Harmonic Mixing and it's usefulness for improvising w clips

[ikeaboy]

Here's an excerpt form my latest blog post. I talk about the merits and attitudes surrounding Harmonic Mixing and how I use it when improvising with clips. If your interested the whole post can be found here http://damoikea.wordpress.com/2011/07/07/97/


The following describes why I think knowing the key of even percussion/drum loops is a good idea when you're combining stuff on the fly.

Anything bar white noise and the shortest percussive click has pitched elements and these obey or break the same laws of harmony as basslines or melodic pieces. It helps to think of pitch and it’s direct relation to the frequency spectrum. If you’re layering three snare samples in a production you pay close attention to pitch because you want it to sound like one new snare and not three snares playing at once and this is achieved by stacking the frequencies, the fundamental and the harmonics, in just the right way, harmoniously. The same principle works with percussive loops mixed with stems mixed and full tracks. When you layer harmonically compatible material the frequencies stack up and the end result of that is the sum of its parts with the stronger elements in each frequency band dominating and the weaker elements neatly tucked underneath with important sonic space left empty; as opposed to layers and layers of different frequency sounds making an sonic mess that doesn’t bond together in any meaningful way.

[Zade]

This is very very interesting. Thank you

[moreofmorris]

I agree totally with harmonic mixing. It's a great tool for helping to improvise with clips.

I've been finding having the general BPM and harmonic scale "Distorted Guitar Loop (130 1A).wav" is useful for helping to know what goes together.

But NOTHING replaces the need or want to jam stuff together to see what happens. Harmonic mixing is just a nice guide to help you, if you want it.

[ikeaboy]

I agree totally with harmonic mixing. It's a great tool for helping to improvise with clips.

I've been finding having the general BPM and harmonic scale "Distorted Guitar Loop (130 1A).wav" is useful for helping to know what goes together.

But NOTHING replaces the need or want to jam stuff together to see what happens. Harmonic mixing is just a nice guide to help you, if you want it.

I agree and come to similar conclusions in the post. Also as time goes by I find I'm getting used to the sound of each of the keys and remembering the names just from using clips with the key identified. So hopefully my ear is getting trained.

[Angstrom]

internet elf says:
you should probably provide a 'permalink' to the article itself.
forum posts like this pop up again after many years, the link you provided is for your homepage.
latecomers won't find the article itself

[ikeaboy]

internet elf says:
you should probably provide a 'permalink' to the article itself.
forum posts like this pop up again after many years, the link you provided is for your homepage.
latecomers won't find the article itself

Ah good on you Angstrom for relaying elf wisdom