https://soundcloud.com/isabella-andries/iblis
Original art by Isabella Andries
The making of folk metal track "Iblis," named for the devil in the Quran, was a bit of a journey in and of itself in discovering what I could do with GarageBand and what I could do alone with a MIDI keyboard. Once I delved into the capabilities of the software, I discovered how easy it is to make a metal song completely electronically. Of course, my results were far different than what I could have achieved had I had live musicians, especially with the electric guitar tone, but having the power of every note and every beat at my fingertips was exhilarating. The two are entirely different processes, but it was refreshing to create the sounds I wanted without having to rely on anyone else.
Some of the biggest things I learned about were volume control, creating drum tracks, and adjusting tempo. I found it fascinating that when you change the tempo of a project in GarageBand, everything follows. Following the beat and measure structure is incredibly important to get precise results.
When I decided to take a more thrash metal direction with this work, I knew I had to crank up the tempo. What I found was that you could adjust the tempo easily with this line tool. I made the beginning of the piece slower so that the "Gold Oud" loops wouldn't sound rushed and unnatural. 110 beats per minute worked great for the rest of the piece, and with the separate drum track in the middle I was able to play in half time.
The automated drum tracks ended up working wonderfully, and there was so much customization you could do. GarageBand allowed you to select from "drummers" with different musical influences, and each one came with a set of beat presets which could be adjusted in volume, complexity, which drums you were using in the pattern, which drum kit you were using, frequency of fills, and the volume of each part of the kit.
The best example of my use of the automation tool in GarageBand was in the beginning of the piece in my utilization of the "Eastern Gold Oud" loops. since I wanted them to fade in and out, I made points on the automation curve and created the shape of the swells in volume. This technique was used throughout the piece to have a track fade in or out, or accentuate/soften recordings as needed.
I could talk for ages about how I made this piece work, but overall I would say it gave me a much greater insight into what I can achieve with simple software alone. I feel I can move forward with greater confidence in my music production endeavors, and I can't wait to see what I can do next.
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