustic Guitar) and Audio (Chimes)

 

I used an Alchemy synth (Super Saw Inferno) on the Harmony / Chords and Melody / Lead (Super Saw Inferno) tracks. I also used an Alchemy synth (Analog Stack Synth) on Melody / Lead (Analog Stack Synth) track.

 

I used a RetroSynth synthesizer track (Harmony Support (MySynth), to compliment the Harmony / Chords (over the entire selection). The RetroSynth, as configured, adds a nice accent to the start of each Harmony chord.

 

I also used a Q-Sampler sampler on track Melody / Lead MySampler using a sample note copied in from the Audio (Chimes) track. I wanted to be able to apply the sound of the Chimes across the Melody / Lead tracks as the chimes themselves were not tuned to A minor so the chime note progression did not match the A minor scale which the Melody / Lead as based upon. By seeding the sampler with a single tone from the Chime, I could get affect I wanted across the music written in A minor.

 

Processing

 

I was able apply extensive use of effects, to help solidify the overall piece:

 

Dynamic Effects:

 

I adjusted Channel EQ on the Bass and Harmony / Chords tracks to improve sound clarity.

 

I added Channel EQ to Audio (Chimes) track to bring up tones.

 

I added Channel EQ and the Amp effects to Audio (Acoustic Guitar) track to improve sound quality and offset poor microphone pickup.

 

Time-based Effects:

 

I added a Chorus effect (Bus 20 - My Chorus) to the Melody / Lead (MySampler) track to bring out the initial sound of each note so they better complemented the notes in the Melody / Lead (Analog Stack Synth) track.

 

I also added a Chorus effect (Bus 23 - My Vocals Chorus) to the vocal tracks (Apple loops) so they would better blend into the background of the composition. I wanted the human touch of the vocals, but only as a complement to the feeling / emotion that I was trying to create in the second half (bars 17 - 32) of the Harmony / Melody / Lead tracks.

​

I hope you will take the time to listen the musical selection I have linked above and I hope that you experience the feelings I was trying to create. 

​

Please watch this site for additional music examples as I continue to development my technical and musical skills. 

​

Thanks,

Lou

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

​