Full transcript
0:00when I say zenonesque
0:05composition what I mean
0:08is a specific kind of zenonesque because
0:12let's be honest Zen Zenon records is
0:15quite a big label now and there's a lot
0:17of different artists with
0:19varying uh interpretations of what they
0:22think of as Z on style or dark
0:27Progressive uh my take on it is pretty
0:32heavily inspired by the
0:36original uh senent vibes
0:39from around
0:422005 era and a bit before and a bit
0:46after which was actually quite
0:48sample-based
0:49uh sensient excels at arranging
0:54samples um every sound seems to be in
0:57its perfect place and the way that they
1:01progress progressively appear in in the
1:04structure is
1:06really quite skillful talented
1:10and I love
1:12it so my style was influenced partially
1:17by seni other artists as well including
1:20outside of Zenon on Zenon records style
1:22and outside of progressive even but I
1:25won't get into that
1:28now I I guess I could just say that it
1:31was fullon music or 145
1:34BPM music that wasn't
1:37Progressive um that also inspired
1:40me and then I ended up fusing
1:44together the composition style that I
1:47was inspired by with Zenon with these
1:50other sub genres of
1:53Sr over the years I I really started to
1:56embrace more the repetitive aspects of
1:59of
2:01uh the tracks
2:04potential I
2:07mean what am I trying to say
2:10uh as the years went on I embraced more
2:15repetition
2:16in in the form of smaller Loops than I
2:20used to in the
2:21beginning and then now I see this
2:24combination of smaller
2:28Loops like small I mean like one bar or
2:31four
2:32bars combined with eight bar 16 Bar and
2:3732 and sometimes even 64 bar
2:40loops
2:41and the short Loops are more engaging
2:46for the body and the long Loops are more
2:49engaging for the mind that's the way I
2:51see it and having a bit
2:55of everything in terms of length of
2:58Loops I I think is a great way to
3:03approach composition for Zenon style or
3:06Progressive
3:07citr so let's get into
3:15it I'm just going to
3:17find a kicking
3:19base now let's just go
3:22here got bases
3:33additive sign Bas in
3:36C let's
3:38try this one
3:47instead that's 128 I don't want to go
3:50that slow I want to be in the sort of
3:52mid
3:56130s 127
4:01132 that could
4:11work yeah I'm going to go with
4:19that and then there should be a
4:22kick in there that is designed to go
4:26with that
4:37make a little kick Bas group
4:43here put up the
4:51top might go full screen here to get the
4:55most of this screen real estate
5:09get rid of that for the moment just just
5:11test this
5:14out we want to be at what was it
5:20132
5:25yeah now there's a fade on there I do
5:28not want the fade
5:31it's getting rid of my nice lovely click
5:34that I so
5:36tily
5:38tiresomely
5:40created there we
5:52go
5:54cool make a few of
5:57those Maybe 16 bars
6:08worth actually we'll go eight and
6:12then I'll consolidate one of
6:20them all
6:23right now I want to make a simple
6:27intro so that it motivates me
6:30and gets me excited for the drop of bar
6:3317 so filter
6:40time I'm not going to worry about doing
6:42anything fancy because I really just
6:44want to get a simple intro in I think an
6:47a simple intro is better than no intro
6:49because it sets me out for the journey
6:51to
6:52come and gets me motivated to work on
6:55the track
7:14[Music]
7:17and then I'm just going to do a
7:19little short break here
7:46okay so what was I
7:52doing all right I'm just going to make a
7:54little drum feel here just to make
7:57things sound interesting and engaging
8:00[Music]
8:15why is this automatic
8:16fade
8:23happening where else is that
8:26happening all right this is Def
8:29definitely going to be
8:32C
8:34automation keyboard
8:39shortcut I need these Auto Fades off
8:42they're pissing me
8:43off in bit we you can just search for
8:47any
8:48function and it comes up you don't have
8:50to remember where it
8:54is get used to me complaining about the
8:57differences of able to compared to
8:59moving the bitwig but I'm using Ableton
9:02because I'm thinking of you guys and
