COMPOSITION & ARRANGEMENT

 

The song, “Whatever Happened To Tomorrow?” was written as a song to submit to artists in an attempt to get it performed by them. This song was aimed squarely at Nashville and the US country market but also has potential as a crossover.

 

The lyric was written first, by my girlfriend, but with some guidance from myself and a book called “The Craft Of Lyric Writing” by Sheila Davies.

 

The lyric follows a verse/chorus format with a strong hook appearing at both the beginning and end of each chorus. I decided that to break up the repetitiveness some kind of a bridge or middle eight would be required. I therefore added a fiddle break after the second chorus.

 

Sometimes when given a lyric and a context the music just seems to flow from what is written on the page and this song was a case in point. When I first read a draft of the lyric the word “country” seemed to leap off of the page.

 

The chords were more or less automatic as I could hear a tune in my head as I read and the arrangement was also quite straightforward as the line up is quite stereotypical of country songs including pedal steel guitar and fiddle. I decided to use a combination of acoustic and electric guitars in addition to the pedal steel.

 

The verse is primarily carried by a riff on the acoustic guitar with minimal accompaniment from bass and drums. During recording, piano and pedal steel parts were added by the musicians, which on the initial demo did not exist.

 

The chorus is mostly chords for the piano and guitar with bass, drums and pedal steel. There is also a fiddle break featuring the same instruments.

 

 

INPUTTING & EDITING MIDI DATA

Logic Audio (‘the sequencer’) allows the user to work with many different sound sources.

 

To record this song I used Logic, a software package that allows the recording of songs on a PC (or a Mac).

 

My normal style of working (and this song was no exception) is to play in the parts (slowing the tempo if necessary) on keyboard and then to quantize.

 

Logic’s arrange window showing some quantize options

 

Quantizing is the process of allowing the computer to pull any notes that are not precisely on a beat to the nearest beat. The beat length is user controlled and in order to prevent things becoming too mechanical a certain amount of “feel” (i.e. a controllable degree of inaccuracy) can be added to the quantize by the computer.

 

Logic’s matrix editor

 

If necessary some manual editing may be done in the matrix editor (although if things are that far out it is often quicker just to replay it). The matrix editor is a screen, which shows a graphical representation of all the notes. The pitch is determined by the vertical position on the screen. The timing and length of the notes are determined by the horizontal position on the screen (which scrolls as the song plays) the relative position within the song being shown by the bar counter at the top of the screen and by a display in the transport bar. The velocity of the note is shown by its colour. Editing could also be done in the list editor which shows note and all other information as a list of parameters such as note number, velocity, start time, length, etc.

 

Logic's event list editor

 

I play each section once and then copy and paste as necessary. As I go along I will sometimes add in variations/links between sections either by playing them in or by editing or inputting notes in the matrix or list editor.

 

Using the tools you can begin to edit the contents of the sequence

 

To add notes in the matrix editor the pencil tool is selected and the notes can be drawn as required on the screen. The list editor is a chronological list of all notes (or other events) in the track showing all parameters relevant to the note or event. Again notes can be added using the pencil and then typing in revised parameters.

 

 

USING PITCH BEND & MIDI CONTROLLERS

MIDI Control Change messages are used to control a wide variety of functions in a synthesizer.

 

In the original demo I had to do lots of editing of pitch bend data on the pedal steel part. This is because some notes were moving by a tone and some by a semi tone. All of the tone notes were recorded on one track and pitch bending was done as I played. The semi-tone notes were done in the same way but as the pitch bend parameter was set to a tone I had to try and bend only half way, which naturally was a little inaccurate. I then went in and edited the pitch bend data to exactly a semi-tone.

 

MIDI controllers are used to allow the computer to control the parameters of a sound, a note or a function, e.g. the volume of a sound or the delay time of an echo effect. In my song I used a logic controller to perform a crescendo on the guitar part allowing the part to build from the background at the beginning of the fiddle break to the foreground by the end of the section. This was done by riding the virtual faders on the screen and recording the results. In order to get the desired result this had to be “undone” and redone several times. Undo is a function that allows you to revert to the way things were before you performed an operation in logic.

