Note: I wrote this on 12/18/2022 on a different platform.
I finished the music production class I took at Berklee this last term. While the primary focus of the class was on a variety of synthesis and signal processing techniques that are available with Ableton Live (up to using Max, which allows you to program pretty much anything), each week came with an assignment that required integrating the techniques learned within a musical setting. I have been sharing those here over the past weeks.
As the term has come to an end, I thought it's worthwhile to look at the overall output and see which ones I liked best. So here's my own top 3:
The Rainbow: This came out as a nice little house track with a certain retro feel, and it seems to be a popular choice here . For those who wonder, the technical assignment was the organ sound, including modeled amplifier, speaker combo and effects chain. I think it's a track worthwhile to fully develop, and I am working on a full version including lyrics.
Physical Fusion: I really love the overall feel of this track and its overall lightness and playfulness. Here, almost all the instruments (outside 3 percussion samples/percussion loops) are synthesized from scratch using physical modeling; that is, you simulate the physical process how each of the instruments is generating its sound. The musical theme asked to integrate those sounds through a virtual group of instrumentalists, each with her own character and style.
Reunion: This was very much a stretch for me, as I had never even considered creating a soundtrack for a movie. From a technical standpoint, analog synthesis was the focus of that week. So it's not surprising that some rather classical SciFi synthesizer sounds came through (thanks for the inspiration, Vangelis, and many other pioneers). Plus, while it's kind of cheesy, I really ended up liking the Tears of Steel movie plot, from which I used the video footage.
Overall, this class has been a great learning experience and it surely led me into new sonic territory.
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