My Composing Process: In These Times Season 4 (2022)

Dear Readers,

In February of 2022, I started work on the main theme for the fourth season of the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences Omnia podcast “In These Times”. This season explores the “link between making art and making meaning, and how creativity shines a light on the way out of adversity in tough times, past and present.” This is obviously close to my heart since I am a music composer.

In an email to me, producer Alex Schien said that for tone, he was looking for symphonic and emotional. He also mentioned using acoustic instruments like strings and guitars. So, I set to work!

Creating an Orchestra

I started the composing process with strings. I own the Spitfire Studio Strings sound library, which has a wide variety of articulations, different numbers of players and lots of flexibility with microphones and such. This project gave me the opportunity to continue to hone my programming skills. I’m still developing my workflow for working with orchestral sound libraries, but recently I have opted to not notate every note out beforehand, and instead utilize the samples in an improvisational way. I build up textures, and then copy and paste tracks across different numbers of string players to create a natural, realistic symphonic sound.

From there, I added in a french horn (from Spitfire Studio Brass) and then solo cello and solo violin. I also added a rhythmic spiccato violin 1 and 2 part for the second half of the track, which gives the piece momentum and energy. Bass clarinet and tuba were also added, doubling the double bass part to add a bit more oomph.

While I crafted the orchestral parts, I wanted to write a new secondary melody for this season that felt symphonic and emotional. Musically, I worked with the same descending chord progression from previous seasons, so I wrote a new melody within those parameters.

The season four melody fits in nicely within the “In These Times” musical universe. The use of triplets draws the melody into the next measure. played by the solo cello and the live solo flute (played by me), brings the melody to life.

I used some Astral Forms and choral samples from Spitfire LABS, and added in a tubular bells sample (just from Logic X’s library).

The Acoustic Elements

I had crafted an orchestral sound from samples, but the sound was missing a sense of life and a live element. So, I got out my Shure SM57 dynamic mic and recorded the Seagull M4 Dulcimer, harmonica and flute. These were not notated parts though, they were entirely improvised. For the dulcimer, I created a tremelo texture with just my finger. For the harmonica I just blew out (which for a C harmonica is just a C chord), and strove for a breathy texture. For the flute, I did simple tremelos between two notes.

It added the perfect amount of improvisational life that the drone build at the beginning of the track needed. I panned out the sounds in the stereo image, so it felt like countless players playing at once.

Another background element that I added to the score was an amalgamation of the prior three season themes. How did I do this without making it sound like a complete mess? Well, I used a process that I’ve recently started employing in most of my current projects. I take the audio file of, say, the Season One theme. Then I go into Logic X, and slow down the track (sometimes to a fourth or an eighth of the original speed). Because it is slowed down so drastically, the sound of the piece completely changes. It becomes like an organic and ever-moving drone. I stacked all three themes on top of each other, and they sounded like this:

You’re also hearing a street in Barcelona that I recorded in 2019. I like adding soundscapes into these textures, because it adds even more of a “living” sense to the sound.

Another acoustic element that has been in every single “In These Times” main theme is the ubiquitous metallic beat. I added this into the second half of the track (adjusting the tempo so it worked with the 85 bpm) and also added underneath that a drum roll rhythm (mostly utilizing the percussion samples in Logic X).

And, finally, to complete our orchestra, I played my Pearl flute and a tin whistle that I bought in Scotland. They further added the live, acoustic element, that I was striving for.

Mixing it All Together
I have recently really gotten into experimenting during the post-production mixing process. I did this during the mixing of the “Small Mouth Sounds” score, in addition to my scores for Charlie Chaplin’s “The Immigrant” and the Spitfire Westword Scoring Competition.

For this score, I wanted to create a wash of sound. To do this, I bounced out stems of all the main elements (i.e. strings, background sounds, solo cello, solo violin, percussion, etc.) and added a reverb across the entire grouping by using the Stereo Out track. This is a basic mixing tool, to blend all the different sounds together and make it seem like they are all in the same “room”. I also EQ’d (a good definition of this at this link) all the stems in different ways to highlight certain frequencies across the spectrum. I love using the Tube EQ in Logic specifically for this, the presets are great.

So those are pretty basic things to do mixing-wise. On a more experimental level, I added automation to a Spreader FX and a transistor radio reverb from Space Designer to the Stereo Out track. I only employed these FX during the opening and close of the track (which allowed for the drone element to have this underlying movement).

By just adding a bit of compression, a little EQ and a small amount of reverb you can completely change the sound of the track. This is one of the exciting things about the mixing process, and why I have really grown to love it.

Conclusions

I really love composing the music for “In These Times”. Each season is different, and they give me the opportunity to experiment, try new things, and push the sound even further. For this season, I utilized sound libraries while also experimenting with acoustic elements. The result is an emotive, symphonic track that feels large and expansive.

I had the pleasure to be interviewed for Episode 6 of this season. You can hear that episode here.

Thank you for reading this blog post. If you have any questions about my composing process, or the track itself, feel free to email me at nicholasescobarcomposer@gmail.com. Also, check out the fourth season of “In These Times”, you can listen to it Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts. You can also access it on the In These Times website.

Your’s Musically,

Nicholas Escobar