 

Logic’s hyper editor

 

Editing of pitch bend and controllers can also be done in the list editor or the hyper editor. The list editor allows a precise degree of control over the exact parameters of the controller (which will be shown as a long list of events for a continuous controller e.g. volume, pan, or a single event for a switch controller e.g. sustain on/off). The hyper editor shows visual representations of virtually any information which logic can store. Controller information can be drawn in as rising and falling curves or straight lines going up and down as required. Logic will interpret these curves and lines and adjust the controller accordingly creating for example a gradually appearing vibrato/modulation or a fade out. The hyper editor shows time horizontally and controller level vertically.

 

Logic’s arrange window showing an arpeggiator

 

USING THE ARPEGGIATOR

“The arpeggiator cycles through all the held notes (i.e. arpeggiates chords) within its range.” (Logic Help. cited in Bottomley M. 2001-2003)

 

Logic also features an arpeggiator, which, as its name suggests, allows the computer to create arpeggios.

 

You need to record some notes or chords into a sequence then apply the arpeggiator to them. This is done by creating an arpeggiator in the environment window and applying it to a virtual instrument track. You then select this arpeggiator object in a MIDI track and all notes recorded here will be sent through the arpeggiator to the relevant virtual instrument. You can determine many factors such as the tempo, the length of notes (8ths, 16ths, etc.), no. of octaves and whether the arpeggio plays upwards, downwards or a combination of both. You can also set a range of MIDI controllers (using the Ctrl base function), which can then be used to change these factors on the fly.

 

You also need to be sure to set the note range on the arpeggiator as only notes played within this range will be arpeggiated and anything played outside of these notes will be unaffected.

 

 

ARRANGING & EDITING DIGITAL AUDIO

“ The digital audio functions of Logic Audio are designed to let the user work with traditional sound recording for song construction (the recording of live musical performance) or add live performances such as vocals to midi based compositions.” (Bottomley M. 2001-2003)

 

Whereas MIDI is merely control information the computer uses to send control signals to other internal or external sound generators, effects and studio devices, digital audio is an actual recording of real sound.

 

My song is largely made up of real recordings of acoustic instruments. These are recorded via the soundcard’s audio input and digitised by logic for storage on hard disc in a similar way to the way information is stored on CDs as a stream of computer interpreted numbers. Before creating audio files you will need to tell logic where to store them (a sub directory within the directory where the logic song files are being stored is a good idea).

 

Logic’s arrange window

 

These recordings, along with all MIDI recordings are laid out on Logic’s arrange window. This is a graphical view similar to the matrix editor but instead of showing individual notes it shows different sections such as a single take of guitar, or the snare drum for verse one. As in the matrix and hyper editors time is shown by horizontal position on the screen. Vertical position determines the track the section is placed on which, in the case of MIDI or virtual instruments, determines which sound is playing it. Each track is aligned to a virtual mixer channel and can have effects applied to it, volume changed on it, E.Q. applied, etc. without affecting other tracks.

 

Sections can be laid out on the screen as required. They can be copied and pasted (for example to double a part on a different instrument (different track), to repeat it in another part of the song (same or different track as preferred) or to apply a different set of effects to the same part (different track).

 

Audio files can be manipulated in various ways within logic. For example, playback tempo/pitch can be changed, effects can be added and sections can be removed or repeated, etc (see sampling below for more details). For my song the only treatments applied were a few effects such as reverb.

 

While recording my song I recorded several takes of each instrument doing each part. The best of these were then extracted and loaded into a different version of logic where they were combined with other parts to create the finished song. This was done using logics audio import facility (under the audio menu of the arrange window).

 

 

USING VIRTUAL INSTRUMENTS

“VST instruments are software instruments such as synthesizers / drum machines etc. that allow the user to create music without relying on ‘external’ sound sources such as pc soundcards / hardware samplers / sound modules / synthesizers.” (Bottomley M. 2001-2003)

 

The drums, bass and piano in my song are being played on virtual instruments. These are instrument sounds, which are actually generated by the PC processor to emulate the instrument shown onscreen. In my song I used a virtual sampler, which stores actual digital audio samples of the sounds required and plays them back under user control. The sampler I am using for the drums is the EXS24, which comes supplied with logic platinum edition.

 

EXS24

 

To use a virtual instrument, it must be loaded into a virtual instrument track. This can be done by double clicking on a virtual instrument track in the arrange window which will open the mixer environment window. Select the required track in this window and click on the slot just below the label “I/O”. For my purposes I selected stereo, logic and EXS24 from the resulting series of menus.

