Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
Starting January 1st 2024 GMT each participant will have one week to upload one finished composition. Any style of music or selection of instruments are welcomed and encouraged. Sign up or Login to get started or check our FAQ for any help or questions you may have.

WeeklyBeats.com / Music / Matthew Flook's music / Exit Signs - Week #6

Exit Signs - Week #6

By Matthew Flook on February 9, 2014 9:13 pm

This week brought Portland a rare blast of snow which made it all the more easy to justify some solid basement music hideout sessions. Somewhat subconsciously, this track took on a very icy tone despite the seemingly sunny major key I settled into on day one. I made a point to set aside some of my usual go-to instruments and effects and instead explored some different sounds that I hope you all enjoy.


The song is framed by another field recording - this time capturing the frosty wind and crunchy snow under foot on a very chilly walk to the closest grocery store - recorded with my Tascam DR-2d. The other essential atmospheric element at the beginning of (and throughout) the piece comes from a fantastic granular synth/sampler called Alchemy. The drums are once again coming from Maschine, using a custom kit I put together from 808-style tuned kicks and a variety of layered snare/crackle sounds. On a separate drum channel are a number of glitchy percussion elements running through the OhMyGod comb filter and one of my favorite Reaktor ensembles: The Finger (triggered by live-recorded MIDI notes from my keyboard).


Last but not least, we have the main chord progression - a warbly synth pad created from a sample of my voice. A simple "C" note was recorded through my mic, loaded into a new granular synth called The Mangle, and configured to repeat and modulate this vocal snippet into a unique cloud of audio particles. This new plug-in makes such a process very intuitive and musical, with a great UI displaying real-time visuals of the granular processing applied to your audio. Finally, we have a distorted lead melody on top of the mix provided by a compelling new (free!) mono synth called Kairatune. I have a lot more to explore with this one.


Enjoy, and stay warm my friends.


Key equipment/software used for production:

- Sound Guru The Mangle plug-in
- Tascam DR-2d digital audio recorder / Lots of snow
- Native Instruments The Finger Reaktor ensemble
- Futucraft Kairatune plug-in
- Camel Audio Alchemy plug-in
- OhmForce OhMyGod plug-in
- Native Instruments Maschine MKI


Key: C Major
BPM: 102
Time Signature: 4/4


http://blog.exitsignsmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/exitsigns
https://twitter.com/exitsignsmusic

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)

nice tune mate

Mellow and ominous. Excellent!

Thank you!

Very nice atmosphere, both unsettled and chilled... Clearly you care about the detail, always helps.

You need to login to leave a comment.
Login Sign-up