The other day I was carefully determining the difference between two very
similar songs, one which I love and the other which I hate. By the time
I was done, I had some new insights into what I think makes good music,
and so I decided to write a new song. This one turned out much better
than Life with Television.
Download: Ninety Seconds.mp3
In case anyone cares, the things I've learned so far are this:
1. I love saw synths with all their awesome harmonics.
...but I didn't use any in this song. :(
2. Everything sounds better in ZynAddSubFX when you bypass all
of the filters and turn off the reverb and whatnot.
3. Swing beats are awesome!
4. Instrument parts that feature a lot of rests are awesome too.
5. I only like drum patterns that contain at least:
"a_b___b___b___b_"
This particular song uses my favorite drum patterns,
"a_b_aaba_ab_aab_" and "aab_" and "aabb"
6. I like syncopated instrument parts, similar to this:
"x_x_x_x__x_x_x__"
...basically, when the notes are on even beats and
then later they are on odd beats. It's just cool.
7. A survey of many of my favorite songs revealed that
they all mostly use chords I, IV, and V. Apparently
I don't like anything else, so I used only those chords.
It definately has a much more happy sound than my last song.