With this project, I wanted to make something that sounds familiar to todays hip-hop, but also unusual.  I also wanted to make something that's complex and simple in the same time. I spent most of my time looking for the right instruments for this track. I like using sounds that are easy to listen to, but I also wanted to make a track that have enough transients to thump in the club. 

The first thing I started working on was the drums. The tempo for this track is  at 84 bpm and the time signature is set to 5/4. One of the key ingredients for this track to stand out is that, it’s an odd meter track. Most modern hip-hop songs are using 4/4 or 4/8. An odd meter time signature gives it an unusual groove.  I used a trap style drums, and that’s one of the key ingredients to make this song sound familiar. Thats what's the unusual and familiar comes from. Trap beats are the most requested type of beats by a lot of rap artists nowadays. The drum instrument selection is what gives this track that distinctive sound. I used two 808’s for this track. Each 808 have a different purpose. One has a lower frequency and the other have more distortion. The first one is a stock 808 sound from Logic’s Alchemy which has a low pass filter to get rid of some of the top end so it sounds cleaner when you hear it from the subs and the other is a distorted 808 from my 808 collection folder which has a high pass filter getting that's getting rid of a lot of low end to put more emphasis on the distortion so you can hear it better from smaller listening device like phones and tablets. 

Most of the track is in the key signature of E minor and the last 8 bars of the track is a parallel key which is in E major. The E minor gives it a darker sound, so when it the E major section comes on, it brightens up the whole song. I used an electric piano for most of the melody on this track, then I switched  it to a mellotron for the last 8 bars to give it a classical vibe. The first 8 bars are labeled as section A, which I considered the hook. Section B have 16 bars that I considered the verse. Section C is the bright part of the song that can be used as a bridge, outro, or an intro. I like to give the client a chance to make that decision. 

Section A chords was in em / em7 / am / bm7 repeated twice. Section B is in em / em7 / am / f#o repeated 4 times. Section C is parallel to Section A which I used E / E7 / A / B7.  The melody for this track is a combination of an interval, ascending, and an arch melody.  For the chords I used a combination of 2 pads. The first pad I used is a simple space pad from Alchemy. The second pad, I synthesized it with a retro synthesizer which have a slow enough attack to make it sound reversed even if it’s not. Also, in section C I added some synth bells that I spent a couple of hours on getting the right sound. I did not use presets on the synthesizers. I tweaked them myself. 

I have 2 audio tracks for this project. I recorded chants to give the track character. The other is a producer tag that I recorded through pro tools which I tracked going through a LA-2A compressor with 2 to 3db of gain reduction. I wanted to record a vocal that serves as an instrument, so it will still have room for a lead and more background vocals. Recording the chants was a quick process. I keep everything connected in my studio. I designed my studio for a faster workflow. The less time I have to spend being all over the room, the more time I can spend being creative. When I record myself, I have an app in my IPad that can control most of DAW’s that I used to control Logic and Pro Tools that makes recording myself easier. This app is called V-Control. This app allows you to control the DAW from the booth.  

I have an EQ on all the tracks except for the synth bells since I synthesized it myself while looping that particular section. The only thing I have on it is a flanger directly on the track to let the bells bounce back and forth from the left and the right speakers. Mixing this track was pretty simple, because I took my time picking the right instruments that work well together. The EQ’s I used are to notch out frequencies I don’t like. I have a compressor on the kick with 5db of gain reduction to give it more punch. I also have a light compression on the snares. I side chained the low 808’s to the kick since they share a lot of frequencies around 150hz, so when the kick hits, it dips the attack on the low 808’s. This technique helps both kick and the 808’s the cut through the speakers better. I also routed all the drums to the drum bus to parallel compressed them. Parallel compression makes the drums pop more on the track. The clap and the main melody have sends to chorus but very subtle. The chants in the track have the most processing. I have an eq, compressor, gate, stereo spread, distortion, reverb, an 8thnote delay, and a flanger. The producer tag have a desser, band pass filter, stereo spread, reverb, flanger, and a tape delay. I also side chained the tape delay with the vocals, so I don’t have  to automate it.