Chosen Style Research
For this unit, I have chosen to recreate my chosen song (Happy - Pharrell Williams) into an Electropop style. Below are some features typical of this musical genre:Typical instrumentation
The instrumentation used by electropop artists can vary, but mostly focuses on electronic instruments, such as synthesisers, keyboards, vocoders, drum machines and audio loops. However, more 'traditional' instruments, such as electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar and drum kits have also been used in some recordings.
BPM
Most electropop songs have a BPM of around 115 to 130. Here is a table comparing the BPM of several songs:
Song
|
Artist
|
BPM
|
Bad Romance
|
Lady Gaga
|
119
|
Tik Tok
|
Ke$ha
|
120
|
Fireflies
|
Owl City
|
90
|
In For The Kill
|
La Roux
|
150
|
Leave A Trace
|
Chvrches
|
100
|
- Texture - Most electropop songs build their texture by layering synthesiser parts. Drum parts are kept relatively simple, focusing on the kick, snare and hand claps. In addition, many songs use samples to thicken the texture; this can either be from other pieces or music, or could be sampled vocals and/or instrumentations
- Structure - Keeping with the traditional pop song structure, most electropop songs follow the tried and true Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Outro structure
- Effects - Different effects will be applied to different groups of instrumentation. The drums (especially the kick) will be heavily EQ'd and compressed in order to give more punch. Synths may be heavily effected by effects ranging from an arpeggiator (which plays through notes of a held chord) to tuning (making played notes sound in or out of tune), or may have no post recording effects applied. This also applies for any recorded vocals; some tracks may be unaffected, with just simple doubletracking and reverb used. Others may use more advanced effects, such as a vocoder (giving the vocalist's voice more 'robotic' properties)
- Rhythm/tempo - Most electropop songs have a BPM of around 115 to 130. However, some pieces may have a faster BPM, especially if they are intended to crossover into house/dance genres. Rhythms are also usually kept relatively basic, focusing on simple 4/4 time signatures.
Plan
Track
List
|
Role
|
Vocal
(Sylenth)
|
Provide the
main melody line for the song
|
Bassline
(HaLion Sonic SE)
|
Replicates
the prominent bassline within the original song but with a synth vibe
|
Chords
|
Replicates
the ‘stabbing’ chords within the song
|
Kick
|
Kept separate
from the rest of the kit so it can be side chained with the synth to add more
punch when required
|
Drums
|
Keeps the
beat
|
Bass Drop
|
Used when
there is gaps within the drums
|
Effect
|
Adds in
effects such as reversed cymbals
|
Lesson 1 - 8/3/16
In the first lesson, I chose which piece I wished to use for my creative arrangement; 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams, converted into an electropop style. I began stylistic research into the genre, with the notes I gathered included above.
I then began to build up the tracks, choosing to use Sylenth (a more advanced plugin synthesizer) for the vocal lines and chords, HaLion Sonic SE for the bassline (as it was able to replicate actual instruments better than Sylenth, which focuses more on pure synthesizer tones) and Groove Agent One for the drum track. Initially, all of the drums were on one track, but in order to give the kick track more punch, I separated it from the rest of the kit and side chained it with the chord track. As with the previous sequencing assignment, all of the notes were input using the note editor built into Cubase.
I also added effects into my arrangement, which is typical of this style of music. I began by removing any drums from bars 14-15 to act as a rest. Next, I started to create a bass drop by firstly setting up a new audio track and recording two bars of silence. I then set up the tone generator to output a sine wave at around 87.3 Hz (a low F). Finally, I completed the effect by setting the wave to pitch shift downwards, whilst simultaenously fading out. Another effect I added takes place during the bass drop; a reversed crash hit. Firstly, I recorded one of the crash hits of my choice from Cubase's Media Bay onto a new track, then exported the sample. Next, I reimported it back in and used the reverse effect to reverse the sample. Finally, I used automation to move the EQ (creating a sweep effect) and panning from full left to full right.
Lesson 2 - 8/3/16
In this week's lesson, I continued my creative arrangement from where I left off (around the start of the first chorus) and continued until the end of the skeleton score, as shown:
Lesson 2 - 8/3/16
In this week's lesson, I continued my creative arrangement from where I left off and went beyond the end of the skeleton score. As the notes were no longer documented, I added in both the second verse and bridge vocal lines by ear, and added in the tom pattern that comes in at this time. In addition, I also added a further sample during the bridge to replicate the original song; this was created using the same technique as the bass drop.
Track
List
|
Effects
Used
|
Vocal (Sylenth)
|
|
Backing Vocal (Sylenth)
|
|
Chords (Sylenth)
|
|
Bassline (HaLion Sonic
SE)
|
|
Kick (Groove Agent One)
|
|
Drums (Groove Agent One)
|
|
Bass Drop
|
|
Samples
|
|
Samples
Looking back, I am very pleased at how my creative arrangement turned out. I
feel that it does provide a very accurate representation of electropop, including
effects, bass drops and synth-heavy instrumentation. Sidechaining certain elements of my piece together (especially with the kick) proved very useful in enhancing the four-to-the-floor drum pattern that is widely used in this genre. If I had even more time on the unit, I would have liked to either continued to the end of the song to get a full representation of the song, and would experiment with use of further samples to add to the electropop feel, such as live vocal samples, which could then be triggered/reversed/effected etc.
