Portfolio Final Track Description: 

 

For this portfolio I decided to compose music thinking about a life or car insurance commercial, either for a TV commercial, Radio, or Ads on platforms like Spotify or Facebook. 

For this composition I decided to capture my roots, so Salsa and urban music influenced me a lot. 

 This composition has two parts, part A and part B. Both parts use 4/4 meter and a tempo of 120 bpm, for part A rhythm I used Drum Kit Designer (SoCal) since I really like its acoustic sound even though it is a plugin and for part B I used Drum Machine Designer (Atlanta) since its set up uses very punchy urban drum sounds. For the bass in part A I used Sampler (Finger Style Bass) since it gives that sound and similarity of a bass played live and not a programmed bass, for the bass in part B, I used Alchemy (Cloud Bass) a sound more like Bass Synthesizer, a bass that will flow more in line with the vibe of urban music.  

  

For part A of the composition, I used the Key of C Major and for part B, I used the relative Key A minor. The chords in part A are Harmony Chords Before the Melody come in C, G, Em, F and Harmony Chords when Melody starts C, G, Dm, Em, F, Dm. 

The chords in part B are Harmony Chords from Bar 17 to 24 Am, Em, C, Dm, G and From Bar 25 to 32 Am, Em, Dm, G. 

For both melodies, part A and part B, I decided to hum the melody and transcribe it to the piano roll following the key notes of each harmony. The trumpet melody and the saxophone melody were added to give it that jazzy touch or Latin vibe. In part B for the synthesized part, I used ES P for Synth 1 and for Synth 2 I used ES 1 thus creating two Plucked melodies speaking to each other. In part B for the sampler tracks I used Q-Sampler. I uploaded a voice I recorded a while ago and extracted a part, and it was the sound I used behind the saxophone to communicate with it. To edit the sample, I looked for the correct scale and put the sample in its root key, set the playback to forward parameter, and set the sample start time parameter. 

  

In part A, I decided to add some Apple loops, I chose the loops of Conga, Cowbell, Guiro, and Timbale to give it a Latin flavor since they are my roots. Also, to reinforce the accompaniment of the trumpet melody. In part B, I decided to record my voice saying hey to reinforce the melody part of the Saxophone. The recording process was simple since I am my own recording engineer and I adjust everything to my taste. When composing these two pieces A and B I was able to flow since I composed for one or two hours a day letting my creativity run free and not putting pressure on it. 

  

For the mix I decided to use EQs for all the instruments to cut or remove unwanted frequencies or those that were not pleasing to the ear. I used compressors in all the instruments tracks to keep sound levels and dynamics consistent. Use Chorus through an Aux track to make the bass sound more forward and wider, for the melodies both the trumpet in part A and the Saxophone in part B use a reverb through an Aux track to give it ambience and space to the melody. 

  

I really liked being able to make a track that has two of my favorite styles of music, I will put this into practice more often.