Blog 5: Review of Wildcat by Ratatat

I know I'm not really branching out here with another blog pertaining to Ratatat but I thought it would be appropriate since I'm going to see Ratatat in concert next week.


This song, along with many others by the group show that a piece does not have to be very busy for it to be appealing to the ear. It starts off with a snare drum and whistle going off in unsion in the background with a bass guitar playing in the foreground. After a few measures a wildcat noise sounds and a deeper sounding bass guitar is introduced.

If I had to be critical of this song, I'd say my least favorite part is the bridge that begins at 1:57. I think I just find the guitar to be relatively 'squeaky'. But after that segment is over I find myself really getting into the song even moreso than before. I like the subtle percussive elements, particuallry their usage of the high-hat.

Can't wait for the concert.

Assignment 4

My goal for this project was to create a 2 minute trance song using Logic Pro. I began my piece with two synthesizers that produced "laser-like" and "spacey" effects. I fade them out and then lay down a quick beat using the Logic Ultrabeat feature. The remainder of the piece was created mostly using patterns I created with Ultrabeat. I continue to find the most difficult part of composing dance songs to be creating smooth transitional phases. I had a tremendous amount of fun with this project and continue to find Logic Pro to be the most user-friendly software we've used thusfar.

Have a listen. Hope you enjoy it.

Final Project Proposal

I had a lot of fun composing a techno song for assignment three. I am even more excited to use the drum machine in Logic Pro for assignment four. For my final project I want to make another techno piece relying mostly on Logic Pro. I think I'm going to rent a microphone as well and see if I can't produce some short audio samples that I can integrate into my song.

Also, you'll notice that all prior assignment are now embedded into the blog which should make things easier for you guys.

Blog 4

For this blog I'll review Conor Dooney's piece for assignment # 3:

The piece starts off with a few spacey tones followed closely by a short vocal sample. Then a quick series of claps, characteristic of the techno genre, are introduced. I was impressed that Conor's vocal sample seemed to flow with the melody. This was a task that I found to be very difficult in making my own piece.

I thought the overall tempo of the piece was appropriate for the first minute of a techno song. I felt like he was building up to a higher tempo but just ran out of time (therein lies the difficulty of being limited to a 1 minute clip).

After listening to the track several times I was able to disect it into the components from each syntesizer. I think the fact that I struggled at first to identify the effects and subtle noises is a testament to Conor and how he was able to effectively integrate the output from several instruments in Reasons.

Well done Conor. Look forward to listening to your final project.