9:05most of you use
9:17Ableton there is
9:20it come back to that later
9:24[Music]
9:34remember that shortcut e or split clip
9:39command
9:41e uh all right so what do I want to do
9:44here I want
9:46to split
9:49that I want to
9:51split that there make a
9:54copy and then I want a 30C note version
9:58of it
10:01there and I think I want a short one
10:04here as
10:08well
10:10fade fade
10:15fade like
10:20this and should sound something like
10:22this
10:31[Music]
10:53[ __ ] fights man
11:02I think that'll
11:04do consolidate and fade
11:14in something like
11:19that
11:25okay why doesn't that change all the
11:27clips as well why do I have to do that
11:36manually
11:48okay
11:52now I
11:56one that was kind of cool there actually
12:15I like the sound of
12:23that all right so what I'm going to do
12:27is so we've got a
12:3016 Bar no a eight bar Loop
12:35there
12:37repeating but I'm going
12:39to create a 4 by Loop within it and I'm
12:42going to use it I'm going to use this
12:45part here to do that with cuz I
12:49think what I'll
12:52do is just copy
12:57this here
13:00put it there like this and so they're
13:03actually repeating four times but the
13:07first one and this third
13:10one maybe the second one as well the
13:12first second and
13:15third no the first and third are going
13:18to be just a shortened version of
13:21it
13:23so something like this
13:32let's try this
14:01yep I think that works
14:04but I'm going to fade them all
14:08in why didn't that do that to all of
14:11them that's what I wanted to do
14:18so let's do this
14:42yep that sounds a bit
14:48smoother that one didn't fade in though
14:51why
14:55not not
15:02oh
15:03[Music]
15:05Jesus did I forget I forgot to copy it
15:14there all right so I'm going to actually
15:16make this more
15:19repetitive for
15:25now like this
15:29I think a bit of extra repetition will
15:31work
15:39here and I'm going to put a Reverb on
15:43that with a automation of the wet dry
16:17yeah it's going to do something like
16:26that yep that works for me
16:31so now I'm going to select this
16:37duplicate
16:39copy
16:43paste
16:44yeah okay now I'm just going to Loop
16:47this for a bit
16:49now whilst I try some other samples
17:00collect all and
17:06save let's go back to my plugin uh my
17:11samples let's find some effects
17:29I want something longer like an
17:30atmospheric kind of thing
17:35[Music]
17:52[Music]
18:07I think that works just a a bit flat I
18:10might have to tune it up
18:36oh it's not that pitched actually
19:18yeah I think I liked it better from here
19:20because it seemed more in tune
19:25there I need to take some low end out of
19:27it so that I can really tell that it's
19:30not
19:31interfering that it won't be inter
19:33interfering with
19:34[Music]
19:38the
19:39um low end of the kick and paas
20:04I'm going to also take out
20:07the why can't I just drag
20:10that ah take out the
20:16uh low frequencies from the side
20:18information up to about 300
20:46I've just reversed this
20:48one I
20:55think let's make sure I did that I can't
20:58really tell
21:00so we're going to trim
21:02that option
21:06drag uh for
21:10reverse yep undo put it
21:15back and let's fade that
21:23in just a little bit and then I'm going
21:26to move this
21:31maybe across here because I think this
21:32first drop would be better off without
21:36the atmosphere for a bit of contrast at
21:40that moment
22:20be
22:27quiet going to consolidate those turn
22:31them
22:37up put some
22:45EQ
22:47e c
23:03whoa why does that sound different
23:05[Music]
23:09now sounded like a different
23:17pitch it's just probably my ears but I
23:19feel that that sounds flat now anyway
23:23how does that sound
23:25[Music]
23:30all right so we need to put this
23:36guy over here
23:39[Music]
23:55now yeah that's it sounds right to
24:02me I think there's a way to cross fade
24:05these
24:07more don't really quite
24:11understand ableton's cross
24:14fade how it
24:18works it's kind of
24:21weird just don't want to click there
24:24there we go okay cool now I'm going to
