'Layers' - New Original Music! - Electronic/Dance/Instrumental + Walkthrough!

grapthar (74)in #music • 7 years ago

This song was an exercise

in adding as many layers as possible, building up the harmony and rhythms more and more. I don't really think this is going to be an actual song that I would share as on an "album" or something, but I think it turned out kind of cool, and the process of how the harmonies change throughout is actually pretty interesting, if unintentional. Let's get into it, LOTS of tracks here haha.

Listen to Layers here

Track 1 is what we begin

the song with, it's the theramin tone, which has a long glide on it, so if I held a high note and then hit a staccato lower note, it sort of would suck the higher note down, making a cool sound. Track 2 is just a super quiet digital beep sort of pattern, which comes in at the end of every 2 bars. Track 3 is the first percussion track, and is a grouping of wood blocks and some little cymbal/shaker hits, which I used to begin the beat.

Track 1, described above.

Track 4 is our second drum

track of 4 total, and has Electric Drum kit samples. This adds the kick and snare to the hihat rhythm Track 3 was already doing. Track 5 is ANOTHER drum kit, responsible for a few heavy, deep kick hits to accent everything else. The last "percussion" track is Track 12, which adds some weird digital sounding hits to the rhythm.

Listen to Layers here

Next is Track 6,

which is a beepy melody line, with a bit of delay. Basically just plays C-G, and F-C. Track 7 is an electric piano tone, which changes up the harmonies on our first note each time around, by playing an E natural over the C's below it, so it sounds like we resolve to C major (the parallel major), after each time around, though all the other chords are still in C minor. Track 8 is a deep, bassy, distorted synth, and it just plays single staccato 1/8 notes on the 1 of each measure when it comes in, adding some extra bass notes of C and F, played 2x.

Track 9, described below.

Track 9 is an acoustic guitar sample

of a minor chord, which plays C, F and G minor, as pictured above. Not sure how much this fits, but at this point, I was just interested in LAYERS! Tracks 10 and 11 mirror each other, though 10 comes in first. These just play a little melodic fill at the end of every 2 measures when other instruments rest.

Listen to Layers here

Tracks 13 and 14

also mirror each other, though 13 is a lapharp, and 14 synth is a super synthy saw tone. Track 15 is our LAST track, and is a synth with an arpeggiator playing 1/16th notes. I have attached a screenshot below so you can see what it plays.