Previous Thread
Index
Next Thread
Print Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
The Contrafact - A "contrafact", by definition, is the act of using the chord progression of an existing song as it comes, and construct a new melody on top. It doesn't have to end there though, for quite often this (very legit!) method of music making will also include creating an entirely new instrumentation, a different rhythm & key, shift around or cut parts and whatnot. In my case here I have in fact done all of the above, except the key remains unchanged.
Now, this one is a bit of an oddity for me, I admit, was probably more of an experimentation at the time. The song (originally written in the 80's) is named thus for two reasons. One, I've recently learned that making a song in the way I have done here does in fact have a name, as explained above, and I just thought that word sounded fine as a name for the song since that's precisely what the song is. And the other reason, I simply couldn't remember its original name! grin
Right, as I don't expect any of you to correctly guess the song from where I 'lifted' the chords, I'll resist the "turn it into a game" temptation, for a change wink - It is from "The Model", by Kraftwerk (kudos if anyone here has even heard of them, they weren't exactly msainstream in Europe, let alone known overseas!).
And now for the 'Formalities':

Style is _BOGG70S.STY

UserTracks in song: Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm FunkyTriplets Sw 120*
RealTracks in style: 2362:Bass, Electric, MotownFunkyTriplets Sw 120
RealTracks in style: 956:Guitar, Electric, Rhythm CountryBoogieGrittyA-B Sw 110
RealTracks in song: 2363:Piano, ElectricClav, Rhythm MotownFunkyTripletsJohn Sw 120
RealDrums: RealDrums in Song: LaPopJazzLiteSw


*My own UT


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 147
C
Apprentice
Offline
Apprentice
C
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 147
A "contrafact"... How interesting. I learned something new today.

An admirable job on the creation of the new usertrack, very impressively done.

The song has a great vibe to it, and the graphic is weirdly complimentary.

Good sound!

User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,474
Veteran
Online Content
Veteran
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,474
Had a progressive rock sound and clever melody. Well constructed.

User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,079
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,079
Eddie,

When I read Kraftwerk I went YEH, I was into electronic music in a big way and this band led the way. My last band even played a hybrid electronic/rock version of "The Model".
Anyway, enjoyable listen and the intro is definitely a contrafact

the picture on soundcloud is also excellent, did you do that???
I stared at that as I listened to your song.
Well done for the usertrack, fitted well.

sorry but I sang their words to your song blush

good ending by the way!

Alyn

User Showcase
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,613
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 3,613
Nicely done.Most enjoyable.
Rob

User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: Curt Young
A "contrafact"... How interesting. I learned something new today.
It's a pretty new term to me too, in fact I only first heard about it from another user on this very forum! So I guess I'm merely "paying it forward", as it were smile

p.s. Ta for the complimentary note on my Usertrack, it is in my view my best one yet.


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: gibson
Eddie,

When I read Kraftwerk I went YEH, I was into electronic music in a big way and this band led the way. My last band even played a hybrid electronic/rock version of "The Model".
Anyway, enjoyable listen and the intro is definitely a contrafact
Thanks for that, nice to find someone who knew the reference. I did try retain at least some of the "electronic" essence by picking those "hard to define", obscure sounds for the melody (and the drums), but I still found it necessary to swap out the electric keyboard of the style for an acoustic one or it was getting a bit overstated (if that makes any sense).

Originally Posted By: gibson
the picture on soundcloud is also excellent, did you do that??? I stared at that as I listened to your song.
I can't take the credit for that one, no. It's just something I found in my Pictures folder and seemed to be "mind boggling" enough to fit the piece cool
Originally Posted By: gibson
Well done for the usertrack, fitted well.
That's a relief, thanks. Choosing the instruments gave me a bit of a headache, actually, and I tried a lot of RT pianos before finally deciding that my own was probably the best fit after all. Usertracks are still ever so tricky to construct in terms of actually working in a song, but this one seems to be fairing alright.

Originally Posted By: gibson
sorry but I sang their words to your song blush
ROFL!! grin


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,099
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 10,099
Hi Eddie,

I'm not familiar with Kraftwerk so I can evaluate the song just by what I heard.

