You Bought This – Ray Toler

After finishing and posting 39 Again, I ate dinner and had time to get started on the next track. I’m not quite yet at my desired “I’m a day ahead” schedule, where I finish the track in the evening and then polish and post it the next morning, but I at least have time to get the idea formed and basic stuff done. That speeds up the process and takes away some stress.

I had no idea which genre would be next. Two nights ago. While taking a shower after finishing Set Who You Are, I had a melody idea that I put down, so I opened that up and started playing with it. It’s got potential, so I’m sure it will show up at some point this month, but I think it’s most likely an instrumental. Or maybe not… I don’t know. It needs to marinate in my unconscious mind for awhile. After 30-45 minutes of playing with it, I set it aside and opened a new project.

You Bought This Ray Toler 3:31

Stealing from Chaos

Over the last couple of years, I’ve had a playlist on my phone called “Random Finds.” When I’m watching a TV show or movie, or hanging out with friends, and hear something that I like or find interesting, I hit a shortcut on my phone that identifies the song and adds it to the list. It’s a wonderfully eclectic collection.¹

Looking for inspiration, I started shuffling through the list until something grabbed me. I won’t say which song it was, because it’s actually not that important. I’ve found that when I’m trying to ~~steal~~ learn from someone else’s song or production style, my lack of technique or knowledge coupled with my own preferences and creative direction make it end up as something very different. As a “copy” of my inspiration track, I’d call it mediocre. As its own thing, though, I’m very pleased with what showed up!

This brings me to a quote that I don’t think I’ve noted in my blog yet.² “If you want to sound like your favorite artists, don’t listen to them, listen to who they listened to.” The reason this is true is because your favorite artist once tried to copy his or her favorite artists, and didn’t succeed for the same reasons I didn’t.

My inspiration track had two rappers in it. Sigh. I’m not a rapper. But I really liked how much dance production was being done to the rap and figured I could work something out. I started writing lyrics in a similar rhythmic pattern and found that they were pretty fun to do. I matched the tempo and started building my own beat and bass line.

While going through the shuffle playlist, I also listened to some specific dance tracks³ that I love, just to pay close attention either to arrangement or hooks. I Like That, in particular, made me think about how the dance tracks that seem to really pop have a very simple hook. I played around with a couple of things but kept writing some form of “I like that” until I finished the first verse and realized what the hook had to be.

The bass I wanted needed that hollow sound that you get from a PVC pipe. I know a lot of synths can do this, but Chromaphone was the one that I figured would be closest with the least work. I found the one you hear and it was close, but I made some tweaks and then added another filter that gave it some additional bite.

I worked out most of the rest of the lyrics and then spent an hour just repeatedly practicing the stanzas, making small tweaks and rearrangements, and thinking about what and how much to add musically. I shut everything down around midnight.

Manipulation

After the morning routine and dog park, I added two synth parts to the bass line and hit the point where the actual work starts. I brought the beat samples in, worked out the formal arrangement, and recorded my vocals.

Did I mention I’m not a rapper? I had ended up with a very monotone delivery, which I personally liked, but which sounded pretty thin when listening back. In the same way that I always end up trying to sound like Chuck D when singing along to heavy rap, I always end up sounding like MC 900 Foot Jesus when doing this type of thing. I knew I was going to be doing major effects to certain words and drops, so started digging through the toolbox.

The star of this show is absolutely Manipulator by Polyverse Music. Lots of pitch and formant shifting, MIDI control… I didn’t go deep into automating things, but I did decide to give each verse and the hook a different sound to provide some variety. If I were going to commercially release this, I’d do a lot more precise surgery.

Once the voices were set, things were really close to being finished, but it needed just a little bit more oomph or… something. At this point, I had the main bass, a Reese bass⁴ that’s sitting really softly under the main bass (you probably can’t actively hear it, but you’d notice if it were taken out), and a hoover synth. I found another buzzy rave synth sound in Hive2 that expanded the hoover but was just different enough, then played it in different octaves so that things moved around. You may notice that the double-hits in all of the parts aren’t consistent, and that was intentional. I like the semi-random nature of it, and the fact that all of the parts are different provides more movement, especially with the parts panned slightly.

