A new untitled single from the band “Morai”, this performance is the first piece of new material in three years, with a twist. This is an enhanced and creative venture into using variation in production, and the DAW itself as an instrument, performing alongside traditional instruments. 

The first part of the performance is a one take live play through of each of the live instruments in the song, consisting of two guitars and a bass part, with the second being a variation in performance of the mix process, introducing different effects and audio processes via automation and triggering. As a result, this performance furthers my exploration into creation of more interesting mixes, through this experimentation with elements that will cause intrigue with the listener.

Research + Initial Developments

The performance began through the composition of the track, which was heavily inspired by instrumental prog music, with artists such as Plini and Periphery being the main inspirations. Plini’s breakthrough album/title track “Electric Sunrise” was an inspiration for some of the interjecting lead guitar phrases, the lead that is triggered throughout the song and overall harmony and timbre.

With the variation in performance aspect of the performance, I wanted to take inspiration from various genres and pieces of music that are particularly captivating, especially in their use of effects. For example, in King Tubby’s “The Roots of Dub” the essence of Dub is perfectly captured and its use of delay and reverb to create tails for the vocals and other instruments in the mix, as well as the tendency for those effects to envelop the listener, creating an immersive experience. 

I also experimented with vocoders as a textural element for the vocals, which was inspired by Imogen Heap and her use of vocoders and layering to create an intriguing texture and timbre, specifically “Hide and Seek”. This would be mixed in with very ambient and airy vocals to create an intriguing timbre.

However, what I was most interested in was how I could use different processes to create “depth” in the mix and actually add to the arrangement of the song after the base instruments and vocals were recorded.

Periphery’s “Have a Blast”, specifically Mark Holcomb’s approach to riff writing, also inspired the composition of this track, combining rhythm and lead elements into one guitar parts, as well as fast tempos, and multiple styles of fast picking to keep the listener and player engaged. 

However, a common danger with this style of music is that it becomes inaccessible and too guitar focused, losing its identity as a song. With this in mind, I set out to try and balance the rhythm and lead elements, to have an instrumental that leaves enough space for vocals to lead the song. 

Prototyping and Testing

One of the only bits of testing I had to do was with the AKAI MPK Mini, which I thought would work well for the triggering of guitar samples, automation of effects and MIDI note input for Vocoding. This meant for a lot of the “live” takes of automated material, certain parameters had to be mapped to knobs or pads, and switched based on the take I was doing and which element I was focusing on. This meant doing multiple live takes of the creative automation and creation of effects chains. The only issue I had was with mapping for elements such as sends and automation on the channel, which required a separate command and setup in logic, which was a problem as I was used to midi controllers auto assigning their parameters. However, this was quickly fixed with CMD + L in Logic, bringing up the automation menu based on what was last selected. 

Performance

As mentioned previously, the first part of the performance is a one take live play through of each of the live instruments in the song, consisting of two guitars and a bass part, with the second being a variation in performance of the mix process, introducing different effects and audio processes via automation and triggering. The two videos below show those live performances, with the second video having more of the automation and post-fx shown, and the first showing only instruments. 

With the live performance of the two rhythm guitar and bass guitar parts, the one take plan proved to be quite difficult, requiring a few takes per instrument to play the song perfectly, start to finish, as the song is technically tricky, as there is a lot of switching guitar picking styles at fast tempos, not to mention the stretching of the hands on more complex chords.

Starting both videos is a filmed but prepared reverse reverb bounce of the guitar stems at the end of the song, which impacts the arrangement of the song, making the track more cyclical by the track building instead of just beginning abruptly. Alongside this is a lead guitar part which is also prepared, and is triggered like a sample and automated with a ping-pong delay that has different feedback and time settings, creating a greater sense of space and depth when blended in with the dry signal. This effect is one of the first examples of effects being used a transitional tool to bridge two sections, while keeping the listener engaged, and making it an enjoyable and creative mix for me. Another example of this is during the Pre-Chorus, where the vocal becomes distorted and has a “Lo-Fi” EQ on it, to contrast with the chorus vocal harmony stacking and vocoder material being so built up. 

After this first chorus is where I began experimenting with arrangement, as I decided to mute the guitars for the first repetition of the second verse, opting for a chorus on the bass to ensure stereo information, distortion and reverb on the drums and a Lo-fi reverb on the vocals to put the first few bars in a different sonic space, before bringing the usual instrumentation and structure back in. 

Additionally, I also wanted to use the controls to reduce the frequency spectrum via EQ in the second pre chorus, thinning the audio out, for a satisfying climax and drop into the bridge section. I mapped the Low and High cut filters to knobs on the AKAI to control how aggressive the process would be, and did multiple takes of it, ultimately deciding on a moderate cut to the lows and highs. To add even more impact to this drop, I opted to also automate a flanger plugin, which was a move inspired by Tom Lord-Alge’s mixing on “Fat Lip” by Sum 41. 

In the climactic bridge section, I began doing some more interesting automation with delays, trying to achieve “depth” in the mix by creating the illusion of back and forth movement with the lead guitar. To accompany this, I decided to put a trance gate on the rhythm guitars in the second half of the section, creating rhythmic intrigue and experimenting with a technique rarely used in heavier music. 

Another way I tried to achieve “depth” was by exploring ambiences and effects more by layering them together instead of having a single reverb or delay plugin doing the heavy lifting. Instead, I opted to use delays with diffusions, to experiment with blurring the line between a delay and a reverb, or playing with the phase of these signals, either by using a phasor, a gain plugin (putting one side completely out of phase to achieve a superwide sound) or a stereo widener. 

Finally, the song becomes its’ most dense in the final chorus, with prepared guitar layers entering (octave guitars and overdubs for the lead parts), Vocal stacks and vocoder parts engage in call and response, with the lead guitar delay being automated simultaneously, alongside the rest of the band.