DAW Audio Composition Project
Posted on February 3, 2022 | By tftvmotn | Leave a response
Summary
This project was basically what I do at home but on a mac. While following the same song structure as the track Black Paint by Death Grips, I put together an experimental electronic track. I used traffic sounds to add some noise for fun and had some aggressive bass with booming drums and some bright synths to balance things out and add some melody. The switch-up section almost 2 minutes in, I made entirely at home before we started this project. I thought it fit perfectly for the huge bridge section that the song gave me to play with. It made the track feel even more alien, futuristic, and chaotic. Very fun and very worth it. I love producing!
Audio File Formats and Definitions
AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format): stores standard CD-quality audio; similar to WAV (Higher Quality)
WAV (Waveform Audio File Format): CD audio; can be saved with different sampling and bit rates; similar to AIFF (Higher Quality)
MP3 (Audio File): Used to store audiobooks and music on a hard drive; Close to CD-quality sound; the higher quality sound comes from higher bit rates which also take up more storage space
MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface): music data: notes played, when notes are played, how long each note is played, and the velocity of each note played; used to be able to exchange and use information between software and hardware programs; no actual audio data
All the audio file format information is found at: fileinfo.com
Song Used As Template
This song was not actually my original choice. I was planning on following the song On GP, also by Death Grips. I ended up choosing this one instead because On GP features some explicit language and I love this song too anyway so I was happy. This song also has quite an odd structure which made this project very fun for me!
GarageBand Tracks
My Composition
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PoO4zKzhz4RVQYFNVYjdpolmkbxI85kT/view
Here is a link to the finished song.
What I Learned & Problems I Solved
It was interesting using GarageBand on a mac. I have a lot of experience with the mobile version so I was mostly familiar with the software but, I did have to learn where everything was and how to use it on mac. There were a few moments where something glitched or went wrong with something I was trying to do but, knowing GarageBand, I knew that the solution was most likely to save, close, then reopen the project and it would fix itself. It worked each time. I had a lot of fun making this track!
This video was very helpful in getting the hang of everything on mac.