'Microtonal #7' - New Original Music Practice/Experiment with 1/4 Tones! - Electronic/Experimental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

So this is another little

practice run with Microtonal stuff, I used one track here that is tuned to quarter tones, the rest all are standard 12 tone tunings. This song turned out cool, its SUPER dissonant, and kind of crescendos into a cacophony at the end, and the drum beat, which I developed based on the rhythm of Track 1+2 worked out really well, with the back and forth between 4's and 3's. Let's get into the song!

Listen to Microtonal #7 here.

Tracks 1 and 2 are

our 1/4 tone instrument. Track 1 is used for the transmitter for the tuner, and Track 2, which is a synth bass tone, has the receiver. However, I used this instrument in a high register, and by mapping out a rhythmic change of the modulation on it, I wound up with a really cool, strange sound. I like how some of the quarter tones used turn into a weird buzzy sound because of the overtones.

Tracks 1/2 described above.

Track 3 is our drums,

which move back and forth between a weird, fast 4 beat and into 3's, then back and forth again. This worked with the general weirdness of the harmony, making the rhythm and the beat in particular equal in strangeness. I used 2 different kick drums here which I wasn't sure would be good, but seemed to turn out sounding pretty cool.

Listen to Microtonal #7 here.

Track 4 is just used in transitions,

and is a hissy sort of tone that swells up in volume, then disappears. Track 5 is the next main instrument, which is playing some chords using 12 tones, which although dissonant, I think worked pretty well with the 1/4 tone stuff above it. Check the screenshot below to see the progression this electric piano is playing.

Track 6 is next,

which is an arpeggiated synth which just adds some extra harmony in the background. It's not super noticeable, just a little extra touch lol. Lastly, we have Track 7, which is the distorted, tritone sort of melody that begins to come before the break, and builds up into completely insanity to the end of the song. I sidechained this with a pretty heavy compression to the drums, so this track just fills in gaps there, and blend into the background really nicely.