FLOATING IN THE DARK - ORIGINAL STEEMIT SONG - ELECTRONIC/DARK/POLYRHYTHMIC WEIRDNESS

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago (edited)

Here's a new random little song

I did on Ableton the other night. I like the general tone of this one, it's kinda weird, and the rhythm of the drums over the other instruments (all in a straight 4) turned out cool and polyrhythmic. I sort of was going for a dark '80's kind of vibe, not sure how well the drums fit with that, but I like the tone overall, maybe needs a more electronic kit, something less acoustic.

Screenshot of the whole track

I started with the drums,

and the track in 4/4, but the actual beat of the drums is basically 7/8, which I believe fits ~3.333 times over the 4/4, so it definitely a polyrhythm, but not exactly 7 over 4 but something close. I like how the other instruments keep the 4 feel going, despite what the drums are doing.

Listen to FLOATING IN THE DARK here

In the end high-end synth playing the melody,

we play a Db to Ab, and G initially, followed by C, G, F, and Eb (so we are in C minor, but the Db makes it sound kind of like it could be the iv in Fminor). Because we don't resolve to F, it feels like it always wants to resolve, like its floating around a bullseye it just can't hit. In a call and response kind of style, a more distorted synth plays this same melody after the first synth does. I like the simplicity of that.

Screenshot of the "call" portion of the melody

The bassline is actually another copy-pasta

trick, where I copied the drum track midi-line into the bass track, and then moved some stuff around to make it a little more melodic and fit with the synths. It basically is playing pedal tones of Db and C moving up over both to F and Eb. Because it's playing Db to C back and forth, it fits over both the Db in the melody and the "resolution" to C, adding a dissonance to both. In the "chorus" section, or B Part, the bassline continues the same, but then a higher note of Eb is played on the instrument in a syncopated rhythm (3 octaves higher).

Listen to FLOATING IN THE DARK here