I created this track using Ableton Live 11. For this instrumental, I used MIDI tracking. I used a total of 4 midi tracks to create this piece, I do not own a midi controller, so I simply auditioned the instruments within Ableton and tried the sound out on my laptop keys, which serve as a MIDI controller. I explored different sounds in drum synth, analog, instrument rack. I ended up going with a couple of different sounds after digging and auditioning what I felt worked best together. I do not play any instruments nor do I know how to read sheet music, so I was just doing my best to use my ear and mess around with different notes on the keyboard. I created all of these beats within the instrumental by hand, using my fingers on the keyboard in what felt like a naturally rhythmic pattern for me. Although, I can hear some delay in certain parts, I was okay with that, and was able to edit it down to just specific clips I needed for the sound to come together in a synchronized way. The instruments I applied to my midi tracks are, Flute Mell, Sunrise wave, basic brush and DS kick, I also added a 5th one called brain freeze as a last minute adjustment. Luckily in Ableton when you capture midi it assists you by recording the sounds all in the same 1/16 pattern, but for me this sounded too stagnant so I adjusted things like attack, decay and even changed certain parts to 1/8, 1/32 to make the sound pattern a little shifted in certain areas, and add contrast to the piece.
To describe the different sounds. All of the sounds combined create an intense, sort of edm dance vibe for me. I named the track Uptop, because it reminds me of the pulse of NYC and how one must feel to leave their hometown or a more slow southern state and feel motivated and driven to come to such an electric place. The flute mell sounds like polka dots to me, like rain drops, like the many people all around constantly in the city, every corner you turn, which is why I played the keys both slightly sporadic and then fast to create sort of forward moving sound. Sunrise is a airy wind sound like a chime underlaying some of the rhythm, which represents the sort of polluted darkness of Gotham.  Basic brush to me sounds exactly like a Mbira, a west African "thumb harp" which my dad always had and played in our household. I like the curiosity of this sound and how it serves as a beat on top of the DS kick, which are the drums, the constant pulsing behind the beat which I think lends this piece to the deep house/edm genre. It makes me think of entering a smoke machine fuzzed club with purple strobe lights. The brain freeze is the strong electric guitar type sound that overlays every few counts on the beat. That is like the drive, ambition, anxiousness and gitty naiveness a person would feel when venturing Uptop.

Uptop

daisydrift