Recreation - Posted on 2018-01-25 by Michael Czyz

Jan. 25, 2018

Two days ago I was in the studio for an intern session, where I saw a variety of work being done. Mark was busy pitch correcting on Melodyne- a pretty grueling task, especially when the vocals are uniformally flat. I've only used the pitch correction software that comes with Logic Pro, and it's very good because the treated vocals still sound very natural for the most part. I'm very intrigued by Melodyne now, and having observed its process I want to try my hand at it. It is quite a bit more intricate than its logic counterpart, and quite frankly I haven't been able to wrap my head around it, so I'm hoping that soon I will get the chance to play with it. 

The other major process I observed that day was the recreation of a rap demo on Ableton. It involved a lot of careful listening, as well as trial and error. The most difficult part of the process seemed to be matching the instrument sounds. It took a long time to synthesize an organ sound resembling the one in the demo. I'm assuming it is virtually impossible to recreate a sound perfectly, which is endearing in a way because it makes every track unique. I was inspired to try my hand at recreating a song, so yesterday I got to working on my own version of Lana Del Rey's 'National Anthem.' I've managed to recreate the beats and arrangements quite well, but they are still a far cry from the original because the sounds have not been fine tuned. Currently they sound very raw and template. 'National Anthem' has always been a favorite song of mine, and through yesterday's work I discovered it was even more clever than I had conceived. The hypnotic beat weaves the subtle sounds of a spinning roulette wheel and the clanking of coins- a witty reflection of the lyrics "money is the anthem of success." Perhaps it is also a tribute to Pink Floyd's 'Money,' which employs a similar feature. I look forward to making more discoveries of this kind as I work through the song.

I'll be back in the studio again this afternoon, stay tuned for more!

Michael