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| A cup of coffee - A completed song - A Happy Dude! |
It's tough trying to keep up with writing a blog more frequently so I'm gonna cheat, baby.
Between recording and mixing and living a regular life I try to squeeze out some textual content to share with the world. Due to lack of time, I've got to borrow something old.
I'm reaching way back into my "Nostalgia Files." I hate to let an old article slip by so I'm reprinting it here. Don't worry folks, I am the copyright owner so I can do as I please and I am pleased to please you by sharing another daring ditty of a blog with you.
This one was written in a not so distant past: October 29, 2009 to be exact. I just happen to love Blogger so much that I don't why I delved elsewhere, but if it is content you want it is content you got. No this is not recycled story just a little brief that was read by NOBODY so in essence it is NEW to you and the rest of the world's population. Thank You very much!
Enough of the polite rant! (Comments are made today in light blue.)
I’m revealing some secrets to my song's special effects
I just posted my next song (it is not a new one to me, but a new one to you!) on my MySpace page “Welcome To The Sonic Dimension”. The Sonic Dimension is the name of my band which is currently not doing anything. (No longer the name of a band but the name of a website and concept and a song and maybe an album.- RL) (BTW-what the heck happened to MySpace? Where are all my songs and friends and stuff? BUMMER! -RL)
Anyway the song is titled “The Horsemen”. Yes the song is somewhat about the Apocalypse. (Get ready for it, dudes! RL) The underlying rhythm to this song was written about 12 years ago. (1996. -RL) Most of the basic tracks were recorded in 2006/2007. (Gathering some dust, ha! -RL)
I wanted to create a song that to me would be very visual, almost movie-like. I originally had an ethereal theme trumpet at the beginning but scrapped it. :( If you listen to the guitar after the final chorus of the song, you could hear most of the trumpet theme as it fades out. But in this case the trumpet is played by the guitar using tone effects to give it that other-worldly feel. To further make it seem other-worldly I used multiple vocal blends to act as if there were four horsemen singing.
Aside from being movie-like but not necessarily as a soundtrack, I needed to add special effects to create the image of the horsemen arriving through the sky with the wind and thunder following them. Obviously I couldn’t come up with lightening on audio but the stereo effects of the thunder as it approaches can create that effect.
My intention was to make a frightening song, yet with a steady beat. I bypassed using a regular drum track and wanted the drums to sound as if you hear horses approaching and leaving and always keeping the same swift beat throughout as if they kept pace accomplishing what had to be accomplished. (The bell clanging sound was my guitar, too!)
The overall effect was to have the horsemen coming in from a distance, do what they had to do, break to wipe everything out (or perhaps every evil) from east to west, and leave just like they came. So they enter with a distant thunder and hooves beating with a few frightful screams.
In the horsemen “solo”, not my guitar solo by the way, they fly from left to right in a circular fashion along with wind and thunder. The ending has the theme of the horsemen but they fly off in wind and thunder and an after-sound – a scary hum. No hooves beating because I wanted it to seem as if they flew away into a cloud.
For the intro I used galloping horses along with two guitars and one bass mimicking hooves. The wind and thunder fade in from left to right with an eerie whistle. The whistle, of course, was a signal for the horses to come closer and proceed. (I can whistle, indeed! RL) If you listen to the intro several times you’ll pick up an echo of the whistle and right after that you may even swear it sounds like the horses are descending from a distance. Don’t ask me how I did this, it just works and it’s pretty spooky. Even the part where some of the horses stop and scream it sounds like a warning.
The “horsemen solo” is a thunder and wind solo. The wind is blowing in different tones and is random as the guitar swirls in a circular motion. I used a stereo flanger and phase shifter and two guitar tracks to create this effect. It’s as if the whooshing guitar is surrounding you. Of more importance, the guitar acts as a secondary sound effect to the thunder and wind which are both the showcase in this part. (Thank you very much!!! RL)
The outro fades out with a second guitar solo swallowed up by part of the Horsemen Theme. (Yes there is a theme within the piece. RL) The thunder resumes and the wind blows and increases and recedes as the horsemen depart. The bass hum sound gives it that otherworldly sound as it fades. (That's me, too! RL) If you listen carefully, as the thunder departs and the wind follows out you can hear some paper flying. I wanted to create an impression that after all was done a few pages from the Book of Revelation were blown or floating down on the empty street. (Love the imagery????RL)
What do you expect on a low budget? This song has taken many years to make and it’s one of many I have recorded. What makes me proud of it is the fact that once it was mixed down it created the mental image of a movie about the End of the World.
Here’s the link to My Space to hear the song as many times as you want.myspace.com/roblattinI hope you find it interesting.
Wow! I'll be sharing a link somewhere, maybe Reverbnation or Soundcloud so you can hear this song I'm talking about. What I wanted to share in the article is that making sound effects and audio-images simply takes some creativity. If you got the money you can do it fast, but if you're on a low budget well you need to spend time and not dollars making something very impressive.
Here's the first verse of the song:
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| 4 Horsemen |
The Horsemen
(C)2009 Robert Lattin All Rights Reserved
Hear the horses' hooves of thunder
As the ground is torn asunder
Cracking whips striking fear
Shaking Earth approaching near . . .
If you like this or any of my articles could you please spread the word on Facebook or Twitter and share with your friends - I really appreciate it!
