Devdiary: A little bit of progress on SEAR

(SEAR (A-D-C-A) is one of the tracks on my ballyhooed Body to Soul project, and this diary is an attempt to pump myself up to finish it this year.)

I've downloaded a free sampler called Grace, which has been a godsend for little ol' me. I can't afford the full Ableton yet. I don't need it yet either. My producer-fu is still a bit weak.

Anyway, the big thing about Grace is that it allows you to use multiple samples, as opposed to Ableton's Simpler, which merely squashes or stretches a sample to change pitch. The important thing is to disable the preview, otherwise adjusting sample maps can get flaky.

So far I'm using two packs from Samples From Mars: SID From Mars and Soviet Synths From Mars. Making the maps is a drudge, but it should pay dividends in the long run with a distinctive sound. (SID From Mars gives a nice chiptune feel to things and reminds me of when I'd happily sit in front of the Commodore 64 listening to music in demos or such.)

I also have a load of bass/melody loops from somewhere. And last night, while faffing around with the possibility of a second lead line, I found a MIDI that, once repitched, made a nice change from the more repetitious variations of A-D-C-A I had earlier. This is good, since I tend to song map as follows:

• Open up the root folder of my music collection.
• Roll a random number.
• If it's a folder, open it, then repeat #2; else import into the project and apply markers.

SEAR ended up with Xavier Cugat's Tea for Two, which has things changing slightly every eight bars. Not exactly riveting! I stretched each 'verse' out to double the length, to pass the 4-minute minimum length.

With this new MIDI clip, as well as an accompanying one that would work great for a bridge or build-up, SEAR might actually get its song map filled out. Which is an important step.

Just need to song map SOAR, SOUR and SOUL next.