Hello Steemians!
After I read through the contest rules I spent some time thinking what space elevator music means to me. I wanted to make a song that would play in an elevator, rather than it just be some sick ass space vibe song. So I started out by listening to some earthly elevator music and took some notes as to what that means.
- Elevator music is NOT meant to be listened to actively
It's a form of background music and therefore shouldn't be attention grabbing, but rather fade out and just kinda be there.
- Elevator music doesn't have much bass
This kinda connects with the other point. Bass is very attention grabbing and having a full lower end in the song defeats the purpose of it just being in the background.
- Elevator music doesn't have fancy progression
Again, big changes in the flow of the song grab your attention and make it an active experience.
- It needs to be loopable
Most elevators only play one or two songs, which means that the song itself needs to be able to start from the beginning again without messing with the flow of it.
- Elevator music isn't mixed particularly well.
This is a wierd one considering the guidlines, but elevator music is generally some form of live Jazz and as I was making it whenever I got the mix cleaner it grabbed more of my attention. I wanted to keep it simple and backgroundy while still having a groove.
After I got through the elevator part I started to look at the space part. I just decided that space meant using reverby synths instead of pianos, vibraphones and guitars.
Going through these notes I tried to summarize what I wanted:
A synth based live jazz song with simple progression and no low end, that loops into itself and isn't catchy
Again, it shouldn't be grabbing your attention, it's background music.
So, following my set guidelines, this is what I came up with:
picture is from rick and morty
Honestly the hardest part was the mixing. As I said earlier, I didn't want it to sound like it was mixed well, because well mixed songs are meant to be listened to and this song was meant to just be played. With little to no emotional value. No one should particularly like it, no one should particularly hate it. Usually when I mix it's either full in or full out and finding the weird inbetween area where it sounded good but not too good was a challenge for me.
Anyways I hope you enjoy it! :) It was definitely a more conceptual piece of music than it is something I would listen to, but I was really focused on the theme of the contest.