WHAT THE **** IS THAT!!?
Welcome back to another episode of TwoSet Violin.
I know everyone is staying at home.
And one of the things that's been trending a lot is the...
LoFi girl.
She's just staying home with her cat, studying.
So we thought...
why not try something different
and make a violin LoFi track?
Hmm...
I wonder what it would sound like.
As classical musicians with
zero experience in music production,
we thought we'd get the help of our friend, Shaun.
For those of you that don't know Shaun...
I don't think you've appeared on our channel?
- Never. - But!
Your music has been heard before.
If you had listened to our Paganini vs Liszt,
he is the mastermind behind the music production.
Do you know how to make LoFi tracks?
'Cause I asked you to make one,
and you said it took you what? 5 minutes?
Yeah, I made it-
Not to diss LoFi music, but-
Ha ha ha ha!
I did make it, you know, just before we film.
So...
Wanna study now.
I feel like studying...
music history.
We're gonna try and make a track each
with the condition that we have add something violin-y.
- Because we're a classical music channel. - Yeah.
Bye, beanie.
What we're gonna do,
we're gonna use what most people have,
like a laptop and GarageBand.
I was talking to some music producers once,
- Mm. - and they hate GarageBand.
Do you use GarageBand?
This is the first time I've used it.
So it's...
Ha ha ha ha...!
You can still do stuff on GarageBand,
but it's pretty limited.
But it's probably good for beginners like us.
Yeah!
You can definitely make a LoFi beat on it as well.
- It become like a LoFi roasting. - Roast, yeah!
Making this kind of music,
like kind of centred around the rhythm,
you wanna start with the beat.
- Okay. - So... we'll go make a new...
midi track. "Software Instrument."
- What? New? - Yup.
So you wanna go to...
"Electronic Drum Kit."
I usually use "Crate Digger" for just this kind of sound.
It's for "cratives."
I wanna try "Major Crush"
'cause I got a major crush on you!
So you wanna get octave C1
'cause that's where the kick usually is.
"Show Musical Typing."
Ooh...
Ooh...!!
It's a piano on my computer!
You'll never need a real one again.
I had a "duh."
Shaun: Mm. That's working for you.
Ooh!
- Is your thing really laggy? - I can feel the kick.
Wait, I can't hear anything.
- Tsk, you major crush doesn't like you. - Nah, I didn't-
It's all doing the whole time!
Whoa! Whoa!
So you wanna make a chill beat though?
What's a LoFi beat?
A good LoFi beat probably something that's not too...
out there?
- So that- - 'Cause I guess the purpose is just to
stay in the background.
- Okay. - and not like take the person's attention
away from the study, or whatever they're doing.
Alright, I got one. Are you ready?
Dude, they look- Look at those dots.
That doesn't look right.
It's so uneven!
If you mess up your recording,
you can always just go in and change it afterwards.
Eddy: Okay.
Shaun: This is why producers don't play live.
Ha ha ha!
I got my beat!
It's fire. I need to save this.
I need to start looking for my anime gif.
Shaun: Click on to it.
Ha ha!
Click on your green block.
If you go down to it, you should see "Time Quantize."
- That's gonna- - It's gonna move it all in time with like an eighth note.
Oh!
Yeah, so play it back, it might be better.
Dude, that's so ****.
Bro, it sounds so off! What the ****?!
This is stupid. Let me try again.
Alright, so I want you guys to run like a chord progression,
just to kind of fill in like the, you know,
the melody and all that kind of stuff.
You probably just wanna use like a piano or...
or even like a...
stock standard vintage electric piano as well.
You might wanna turn the velocity down,
so it doesn't sound so intense.
"Orchestral." Oh dude, midi strings!
You're gonna do string?
Dude, that's so intense for LoFi!
I'm gonna do a very cliché...
Those that know classical music will know what this is.
- Can I record over this? To add notes? - Yeah, you can build on it as well.
Ah! I can't play in time!
But the-
This thing has changed. The A.
Can I move that back to the C?
Oh no, that's the A in your keyboard.
Oh, **** yeah, durr.
I'm assuming it's great.
Yeah, it's beautiful. It's a magnum opus.
- So you guys ready for some crazy production style? - (both) Yeah.
Let's put some effects on it.
So you wanna have like...
a vinyl crackle...
rain...
- Yeah. - Or something just non-musical
but sounds relaxing in the background.
Is both of them too much or overkill?
- You could be listening to a vinyl record in the rain. - In the rain?
Dude...
- Let's get it! - Alright!
Bro, mine's gonna be so bad, it's gonna be the new bad.
Whoa...
Dude, that's like ASMR, man!
Why is it so loud? My rain forest.
- I don't- - It's...
Is there a way to edit the vinyl sound?
'Cause right now it's quite...
Mm!
I feel like the rain forest saved my beat.
- You guys wanna do your violin recording? - Yeah.
Alright, I'll go first.
- Alright. - Alright.
'Cause I already know what I'm gonna play.
Dude!
It's more LoFi.
Yeah!
My C♯ is sharp. But apart from that, good enough.
