19 Dec Abyssus – A Cinematic Symphony
On Wednesday, December 15, 2021, I sat down with my ROLI Seaboard and ROLI’s new sound pack for Equator2, Orchestral Ensembles. My main goal was to just get a feel for the sounds and variety of presets. I was at my dining table with the Seaboard for about 90 minutes, and when I had finished I had created 70% of the framework for the cinematic symphony Abyssus. A few more hours on Thursday and Friday evening, then some more block time on Saturday and Sunday were pretty much all it took to complete this track.
I always ask my wife to listen to a new track before I post it online, but she’s a hard critique to please, and sometimes I get blown out of the water and either decide to publish the track anyway or take it back to the drawing board. Today was the first time that she simply smiled and gave me a pat on the back. I spent a few more hours trying to balance the mix a little more, but I was taking the piece in the wrong direction. In theory, it should have been more balanced but it was losing its dynamism and power, so I went back to a backup with a few precious hours lost, but I’m happy with how this turned out.
The Story
I won’t seed too much into your imagination, but so that you can understand my intention with this track, it’s basically the soundtrack to an imaginary movie, in which the dark hero is chased and beaten, almost loses his life, and then climbs back up to a triumphant ending. Most of this is very obvious and easy to pick out in the track.
Ableton Live 11
I’m now working in Ableton Live again, as Version 11 now supports MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression) so I can play my ROLI Seaboard 49 directly into Ableton and it records every movement I make with my fingers, so it’s incredibly expressive. The swell that you’ll hear in the orchestra and some of the sharp pitch changes were all played on the Seaboard directly, by moving my fingers up the key, pressing hard, and moving my fingers sideways.
Here’s a screenshot of my final project in Ableton Live 11, with my own customized theme using only shades of teal. I can’t work in Ableton with any other theme. They all look so sucky compared to my own theme.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this latest track. It was probably my easiest to create, thanks to the ROLI Equator2 Orchestral Ensembles sounds and the expressiveness of the ROLI Seaboard.
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