Here’s another song that breaks from my usual bleeps and bloops. I challenged myself to try and write a song using orchestral sounds, and in an unexpected turn wrote and arranged an entire composition in one sitting. I ended up with something that sounds like the soundtrack to a b-movie that involves dungeons and/or dragons.
A Tale of Firsts
This was the first time I ever wrote and arranged an entire song in one night. The whole thing just came out in one continuous flow. I wrote the first bit, then went back and added each layer in a single pass each time. The entire thing was written in under an hour, then arranged in about an hour after that, and I called it a night!
Also unusual is the fact that-other than the percussive/rhythmic elements-it’s mostly un-quantized and left as I played it live. There was a flubbed note here and there that I manually nudged into place, but it’s mostly “live” as it was played during composition. The whole thing just flowed out naturally in a way I’ve never experienced before.
When it came time for the final mix, that went as quickly and easily as the rest. I made a small (but important) tweak to the arrangement, and the mix just fell into place as easily as writing and arranging it did. All totaled, I probably spent three or four hours on the song beginning to end. Usually I spend at least four or five times that on a song.