'Fizzer' the making of

 

'Fizzer' started out as an idea of an all electronic tune. I deliberately chose not to use any guitar in the recording. Though I did write the chord progression on my trusty acoustic guitar first; as if it sounds good on a simple instrument, it should, in theory sound good in most arrangements. So here are the chords as I wrote them down. You can see I dated it at 22 August 2021. So, I wrote it in a night basically.

I also was already experimenting with VSTis to pick sounds I was after, and taking notes with every sound that seemed to hit the mark I was after:

I often still use a basic piano roll (by Bram Bos) to get the chords down, as I have been using it for years and it doesn't 'get in the way' of quickly writing down ideas:

I also got the structure of the song down fairly quickly:

The main ideas were to move from minor keys to major keys and move up in sound.

After using Tunafish to get the basics down, I moved over to LMMS, which has become a favourite of mine ot write keyboard based songs. And I wrote the melody using the midi keyboard attached to LMMS. Extra sounds came from the good people at Looperman who donate free loops. Most of the song, as usual is made via my own gear but some of the extra sounds add spice and lift the production a little higher.

Sonar lite 6 is my go-to DAW, as I know my way around it and can refine the sounds. It still took a number of nights and trial and error until I got the final tune. It's made to be partly melodic, partly art noise to be played loud. I used to play in bands for dancing and that has never left me. 

 

I did the final mix in Audacity and used Ozone 8 for the first time to give it more 'wideness'.

Here is a short video of the progression. I always like to push my boundaries. Hope you liked it.

I called the song 'Fizzer', as in Australia the term means 'it fizzles out', as in I didn't expect many to like it. I've been pleasantly surprised so far. Thanks and blessings.  Tim Oestmann  :-)