elemental - Light and Dark (laid back electronic)
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href=" m --> - for some reason this track sounds very tinny using SoundCloud's player, I'd recommend downloading the mp3.
I put together the beat, chords, and main piano melody (right hand) as one of my first tracks with BeatMaker 1.2 back in September, and continued tweaking and adding to it over time - adding the left-hand piano part, the arpeggios, and the whole second half ('dark'). The thing I enjoyed the most in writing this was applying lots of groove and velocity to the hi-hat part and some of the snare fills.
The kit is still done in BeatMaker 1.2 melodic style, with the different piano pitches on different pads, instead of using the new pitch-shifting capability of 1.3. Three pads for bass drum, snare, and hi-hat; three pads for the synth chords which play under the main melody and during the introduction; and five pads/five pitches each for 'piano right hand' and 'piano left hand'. One nice feature about this otherwise very clumsy and limited way to do melodies in BeatMaker is that each note can continue to ring even after another note with the same 'instrument' has been sounded, like a piano with the sustain pedal. Using pitch shifting in the track editor, each note is cut off when a new note is sounded.
The main similarity or subliminal influence on this track is (in hindsight) Moby - the piano sound and mood are similar to "Porcelain" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?".
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.
I put together the beat, chords, and main piano melody (right hand) as one of my first tracks with BeatMaker 1.2 back in September, and continued tweaking and adding to it over time - adding the left-hand piano part, the arpeggios, and the whole second half ('dark'). The thing I enjoyed the most in writing this was applying lots of groove and velocity to the hi-hat part and some of the snare fills.
The kit is still done in BeatMaker 1.2 melodic style, with the different piano pitches on different pads, instead of using the new pitch-shifting capability of 1.3. Three pads for bass drum, snare, and hi-hat; three pads for the synth chords which play under the main melody and during the introduction; and five pads/five pitches each for 'piano right hand' and 'piano left hand'. One nice feature about this otherwise very clumsy and limited way to do melodies in BeatMaker is that each note can continue to ring even after another note with the same 'instrument' has been sounded, like a piano with the sustain pedal. Using pitch shifting in the track editor, each note is cut off when a new note is sounded.
The main similarity or subliminal influence on this track is (in hindsight) Moby - the piano sound and mood are similar to "Porcelain" and "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?".
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.