Photo by Mink Mingle on Unsplash
i am a sucker for lullabies.
on my quest for my daily sample i found this really warm and smooth piano that seems perfect for a lo-fi track. after playing with it a little, it seems i'm facing a somewhat frequent occurrence; a blockade, if you will -- one wants to create but can't, the mind simply won't go to that place of creative flow on its own.
i already cut the sample and even found a cool beat that sounds really nice in a loop together with the piano, but it's not at all a song. and my mind doesn't seem to work its way around it.
what now?
well... first, i keep going. giving up is certainly not going to get anything accomplished. to help me do this i like to lay the track in ableton's arrangement view like in the image above, but i also try to look at it and imagine a body for it in my head, like shown below.
this is just an example to illustrate what i am thinking, which is something i believe helps in developing things beyond the "stuck in the loop" point. but of course, nothing is set in stone when it comes to the final body. it's likely going to look different in the end.
i've also added a bass track that was not assigned previously, with the intention of now trying to freestyle a little over the loop. i hope it will help me find something i can work with. i'll start with the bass, but i may turn to other sounds if nothing comes up.
(fast forward a couple of hours)
i've been interrupted a few times since i've started, but i did manage to lay down a little bass line, and then added a rhodes piano on top. i've also added an intro and small outro section.
after some playing around with it, it now looks like this. in all honesty, i would have expected to have worked harder to break the blockade.
i'm pretty happy with how it sounds, considering this is (again) just for practice and to help break the blockade i was feeling. i will consider this more or less finished from the instrumental point of view, now.
the next step is then to add effects and fine tune the sound on each of the tracks. let's start with the drums. since this is a lofi track i've added a flutter effect to the drums, that emulates as if the sound was being played from a tape.
i also wanted the piano to sound as if it was being played from an old record player, so i've added a similar tape effect that provides a little more noise to the sound.
for the bass i just added an amplifier to bring out the warmth and sub frequencies. this one's actually somewhat of a staple, when it comes to my processes.
lastly, the rhodes. i didn't want to ruin the little warmth it has, so i used a phaser/chorus and used it very mildly. i've also panned the track 70% to the right, so it feels it's coming from one of the sides in the room.
and sadly, that has to be it for today. i unfortunately have work to do and this takes more time than i wish it did.
i don't know about you guys, but here where i am the weather's rainy and cold, which perhaps makes it a fitting time for this one to be playing. i'm happy with it as is as it helped me break the blockade for the day :)
Boring Stuff
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