24:29consolidate that just keep things nice
24:32and
24:38organized okay now let's see what
24:42happens in my mind once we get to this
24:44moment I feel
24:46like I might feel like something
24:49percussive might go there or some sort
24:52of
24:53effect and then I'll go
24:56to my sample folder again
25:25[Music]
25:42here
25:43definitely let's see what happens if I
25:46go back to the samples see what we find
25:49I'm not too worried about specific
25:51sounds it's more about placement
25:53so
25:56uh let's see what we find uh I'm going
25:59to try a different effect uh sorry a
26:02different pack from March 2020 and we'll
26:06see what we come up with maybe some
26:11[Music]
26:22effects I like that it's atmospheric
26:25still which is going to add to the mood
26:30of the already kind of serious mood that
26:36the yellow
26:38soundscape gave us just going to mute
26:42that part for now I may or may not want
26:44it but let's go from the just before the
26:54drop just going to try and
26:58get this to be in a
27:01rhythmical
27:05[Music]
27:12position we just distorting
27:18[Music]
27:20then yes we're distorting there my bad
27:28these are all s these all these samples
27:30are actually
27:35uh normalized so they're all playing at
27:38full volume which is not good
27:41practice so I'm just going to turn down
27:44the master to keep things
27:47simple oops that
27:52one and I'll adjust the volume in the
27:55video editing software later
27:58maybe I can turn my voice back down a
28:00bit here just
28:11for okay so I didn't really like that
28:14that came in immediately sort of sounded
28:17a bit boring to come in
28:23immediately but I'm thinking maybe if I
28:26like started it here here and then put
28:29it on like an
28:32upbeat maybe the fourth upbeat 16th note
28:39upbeat and then maybe created like a
28:42reverse into that just to make it
28:44smoother and cooler
29:00and then maybe
29:02even actually it kind of
29:06works maybe I'll keep that for a little
29:10reverse sweep
29:11[Music]
29:13here yeah yeah that's cool that sort of
29:16introduces the
29:18sound sooner uh more sort of um not just
29:23sooner but
29:27[Music]
29:28in a way that makes it already sound
29:30familiar by the time that the accent
29:32happens
29:36here and then this little
29:38rhythmical thing as well it's kind of
29:41cool I'm thinking I
29:44might make this slightly
29:47more percussive
29:53here yeah
29:57[Music]
30:02and we're on 302nd notes we can probably
30:06put couple of these
30:10here like this and maybe it'll sound
30:13[Music]
30:16cool yep I like that and I'm I'm because
30:19that rhythm's there now I'm actually
30:21hearing another
30:23sound play after this accent in my mind
30:28it's like
30:29[Music]
30:31a uh so that would
30:34be here I believe if we on 16th noes
30:38yep so I'm going to find something
30:42percussive there like stabby
30:47maybe contrasting too don't want it to
30:50sound too similar to what's already
30:54happening maybe a base effect
31:00[Music]
31:09I actually
31:10like a few of those I'm
31:14thinking maybe this let's Loop it so we
31:17get a bit of an idea of what it does
31:28we're at a different Tempo with that one
31:31that's 138 that sample but we will deal
31:35with that in a
31:47second this is cool I don't mind that
31:50let's see what it sounds like from here
31:52and not looping
31:55[Music]
32:00yeah uh not bad just needs to be
32:04quantized sounds in
32:10key uh I just need to stretch or do
32:14something with
32:22this let's Loop this to
32:26get context
32:31[Music]
32:43should be able to warp that and stretch
32:46it out now shouldn't I maybe if I
32:51like um change
32:56the what is it you have to
33:00do to stretch that
33:04now no I want to unw
33:12it it kind of works actually maybe this
33:14one was
33:19what I reckon I
33:22can shift this
33:47[Music]
33:48I don't know if I'm doing this thing the
33:54most um what do you call it
33:58sensible way
34:01but I'm just getting in to doing what I
34:06would have
34:07done back in the day on logic pro
34:10actually I would have just done all this
