Weekly Update #26 - Finding Sunrise / Breathe Again

Hey everyone!

This week I worked on finishing up Finding Sunrise and also wrote something new.

0:00 - Finding Sunrise

This was a track that you voted for me to finish from August. While it might not sound too drastically different, I spent a lot of time replacing layers that I didn't like and upping the overall quality and sound design. I did try to switch up a few things but in the end I decided to keep the song pretty close to how it sounded before. This is because when I revisited it, it felt really good upon first listen and after trying several things to switch it up - I couldn't get it to sound better. Also, I like the simplicity of the original version I wrote so I thought it was best to clean it up and finish the song.

Mainly, I made some EQ cuts and added compression/distortion to several of the layers to make them pop a bit more. Also, I felt like the top note in the melody came in a bit abruptly so I added a reverse effect to hint that the melody change is coming. The other main thing I did was replace the arp. Originally the arp had some weird pitch modulation on it that I didn't like and this is the main thing that bothered me about the song since I wrote it. So I swapped it for a similar sound that didn't have that type of pitch modulation on it.

I also spent some time adjusting the break/build. A fair amount of the layers needed recording to audio and I added some subtle automation to pull out the low frequencies before the "drop" - it really helped emphasize the percussion when it came back in. I'm also debating replacing the piano in this section because I kind of always use piano, but I want the mix/master basically finished before I try swapping this for something else.

I really like this song and I am surprised at how well it came along when I wrote this by accident when screwing around. I'm looking to wrap this one up this week!

3:44 - Breathe Again

This is a song I'm working on writing for a special stream event in November. The event is about climate change awareness and how a lot of the countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean are being affected by it. This is the theme for the event and it's supposed to describe the seriousness of the issue, the struggle with all the challenges facing that area (and the world), and the hope from the people doing lots of amazing work to help that area and help us combat climate change.

So yeah - this theme is pretty complex, but you can see it reflected in how I pieced each section together. The song starts out quite emotional and somber, then grows to reflect the hard work and challenges, and finally drops into an uplifting part with the main melody. This is only 1 half of the song but I really like how each section turned out. Also, I decided to write the 1st two more serious sections in the relative minor key of the main section (which is in a Major key). This worked really well as it reflected how the theme of the song has to change throughout.

I still have lots to add on this one but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I also played heavily off of "tropical" themes because the event focuses on tropical climates - though I did try to bridge the gap between pure tropical house and my usual progressive house style. I really like where this landed on that spectrum and I think it fits the event really well!

I am thinking about extending the intro section and making it a bit more emotional but we'll see! I should also have this finished up before the end of the month - but again, we'll see how it progresses.

That's it for the updates this week. It looks like you all voted for me to remix the Star Wars Imperial March theme so I'll starting on that soon as well!

As always, thanks for your support - have a great week :)

- Andrew