Diamonds EP
The Diamond EP is a short Lo-fi Hip hop album. Moreover, It was my first music design project and a major learning experience. Initially, the Diamond EP was inspired by the passing of a good friend. They introduced me to many styles of music, and aspired to be a producer themselves…
Style
To begin, the style of the Diamond EP took influence from a few generic sources. For instance, I focused on Hip Hop, Jazz, and Reggae. For example, the piano style was inspired by the Jazz stride piano playing of Ralph Sutton. Another influence was the woodwind playing of Bob Wilber and Nujabes. The walking bass line was inspired by Jazz and Reggae bass styles. Specifically the style of rootsman Flabba Holt. Most importantly, I emphasized on Hip Hop production styles. The production style of the EP was influenced by producers like Force of Nature, Nujabes, Madlib, and DJ Krush.
Overall, I tried to stick to the Hip Hop genre. For instance, the drums use traditional hip hop drum patterns with a bit of swing. Moreover, the lead instruments play jazzy piano melodies and flute drops. Meanwhile, piano and guitar play the harmony. During the mastering I opted for a wide and flat sound with static to fill the emptiness. In contrast to my influences I did not use any sampled loops. I chose to compose all of the instruments for simplicity sake.
Process
The process of creating the EP was really an experiment in doing more with less. I used all FOSS software in the production process. For instance, I used LMMS as my digital audio work station. LMMS is a DAW I’ve talked about before. LMMS is highly extensible, with compatibility for vst plugins. However, I limited myself to only the default plugins and samples in LMMS. Partly because extending LMMS with VSTs makes the project files more fragile. Luckily the suite of instrument plugins that come with LMMS is very capable. For example, most of the instrumental tracks were produced with the robust ZynAddSubfx synthesizer that comes with LMMS. Moreover, the drum tracks all use stock samples.
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Media that has been painstakingly crafted should not be ephemeral pulp. If you like the project please download a copy for you convenience. There’s more coming.