34:13sort of stuff manually
34:16and
34:18uh synchronized
34:21things manually like I'm doing
34:25now uh
34:27[Music]
34:31probably not the best method but it
34:47works I could yeah see this is where I
34:50could let go of some Perfection maybe
34:54just um
34:58why isn't that letting
35:02me stuck
35:04to I always find myself indecisive about
35:09which mode to use here medium
35:12please there we
35:15go
35:18uh this one move that there move that
35:23there
35:39I like that that's
35:47[Music]
35:56cool so I'm I'm thinking you know how
35:59often do I want to repeat that I'm
36:02thinking like that often let's try
36:05it um but I'm also
36:10thinking
36:12um that I want two parts of
36:17it so I
36:20want that part and this part to
36:23be separate
36:28and then that
36:32way I can introduce one of them at a
36:35time maybe the green one
36:38first so let's
36:42say we copy it like this and then get
36:46rid
36:48of that one and that
36:54one and then duplicate that
36:59and also
37:00duplicate this as well so I want that to
37:04be Consolidated there and I want that to
37:07be Consolidated there so it's easy to
37:12grab I feel like I'm getting a bit of a
37:14flow now so let's put that up
37:19there and let's also put let's also put
37:23it let's put that on its own channel
37:28and get rid
37:30of
37:33these like this and then that way I can
37:36put
37:39that here as
37:42well and I'll just change that
37:47slightly oops get get those make them
37:52whatever color that was
37:58this coloring system is I wish I
38:02knew there was a shortcut for that or
38:05just to change them at the same
38:12[Music]
38:14time something's not
38:20right that's too often that's too
38:23often so get rid of that
38:41[Music]
38:50it's kind of working
39:01they're not in sync anymore what did I
39:03do
39:08wrong I have to fix that
39:30I might send the tail of this to a
39:32Reverb too just to get it to sort of
39:35trail out a
39:44bit I might even
39:48try making this a short version as
39:54well not sure yet
39:57let's just um do one thing at a time so
40:02all of this need to go it needs to go
40:06they're not quite synced
40:08so um let's try
40:23this that doesn't need to be there
40:26[Music]
40:34TR watch
40:42this oops that in the wrong spot
40:49so do want that
40:52there as well
40:57then that
40:59way so that's three and then we want one
41:04more here at the end then I should be
41:09able
41:10to do this duplicate and have some
41:16Contin continuity right through there
41:19let's make sure these are copied as well
41:27and I'm just going to let that p
41:32through whilst I go to the toilet
42:06[Music]
42:31[Music]
42:46while I was listening to that I
42:49built
42:52that uh
43:02this one this
43:04first this first one sort
43:08of uh shouldn't be
43:11there so I'm going to start it again and
43:14play through I think it it worked here
43:18it sounded nice there and I don't think
43:20it was necessary here it gives this
43:22green part gives a hint to it so I'm
43:25just going to start that from the
43:27beginning and try that again and in the
43:28meantime I'm also going to turn off the
43:30side
43:31chain input because if I
43:34talk
43:36over the
43:40mix talking I'm triggering a side chain
43:43there that I didn't mean to set
43:46up so or if I did I might want a side
43:51chain but I think the settings are not
43:58ideal the attack the attack time and
44:04whatnot comess yeah um
44:09let's let's make the ratio just like
44:11heaps
44:18less is that still s trining here
44:27[Music]
44:29one one two that's not really doing it
44:33now a little bit of one one one yeah
44:40okay so
44:42maybe just a slower
44:46release and high
44:50threshold and a gentle
44:54ratio
44:56one 1 2 testing testing
45:06testing testing testing one two yeah
45:10that's all
45:13right little uh
45:16compressor action in a tutorial doesn't
45:20hurt I I wasn't listening then was I
45:23okay let's do this again
45:30w
45:53[Music]
46:17[Music]
46:28yeah I think that
46:30works
46:31yeah for
46:36sure just going to turn that compressor
46:38off because I can do a better job of
