Making of Welcome to Reality

 The final video:

 

Yes, this is directly against the current moronic offensive war. There are always leaders in every country who are happy to sacrifice innocent people for their own ends to 'control' or 'regain power'. 

This is for those of us who just want to live simple lives.

Jesus speaking:

The Beatitudes

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 

Thanks to Ghosthack for the vocals. Looperman for the drums and loops. I wrote and played the rest:

 

Making of Lightning Sky

 

This song started with the vocals from Ghosthack. Next I built a chord progression. In fact, I over built it and lost my way for a while. I eventually came back. i Added live instruments (bass, acoustic and electric guitars) and also used some samples from looperman for effect. 

I wanted to use the vocals and the lyrics to build the song from the singers point of view, while using the tools at my disposal.

 It took me a few months on and off to complete it. The most difficult task was to simplify it after over-orchestrating the chords.

 Video of some of the progression:

 Making electronic based music is no easier than any other writing. You still need to go through a process of shaping, chipping away and re-shaping.

 

For the music nerds, some of the VSTi's i used:

 

 

 

Thanks for having a look. Hope you got something out of it.

 

 

 

'Somehow' the making of

I follow a number of production posts, as I always like to keep learning. Ghosthack gave out a few acapellas recently and so, with gratitude, I was able to start with a few vocals this time (as I mostly do instrumentals). I always think in 'song' as I cut my teeth playing in dance bands. The end result is this: 

 

 

I wrote the chords and the hook using the 2007 Bram Bos Tunafish DAW (he still has a great output of Mac OS software if you want to look him up), however, I often find this a good starting point for writing a song, as it is very simple and I want to concentrate on what I am hearing and not get distracted by the DAW itself.

 

I was going to move it over to LMMS but skipped straight to Sonar Lite where I worked with it. 

 

The melody and the words really shaped the song for me. I hope you can listen through to the end as it rises and falls.

 

Here are some of the VSTi's I used to make it:

 

 

 

and of course the vocals:

The drum loops 140 Bpm and some of the background 'risers' and sounds all came from the kind people at looperman 

and a quick vid of these VSTis and then some of the sounds on Tunafish and Sonar after about 20 seconds

 

 

 

 

 

'Keep Walking' the making of

 Keep Walking

Though there is very little guitar in the end tune (above), it really started out as a loud guitar jam over a loop of E minor-D- C- D. I put the bass line together very quickly over the 'Amen Break' drum loop, as I was just hanging out for a guitar blast. I recorded it live and put it on my music FB page. I left it at that until a few months later when I re-found the bass line looking for other stuff. 

I set myself the goal to write a tune over a simple bass line, as I have a natural tenancy to overthink writing.

I actually enjoyed the parameters I put on myself and it led itself into a more electronic based tune. After I had written the electronics and the piano (and removed the 'Amen Break' and replaced it with a a different public domain beat), it become a different beast.

Finally, I could 'hear' a bass guitar playing the melody (probably from my 80's influences such as Joy Division, early The Cure and the song Blue Monday). I tried a number of different sounds, until I settled on a - highly compressed - and equalized bass line. Behind it, I also have a doubled it up in octaves to lift it our a bit more, though the octave line is a lot softer.

Compressor and Equalizer 

Same Bass Guitar I've been playing since the 1980's. Still booming.

Here are some of the background instruments (choir, onboard FX, organ Vstis) 

This video shows the progression (in short) of how the tune came together.

It rarely ends the way I start it, which is part of why I like making music. There are always a lot of unknown influences and paths that make the end tune.

Here is the 'making of' Keep Walking:

    

Here is the direct link to the making of video: https://youtu.be/D5DeqGT5YYY

Here is the link to my somewhat 'official' page, which I don't take too seriously, though you do get the end products of my work: https://www.youtube.com/c/TimOestmann/videos

Also

If you are interested:

I rarely collaborate (nowadays) but worked with UR Udoy on a tune he wrote in 2021: https://youtu.be/8psjaUPv5O