Song-A-Day

Random Strudels

I bought a new tool. Yes, I buy a lot of tools, and most of them end up gathering digital dust when the newness wears off. In this case, though, I think I may have stumbled upon something that not only isn’t available in any of my other tools, but goes so far beyond what I expect that it could fundamentally change how I write certain tracks. The tool is called Stepic, and it’s a step sequencer. Here’s where it gets fun. Step sequencers aren’t new. They go back to the very beginnings of electronic music and are, in general, … Continue reading

I Don’t Remember

After a bit of faffing about, I wasn’t getting any traction and decided to pull out the “inspiration bag of tricks” box. Modern software like Scaler and other “AI” type tools has provided a lot of ways to avoid needing any sort of formal music training or theory. I have basic to intermediate theory, but most of what I do is instinctual. It’s actually very similar to my command of the English language. I learned the formal rules a long time ago, but wouldn’t be able to diagram a sentence these days. I know when grammar is correct, though, because … Continue reading

Don’t Look (Remain Idle Cover)

Cover day. Sigh. I’ve written about my angst surrounding cover day before, so I won’t repeat myself for once. This year, I had my favorite candidate from the day it first appeared and while several other fantastic possibilities appeared during the month, nothing ever knocked this song out of my top spot. The trouble this time is that not only did I know I’d be doing a more involved production than the original, but I personally know the people who wrote it. They’re family-by-marriage, and that can be a delicate thing. They’re also relatively new to Song-A-Day and I’m the … Continue reading

Infiltration

This piece started off largely as an attempt to come up with a dance, techno, or drum-and-bass type of track, which it still sort of is, but clearly pivoted mid-journey to become another visually-inpired bit of underscore. Instead of the juxtaposition of a slow, forboding piece of music against images of destruction I had in yesterday’s track, Infiltration is pretty on-the-nose, at least when you take the title as a literal description. I started this one with drums. I used a factory preset in XO, but started playing around with replacing the default sounds. In particular, I replaced a jazzy … Continue reading

Demonstration of Will

After the last couple of Lo-Fi days, I had both the energy and desire to go back to something more cinematic and orchestral. After some positive feedback from other participants on similar tracks earlier in the month, I was starting to wonder if maybe I had the beginnings of another thematically linked set of pieces that might be worth putting together as an album, a demo reel, interesting videos, etc. This isn’t a complex piece, but it’s good for underscore. I don’t remember if the drums came first or the opening … Continue reading