46:40that later
46:42in in the uh
46:54editing okay I have the feeling that
46:57this tension soundscape can stop there
47:01and a high hat can come in or percussion
47:04just for the progression
47:08sake um so we'll get right to that
47:11however at first I
47:14do want
47:18to uh I think mute this because it it
47:22didn't really feel
47:25necessary so
47:27so Play From the Start context and in
47:31the meantime I'm going to look for some
47:34percussion
47:36samples and group some things
47:55here e
47:58[Music]
48:39d
48:56[Music]
48:59yeah that contrast there at that moment
49:02was nice
49:05[Music]
49:33I'm thinking maybe
49:37that fake Break could happen there
49:44maybe I've forgotten how to put little
49:46locators here though ah there we go add
49:49locator so fake
49:53Break question mark
49:57all right uh back to organizing
50:01things repeating things where they
50:04should
50:06be this
50:09little it's like a it's a kind of
50:13a percussive
50:18effect uh let's group
50:21that just call
50:24it I don't know here
50:27effects it's not really a category I
50:32usually use but I feel like being
50:35specific today for some
50:40reason so that little
50:45group you know what I'm just going
50:50to create a Consolidated version of that
50:54I
50:55think because it looks better and it's
50:58easier to
51:02manage it's easier to manage when I can
51:05see big Clips rather than tiny
51:14ones okay high
51:18hats we got a loop here
51:24maybe not bad uh
51:36cion this going to go
51:47[Music]
51:50for simple high hat stample
51:54[Music]
52:02it doesn't look like
52:06I added high hat samples in these
52:08samples sample packs
52:11um probably because they're just
52:16so that's
52:19nice so that random percussion was made
52:22by me and
52:24Earthen Earthen made made a mine in M
52:27New Zealand guy awesome music I'm going
52:32to use a part of that I
52:36think or maybe all of it who knows it's
52:40very
52:42cool so let's go put that
52:46in here
52:52[Music]
52:57I want it to be
53:00unwed do I no I know how this
53:07works the original was at 135 but I
53:10wanted at 132
53:16so why isn't
53:24it I thought it would just a just for
53:27me but I can't seem to oh here we
53:31go
53:33one
53:37132 it's not playing at 132 it's playing
53:39at
53:43135 maybe I need to set it to what it's
53:46written
53:49at of
53:54course oh that just sounds
53:58amazing that's a perfect addition
54:00percussively percussively
54:05speaking make sure it's still recording
54:12yep I think at this moment here is when
54:14I'll do an offbeat ey hat something more
54:17repetitive oh I really do like
54:21that drop there I think I
54:24might add a time signature change
54:29here put a locator
54:32here make that
54:36short oh yeah short break just to change
54:40things up a bit and create a bit of
54:41tension before we go to another drop
54:44here with more
54:47percussion all right so let's go back
54:53to yeah let's go with that one
54:57for our offbeat high
55:03hat make this blue cuz I
55:08like blue
55:10percussion high hats I like them being
55:13blue for some reason it's like a light
55:15color
55:31GRE there must be a shortcut please
55:33someone let me know of a shortcut for
55:37this cuz I struggle remembering which
55:39color I've
55:42chosen all
55:44right see what this sounds
55:48like
55:53oops I'm going to split that there and
55:55start it here
55:56here put that there as
56:01well and the sandscape is going to want
56:06to baade out there stop there I
56:13believe maybe we'll bring it back in
56:16later let's try this from the beginning
56:48[Music]
57:10damn it we got the loop on that's ruined
57:13the
57:14vibe sorry I'm going to have to go back
57:16from here
57:19now and then I can work on this
57:21compressor
57:24anyway I want the quietness of this
57:27sound to be less quiet
57:30than the other sound so do some makeup
57:33game
57:37[Music]
57:48[Music]
58:34in
58:44[Music]
59:05oh I just heard a sound there in
59:08response like a kind of colon response
59:10thing to
59:11this it's going to be like
59:13[Music]
