Part of the reason I've been creating so much music lately is that I'm trying to teach myself to write for film & TV. That requires being able to produce something 1) quickly, 2) at professional quality, and 3) to produce a specific effect. That's why I joined the songwriter's group (Sync or Swim) that I've been talking about in the past few posts.

"Hit It" was one that I didn't write for Sync or Swim. Instead I wrote it specifically to pitch to a music library that was looking for percussion instrumentals to use for commercials. They didn't end up picking it up, but I learned a lot from doing it, and anyway I think I ended up with a cool-sounding piece that I can still use for something else.

What did I learn? I was trying to create something that sounded natural and organic even though I don't actually own any drums. In the songs you've heard so far, I 've used a combination of algorithmic AI-ish drummers and my own MIDI programming to create the drum tracks. Which is a technique that I think I've gotten pretty good at, but it's one thing when you're using drums as a backing track to a song, and something else again when the percussion is all there is in the piece. You want it to sound really natural and top-notch.

So, this time, I used a mix of two techniques to create the drum tracks.

First, I set my phone to record a voice memo and then banged on the back of it with my fingers to create the main percussive rhythm that you hear throughout; I used my digital audio workstation to convert the resulting audio to a MIDI signal, then applied two different software instrument samples (a low floor-tom and a conga). This is what gives the track its sort of tropical, latin-ish vibe.

The second thing I did, which I haven't done before, was to use a step sequencer to create the rest of the sounds (the bass drum, tambourine, cymbals, etc).  Step sequencers are basically loop generators, and they are really useful for creating repetitive electronic beats, but I wanted to see if I could use it to create a more natural-sounding accompaniment that would evolve throughout the track.

The result is what you hear here.