Project Breakdown: Seconds

Improvisation: the creative activity of immediate "in the moment" music composition which combines performance with emotions and instrumental technique.

This project holds a special place in my heart to be honest. It's the first project that was completely played by me on a keyboard. I recorded myself playing these pieces in FL Studio (with the exception of 127downtown, which was made using a guitar vst plugin) and tweaked them to make them sound raw, almost like it was meant to sound like an "in house performance". 

The first thing I'll say about this EP is that I absolutely LOVE how it turned out.

The process that went into making this project was actually pretty straight forward. The first piece I wrote for the EP was 135cruise, which was originally just a improvisation off of Keeping The Peace from the game, Dissidia Final Fantasy 012.

Then after listening to it a few times, I thought of the idea of making an entirely improvisational project. I wanted everything to be as close to reality as possible. Using different sound effects from the outside world and tweaking them, I wanted this project to feel like the world itself, hence the ambiances like birds chirping, (which is prevalent in my music) outdoor and indoor sound effects, like the ambiance of an empty room or a park outside your front door.

The project is named "Seconds" because each track title is exactly how many seconds that track is, followed by the title of the actual song.

In Depth:

135cruise:

This was the first piece I wrote for this project. 

While writing this, I had no intentions of making an EP full of improvisations, I was just playing around on the keyboard.

I wanted to replicate something jazzy, so I tried to emphasize that feeling. 

The track starts off with the beginning of Keeping the Peace from Dissidia Final Fantasy then turns into just me messing around. I probably had the most fun making this track for sure. 

122win:

This is one of my favorites on this project next to 127downtown.

I love the atmosphere in this song and I think I captured it quite well. This piece was an improvisation off of the song Win by Disasterpeace. 

What I wanted to accomplish in this song was the feeling of duality. I wanted it to feel, heavy and expressive but still soft in its own way. 

The background ambiance really sets the tone. The different sounds used and reversed to make it feel not only realistic but also playful.

120nature:

This track was very fun to make.

It started off as an improvisation off of Nature from the FEZ OST by Disasterpeace. The ambience was the most prevalent in this song because I wanted to actually capture the nature within the actual song.

I added nature sounds and water flowing to make it feel like you're near a lake, enjoying nature.

The original Nature track by Disasterpeace, had 2 parts based on the game FEZ's day and night cycle. So, there's a day part and a night part. I wanted to also implement that same aspect into my version of the track. So the day part of this track is from the start, to 1:03, then from 1:03 to the end is essentially the night version of the track.

127downtown:

Another one of my favorites on this project.

What I wanted to capture with this track was the feeling of seeing someone playing around on the guitar in the middle of the sidewalk, which you see a lot in the city.

I wanted to replicate the feeling and sound of someone experimenting on guitar while people are watching and cars pass by, hence the city ambiance in the background.

This track was entirely made using the Ample Guitar VST. It has a strumming setting, which was how I was able to get it to sound realistic.