In and among a busier than usual weekend, I've managed to put this one together: a pleasant little all-Mendiola piece. Some of these figures were surprisingly difficult to nail, though they sound simple. (This was a balance between fingering choices and occasional converter drift distortion ruining the occasional take.)
The title comes from the number 508 apparently being the number of graphical forest partitions of 30.
Best time of the year, getting the big coat back out.
I started the track on Saturday morning. I wanted to first try out making a set of percussions using FPC, and setting a wide panning of the different instruments. The percussions ended up being a set of traditional sounds, so it felt appropriate to dig into my Native Instruments library for a set of traditional instruments. I went for the middle eastern package, and used the Oud (a guitar like instrument) and the Zurna (a type of flute). I have a great love for the complex harmonies and rhythms of middle eastern music! This started reminding me of the band Secret Chiefs 3, so I went in and dug some electronic samples and arps to get into that. Some additional vocal samples, shake it, 30 minutes in the oven, and here you go.
trailerish music, open to roast.
dunno bout the high pitched oboes.... the way the drums come in kind of shit... drums in general kind of shit... chords could have used different voicings in places esp in lower-frequencies... piano in intro prob been better as different instrument... melod/ies fairly trash... liked making the drums and fx arrangement
using a randomizer to decide chord progressions. the randomizer picks 4 chords. has 3 paths. either 1 - 1 - x - x, 1 - x - x - x, or x - x - 1 - 1. decent amount of the music i listen to fits in one of these 3 progression formats, maybe ~30-60% idk. the x's can be any bass note. but usually have to run the randomizer 1-4 times before it spits out a decent chord progression... this is just for minor chord progression songs... 1 being root note of minor scale
So.. I feel like.. when I started this track, I hit something I really liked.. and it was a great like "jumping off point". Often times when I feel this, I get excited but also nervous.. because I feel like I'm not fantastic on taking a good phrase and expanding it into an entire piece.
Further, I've felt a little stagnant lately, which means that I'm trying to get a little more experimental.. I'm sure everyone wishes that means I would try new instrumentation.. but no.. in this case. it manifested in me fucking around with the key and notes more..
I'm not really sure. I would be shocked if nothing in this piece is out of key.. but I basically just went with my feel and vibe and hearing.. so I sincerely doubt that it's all in key. I'm pretty sure that if it is in key, the key changes.. but if not, I'm sorry. I tried, but my ear is not super trained unfortunately.
Anyway. That being said.. on a personal level, I really like how it came out, and I enjoy hearing it. I'm glad I was able to create something this cool, and I'm happy with the sound quality and note choices.. Any feedback is welcome, and I appreciate everyone who listens and reads! I persist. Cheers!
