This song came together last
night and actually turned out to be pretty cool. It could use a bit more mixing, the kick drum isn't loud enough and the arpeggiated synths are a bit too big in the mix. However, I LOVE the drums here, the toms turned out to be super awesome. I initially just placed them in the beat, but then I dropped the pitch gradually as the little fills occur, which turned out to make for a really great effect.
Listen to Oil Spills here.
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 all play
the progression pictured below. I have added an arpeggiator on all of them, along with the "Chord" effect, which added some extra jumps in octaves up and down, in addition to a Minor 9 interval which adds a really dark vibe. Tracks 4, 5 and 6 are all used to accent the beginning of each 12 bar section. Track 7 just holds a low C with a synth sound, and is then sidechained to the kicks to have it cut in and out in the background.
Tracks 1, 2 and 3, described above.
Finally, we have our drums
in Tracks 8, 9 and 10. I absolutely love how this beat came out, so I may be taking it and building up a second song around it. The toms dropping in pitch worked out way better than I expected and makes it feel like a giant drum kit with 8+ different toms. The rest of the drums have a cool effected-acoustic sort of vibe, not too electronic but not too "normal".