Summary
School of Rock’s DAW composition project of session 4 was intended to be completed by March 7th. The project began with the selection of an artist and song to draw inspiration from. Later using these things as resources to produce an original song in its likeness. Despite most of what I would hope to produce being non-electronic, my experience with this project was limited to the electronic genre. This was a result of having limited experience with instruments I would prefer to use. Being so, my instrumentation was primarily synth, keyboards, and soundscapes that aligned with the original production.
Audio File Formats and Definitions
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): stores standard CD-quality audio; similar to WAV (Higher Quality)
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format): CD audio; can be saved with different sampling and bit rates; similar to AIFF (Higher Quality)
MP3 (Audio File): Used to store audiobooks and music on a hard drive; Close to CD-quality sound; the higher quality sound comes from higher bit rates which also take up more storage space
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface): music data: notes played, when notes are played, how long each note is played, and the velocity of each note played; used to be able to exchange and use information between software and hardware programs; no actual audio data
All the audio file format information is found at: fileinfo.com
Song Used As Template
Due to my lack of skill with physical instruments, I opted for a more electronic sound. The song I drew inspiration from is Pastel Ghost’s “Silhouette”. I chose this song in particular because I liked the unique synth sounds toward the beginning (0:08-0:38). They were really distinct and the style of the song was something I wanted to emulate for this project. Other notable features I tried to incorporate into my production were the “fuzzy” synth largely notable during 0:43-0:44, the drum beat from 0:00-0:08, and the ethereal soundscape which enters at 0:38 before it breaks at 0:44 but continues on and off for the majority of the song.
GarageBand Tracks
My Composition
What I Learned & Problems I Solved
While experimenting with this project, I was able to learn some things about the workstation and how to navigate it on a computer. Though, I only set out to learn these things due to the issues I encountered. I’ve had a bit of access to Garage band (all of it had been mobile), but I hadn’t thoroughly explored the features or understood as much of their purpose before watching videos and asking questions during this project. The source provided to the class helped me get a good grasp of how the project should be approached and the potential that this project had. Videos from the Produce Like a Boss YouTube channel proved useful to me in moments of confusion.