Originally posted on January 6, 2014

In this episode, I talked about and played a new age song called “Rise Above” that I wrote and recorded in January 2014. It uses a mixture of synthesizers and a men’s choir.

I analyzed all of my previous recordings to see which keys I have used and have not used. It turns out I’ve used the “easier” keys with 0-3 flats or sharps but not the “harder” keys with 4-6 flats or sharps. I decided to write this song in G# minor which has 5 sharps.

I used the chord progression G# minor, F#, E maj7, F# which turns out to be the same chord progression I used on Rue’s Whistle which was in G minor, just one semitone away. I also used the same bass sound, although I added some distortion on this bass. I found two cool patches in Omnisphere, one called Chilling and one called Chill Factor that I thought I co ...