ANATOMY #1 : Legend4ry - Wandering

[legend4ry]

Software used:
DAW: FL10 (well, it was made on 9 - I am using 10 now)
Synths: 3xosc, ReFX Nexus
Effects: Fruity Compressor, Fruity Parametric EQ2, Fruity Delay, Fruity Limiter, Fruity Chorus, Fruity Convolver, Fruity Free FIlter, Fruity Phaser, Fruity Reverb2, CamelCrusher, The Glue.

Time Spent On Track : 17 hours 47 Minutes.



Structure



For this track (and most my track) i try to write in 8-16 bar switch ups; meaning that in every 8-16 bars at least one thing will be slightly different to the last 8-16 be that a b-line change or a change in high hats or a multiple amount of things.
Heres an example of that.



By 64 bars I find if a track is looping itself, nothing changing up or coming in - its boring; so by 64 bars it really comes alive!



For the breakdown; I introduced a new pad and made it 34 bars; yes 34! Why? Because I feel like the 2nd drop is too nice not to let it play; this is a big middle finger for DJ's who want to mix my track out before the second drop; so I made it sound iffy when you mix out before the 2nd.



For the second drop; I made a stripped down just pure space,pace and bass so 1) its easier to mix out of after that annoying 34 bar breakdown and 2) I feel the track needed a nice clam part after the busy arrangement in the first.



Mixer

A bit of a messy mixer - a total of 40 track; some are used, some are not - they're all named something weird; really not worth making any sense of it!





Drum bus



Reverb bus 2 (1st isn't interesting)



There is no other really interesting channel strips; just EQing, compressors and some have chorus and phasers.

If there is anything else you'd wanna know, just ask.

Soundcloud

Try and listen for the various different drum pattens and bassline changes to prove what I tried to achieve with this track; something which doesn't have much to it but can still be interesting to listen to.



I have tried to keep this broad so people can listen ask "how did you do this" and stuff like that so its not just a thread you browse at a say "cool". So if there is anything else you'd wanna know, ask!


Due to the track being forthcoming; I would appreciate people NOT to embed it anywhere or send that secret link outside of here- sure I can't enforce that but i'm just asking .

[wub]

Nice one mate, thanks for doing this

[Electric_Head]

good point wub, thanks are in order.

Thanks Legend4ry

[JFK]

Nice one Lege! Interesting stuff

[wub]

Drum bus

Okay, question;

Why have parametric EQ at the start and end of the effects chain - what were you looking to get out of it with this?

[Disco Nutter]

Generally EQ-ing after and before compression equals different final results and character. Maybe you want the compressor to boost only certain frequencies, or you want to EQ some of them afterwords.

Maybe his compressor added lower harmonics that he wanted to high pass?

Think there should be more on this on Gearslutz.

Also, some information on the Sound on Sound site:
Q. Should I EQ first or compress first?

[wub]

Cheers man, will check the link later

[hutyluty]

Very interesting, can't really tell whats going on in all the effects chains and whatnots but the structure is good to look at especially for the amount of tracks in there, the small amount used in the sequencer, makes me feel i should rdefiniyrely start playing with the individual fx chains of drums and singular parts of combined pads/textures

[__________]

No automation?

[legend4ry]

Drum bus

Okay, question;

Why have parametric EQ at the start and end of the effects chain - what were you looking to get out of it with this?

The Fruity Limiter adds a lot of colour so I EQ'd out some of the low end after it but boosted the 100hz range to give the kick punch audible presence.

Very interesting, can't really tell whats going on in all the effects chains and whatnots but the structure is good to look at especially for the amount of tracks in there, the small amount used in the sequencer, makes me feel i should rdefiniyrely start playing with the individual fx chains of drums and singular parts of combined pads/textures

There are around 4-8 different bass "pattens" and about double that of drums, what I usually do is write 1 really good drum patten and 1 really good b-line then paste it on the sequencer for 128 bars and every time it gets a bit boring; duplicate either bass/drums and then make an alternative; listen through that a handful of times until I have a good flow which has a nice amount of changes (to save me having e48394329482309482397583 things going on to compensate for loopy-ness)

No automation?

Nah automation pisses me off.

[mekha]

I like the track but is a little bit repetitive, have you thought about bouncing some percussion chunks and chop them a bit and add more contrast? Automation would help a lot too.. why it pisses you off?

[__________]

18 hours and no automation What the hell do you spend your time on??!?!!?

[BeastModeForDummies]

amazing post thanks dude

[hudson]

18 hours and no automation What the hell do you spend your time on??!?!!?

LOL
Probably writing the music.

[legend4ry]

Most of the time was spent with the project up not actually doing anything to be fair I'd just sit with it on loop till something get boring then work out a way to change that.

A lot of the time (probably 5+ hours) was spent on mixing and replacing sounds. I had a lot of trouble with getting a kick and snare to "work" in this one.

And to who suggested adding more stuff; I play-tested this track in clubs on multiple occasions and it WAS a lot less repetitive but it didn't quite hit the same on the dancefloor, so this is the take which stuck! It seems to get the people vibin' the most and its part of my more dancefloor-orientated EP.

Soundcloud

You can hear the other tracks here ^

[Manic Harmonic]

Is 18 hours spent on it just a guess, or did you actually keep track of the time? Just curious.

[legend4ry]

FL10 tracks how long the project files been opened for.

[Manic Harmonic]

that's pretty cool, i wish logic had something like that... although im not sure if i want to know how many hours ive spent on some songs haha...

[sashwat]

bumping this up for an incredible tune Second drop is so tasty. Just rinsed this one on the radio today

[narcissus]

way cool. i've always thought your music was well deep, leg.

delay after reverb on the bus? whatever floats your boat. i always wire them parallel style, then send them tob each other if i want extra space. just sounds super clean that way.

if i have time may make one of these, since i have a VERY different production style that might benefit some people -- lots of automation.