The tune is pretty melodic and the choice of instrumentation evokes the eighties, synth sound.

There is a lot of difference between the apparent energy level of the two lead instruments. The first instrument sounds similar to a harpsichord while the second more of a wind blown instrument. Even though it doesn't show up in the waveform sound envelope the apparent sound of the second, wind blown instrument is much louder.

I enjoyed my listen.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1109) RB (Build 3) Ultra+ PAK
Cakewalk - Zoom MRS-8 recorder
Desktop: i7 Win 10 build 2004, 12GB ram 256GB SSD, 4 TB HDD
Laptop: i3 64bit Win 10 build 21H2, 8GB ram 500GB HDD
Music at: https://fogle622.wix.com/fogle622-audio-home
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,360
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 2,360
Very melodic and enjoyable.

Kenny

User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: JimFogle
Hi Eddie,
===
There is a lot of difference between the apparent energy level of the two lead instruments. The first instrument sounds similar to a harpsichord while the second more of a wind blown instrument. Even though it doesn't show up in the waveform sound envelope the apparent sound of the second, wind blown instrument is much louder.
The 'loud' one is in fact listed as a Shehnai emulator, a reed instrument from India or thereabouts, so you came surprisingly close with that guess! cool
And yes, I do agree somewhat about it being perhaps a tad too strong in the mix especially in relation to the other main sounds. I guess that's what you risk when you're trying to be 'economic' with the tracks, for I actually played all three on the same synth (they all take turns as opposed to play toether, you see) and just manually switched between each on their respective a-b-c parts turn. Something I wouldn't really do on a 'pro' recording unless for some very exceptional reason.

But well spotted! smile


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: 44kfl
Very melodic and enjoyable.

Kenny

Oh, I quite like the sound of that - "Mr. Melodic", that's me down to a T! laugh


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 8,058
C
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
C
Joined: Apr 2013
Posts: 8,058
Interesting back story and quite an interesting tune. Impressive work for your user track. That's something I have on my to do list with BIAB and not gotten to yet.

Charlie


BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
User Showcase
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 1,679
Expert
Offline
Expert
Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 1,679
Hello,

nice track and good melody.
Great synth.

Hello.
Sergio.



Sergio
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: Sergio Guarneri
Hello,
Nice track and good melody.
Great synth.
Thanks for that. I realise the piece isn't exactly "rich" or inventive on the chords front, so I tried to compensate by picking obscure lead sounds to grab the attention instead.


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Originally Posted By: c_fogle
Impressive work for your user track. That's something I have on my to do list with BIAB and not gotten to yet.

Charlie
Good luck with that! We could certainly do with more contributors to that cause cool
Have to tell you though, it's not as 'easy & straight forward' to pull off as these so-called 'tutorial' videos will have you believe smirk Sure, playing along their Templates and recording is pretty simple (and you can easily churn them out by the truckload from that alone), but you'll find that's barely half of the story if you wish to go for any sort of decent usability! Case in point, this particular one here took me weeks to get it to the level of stable playability it's at now.


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
And a note back to all of you:

I have to say that yet again you've managed to surprise me with the level of feedback and (even more so) the share interest shown! Here I was quite sure I had such an odd and ill-definable piece to present, that it would hardly bring on any listeners to more than maybe the first few seconds before heading on to more 'recognisable' territory. I mean, I myself can hardly begin to place any sort of 'label' or genre onto whatever this thing turned out to be in the end - and I wrote it! crazy

And yet, here we are 2 pages in on the feedbacks already, amazing! smile


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 11
B
Newbie
Offline
Newbie
B
Joined: Aug 2015
Posts: 11
wow its nice!! I have done this with a song before, but I didn't realise there was a name for it. I guess I would put this into maybe alternative? Its very listenable (if thats a word)
PS Ive hard of Kraftwek but not too familiar with their stuff.
Thanks for posting, I enjoyed that

