Song of the Month 2010.03 - 別れ霜

Song of the Month 2010 #3



Song title: 別れ霜 ("wakarejimo")
Audio file: http://kurtasbestos.com/ongaks/Panda_Left-wakarejimo.mp3
Date Recorded: 2010.03.31
Equipment: KORG DS-10, KORG D888

Concept: I'm not really sure when I started this one, but I think it was just something I randomly started one day on the walk to work when whatever song I was working on was starting to get frustrating. It has a decidedly more "heavy" sound than the songs I usually make, and at some point I decided that I kind of liked it, so I started working towards completing it.

Process: One of the first things I experimented with on this song were sounds that span multiple loops. I got about as far as the first "breakdown" thing, and it wasn't until I realized the potential of that one drum sound that lasts several loops that I decided what direction I wanted to take the song. The rest came together pretty easily after that, and I was actually surprised to find that I was doing a good job of conserving patterns up until the end. I finished this song before the end of March, but having very little time left towards the end, the final transition and last section could definitely use some work. Oh yeah, and I haven't done anything about stereo effects and placement. Overall, though, I'm pretty happy with how quickly I was able to whip this song together.

Comments: Another month, another DS-10 song. As I mentioned previously, my DS-10 family has motivated me to spend more time working on music. My main hope was that besides working on these songs, it would encourage me to work on my much fancier songs that utilize my Electribe and Triton at home. The song of the month for March was supposed to be one of those songs, but the first half of the month was spent re-learning how to play that song, and after that I had a hard time continuing it. I think with the DS-10's songs only having 16 patterns, filling them up is a clear goal to work towards, and I don't have that with my other songs. Oh well... this screws up my plans for the next few songs of the month(s?), but hopefully I'll either finish two songs in one month, or finish March's song for April and go from there.