#saparella

The thought of making music has never occured to me. It just happens that I had FL Studio and a sort of working MIDI cable at the time, along with my trusty Yamaha P35. So I kinda’ did.

One thing led to another, and another thing to yet another one. So here is the abomination of my 1 month experience ‘making’ music. Enjoy.

THE CONCEPT

The name “Demonstrations” refers to how this piece attempts to show a live demonstration of sorts. Demonstration here meaning anything about what defines a demonstration.

An attempt to mix different genres, mostly jazz, bossa, and a little bit of rock (like so little it's like not even there). Mostly improvisational, and a defining melody won't appear much.

Taken straight from my Soundcloud.

The jazz bit is talking about the syncopated beats, and all the improvisations done on the piano. Around 1/2 of the song is inspired by Shoji Meguro’s (ha weeb) When The Moon’s Reaching Out The Stars. The other 1/2 just happened. Around the middle is where the jazz shines the most, taking advantage of 180bpm into making the swing pattern, and there too is where the piano improvises the most.

The bossa bit is at the end. I put it in to as if telling the listeners to relax after a wild demonstration. It follows the standard bossa beats. Laziness overcame me as all I did for the ‘melody’ was scaling the piano randomly.

Rock bit. What rock bit?

Then comes the transitions. These are the hardest parts to do because it’s hard to connect ‘movements’ of a piece. Classical musicians knew how to do this by heart. Too bad I can’t even connect people’s hearts. (especially mine)

That’s techincally speaking. The story is different. But I’m too lazy to write about it.

THE PROCESS

It wasn’t tiring. But at times it could prove frustating, especially having to deal with some of the cheap samples FL Studio has.

I made it in real-time. As in, playing it through the beginning to the end at first, in the piano, adding the drum patterns and others later. Then I listened to the end result. Ew. It was horrible. I cringed at the thought of the first draft. It was that bad. Really liked the intro though, so I thought I needed to make this happen. I needed to make it good.

From there on I revised a part or two, listened again, hurt my ears again. I kept doing this ‘til it sounded like the track I have now. Around 4 revisions were needed to make it sound at least kinda’ decent. But I liked it, so why not?

Then comes the mastering process. This was something I am not experienced in, nor do I have any knowledge about. So I searched “How to master in FL Studio” and what caught my eye was a post by a kind, aspiring audio engineer. Therein lies the steps to mastering the average track made in FL Studio. I followed it to the very end.

Mastering is the finish of a track. It’s the polish that makes it shine. Not that I am happy about the mastering of my track, because it still sounds quite low in decibels compared to other people’s tracks.

THE ART

The cover isn't art. It's just a photo of mine in a very crude design made in a minute.

THE END

You’re probably not wondering about the meaning behind my ‘name’. I never did either.

She was spicy. Hot and cold at the same time. Sparkling like an oasis in the middle of an ocean. Sipping from the corners of her tiny mouth. All while indulgently holding her curvaceous body. I’ve felt the very definition of love at first taste. Indo Saparella was her name.

On a serious note, it was just my love for drinks and stuff revolving around it. I also have an unhealthy obsession with hats. (FYI, Indo Saparella is a sarsaparilla flavored drink from Indonesia)