Cold as a Bullet, Baby

Intention

My idea for this project stemmed from my favorite medium for experience art: Music. I have heard mashups before and always wanted to try and make one so I figured this was the time to teach myself how to do it. The artists I used made loads of money off there songs so I figured that it only makes sense that combining the songs would be a gold mine! The idea behind the project was to use pieces of other songs to create one mega song that would sound awesome! 

Context

So I drew a lot from a guide I read online about creating mashups. Just to get the general idea of how to begin. Then from there I thought about other mashups I had heard in the past. The rest was just trying to make the beats match up and make sure the voices did not counter each other. I made sure that the songs I picked were in the same key so that when they played together it would not sound wonky and bad.

Process 

This was definitely the hardest part. The mashup tutorial assumed I already had na understanding of logic pro X. I did not. So as I went through it I literally had to google everything. I watched many tutorials on how to use some of the basic features of logic and some of the advanced ones. I also spent a lot of time just clicking on buttons and seeing what they did. I also forgot to mention that finding vocal and audio tacks was almost impossible. I followed some tutorials about creating them myself but they never worked. I ended up just scouring the internet for a cappella tracks and instrumental tracks. Also Vanilla Ice is a shitty rapper so getting the beats to match up was super hard. I had to cut out parts where he paused and messed up the flow. 

Critique 

My inner critique is pleased but wishes it could do more. If I had more time I would really focus on learning all of the intricacies of logic pro X. A lot of the parts that I wanted to fix I simply could not because I did not know how and googling it left me more confused. The thing I most displeased with is how sometimes the tracks do not match in tempo. It is only rarely and others may not notice it but it really bothers me. If I had more skills with logic I would make sure that all of the beats matched up and the cuts were a lot smoother. 

Reflection

I learned that outside critique is incredibly important when making music. After listening to it a million times I stopped I got used to how it sounded so I could not as effectively judge the quality of the sound. I asked my friends and family to listen to it and give me feedback and it actually really helped a lot. When you get so invested in a project it is easy to miss the big errors in it because you have become used to it. Taking a step back and have others look at my work is incredibly helpful. I did not even initially notice that I typed "Cold as Bullet Baby" and not "Cold as a Bullet, Baby." A friend had to point it out.

I also learned that music is incredibly volatile. Messing around with audio is difficult because one change can lead to an incredible difference in the quality of sound. Things like pitch and tempo are super important as well and very hard to fix. It is really helpful to research before hand so you know that the keys match and you wont have to wast time trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. 

Project Photo credits to my wonderful girlfriend Kelsey Scott