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#051 Grand Theft Auto
The soundtrack in this week's episode is called Grand Theft Auto. It’s a wonky 90s hip hop piece inspired by the West Coast hip hop sound of artists like Tupac, Dr Dre and NWA. It’s a downtempo and noticeably dated track meant to summon the spirit of games like Grand Theft Auto. It’s best suited to depictions of gangsterism and general badness. Let’s break it down!
IN THIS EPISODE
02:00 The beat is not exactly in time. This style of hip hop often involves finger-drumming without the option of quantizing the beat to perfection or applying preset groove styles. The groove was more human this way, and I joined in the fun by playing it manually and refusing to quantize it exactly.
03:25 The bass is an obviously sampled sound. The original artists of this type of music typically made it using samplers and drum machines, not instruments (with exceptions, of course. I felt it was more authentic to use a sampled bass to create a 90s sound.
05:00 The West Coast lead synth line is a total giveaway. The high portamento value gives the notes a gliding legato. This part works together with an LFO to produce an increasingly wobbly buildup to end the track.
07:21 There’s one simple electric guitar line played in a funk style. Often, samples were limited by the size of the sampler’s memory bank. This meant that if a guitarist was in a studio, they’d probably only be able to record a few seconds of audio instead of entire takes of a track. These short melodies would then be looped over and over, as it’s done in this track.
08:37 There’s an orchestral hit stab sound used percussively, It’s a sound that’s been used almost universally in pop music from the 80s and 90s.
09:40 Extras: The organ sound is a combination of two sounds - an old one and a newer one to reinforce the other. There’s a bright glassy synth swell for texture. And, of course, a layer of vinyl static to age this track to the era just before digital!
DOWNLOAD THIS TRACK
SHOW NOTES
SOUNDS & DEVICES USED
* Heavyocity Analog VariPad (keys layer)
* Reaktor (organ layer)
* Electric guitar
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MY BANDS!
CONTACT
ABOUT THIS SHOW
You’re listening to How I Make Music, a soothing narrative experience for the musically curious to go behind the scenes of composition. Every Wednesday, we break apart one of my own compositions and investigate the stories and insights into how it was made and its effect on listening ears. My name is John Bartmann. I’m a music composer from South Africa and this is How I Make Music.
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By John Bartmann
5
99 ratings
The soundtrack in this week's episode is called Grand Theft Auto. It’s a wonky 90s hip hop piece inspired by the West Coast hip hop sound of artists like Tupac, Dr Dre and NWA. It’s a downtempo and noticeably dated track meant to summon the spirit of games like Grand Theft Auto. It’s best suited to depictions of gangsterism and general badness. Let’s break it down!
IN THIS EPISODE
02:00 The beat is not exactly in time. This style of hip hop often involves finger-drumming without the option of quantizing the beat to perfection or applying preset groove styles. The groove was more human this way, and I joined in the fun by playing it manually and refusing to quantize it exactly.
03:25 The bass is an obviously sampled sound. The original artists of this type of music typically made it using samplers and drum machines, not instruments (with exceptions, of course. I felt it was more authentic to use a sampled bass to create a 90s sound.
05:00 The West Coast lead synth line is a total giveaway. The high portamento value gives the notes a gliding legato. This part works together with an LFO to produce an increasingly wobbly buildup to end the track.
07:21 There’s one simple electric guitar line played in a funk style. Often, samples were limited by the size of the sampler’s memory bank. This meant that if a guitarist was in a studio, they’d probably only be able to record a few seconds of audio instead of entire takes of a track. These short melodies would then be looped over and over, as it’s done in this track.
08:37 There’s an orchestral hit stab sound used percussively, It’s a sound that’s been used almost universally in pop music from the 80s and 90s.
09:40 Extras: The organ sound is a combination of two sounds - an old one and a newer one to reinforce the other. There’s a bright glassy synth swell for texture. And, of course, a layer of vinyl static to age this track to the era just before digital!
DOWNLOAD THIS TRACK
SHOW NOTES
SOUNDS & DEVICES USED
* Heavyocity Analog VariPad (keys layer)
* Reaktor (organ layer)
* Electric guitar
SUBSCRIBE
MY BANDS!
CONTACT
ABOUT THIS SHOW
You’re listening to How I Make Music, a soothing narrative experience for the musically curious to go behind the scenes of composition. Every Wednesday, we break apart one of my own compositions and investigate the stories and insights into how it was made and its effect on listening ears. My name is John Bartmann. I’m a music composer from South Africa and this is How I Make Music.