23 in '13 Song #2" Only An Idea

Song #2: Only An Idea

Forging ahead from Song One last time, I decided that another "limitation" project would be good. For some reason, the part of my brain that does songwriting things hasn't quite clicked back on yet, so finding song structures has been a little challenging. I've found that limiting myself to a certain toolset can help focus my creative process, so I went with it again this time. So, I decided that I would compose the entire song using my new Roland XV-5080. (I actually came into possession of this magic box last spring...thanks, Gene! Then life happened, and I had no energy for learning new gear. Yeah, yeah, there I go, ragging on last year again. Demons, out!)

Anyway, anyone with a passing knowledge of this wonderful instrument should already be saying, "composing a song using that one synth is not a limitation". This is true: the sound options with just the built-in patches is huge, nevermind the tweaking possibilities. For me, it was more an exercise in getting used to outboard MIDI equipment, and how it integrates into my workflow. Things learned: there are two MIDI-in jacks on the back because the MIDI spec only allows for 16 voices per channel, and the XV-5080 has 32 voices. Configuring the XV and Logic to address all 32 voices took me a night of poking at buttons. It says something about modern musicmaking that sometimes, a night's good accomplishment can be technical, as well as musical.

Which leads me to song #2. The feel of it developed out of a patch that I stumbled across while playing with the XV sound editor, a very CS-80 sort of patch. The composition very quickly became a game of how much I could layer as the song went on. It didn't end up getting that silly; I only ended up with 17 tracks of external MIDI, and two tracks of vocals.

A few notes about the vocals. For whatever reason, as I was composing the music, I heard the vocal style I wanted...but damned if I knew what I wanted the song to say. I wrote the lyrics for sound as much as words. I ended up with nature and music imagery, which I think fits the swirling stuff going on pretty well.

The background vocals was another experiment: it was my first time recording using a Digitech Vocalist for "automatic harmony". The cool thing about this piece of kit is that the chord changes on it can be triggered via MIDI, rather than having to poke at it manually...so I got it programmed (via its own track in Logic) and then was able to retreat into the closet for recording. It went OK, but I think I could tweak its settings a bit more to work with my voice...nevermind that I just wasn't in good voice tonight. (Getting my MIDI network fully operational was my other learning experience this week...what a tangled web we weave when first we network our MIDI!)

Overall, I'm pleased with how this song turned out. I gotta say, I'm a little surprised that I've written two electronic pieces so far, as it's not a genre I've ever worked in much. Such is the fun of a songwriting project...you never know exactly what's going to pop out from week to week, but you just go with it.