Requirements and Advice
- Make a sequence with at least 6 instrument tracks. (No audio tracks yet, please.)
- If you use someone else’s music, please give credit in a Canvas comment.
- Your sequence should last between 1 and 3 minutes.
- For this assignment, please create music that has a clear
pulse — that is, music that you can tap your foot to.
It is not necessary to use drums to create a clear pulse.
Most other instruments can do this.
(If you want to do something ambient and without a clear pulse for a later assignment, that will be fine — just not in this assignment.)
- The pulses that your music puts out — whatever lets you count “1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4” while it plays — should align with the beats shown in the sequencer. In other words, the way the rhythm sounds should be the way the rhythm looks in the sequencer. Using the metronome while recording is one way to ensure that this happens.
- Use the tools available to you to ensure that your tracks have decent timing. This just means that if your rhythm is a little shaky when you record a part, then you should quantize or otherwise correct it. This does not mean that your tracks have to sound robotic, but your sequence should not sound like a drunken garage band.
- Think about how to create repetitive patterns that vary
over time, so that you continue to interest your listeners as
the sequence plays.
Get in the habit of listening to your sequence and asking, “when should this pattern change?” Ask a friend or classmate to listen, as a reality check.
- Provide some rhythmic, harmonic, melodic, and/or textural contrast during your sequence, such as a verse/chorus structure.
- Instead of having all your instruments playing constantly,
vary the orchestration by saving some instruments for later
in the song. It is normal, and even desirable, for some
instruments to be more active than others.
However, please do not create a sequence in which there is only ever one instrument playing at a time.