Week 2 of 52: "the world is crazy, so let's be crazy in it" - Experimental Trap
Do you ever feel like whatever you make is TOO DIFFERENT??
For 10 years I did too… my music didn’t sound like what I was hearing from successful producers so i thought I had to change and simply “get better”… turns out that uniqueness was my superpower the whole time, and even if you don’t know it yet, it’s yours too…
This was a track where I really just let my creativity guide me and intentionally disregard what i thought anybody may think of it. Furthermore, I wanted to continuously subvert the listeners expectations while shooting for a balance right on the line of familiar and unfamiliar. I never even expected to release this track but when I showed this track to friends and collaborators, they went crazy for it! This solidified, in my mind, the idea that…
If you enjoy something, there are other people that will enjoy that thing too!! Trust yourself!
This song started as a fun exploration in some sound design I had created months before, but had never used. Here is that loop!
The loop was called “nXi_cangrains_120” which meant that the original sample was captured by my apartment-mate, Iver Atkins, and I, the original sample was a can being hit, and I had used some granular effects to mess around with it a bit (my go-to granular effect is Portal by Output ;) This lead to the intro which is a pitch-bent version of that sample which lead the sound-world of the song.
The other backbone was an 808 I used FL Studio’s FLEX to create, and subsequently used various effects (bitcrusher, distortion, convolution) to change the timbre as it moves through the song. Here are some variations of the bass used:
The defining moment of the tracks creation was when I found the ARP 2600 recreation by Arturia. This became the melodic voice acting as a very simple higher partner to the melodics of the bass. The rhythm of this ARP 2600 preset was reminiscent to TNGHT’s music such as “Gooo” which I had been listening to around the time I was producing this, in admiration of the pull of simple sounds used well.
I’m always very focused on rhythm, as a listener and creator of music, so I try to make sure that each sound fits well with the sounds and rhythms around it, but with this track, I wanted pull the feeling of rhythm as far as I could; the tempo is fairly defined but the use of off-beats and abnormal melodies makes it hard to keep track of sometimes… until…
31 seconds in…
Right after the second “WHOA” of the song, all of the rhythms come together to give, just for a few second, a real groove, which, over the span of 8 bars is subsequently simplified before yet again being dispersed into obscurity after a rising “chorus” section (1:04).
The original sounds of the song are reintroduced, but just as it settles back into a vibe, 1:28 hits and we’re yet again thrust into a confusing, rhythm-less section that slowly gains structure as it approaches 1:44 and a completely new section is introduced!
BUT finally… this song would have never been created without a small favor from my friend, Pellet Project. He is an amazing sound designer that makes crazy music all from scratch and one day I had asked him for some of his custom kick and snares because his had a level of snap + beef that I couldn’t find anywhere else!! One of those kicks became the main kick that created the impact and snap of the 808s. HUGE thanks to him for that kick and make sure to check him out!!
Take a listen to the track below!
I’ll be making a breakdown video for this song as well, eventually, but until then……
You can find a sample pack with all of the samples from this project that I synthesized or created from scratch. I can’t include the stems in the pack, but the sample pack does come with a free download of all the stems if you are interested in seeing how the different tacks come together.