Topics

Electroacoustic Composition, Form and Linearity, Number, Formula, and Mathematics in Music Composition​

 

Description

In this piece, I explored the topics of form and linearity by exploring workflow styles and blending genres. I also explored formulas in musical genres by shifting genres throughout the piece, purely by changing the formula used between instruments and their rhythms.

Inside The Vacuum is an experiment in tempo and the ability to merge genres that share the same or similar BPM. The piece begins with PsyTrance and blends into Dub Step, then into Reggae and back into Psy Trance. 

Psy Trance or Psychedelic Trance, is typically played at a BPM of 138 - 144 (Sokolovskiy, 2017). In my track, I've started at 140 as I found it worked well with both Reggae (slightly fast reggae) and Dub Step. At first, I knew reggae should work, but I thought the tempo was too fast with reggae usually being between 80 -110BPM, but according to Studio Dubroom (2014), it can go as high as 190BPM, depending on how you place your notes rhythmically.

The production techniques used in this track are typical of Psy Trance and Dub Step with very dry drums and occasionally effected percussion, heavily effected synths, and huge spaces created with reverbs and delays. The style is not something I usually enjoy, but I wanted to challenge myself to blend it with genres I do enjoy a lot more.

I think I've done well to achieve a cohesive song that blends genres and maintains the original psy trance tone throughout.

The creation of this song came about quite differently to my usual EDM production. I usually get stuck creating loops and never really pursue the idea after the initial session. With the want to create a linear piece with so many changes, I got myself out of the loop making workflow and into the arrangement workflow (Huang, 2021), which really helped to get the form and to get this track finished.