So, I have this class.
It's called Writing, Research, and Tech, and for this class, I must take on a “DIY Project” in which, at the end, I will have made something with my hands. I contemplated pottery, sculpture, painting—but in the end, I settled on music production. My goal is to make an EP, with a tentative tracklist of 3 songs, and I’ve spent the last two weeks getting my feet wet. My time in GarageBand has yielded some middling results, but I take solace in knowing that I’m more musically inclined than I previously thought.
My roadmap and expectations are constantly changing. Sometimes I feel the second coming of Mozart, and sometimes I feel like the second coming of Limp Bizkit. Effectively, I’m starting from a negative amount of musical experience, so I’ve relied heavily on Youtube guides to get me through learning basic music theory, and soon, songwriting. A list of the guides I’ve used will be attached below. My first time in GarageBand was a euphoric experience. At first, I was overwhelmed by all the widgets and menus and tabs, but with a little help from my (digital) friends, within the hour I was able to understand the basics and even start composing my own parts.
My first true breakthrough was utilizing GaragBand’s keyboard feature, where my MacBook’s keyboard can double as any instrument in the program’s library. While I lacked any compositional knowledge, and still do, I now had the tools to make my own songs from the ground up. I spent some time messing around with this, programming in different instruments and putting different melodies together. I didn’t make much headway in that regard, but I was at least familiar with where to find sounds, instruments, and loops. I soon learned that working with pre-programmed loops is like eating junk food: it feels really good at the moment, but afterwards, you’re left with regret. Over the next day, I was able to cobble together my own dance track with loops and my own pitifully composed drum part of three repeating notes. As a final flourish, however, I did include a voice clip of my friend Steven Flickinger, which I got from the raw audio of our podcast, to complete the track. The voice clip gave the song its name, “I Can’t Take It Anymore!” When it was done, I was proud to have made a song, but it felt like I had just borrowed the tools to get the job done. I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I made a song from scratch.
Between explicit goals, I spent this interim period learning the basics of music theory and song construction. A very informative creator named Ethan Davis, a professional musician producer, became my music production sensei. From him, I learned about the “5 Element Formula” and chords. My limits, as well as Garageband’s, were apparent to me. I only had my laptop to work with, and I had found a comfort in GarageBand that I wasn't quite willing to give up by switching to other programs such as FL Studio or Ableton. Frankly, they scare me. At this stage, I was content to remain in GarageBand in order to refine my fundamentals.
As a kind of benchmark, I next set my eyes on making a mashup. At first, I wanted to make a cover, but I took a good, hard look at my current skill set and knew that I neither had the time nor knowhow to either manipulate or recreate a popular song. But growing up on the internet, I’ve become something of a mashup connoisseur. Bringing together two disparate songs in a process of symbiosis—nay, synthesis—has a mad scientist energy that I’m very much into. I took an old mashup stand-by, “Axel F” by Crazy Frog, and mashed it up with one of my favorite songs, “Waiting for Magic” by Ace of Base, resulting the monstrosity I have dubbed “Crazy Magic.”
Alas, I must admit defeat, as I couldn’t create my magnum opus in GarageBand. Learning the ways of the mashup really showed me how little I knew. I learned, however, that the most important thing about mashups is matching the tempos of each song. But before I got there, I needed raw materials. Stem files, the holy grail for mashups, contain files for each instrument used in whatever song you’re looking for, but they are exceedingly rare, and most mashup artists simply work with each song’s isolated vocals and instrumental. So that’s what I did. A helpful guide from creator Mako Ray (one of the funniest guides I’ve ever watched, honestly,) showed me the site Audiostrip, which would allow me to get the raw vocals and instrumental I needed. With a little help from 4K Videodownloader, I could convert the Youtube links to MP3 files, thus making them compatible with Audiostrip.
Then came the roadblock.
I imported my materials into GarageBand, and when I went to make the tempos of the Ace of Base vocals to the Crazy Frog instrumental…I couldn’t. I searched high and low, but I couldn’t find a way to change the tempos of individual tracks in Garageband. The program only allows tempos change of the entire project. I foolishly expected the music processing software to actually be able to process my music. And so, I turned to my oldest friend, Final Cut Pro, a software in which I knew you could change the speed of individual clips. It was precarious at first, but the euphoria I experienced after hearing the first verse of “Waiting for Magic” soar over the opening notes of Crazy Frog, I swear I started to float.
I then realized the uphill nature of my task. Final Cut’s time changing feature isn’t as precise as I would have liked, so instead of matching tempos beat for beat, I settled for a “good enough” approach. I did what I could. I tried not to just line up the instrumental and vocals and call it day; I wanted to make something new. I cut up some Crazy Frog vocals and threw them in, started chopping up and repeating some clips to serve as a transition, and when I got tired of hearing this monstrosity I had made, I decided to end it early.
“Crazy Magic” was where I last left off. Going forward, my next goal is to make real ground on my first song. At this point, I only want to worry about musical composition, so I’m using the words from my poem “The Resonance Hotel” as lyrics. My main inspiration for this project is the Holiday Sidewinder album The Last Resort. What captivates me about the album is how it characterizes The Last Resort as a place with other locations inside it. It accomplishes this with songs like “Aphrodite Rock” and “Crystal Bay.” I want to do something similar with The Resonance Hotel, a fancy hotel for demons. Using music to characterize a location is a fascinating idea to me. Once the first track takes shape, I want the second song to be elevator music for the hotel. Something ambient and understated, but without lyrics, there’s no focus to pull off the music, so I have to really nail it. Finally, the third and final song will be an original composition with all-new lyrics. Currently, that last track is a big question mark, but I’m confident that by the time I get there, I’ll have a better idea about the sound and shape it will take on.
As an experience, I can safely say that its equal parts frustrating and liberating. One hand, I have the ability to make whatever I want, but on the other, I don’t have the skill to close the gap. That’s been my foremost struggle. I’ve accepted that I will become a jack-of-all trades/ master-of-none. To be a music producer, you have to know a little bit of everything, and I’m perfectly fine with acquiring just enough knowledge to allow me to make the music I want. I know I’m going to wear my influences on my sleeve and come off a cheap copy of my betters, but that’s just how it's going to be. I can’t become a savant in just a few weeks.
This project has made a definite impact on how I listen to music. I find myself picking up on subtler details, like the bass, percussion, and how songs iterate on and expand sounds and sonic themes. On the other hand, it's sometimes demoralizing to compare myself to my idols. Its a reminder of mow much farther I have to go. Self-doubt is the bane of all artists, and despite the hill I have to climb, I have faith that I can get where I need to be.
Links to tutorials:
How to Use GarageBand — Tutorial for Beginners by Howfinity
Music production for Beginners 9Step by Step Masterclass by Ethan Davis
Customize GarageBand Drummer for YOUR song | The ULTIMATE GarageBand Beginner's Guide (Pt 14) by The Band Guide
how to write a song! (for beginners/noobs)
Music Theory for producers (This is All You Need) by Ethan Davis
How to Make a (Good) Mashup by Mako Ray
Japan's favorite chord progression and why it works
Resources:
Garageband
Audiostrip — https://audiostrip.co.uk/isolate
4K Videodownloader+
Final Cut Pro
