Construction of soundtrack

I am making the soundtrack for our Media production as this is something which already interests me and is a hobby of mine which I enjoy doing. This also has a benefit to the group as we can make the soundtrack specific to the trailer by making it fit to certain shots. For example, we can use loud bass heavy booms when we need to build tension and we can use crescendos and other uplifters to build suspense in certain shots.

This is the completed soundtrack which you can listen to and below I have split it up into different production stages to help explain how I made it:

The software which will be used is Apple's Logic Pro 9 which is a highly advanced piece of music production software. It has lots of effects plug-ins and lots of VST instruments which we can use in the piece to create different sounds and it also has lots of audio effects such as reverb and distortion to make the texture of the sound thicker and make it more cinematic. 

Before the piece was started I browsed through some of my sample packs for sounds which I think would have been appropriate to the piece I had in mind. I already knew that I wanted to work at the tempo of 130bpm as this is quite andante and fits the walking pace of the gangsters. I also used influences from genres such as 'grime' and 'dubstep' as I used drum beats at half time which make the piece seem tense, because you know it is building up to something, but it teases you in the way that it appears slower than it is. 

The software which will be used is Apple's Logic Pro 9 which is a highly advanced piece of music production software. It has lots of effects plug-ins and lots of VST instruments which we can use in the piece to create different sounds and it also has lots of audio effects such as reverb and distortion to make the texture of the sound thicker and make it more cinematic. 

Before the piece was started I browsed through some of my sample packs for sounds which I think would have been appropriate to the piece I had in mind. I already knew that I wanted to work at the tempo of 130bpm as this is quite andante and fits the walking pace of the gangsters. I also used influences from genres such as 'grime' and 'dubstep' as I used drum beats at half time which make the piece seem tense, because you know it is building up to something, but it teases you in the way that it appears slower than it is. 

I filtered through the sample packs (to the right) and found my favourite percussion samples and placed these onto seperate tracks within Logic. I then used effects such as reverb and echo to fill up a more sonic space and help hold the track together. Here is an example of how I manipulated 3 sounds. The original will play and then the edited one will follow.

Here is an overview of the soundtrack in Logic once it had been completed.

 

This picture just shows all the layers together and how the sounds have been ordered. It also shows how things layer on top of each other and work together to build the piece up. 

This picture (above) shows a few of the plug-ins and effects I have used to manipulate the sound in the piece. The plug-ins show how you can alter little parts and it shows how there is so many little things that can work together to change the scope of the sound. You can use these effects on their own with one sound or you can use several built up on top of each other, for example you can add echo to a sound you have just distorted or added reverb to so it has more to it.

 

 

 

 

This picture shows the instrument track (in green) which is where I have used a MIDI keyboard to record in some notes. They are simple and just repeats of the note E, but the point was not to have a melody but a bassy note to add tension and a pace to the piece. It is also nicer to hear an actual note than just a sampled sound so it adds a more musical element to the piece. I used the plugin Albino3 (below) to make the sound.

 

 

Automation is also a vital part of the production process as it allows you to bring certain sounds in and out of the piece which allows it to be specific to certain parts and it makes a sound seem as if it is weaving through the piece which is just an interesting thing to listen to. Here (picture below) is what one of my sections looked like in terms of automation, where I adjusted the volume levels to make it fade from quiet to loud. The yellow lines represent the level of volume.

 

 

Another key element of the production is the opening. Once the piece had finished we realised it would need some kind of introduction to bring in and accompany the opening credits, it had to be short but cinematic and fast. To do this, I used an 808 'boom' sample with a kick drum on top to giveit a punch, I then reversed another 808 drum sample so it faded out but came back in and when it finished its reverse I added a snare hit to lead the credits into the production. The snare hit also had reverb so it dragged on to link the two sections together. Here is what our introduction sounded like.