Saturday, February 24, 2024

Experiment in Melodic Techno: EDM Bob?


Not so sure it is Melodic Techno, but that was the style I have been listening to, and applied through my own limitations. The long version of our Melodic Techno experiment, EDM Bob?  Like a Street Cat Named "Bob",  The Superflat "Dob" or Rowan Atkinson as Blackadder saying "Bob".

An earlier short version I used in this YouTube short:


In Murakami's SUPERFLAT, he has named his many characters Mr.Dob. Mine above are my own in his style, but are they too close to Dob?  Hence the question, "is this too Bob?".  But the mouth is from another cartoon character, and aren't those ears kind of Mickey Mouse?  You can take SUPERFLAT to also mean "shallow" in the way HELLO KITTY is, and the Nursery rhyme level melodic complexity of EDM feels like it fits to me, hence the "Dob" <-> EDM connection to me. I must also say I LIKE Superflat and Melodic Techno.

The Reaper Project of the track:



I had been setting up and finding EDM sounds for my own music since investigating Cassians's GREAT SOUTHERN LAND Remix

I put together a MS-20mini drum sound collection early on.  The Korg really is a versatile synth for very electronic sounds, but there are tricks, such as knowing how the external signal processor can be used for overdrive.


My first attempts at making the standard drum patterns were really dull though, and I found velocity manipulation of the hi-hats vital to give a simple four on the floor pattern life and movement.  Using tracks by KENSHO, Pyra and Cassian as reference lead me to the stylistic patterns their tracks use. No intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, verse, chorus, ending here.  More slow build, release, hard verse, then ending, to fit into a different track in a DJ set.
A TSHIRT of a similar EDM POPART design is here

The rising sine wave tone in this was made in Audacity, in the chirp generator, as it allows you to set start and end frequencies and a duration.  

Most of the other tones and the melodic bits were played on the MS-20 while manipulating the VCF cutoff. Seems appropriate. I must say I am more influenced by Jean Michel Jarre's OXYGENE for the background sweeps and bloops than anything I heard in Techno though. Same for the panning of the swoops across the sound stage.  Now, OXYGENE is a melodic and technical wonder kind, and that kind of melodic and thematic development isn't part of Melodic Techno from what I have seen. I feel my melodies should go more places than they do, for now though, so maybe for the extended mix. Extended mixes are also part of the DJ, dance scene, so doing that is fine.  I could also say, my techno track here is kind of a REALLY STRIPPED DOWN variation of OXYGENE  at 124BPM, and made really really simple with the Melodic Techno "cliche" things in it. The Rise, The DropSnare Build and the long verses which change from no hi-hats, to with hi-hats, to with a snare to handclaps or whatever. 

I expect I will use this almost 5minute track as the sound track to a Car Illustration Sample Video as I haven't made one of those recently. A change from the more metal sound of some of my other videos. 

There is an interesting effect with musically compositionally simple tracks like this. As they don't "musically resolve" at any time, to anything, so there is never any "that is finished" feeling with them. I can have this track on repeat for hours and it doesn't get monotonous, even if not a whole lot happens in it, it is still changing.  Almost EASY LISTENING music!  

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