17. F Minor (66 BPM)

Episode Description:

With a storm rumbling outside of the studio, Oliver is excited to get right into making music on Episode 17 of ’10 Minutes to Make a Loop’. The Wheel of Destiny has F Minor in store for us today, and The Balls of Fate can clearly hear the rain pouring, too, as they select a cosy 66 beats per minute for the tempo. After fumbling around getting used to the key on the piano, Oliver is ready to start composing the loop. He cycles through a few synth sounds, quickly determining the tempo is far too slow for an arpeggiator before deciding a mellow, warm pad synthesizer sound would be the ideal way to start things off. A few chord progression loop explorations later and Oliver is ready to record the keys part. The live looping performance is off and running! It’s quickly over to the bass synthesizer to layer a bass line to add some warmth and a slight bit of grit to the low end of the loop. To continue filling out the rhythm section, Oliver adds a simple bass drum kick and snare rim shot pattern. He explores a few hi-hat and cymbal hits to fill in the drum beat before deciding acoustic percussion instruments are the ideal addition to the loop. He uses a couples of percussive shakers and a cabasa which adds a human touch and movement, showing that making a beat with a single microphone can provide a fun challenge with varying volumes between the instruments. Who knew a cabasa was so loud! Oliver explores a few simple Rhodes melodies before deciding that the loop needs some guitar layered on top. An ambient rock/progressive rock/post-rock/math rock/shoegaze type jam emerges once again, a calming, relaxing music moment - music to drift away to, soothing music, calming sounds that hypnotise. Some warm, hypnotic guitar parts are played with a tone coloured with reverb, tape delay and shimmer delay and a touch of distortion. Oliver adds some simple melody layers to the loop before fading things out during a melodic guitar solo outro before bringing us back safely to silence.