Few days ago, I got a couple of email messages regarding the mp3 demos of Rapture that I posted here in the forums a while ago. The users, were kindly asking to get any of the project files used to create those demos. The rationale, I was told, is that the mp3 demos represent -what- Rapture can do, but for many users it doesn't tell -how- Rapture can do that kind of tracks. While Dimension Pro is easy to understand, as most of us are used to how different real instruments stack, Rapture tracks were not so easy.
Therefore, here's a very-basic snippet created with Rapture, explained in-depth.
No it's not a grammy-winner. It's not a trance track either, sorry. Still, I hope it helps to show how Rapture sounds can be easily and conveniently stacked.
What I did is a quick 'remake' of the old RaptureDemo.mp3, for those who still remember it. That was a sad, melodic motif in C minor, without drums, only animated by Rapture step sequencers. I heard the track a couple of times, and then started a project from scratch. Here's an mp3 of the new snippet:
http://www.rgcstuff.com/External/RaptureDemo2.mp3 To follow the snippet construction, what you'll need is SONAR 5.2 and Rapture. Then, the project is here:
http://www.rgcstuff.com/External/RaptureDemo2.zip The project uses 5 instances of Rapture, with no additional EQ/Effects. It uses heavy patches, so you might need to freeze. I did the track in a 3GHz PC, I didn't have to freeze but your mileage might vary.
The idea was keeping the original harmonic sadness, but change the sound textures all over and the solo character. The original sound was moving all the time, then I started finding a patch to draw the basic harmony. Tracks are in the order recorded, and here's a track description:
Track 1: Moving Pad
As we won't have drums, we would need a sound which helps to track the beat. "Extending to the South", of the factory set, was my selected choice. The patch is composed of an organ-ish pad in Elements 3 and 4, some gated components in high frequencies and a couple of percussive noises in Elements 1 and 2 (turn off the elements individually to get a taste). Ideal for what we wanted: basic harmony plus rhythm.
Track 2: Static Pad
The basic harmony is done, but we need a counterpart. You can imagine it as strings and woodwinds, if you're familiar with 'standard' composition.
My choice was "Basic Mod Pad". Its phased texture convinced me. It's very expressive and playable, I digressed several minutes when I found it. That's was the sign it was -the- one.
Track 3: Bass
The original motif had a very simple bassline, and that's what I did here again. Bass needs to be very minimalistic, but firm.
I picked "Mute EBass" for the task, as it has a very clicky attack, like if we'd have a compressor applied. I liked how the transient says "I'm here", then the bass body can be lowered in volume.
Track 4: Guitar Lead
The original sine lead was superb. I picked something more aggressive this time: "Over Lead 03 Dly & Rev full cntrl". It sounds gitar-ish. Well, not really. Guitars can't sound this good. I like how it reacts to CC1, CC2 and aftertouch, so it's really expressive to play. It plays only in the second phrase, as the original.
I added a second filter to cut the brightness, after the snippet was done. I personally think that modifying the sounds in the generator itself result in much better sounding tracks than using extra eq or effects to fix, but it's just my personal preference. My goal is having tracks with zero eq/effects, when possible.
Track 5: Animated Pad
Just to add another layer of color, I reused the 'sea partials' or 'bed of partials' type patch I had in the original: "AAdvantage Theme". I love that one, has been in like ten tracks since I did that patch last december. It's one of those patches you can play a chord, and be there just watching the lawn grow while listening.
The patch name comes from a weird sound accident I heard once in an American Airline flight: the inflight music player stalled and entered in some kind of loop, generating this kind of cycling movements with some material which was originally electronica music of some ambient genre. Beautiful accident, lasted a few minutes, then all was ruined when the safety procedure began.
As you see, I just played a single cluster voicing for the whole snippet using this sound. I think it's magic. Feel free to delete the track, and replace it with a heavy metal riff if you don't agree :-)
Ok. So now the extra noises, sweeps, the filler for the middle break, and the chorus and bridge are all on you. Have fun with Rapture.
-René