Song Project: Fattening Things Up
So this is where we left off our song project:
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To me it feels a bit thin. To fatten it up, we're going to add a nice phat synth and crunchy guitar. Here's the synth riff:
And here is what it sounds like:
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Now here's the guitar riff:
It's just the chords played either as open fifths or octaves with a lick at the end. Notice, though, that (except for the last measure) it's accented 2+3+3 in contrast to the 3+3+2 of things like the piano. These cross rhythms just make things a little more interesting. Here is what it sounds like:
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So here is the combined version with all the instruments so far.
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This will be the instrumental part of our verse.
It's often hard when first adding a instrument or two not to put it too loud in the mix because you are enamoured by its novelty (I'm saying this from experience). But with the tracks we've just added, it is important that they are fairly subtle. You don't want them to draw too much attention. They can still be soft but noticable in their absence. To see this, compare the final recording with the one at the top of the page. I think you'll agree there's a big difference.
In subsequent posts, we'll add the chorus, build out the song's structure and add some vocals.
All material for this project is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license so you are free to redistribute and remix with attribution but under the same license and not commercially.
Comments (2)
Mike on Jan. 26, 2009:
Great series, James! I'm just getting back into music production after a 15-year break (and, wow, how easy it all has become!), and all because I stumbled over your series. Thanks a lot and: please continue!
Last Modified: Nov. 27, 2008
Author: James Tauber
Gary Godfrey on Nov. 27, 2008:
Cool! I've occasionally seen bands on tv where the camera would focus on a single musician, but I couldn't hear anything that they were playing. Your example here shows that they were likely just 'filling in' (fattening?) the sound.
Though, I'm still a little surprised that I can't hear the synth at all in the combined mix - even when reading the notes.