User Showcase
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 6,892
G
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
G
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 6,892
I remember the name Kraftwerk, German right? Don't remember the music. This is a cool little tune you've constructed here!! The contrafact is an interesting concept. I heard John Lennon say that one of his songs (may have been "Love is" or something) was created from a classical piece played backwards, the contrabackwardsfact. Leave it to John. This is a very enjoyable creation! Thanks for sharing. Take care. Greg

User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
Veteran
OP Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2012
Posts: 4,775
For those invested in the concept, here's the original Kraftwerk song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHHv4u8Vomw


Thank goodness words aren't knives.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
BBox 2022 Audiophile, Mac Pro Intel, OSX 10.6.8, 800x600 (TV VGA)
User Showcase
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 3,700
Veteran
Offline
Veteran
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 3,700
Very interesting concept and the final result. I can recognize the Kraftwerk chord progression, I have always liked its melancholy. I like the funkier feel in your song. Maybe the piano soloist part could have more chorus/reverb effects to better fit in.

Contrafact concept is new to me as a name. I usually try to avoid any known chord progressions, but once I tried to make a pop rock song with John Coltrane's chord progressions. It was only a starting point, I changed those chords that sounded too jazzy and not enough pop and added my own chords for some parts. For those who are interested, here is an instrumental version of it (melody replaced by piano soloist Realtrack #2026).

Anyway, thanks for the inspirational song. I hope to hear more with the same concept.

Janne


Hear My Music:

Soundcloud
YouTube

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Go To
Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
ChatPG

Ask sales and support questions about Band-in-a-Box using natural language.

ChatPG's knowledge base includes the full Band-in-a-Box User Manual and sales information from the website.

PG Music News
Band-in-a-Box® 2024 Review: 4.75 out of 5 Stars!

If you're looking for a in-depth review of the newest Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows version, you'll definitely find it with Sound-Guy's latest review, Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows Review: Incredible new capabilities to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs.

A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."

"MIDI SuperTracks partial generation showing six variations – each time the section is generated it can be instantly auditioned, re-generated or backed out to a previous generation – and you can do this with any track type. This is MAJOR! This takes musical experimentation and honing an arrangement to a new level, and faster than ever."

"Band in a Box continues to be an expansive musical tool-set for both novice and experienced musicians to experiment, compose, arrange and mix songs, as well as an extensive educational resource. It is huge, with hundreds of functions, more than any one person is likely to ever use. Yet, so is any DAW that I have used. BIAB can do some things that no DAW does, and this year BIAB has more DAW-like functions than ever."

Happy Easter! Holiday Hours...

2024 is well underway - it's already Easter Weekend!

Our Customer Service hours this weekend are:

Friday, March 29: 8-4
Saturday, March 30: 8-4
Sunday, March 31: closed

Regular hours resume Monday, April 1st - no joke!

Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!

The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!

There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.

If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.

We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!

Congratulations to the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

We've just announced the 2023 User Showcase Award Winners!

There are 45 winners, each receiving a Band-in-a-Box 2024 UltraPAK! Read the official announcement to see if you've won.

Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed!

Video: Volume Automation in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created a video to help you learn more about the Volume Automation options in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows.

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Volume Automation

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#volume-automation

Video: Audio Input Monitoring with Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®

We've created this short video to explain Audio Input Monitoring within Band-in-a-Box® 2024, and included some tips & troubleshooting details too!

Band-in-a-Box® 2024: Audio Input Monitoring

3:17: Tips
5:10: Troubleshooting

www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024full/chapter11.htm#audio-input-monitoring

Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!

We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!

Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.

You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.

See the Melodist in action with our video, Band-in-a-Box® 2024: The Melodist Window.

Learn even more about the enhancements to the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows at www.pgmusic.com/manuals/bbw2024upgrade/chapter3.htm#enhanced-melodist

Forum Statistics
Forums66
Topics81,398
Posts732,549
Members38,442
Most Online2,537
Jan 19th, 2020
Newest Members
danielsk, Mark Morgan, zagrajbarke, Ernest J, Izzy
38,442 Registered Users
Top Posters(30 Days)
MarioD 199
Al-David 133
DC Ron 115
rsdean 85
dcuny 83
Today's Birthdays
(charlie), WobblyGstring
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5