LoFi doesn't care about intonation.
Viola doesn't care about intonation.
- Can this be like a LoFi sound? - Input. That's good.
That's good, right? Yeah.
- Your imagination is unlimited. - Ha ha ha! Yeah!
Whoa!
*plays Super Smash Bros theme*
This viola can't be tuned, guys.
Pfft! I'm gonna work with it.
- Listen to mine. - Ooh... - Sounding LoFi?
I'm all ready to hear yours.
Brett: Alright, just look at- capture his face.
Dude!
It's like hor-
Sounds like a horror movie.
You guys are in for a treat.
I don't know if I'm happy with that vinyl sound,
so I'm gonna record my own.
This is very fitting for quarantine.
Dude, this sounds like the person that's actually chilling to it.
Now you add effects to make it sound more LoFi.
We'll do some tricks with the equaliser.
You want to click on "EQ."
You might see like a little gradient
up around at 20k.
We're bringing that down to around...
probably around where you have it.
- Between 5 and 10. - Eddy...
- Alright. - So you're cutting out
all the high frequency information from that.
Getting rid of piccolo sound.
Shaun: Yeah.
So you're literally making it, like, less HiFi.
Less- Ha ha...!
Can I get a "HiFi?"
Sorry, I EQ'd it down.
That's so...
"crative."
So we'll go to your pianos next.
Or your string, ensemble, whatever you have.
And go "Controls."
Oh damn!
- Controls? Okay. - Yeah.
And then "Plug-ins" underneath.
You probably want to add a bit of reverb.
That one is "Space Designer."
That's generally the best one that comes with Logic.
Like a homebrand version on-
Homebrand?
GarageBand version.
- It's a GarageBand version, but that's okay. - Alright, so I can play with this.
- Oh! - If like...
That's the reverb.
Yeah.
Sounds like a song playing in the prison.
- Prison? Can I do- I'm gonna do Botta Church. - This is LoFi for prison
'cause we're all quarantined or imprisoned in the house.
Imprison. It's a metaphor.
Dude, I think the viola made it worse.
- Of course, it's viola. - Shaun: It's possible.
Are you ready?
Output, MacBook Pro Speakers.
Yeah, that's it.
It's not...
I can't turn-
WHAT THE **** IS THAT?!
- That's not relax- - Wait, how do I turn it up louder?
Dude, that's like
- anxiety, bro! - Yeah.
Dude, that's kinda lit!
Bro!
I like it!
Did you hear the lag?
Dude, he just lost it.
Well, it's our first...
He lost it!
Can you play it again?
Brett: Hey Shaun.
No camera!
Bro!
It can be like a Silent Hill kind of soundtrack.
Bro, horror movie should hire you, bro.
I thinks it's what happens when I was too far away from Brett.
Eddy got all the attention.
I'm hearing it in my head.
I wanted to do that kind of like,
you know how the first intro,
there's like talking, and then there's like, the filter.
And then it drops.
(They told me...)
(I couldn't make it.)
(But I believed in myself.)
(Practice 40 hours a day.)
(All day, every day.)
(Let's get it.)
Yeah...
- Yeah! That's good! - That's good!
Actually I...
That's pretty good.
That's nice.
That's actually good.
Damn...
Shaun: We got one- *Brett plays his track*
*Brett plays his track*
- That's so shrill! - Brett: I know, man.
And the rain forest is so loud.
Yeah!
What's your violin doing... viola doing?
Do you wanna listen to it?
Not really but I'm interested.
I think it's...
You'll get transcend.
WHAT THE **** IS THAT!!!
I don't even remember you recording that.
Oh my god! That's so funny.
*sighs*
- Shaun: Yeah, it's cool. It's done. - It's cool. It's done!
Dude, I'm actually so proud.
- That's actually good. - That's good.
You could upload that
on SoundCloud?
What would you actually do though?
What would you add?
I don't know. Maybe like...
some variations in the chords,
or little embellishments,
or little things in the melody, but...
Oh, so you'd actually compose more,
rather than like, EQ-y compression stuff?
Yeah, so it's just to get like
the aesthetic forward.
But like, what do you think of
when you make- produce music?
From what I've learnt today, it's like...
make a beat, get the chord...
- Low... Low. - Lower the EQ.
Add reverb.
Yeah.
Like what would you do from there? Like...
just add different melodies into it?
Yeah, I mean, that's kind of your crash course in
building a tune like that.
'Cause LoFi is a simple genre.
Yeah.
So it's pretty easy to-
He can't help it!
- He's like... - He keeps harping on that.
It's just a bit easier to start with, to produce.
You don't have to worry about
heaps of different elements.
I mean, honestly like,
you can create beautiful music.
Alright well, thanks for today, Shaun.
Alrights.
Where can people find you?
- I've got some production stuff. - Your SoundCloud?
Yeah!
SoundCloud!
I've got some stuff on Spotify.
Let us know what you guys think.
If you like this episode,
make sure to hit like, subscribe, and...
- we'll see you guys- I'm sorry? - We should end-
We should end it on this.
We'll see you guys next time!