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13 OPUS 3: Bass Riffs and Drum Beats

Assignment: Opus 3: Bass Riffs and Drum Beats – two contrasting styles

Create a midi piece that has two contrasting sections involving a bass line and drum beat (all at the same tempo)

  • Track 1: Bass instrument: create a “bass riff” pattern using any of the MIDI FX that help you create something that you like! Suggest length is between 1 and 4 bars
  • Track 2: using any drum kit (not drummer) create a drum beat that complements your bass riff – the two should line up as they are meant to be played at the same time. You may also use different lengths if you’d like (perhaps a drum ‘intro’ joined by the bass riff, or vice versa)
  • Insert one or two ‘blank bars’ and repeat by creating a contrasting bass riff and drum beat

Your project will have 4 midi regions: (1) bass riff A (2) drum beat A (3) bass riff B (4) drum beat B

SUBMISSION: (1) Logic Pro project with description in the notepad

Opus 3 Objectives

  1. Using a MIDI-supporting DAW, create tracks (musical parts) that ‘fit’ together (musically and technically)
  2. Create using multiple MIDI regions

Tutorial for Opus 3

  1. Start a new project with initial track using a software instrument 
  2. Change the initial instrument to some kind of bass instrument (your choice)
  3. Switch to inspector mode and add a MIDI FX – suggestions include Arpeggiator, Note Repeater, and Transposer
  4. Practice until you find a pattern and note combinations that you like – record your riff
  5. Edit as necessary
  6. Duplicate your bass track and use the inspector mode to add your MIDI FX (this way your FX on the first track won’t carry over to your new track)
  7. Record your second riff
  8. Finally, add a drum kit track to create a beat for each of your two riffs (You can probably use a single drum track for this…)
  9. Use the notepad feature to briefly describe the basis of your decisions
  10. Save the project!

 


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