59:19this so it's going to
59:21be a
59:23wob like a ace wob stab and it's going
59:27to go somewhere
59:32here who right there it's going to go
59:36who so we need to find something that
59:38will do that
59:43next fake Break
59:46Time oh
59:48no spoiled the
59:52[Music]
59:54moment take you dare fade in on
1:00:00me cool this is
1:00:06working I'm loocking the
1:00:08[Music]
1:00:16vibe was a little bit boring
1:00:19through one of the moments
1:00:22earlier when I muted that Atmos
1:00:27here this one became a bit boring
1:00:30through
1:00:31there
1:00:33[Music]
1:00:35but
1:00:39um but we'll fix that with some other
1:00:45sounds I didn't like that the atmosphere
1:00:49didn't feel right and it sort of took
1:00:51away from the new introdu yeah it took
1:00:55away away from
1:00:58something let's just check what this is
1:01:01doing what's this up
1:01:13to maybe that could work
1:01:16[Music]
1:01:23instead like that maybe you could go
1:01:26there maybe that could go
1:01:30[Music]
1:01:34there that's just too loud but
1:01:40[Music]
1:02:02[Music]
1:02:10okay been going for just over an hour
1:02:14I'm getting a bit hungry so I'm going to
1:02:17play through this maybe do a couple more
1:02:19things and then have a break
1:02:23[Music]
1:02:37[Music]
1:02:56m
1:03:04[Music]
1:03:19[Music]
1:03:28[Music]
1:03:41I'm hearing that more repetitive that
1:03:43Rhythm bop
1:03:46bop Maybe
1:03:52[Music]
1:04:13po po maybe there
1:04:17[Music]
1:04:26see
1:04:32[Music]
1:04:45[Music]
1:05:15not
1:05:17[Music]
1:05:21this might make them more percussive
1:05:24later but kind of just gives an idea
1:05:27[Music]
1:05:29of what could be effective in remember
1:05:35this whole idea of recording this
1:05:38session today is to talk
1:05:40about set ones style repetition and the
1:05:43different different levels of
1:05:46[Music]
1:05:47it
1:05:49and we're dealing
1:05:52with um how many bars here so let's go
1:05:55one bar so that's one bar there 2 3 four
1:05:58that's a four bar Loop there and this is
1:06:02a eight bar Loop this little call in
1:06:07response if you could call it that um
1:06:10and we've obviously got a one bar loop
1:06:12with the kick and
1:06:14base
1:06:20uh it's actually a 1bat loop
1:06:25so we've got a one beat Loop we could
1:06:27try doing a TW beat Loop which would be
1:06:30typically where you know a snare drum
1:06:33isn't on the 2 and four so that's a 2
1:06:35beat
1:06:38Loop
1:06:40uh what we might not have yet is a one
1:06:45bar
1:06:47[Music]
1:06:51Loop so that's two bars there
1:06:57two three four so we're talking about a
1:07:00one bar loop I don't think there's any
1:07:02element yet that that does a one bar
1:07:06Loop thing and that's not a surprise
1:07:08because a one bar Loop is pretty
1:07:11repetitive and it would have to be the
1:07:13right element
1:07:15and um in zenonesque music
1:07:19it's it's
1:07:21um not necessarily or not often the
1:07:24focus it can definitely play an
1:07:26important role especially in terms of
1:07:29creating a
1:07:32Groove
1:07:40um that's half a bar
1:07:45Loop or a two beat Loop um typical of
1:07:49like techn rhythming uh techno rhythms
1:07:56so
1:07:57just yeah we could think about doing
1:08:00something like
1:08:02that uh yeah all right I'm going to stop
1:08:06after this one play
1:08:09through maybe I I I often say that and
1:08:14then I get
1:08:15excited and keep going
1:08:21[Music]
1:08:26I'm just going to arrange some things
1:08:28here a bit
1:08:40more organize I should say not a range
1:08:47[Music]
1:09:03[Music]
1:09:11[Music]
1:09:39I hats good com in
1:09:41[Music]
1:09:48there it's getting a bit empty feeling
1:09:51in this section so there's a chance
1:09:55these
1:09:56hats could start there but I don't want
1:09:58to put them there yet because I really
1:10:00like where they come in
1:10:05[Music]
1:10:15[Music]
1:10:28[Music]
1:10:34[Music]
1:10:46there's a chance this section could just
1:10:48be completely removed uh actually
1:10:57I think we can afford to try
1:11:04that cut
1:11:09time and we'll come back to
1:11:13that after I have some lunch