Sputnik Tears

Jumping to the present, I just uploaded a new one: Sputnik Tears.

This effort began with wanting to learn how to extract a sample from an existing song and turn it into a loop. I wanted something in the public domain, not wanting to worry about copyright issues, so I thought something from Django Reinhardt's 1930s recordings might work. I listened to quite a bit of stuff before I came across Django's introductory line to a song called "Tears." I really liked the feel of it and it was clean (there's a quiet bass keeping quarter notes but nothing else going on).

Before I imported the audio file to Logic Express, I used a metronome to figure out the tempo, about 58 bpm (beats per minute). Once in Logic, I snipped off everything but the line I wanted and went to work on turning it into a loop. The tricky part is cutting it at just the right spot so the sound is smooth when it loops back to the beginning. Also, the tempo didn't match perfectly (it was close) so I needed to use a tool in Logic that will stretch or compress the sample to the nearest bar. After considerable trial and error, I got a smooth loop. And, boy, was I pleased with myself.

What to do with it? I had no idea.

The loop sat around for a couple of months. I knew the next step was to figure out what key Django's guitar riff was in and the basic notes. It was going to be chore for me because I don't have trained ear for it and I'd have to hunt and peck as best I could. I put it off. But one day I played it for my piano-playing friend, Greg, who has actual music training. He identified the key immediately as blues in C (kind of minorish blues). And he showed me the notes of the bass line.

Now I was off and running. I fiddled and diddled with different instruments to go with it and opted for clarinet, electric bass and drums. I worked up a quicky drum & bass loop and started playing leads with the clarinet (on midi keyboard, of course). To make a long story short, I worked up a lead with staccato at first and then went to legato. Then I recorded live drums to the piece. Feeling like I needed some sort of counter-melody, I added piano (a sampled clangy upright). Also, the bass was sounding too loopy so I played a bass line through the whole segment. I ended up with a nice loose, bluesy, improvised feel.

As I was doing all this, I had read a number things about Sputnik, being the 50th anniversary of its launch. I was also reading a book about a group of scientists that work on secret defense projects, the Jasons, who got their start largely as a result of Sputnik.

While I was liking what I had put together, it wasn't feeling like a song yet. In my experimentations with instruments, I came across a heavy synth bass sound that caught my ear. It was dark and foreboding and sounded pretty cool when I played it using the notes of the bass line above: C, Eb, D, G. It also sounded pretty cool when I plugged it in at the end of the jazzy part.

Okay, here's the song: a kind of melancholy jazz tune morphing into a techno monstrosity. The idea being maybe to catch some of the angst of those Sputnik years when the Soviets seemed to be lording it over the U.S. technologically.

I read that Sputnik put out radio beeps that HAM operators could hear. I thought there must be something on the web and there was. I couldn't find a file to download so I recorded the beeps from streamed audio. It's scratchy anyway, so sound quality wasn't a big issue. I turned the beeps into a loop and used it to introduce the song. I wanted to give an effect of arcing across the speakers so I used track automation on the volume and pan. I thought a doppler shift would be cool too, so I figured out how to automate the equalizer. I'm not sure it sounds exactly as I'd hoped but I think it works well enough.