How I Did It
Key Of Love (Blue)by Quarkstar
Uses samples from:
Tools I Used
Instruments
Drums, Ableton Session Drums Club, Kit-BrushSizzle
Piano, Native Instruments Maverick
Bass, Ample Sound Bass P
Guitar, Music Lab Real Strat
Lead Sound, Synapse DUNE 2 Wurly Lite (Modified)
Electric Hum, Synapse DUNE 2 Organ Ultra Soft
Effects
Old Style Compressor, Airwindows Pyewacket
Bass, Airwindows AcousticBass
Guitar, Native Instruments Guitar Rig, Tweed and Cat
Tape Distortion, Airwindows Iron Oxide
Vocals, Chorus, Acon Digital Multiply
Mixing Desk
Analog buss emulation, Airwindows Console4
EQ Tokyo Dawn Slick EQ
Limiter, Fabfilter Pro-L
Process
I really wrote the tune according to snowflake's lyrics.
“The low hum of Electricity is silent” became the Organ playing in G to represent a dying tube.
“Spark of a match connect with wick” is a match striking sound effect.
“and deep double bass”, I couldn’t find a double bass and used an electric bass instead.
“the piano and trumpet together swoon” obviously a piano, but I could not find a decent trumpet and used a DUNE 2 synthesiser with a a Wurly patch. It had the right tone but I edited it to become a solo instrument with legato.
“joined by brushes on a snare”.
“into a Kind of Blue” is a reference to Miles Davies album. I listened to the album for the first time absorbing the sounds and music. I picked the first tune "So What" to use for the structure.
The tune starts with the scratches of an LP, the scratches are edited to create a rhythm.
The 75 BPM came from the length of snowflakes verses, so I could fit a verse into 4 bars. The vocals are warped slightly to fall on the beats.
The form is AABA over three sections. Two modes are used, 8 bars D Phrygian, 8 bars E Phrygian, 12 bars D Phrygian, the tune finishes on a G major. The tune is quite short as it is written to snowflakes timing and is really a musical illustration of the lyrics.
Piano chords are:
A - Left hand D2 A2 D3, Right Hand Dm. Then Left Hand D2 G2 C3 D3, Right Hand Em.
B - Left hand as above. Right Hand Em, then Right Hand Dm.
In the central section Piano chords are:
A - Left Hand D2 B2 E3, Right Hand Em. Then Left Hand D2 A2 D3 E3, Right Hand F#m
B - Left hand as above. Right Hand F#m, then Em
I lay down the piano chords first, then the vocals and wrote the music around that foundation.
The brush pattern is a Tresillo midi file from Wikipedia.
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