Final Project

For my final project, I decided to expand on my track 2 assignment. With this assignment, I was inspired by the current sound coming from Detroit’s rap scene at the moment. I chose to keep the electronic feel with a mixture of trap and hip hop elements in regards to the rhythm. 

The meter I used for this track is 4/4 and the tempo is 160. I chose to go with the Electro Bump kit because I felt it had a good mixture of nice acoustic drums and gritty percussion that is common with a lot of what I hear within the rap music in Detroit. I chose to use a rimshot in place for where the snare would usually hit on the 2nd and 4th measures, while using a snare as a secondary perc. Regarding the bass of track 2, I chose the Funk Synth Bass from ES2. The funk bass was perfect to me after listening to many artists & producers from Detroit, I found that they often use a synth bass in conjunction with kicks and 808s. Since I wasn’t able to find an 808, I used the funk bass in a low octave to satisfy the low end.

The key I went with in track 2 was B minor. Minor scales are commonly used in Detroit’s music, but they are normally dark and gloomy. I didn’t want to go too dark with this assignment and felt this key would be perfect to lighten the mood without sacrificing the emotion. The chord progression I used was Em(iv) with an inverted B note, Bm(i), D maj(III)with an inverted A note, and G maj(VI) with an inverted G note so that the flow of the harmony stayed bright throughout the track. With the melody, I created a loop using rising and falling motifs to give it some repetition. I also used B major on the second progression of the chords instead of B minor for variation.

In this track, I drew inspiration on the Vocal Track from the southern rap group, UGK (Underground Kingz), by covering the chorus of one of their most popular songs, One day, sung by Ronnie Spencer. I added an additional pad chord track with the use of the ES P synthesizer. I also added a synth lead, that was created with the ES P synthesizer.

For the mix, I basically kept everything at zero as far as balance goes. I added compression to Rim track because I used it more as a snare and wanted give it some more presence without it clipping. I also added compression to my Vocal melody loop for the same reason. For the kick, I used a gate to make it punch through the bass without clashing. I used some delay on the HiHat track to fill in some space in between, making the hats seem slightly faster than they’re actually played. Lastly, I added reverb to the Rim and vocal track to add some depth that I feel is captured in more emotional music.