The Way Back Home
Notes on The Way Back Home
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore 3, Studio One 6 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 6 Professional
Number of tracks: 14
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Sample One (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and Recording period: Apr 30 2023 - May 14 2023, Sep 4 2023 - Sep 17 2023
3 x 5 = 15
(TM writes:)
The concept of this work is that odd numbers don't have to be necessarily used for oddness.
As you might have recognised, the basic pattern is three bars in length, which is one of the odd numbers. In general music we seldom see three bars patterns, because it sounds odd, I guess. Nevertheless, it can sound quite natural rather than it does odd; this is a small experiment we made here in the track.
Another one is to make 5-4 time quite natural as well. FMT have tried to create groove in 5-4 in many works so far, such as Spa Music, Underground and Equatorial Deliverance. (I'm very likely to be one of the composers who have written most 5-4 time works!)
Therefore, this works adopts an odd structure of 3 bars times 5 beats, which is said to be a 15 beats pattern.
In the pattern, which appears first in the track, the scale we use is simply nearly the G major scale, even though the harmonies are a bit more complex. Furthermore, an arpegio that joins next repeats a pattern of nine 16th-notes, or 2.25 beats and doesn't keep on track of the G major scale by using A-flat.
The polyrhythm, which FMT are addicted to apply for more than half of our tracks at least, is exposed. But just remember, the "normal" polyrhythm combines typically an odd beat with an even beat like 3 with 4 or 2. Here, instead, 5 and 2.25 are designed to be parallel, both of which I think are far from the human biorhythm.
I know it's "very odd", but it doesn't sound "odd", does it? Our intention is, at least, NOT.
When you go back home from an amazing wandering, have you experienced something like ambivalent feelings? It's like you have to go back to work and the holiday will be soon over, but would like to stay more at the site... but, on the other hand, you miss your homeland a little bit and you are tired with travelling around the places very new to you.
The complex but natural-sounding structure of the polyrhythm and scale would suit such a situation, which was my intention.
Isn't it your case, by the way, that on the way to the destination you are excited and active enough to do many things, while on the way back home you are just sleepy and get home relatively quickly? In this album the way to there takes three tracks, compared to the way home where it takes just one track.
Mixing
(TI writes:)
Overall, the mix is intended to be 'soft and clear'.
The sound is almost the same as the sound used in MuseScore, but I did the following processing in the mix.
For the synth pad sound, a compressor was used to suppress the Chorus and a thin delay, making it sound a little more distant and inverted phase.
This makes the synth pad sound deeper and wider, and acoustic instruments such as the piano sound more lifelike.
This kind of inverse phase processing is contraindicated in analogue recording, and if you do this with instrumental sounds, the localisation becomes diffuse, unnatural and difficult to hear, but this kind of pad and phrases where you don't want to make the movement and harmony of the sound clear can sound diffuse and pleasant, and because the centre is empty, The advantage is that you can put the sound there.
The Hawaiian Guitar in the MuseScore soundfont has a thin delay and chorus applied to it.
The Nylon Guitar has different types of delays applied in different places, with the delay components skipped to the right or spread to the left or right.
The Piano has room reverb applied throughout. The piano sound used is originally very hard and rich in overtones, so it is EQ'd to suppress the overly resonant high notes and a compressor is used to cut down the attack a little.
The Guitar is run through a guitar amp simulator and set to an on-mic setting to give it the feel of sounding like it's in a room.
That's all.
However, I have to fine-tune the mix balance from place to place in the song, as different sounds come in and out, which increases or decreases the overall volume of the song. I probably spent the most time on this process.
We also made each part mono, except for the synth pad, to localise it more clearly and intelligibly.
To ensure that the overall volume does not suddenly drop or rise in the middle of the song, and that the dynamics of each part are utilised, I wrote detailed volume adjustment sequence information for each part and effect sound, and adjusted it over and over again over time.
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