18. F Minor (96 BPM)

Episode Description:

We’re back in the recording studio for another live looping improvisation on Episode 18 of ’10 Minutes to Make a Loop’. Oliver correctly feels some familiar vibes as The Wheel of Destiny wants to hear F Minor another time. The Balls of Fate have a nice, steady tempo in mind with 96 beats per minute. Oliver starts the writing session off with a dabble around on the piano, just twinkling through a few notes to get used to the key. Once settled, he switches to a Rhodes sound on the Akai MPK 249. He plays around with a few different keyboard patterns before recording the first layer. A relaxing, gentle Rhodes part - a couple of bass chords with a simple, catchy lead melody comprised of only a few notes. Immediately Oliver switches over to the bass synth, played on the Akai MPK mini, using a new favourite synthesizer sound. It’s a huge, warm bass synth sound with a knob controlling the amount of resonance and a filter opening up to add and remove frequencies. Once the bass is looped, there’s a quick exploration on the drums before Oliver decides he’d like to start with some percussion, then add guitar before returning to drums. He uses a couple of different percussion shakers to lay down a subtle, warm percussive rhythm before grabbing his Fender Stratocaster. Coloured with reverb, tape delay, shimmer delay and a DryBell Vibe Machine, Oliver finger picks a relaxing guitar loop. The loop takes a turn into the epic, atmospheric, sound bath direction - it becomes ambient rock, progressive rock, post-rock, math rock, shoe gaze, style jam session. Warm, hypnotic guitar parts, music to relax to, calming, soothing, relaxing instrumental music to lose yourself to. It’s then time to add those drums after all, playing a rock drum kit Oliver plays a rock drum beat with ride cymbal, kick and snare. Once the drums are tracked, Oliver takes us away on a soaring, drifting, melodic guitar solo before bringing things to a close with a classic Stereo Reverie outro.