ckmusic

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Start Point

I started this piece of work from the background chords. I found these chords when I was on my way to campus one day. After getting back to my room, I collected them with my Stratocaster, and recorded them in the Logic Pro X. I made it a loop, and decided to use it as my main background music. It is basically a 2-5-1-6 chords loop, but I find them really interesting. It gives me a peaceful and quiet feeling first, and then turn to some sad feeling. This is similar to the experience of taking planes, with expectations of the arrival and new life, also with the sorrow of leaving and farewell. So that is the reason I want to create this piece of work to show the feeling of taking night flights.

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Beats and several small rhythm components

I created the main beats using the drum machine in the Logic Pro X. To create a feeling of free and swinging, some beats are not precisely on the quarter note. I also left some pauses between bars to give a breath, and filled the blank spaces with snaps to make it sounds natural.It is worth mentioning that I added several interesting small rhythm components, such as snaps, men’s ‘hey’, and piano taps. The purpose of adding these components is to create a peaceful phenomenon that gives audiences an illusion of taking a night flight across the ocean. Another function of them is to link up each part of the music, making it not so abrupt. 

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Guitar Solo and Choirs

I improvised the guitar solo and recorded it with my Stratocaster and Focusrite Solo. It took me a long time to adjust the sound of the guitar. The original sound of my guitar is boring, but it turned out to be attractive after I put several effects on it. I recorded different parts of the choirs using my Yeti Nano microphone. The choirs in my music were made up of low, mid and high parts. It was a hard job to have them work harmoniously. I recorded them many times and it worked at last.

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Problems and Solutions

I got problems when I was doing the mixing. When I put them together, they were in a mess. I realised that the volume of each part should be adjusted. However, the problem was, I needed to adjust volume within each part, especially the choirs. I was confused about how to change the volume of several seconds in a fragment. My solution was using Automation. This tool allowed me to divide any part of the volume as I wanted it to be. I used Automation all through my work, to get my music more dynamic.

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Assignment of MUSC2653.