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 / Tone Matrix's music / Fail Gloriously

Fail Gloriously

By Tone Matrix on May 10, 2020 9:03 pm

Things never go as originally planned.  I had purposely set out to start sorting and previewing some of the new Pianobook Kontakt instruments I've been nonstop downloading since the quarantine.  I opened up Ableton and then Kontakt and the first thing that caught my eye in the window was this free Drum set I got a few days ago.  I totally forgot I mindlessly installed it.  It has a pretty decent sounding drum kit with all sorts of different mics and even some midi loops to edit to your hearts content.  Normally I don't have "real" sounding drums in my tracks because I usually scrutinize it so much I think it ends up sounding cheesy.  This might go that route but I digest....  I was just jamming around with the kit while playing piano, thinking I'd save the chord progression and shelve it as a work in progress.  Then do my usual ambient droney filmy thang.  But one thing led to another and I kept adding stuff.  At one point this sounded more like a salsa track but then I brought in my trusty Roland RD700GX Piano and my mind exploded with ideas.  "Maybe some strings?  Oooh how about that Trumpet again.  Wait now I need giant ZimmerElfmanBrass!"  I really don't own huge sample libraries to justify such but thanks to Spitfire Labs I have a few and combined with some of Ableton's stock instruments managed to fake that giant orchestral sound I was going for towards the end.  Speaking of orchestras, Spitfire Audio just announced a new BBC Orchestral library that has a free basic "Discover" version.  You fill out their survey or pay $49 and in two weeks they send it to you.  https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/
Phew that was a mouthful... My neck (and brain) is so stiff from all the editing and articulation fades I almost forgot to upload the damn track here!  Good one Eric!  Hope everyone has a good Mother's Day.  I... need.. a beer...

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

Cheers, you did a brilliant job, even it wasn`t planned that way. Yes, I can imagine how exciting it was to work on this track. I can hear all the lovely details and elements. Everthing sits smoothly together and the track develops more and more in its intensity. niclely how you mixed that drummer in backround, without the need to hear it louder. very very very beautiful.

I think the drums sound really good in here and it's cool that they helped spark your creativity in some different directions.  You really make the various samples work for you.  I haven't delved much into the world of sample libraries, but you make a strong case for their merits.  An all-out salsa track would be really interesting to hear sometime.  smile

Fun to just go in any direction you want, and it paid off, great piece. Drums sound great, nice to hear those in your track, cool bass, piano is telling a good story. Then the orchestral comes in - so nice! I've played around with Abeltons orchestra packs a bit, brass and strings, even mallets I think. Some good stuff there too. Good to know about the spitfire project though.

Dude, thank you so much for another tip on free shit!  Just filled out the survey!

Wild track this week man, its so intense.  The instrumentation is so perfect, its really like professional film music quality.  Love the little descending synth line that keeps evolving throughout. 

Some nice and spooky chords here! Those drums sound sweet too, you could probably bring them out more in the climax.

Damn dude, you crushed it. Don't worry about drums so much, I've heard terrible drums, in chiptune drums are usually just noise waves, the 808 exists for some reason; these drums are amazing.

If there were one thing that ought to be added to this, it'd be a choir (e.g. the spitfire one) to really bring home the glory.

Q-Rosh wrote:

Cheers, you did a brilliant job, even it wasn`t planned that way. Yes, I can imagine how exciting it was to work on this track. I can hear all the lovely details and elements. Everthing sits smoothly together and the track develops more and more in its intensity. niclely how you mixed that drummer in backround, without the need to hear it louder. very very very beautiful.

CosmicCairns wrote:

I think the drums sound really good in here and it's cool that they helped spark your creativity in some different directions.  You really make the various samples work for you.  I haven't delved much into the world of sample libraries, but you make a strong case for their merits.  An all-out salsa track would be really interesting to hear sometime.  smile

miraclemiles wrote:

Fun to just go in any direction you want, and it paid off, great piece. Drums sound great, nice to hear those in your track, cool bass, piano is telling a good story. Then the orchestral comes in - so nice! I've played around with Abeltons orchestra packs a bit, brass and strings, even mallets I think. Some good stuff there too. Good to know about the spitfire project though.

Chrisfoo wrote:

Dude, thank you so much for another tip on free shit!  Just filled out the survey!

Wild track this week man, its so intense.  The instrumentation is so perfect, its really like professional film music quality.  Love the little descending synth line that keeps evolving throughout.

Ipaghost wrote:

Some nice and spooky chords here! Those drums sound sweet too, you could probably bring them out more in the climax.

Yah I def was being tame with the drum mix.  I was afraid of either leaving too much of an annoying frequency from the rides in there or just having it sound too loud.  I need to get a bit more comfy with mixing acoustic stuff.  Also the chords bordered on Thom a bit this week I thought.  I can't remember which RH track though. 

Devieus wrote:

Damn dude, you crushed it. Don't worry about drums so much, I've heard terrible drums, in chiptune drums are usually just noise waves, the 808 exists for some reason; these drums are amazing.
If there were one thing that ought to be added to this, it'd be a choir (e.g. the spitfire one) to really bring home the glory.

Ha funny you mention that, I did load the choir at one point towards the end but my computer and audio interface were getting a lil chunky.  I had to change the buffer size and everything which I'm not used to doing. So I let the quarantine_choir sit this one out. smile 


PS That chimp_gif is exactly how I looked playing the piano just more hair on the face less on the head tongue

DOH I accidentally cut out my thanks and the reply about the bassline.  With all the excitement from the original description I failed to mention that it was the seldom used Bass Station2 I have.  I tend to end up using it just as a midi controller since it sits conveniently on my desktop where as my Roland piano_thingy is to my left (leading to a crooked neck). 
Thanks everyone for your kind comments and listening smile

the drum sound is excellent!  really nice flow
 
that roland sounds so Glorificus!

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