These projects were my first time ever working in Ableton and also my first experience with sound design. I had already created some small promotion videos at school, however not yet with producing music or soundscapes. This was a big challenge for me.
Creating a song immediately in a new program, while having never created a song before, was quite challenging. However, I found it to be an incredibly enjoyable challenge. The first versions of my song were heavily influenced by Latin/tropical pop. After several weeks of experimenting with various sounds, I sought feedback from my classmates. It soon became clear that it would be better if I went more in the direction of house music. Coincidentally, I had become a house music lover over the past year, and I got a lot more energy while creating the house beat.
Like many other house tracks, I started with a sweep up to build some tension, followed by a sweep down to blend it in. The track continuously gains depth as instruments are added. I used a bongo, snare, shaker loop, and kick as the basis for the track. The snare, shaker, and kick are typical instruments in house tracks. The bongo loop adds a tropical touch to the song. I also added brass loops. Why? Because for me, that's what makes a house track sound really good. Personally, I think it's one of the most powerful elements of the song. In the end, I decided to close with a sweep down.
I've noticed that it's a lot easier to choose a song and recreate it in your own style than to start from scratch. Listening to other songs within the same genre has helped me a lot. I ended up with a beach/soft house style with some natural sounds in it. I'm happy with how the final version sounds, but I'm also sure that as long as I keep messing around in Ableton, I can compose much better songs than this one. Still, it was definitely a great start to making music in Ableton. I enjoyed it.
This soundscape was created as part of my introduction to sound design. The goal of this assignment was to build a soundscape that tells a story just through sound, without the use of visuals. It challenged me to find all the sounds and create a refined soundscape.
The first thing that came to mind was an office. I am not sure why, but I thought it would fit great with a soundscape. In the first lesson, I started to work on it. However, I forgot a dramatic transition. So I decided to make the audio longer, and let the office worker show their daily routine of going home. The office worker finds himself in a car crash later on. At the beginning, I was planning on letting the office worker leave office by bicycle. Then I went around for some feedback and concluded that it would be more intense if he would be in a car, because the crash will have more texture.
This was a good assignment for me to find out how much texture there is in a simple soundscape. It gave me insight on how much of layering there is done to really make a big impact with sound. I have learned that you don't even need visuals to tell a story. Sound is most of the times enough.