The jazzy foxtrot is mastered and ready to go! Sadly it will never see the light of day it’s mostly made up of proprietary loops, and the one track I composed myself is a terrible-sounding saxophone. Oh well, still good practice.
Speaking of practice, I’ve figured out a faster way to create harmonies when designing tracks.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I don’t have any formal music training. I do have a pretty good ear for song structure, and I’m gradually growing familiar with where notes might fit to create harmonies.
What gives me trouble is hearing those notes/harmonies when working with heavily processed synths. EDM music interests me the most right now, but putting together a lead track is pretty tough when it has tons of reverb, or fuzz, or whatever.
So now, I start with an instrument that’s cleaner – usually the Steinway Grand Piano. I compose my note structure, then put the whole thing on loop while switching through different synths until I hear the one that sounds best.
If I’d started with the synth, I’d be a lot more likely to accidentally put a note or two out of place, because I couldn’t quite tell if it was a B sharp or B flat (just kidding – I have no idea what either of those sound like).
Now that the foxtrot is done, I can put all my energy into making more of these loops, then I’ll gradually assemble them into complete mixes. I’ll let you know as I come up with other ideas on the way.