 

Using a sampler the sounds can be manipulated in various ways. They can be trimmed to remove unwanted parts of the sound such a silence before the sound starts, reversed for special effects and played back at different pitches to the original in order to allow melodies to be played. The change in pitch is achieved by slowing down and speeding up the sound and so most sounds are only usable over a limited range of notes. To expand the range the original sound can be sampled at a number of pitches, and  spread across the pitch spectrum to widen the available range of usable notes.

 

Special effects such as echo, e.q., etc can also be added to samples and audio files and again these are generated by the PC processor (either in real time as the song is played or the changes can be made permanent and stored as part of a revised sound file).

 

Logic’s mixer environment window

 

With my drum sounds the samples were pre prepared by the company who supplied them and I did not feel any additional processing was necessary as the sound
I was after was that of a fairly standard conventional drum kit. The different drum sounds were arranged on different notes.

 

EXS24’s zone setup screen

 

To place these I opened EXS24, clicked on edit and went to the instrument menu where I created a new instrument and then a new zone (a range across the keyboard) in the zone menu. I selected the drum sound required in the “audio file” space and then selected the key note (the base pitch for the original sound) and key range (the pitch range across which the sample will be stretched).

 

A velocity range may be set which can be used, for example to place softer and harder drum hits onto the same notes and have the softer hit play at lower velocities only and the harder sound at higher velocities. Volume and pan settings can also be stored for the sound.

 

Loops can also be created. These are useful for creating long sustained sounds from short samples, which is useful to conserve sample space. For example a two second violin sample could be turned into a long sustained note by playing a part of the sample over and over again. Such loops need to be created very carefully if they are to sound natural.

 

 

STORING AND ORGANISING SAMPLES PATCHES AND INSTRUMENT/SFX PRESETS

“Create a new folder for each song you create in Logic – this may seem excessive just for one song file but as time progresses you will find you may be using hundreds of files just for one song.” (Bottomley M. 2001-2003)

 

Once a sample (or a sound on a virtual synthesizer or a setting on a virtual effects unit) has been created it can be saved (logic will save the settings along with the song anyway but by saving them independently you can re-use them in other songs and back them up separately). They can either be saved in the same directory as the song data or in a directory specific to the virtual instrument for which they were created. Alternatively they can be saved in both locations so that they are both kept together with the song for which they are used and kept in a library of all settings for the relevant instrument. You should as a matter of course create a directory for each song recorded in logic.

 

 

MIXING & MASTERING

 

Mixing is the act of bringing all of the samples, audio files, midi sounds and virtual instruments together to create a finished stereo file. Mixing can be done on the mixer environment screen (see above). However, full control and the addition of internal effects is only available for virtual instruments and audio data. External MIDI modules can be controlled via MIDI controllers e.g. volume or pan, but an external mixer will be required to combine their sounds with logic’s own and to add effects.

 

For my song all sounds are internal to logic and so mixing was entirely internal. Mixing can be automated, either by switching mixer tracks into read (in the box where, by default, each shows “off”) and then performing the mix in real time either with the mouse, an external controller surface, or by drawing mix information into the hyper editor. Real time mixing can be done on a small number of tracks at a time if required rather than having to do them all at once.

 

Part of logic’s mixer environment showing “off/read” buttons and the “bnce” (bounce) button

 

My mix was done entirely within logic, mastering to two empty audio tracks. To do this all tracks were routed to one of logic’s stereo outputs. On this output I selected the “bounce” option. This caused logic to record all un-muted tracks into a stereo file via the selected output.

 

Once saved, all files (songs, audio files, instrument and effects settings, samples) can be easily backed up to CD, DAT drive, tape drive, etc. This is especially easy if all of the required files are stored within a single main directory as indicated above.

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

My song is a traditional piece of music, created, mostly, with traditional instruments. However, in this project, some of those “traditional” instruments were produced non-traditionally by the computer.

 

Logic is an advanced piece of audio software, which combines what once would have cost several hundred thousand pounds into a desktop PC. There is a virtual multitrack, a virtual, total recall mixer, there are virtual instruments and effects. And it is all in one box. Add a sound card, a keyboard a microphone and some speakers and the options are limited only by your imagination and the computer hardware you use.

 

I find my studio an invaluable tool for writing songs, which I can record in a basic form without the need for any other personnel or equipment. It enables me to do things which would be either virtually impossible or an awful lot more expensive without it.