Studio Feed: Starting from Scratch #1 Pt. 3

Hey Everyone, back with the third session of Track #1. In this one I was still trying to get a better groove, messing with more loops, the tom pattern, and other stuff before just ending up turning the track to breakbeat. I think it's headed in a cool direction now--the breakbeat matches the 80's cold-wave vibe and makes it a bit more fun. Some more notes below:

-I start the session by bringing more clarity to the bass by taking chorus and reverb off of Repro and doing it in parallel on aux channels instead. I then separate the bass into two parts, with the higher notes on a duplicate channel. This was because I liked how those rung out and overlapped the following notes in the sequence but couldn't have the lower notes overlapping without it sounding muddy and clogged. There's plenty of ways to skin this cat but since I'm free from CPU problems I decided to just duplicate Repro and make the channel with the lower notes monophonic so that the notes can never overlap even with long release settings.

-I do a bit of mixing and enhancement for the following 20 minutes or so, as well as trying various things to the drums and groove to see if it can be improved. 

-Around 22:00 I start looking for a characterful drum loop to drag in to see if that can't do the trick. I find a nice breakbeat loop and spend the next 10 minutes chopping and finessing it to make it simpler while also extending the overall pattern length and getting it to work with the track. This is a nice section to check out because I don't just settle for throwing the loop on and moving on. I cut and move little bits of it around on multiple separate occasions until it's right. I can't stress enough how important this can be for making a sampled drum loop (especially breaks) work in a song. If the pattern in the loop isn't what you want, you don't have to just accept it. You can cut an extra unwanted kick out and replace it with a hi hat from somewhere else in the loop. Or double the length, replace the first long open hi hat with a closed hat and keep the second one long (so now you've got variation). Even this short 1 bar loop had enough material for me to make it my own.

-At 36:00 I make the loop even simpler by removing a kick and then I'm happy with it. 

-Around 40 min I start experimenting with different build up/transition ideas. I'm keen to have a section where its super hi-passed and have the energy building without any bass before the kick slams back in.

-At 48:45 I start working on a simple background arp/melody for the build and drop.

Drop any questions below and lemme know if this format is working for you!