Sometimes I accidentally finish something. While looking for the next thing I needed to do, I realized that I had reached the cliff of diminishing returns. The track bounced nicely and I couldn’t think of anything specifically lacking. I recorded it, posted it, and took Olive for a walk.

Revising the Past

It’s amazing how you can be working on something for hours and completely miss the obvious. While listening to the track on our walk, I heard a couplet where I had missed an obvious rhyme and line. Like, slap you in the face obvious.

I’m pretty committed to leaving my Song-A-Day tracks alone once they’re posted. There are mistakes and things that I change later, but having that official record is important. As an example, I need to remix FAFO, and I’ve figured out how to “fix” Keep My Head Down, but what I did in the moment is important to remember. The one time I will replace the track on the site is if there’s an obvious technical error (a track was muted, there’s a glitch), I didn’t realize the mix was unworkable (mostly the vocal being way too loud or soft, or something distorting unintentionally), or, and this is the most subjective one, I’ve thought of something that, if it isn’t changed, will bug the ever-loving crap out of me for the rest of time.

I’ve already called one mulligan this month, adding the high harmony part to 39 Again, but I didn’t take the opportunity to make the guitars or lead vocal better. It just had to have that harmony.

This time, it was this one obvious line, and I’m going to air my dirty laundry: in the first stanza of the second verse, it originally said “I’ve been making you pay for what you own” but changing that to “making you pay for winning” is soooo much stronger. First, it rhymes with “beginning” and second, it’s a much broader statement. I had already started singing it that way on the walk, so I knew it was going to get replaced. I just couldn’t leave it.

Aaaaaaaaand, when I did that I noticed that I had originally started with an 808 kick that I forgot about. On a whim, I added it in and arranged it, then mixed it in under the kick and it really worked nicely, especially after putting it through a Distressor clone plugin. The original kick on its own was fine, but a little thin, and this type of track has to bump. The original kick is what you hear, while the 808 is what you feel. The final tweak was to add some panning to the two claps and give a little more motion. Oh, and let’s add that ping pong delay to the hook.

Now it’s finished.⁵ Until I really dig into it in the future…

Lyrics

I've been making my own decisions
I've been busy and making plans
I've been sowing oats and floating notes
And making you think you're fans

I've been asking all the right questions
I've been watching what you've enshrined
I've been watching your indiscretions
It's too late you've been assigned

You've been watching all the distractions
You've been thinking you know what's what
You've been wrong about the infractions
It's too late you're getting cut

You've been making the wrong decisions
You've been taken for a ride
You've been begging for supervision
While you think I'm on your side

You made this
You want this
You gave this
You taught this
You wished this
You took this
You blessed this
You bought this

I've been planning from the beginning
I've hiding this right in sight
I've been making you pay for winning
And working all through the night 

I've been working on your replacement
I've been getting your butt in line
I've been hiding things in the basement
Things that you will never find

You've been looking in the wrong direction
You've been writing a blank check
You've been making the wrong corrections
Cause you're blinded by the tech

You've been wanting a different story
You've been wanting to write the end
You've been thinking in allegory
You've been thinking that I'm your friend

You made this
You want this
You gave this
You taught this
You wished this
You took this
You blessed this
You bought this

I've been giving the wrong impression
I've been keeping you misinformed
I've been making a fake concession
I've been bringing you to the storm

I've been watching you playing checkers
I've been watching me playing chess
I've been laughing at how you love me
While I create the unrest

You've been giving me all your power
You've been giving me everything
You've been willing to sacrifice the future
For a little bling


You've been ready to believe me
You've been happy to be fooled
You've been turning on your neighbors and
You're ready to be ruled

You made this
You want this
You gave this
You taught this
You wished this
You took this
You blessed this
You bought this

Colophon

Instruments & Samples

Chromaphone 3, Curve 2, Hive2, XO, Chop Suey

Effects, Mixing, & Mastering

Polyverse Manipulator & Filterverse, PanMan, FabFilter, Valhalla, UAD ATR-102, Kiive Xtressor

Notes

1
Which would most likely make people think very differently of me if they went through it.
2
Maybe I have, but I bet you haven’t read that post if I did, so there’s no harm.
3
Flat Beat, I Like That, Perfect Exceeder
4
1. Take two sawtooth waves. 2. Detune them. 3. Profit!
5
But is it really finished? Tommy taught me that.