A few years ago, when I first started exploring the endless possibilities of Reaktor, I went through all of the many included ensembles in the Reaktor Factory Library: Effects, Grooveboxes, Samplers, Sequenced Synthesizers, Sound Generators and Synthesizers. When I first played around with Akkord, one of the Sequenced Synthesizers, I imagined one day composing a piece for my talented daughter Maya to play called “Akkording To Maya” for Akkord and Viola. For Maya’s 16th birthday (6/13/21), I finally got around to doing it.
Since Akkord has a unique sequencer that plays chords, I sent Maya a list of almost every possible chord in every key and asked her to choose 16 of them, no matter which ones. I assembled a musical form using the chords that Maya chose in the order that she sent them. The first 5 chords were used in the A section, the second 5 chords were used in the B section and the last 6 chords were used in the C section:
- Dmaj7, G, Em, Am, Cmaj7#11
- Dm9, Dsus4, E7, Fm, A6
- Bsus4, A9, Ddim, F#+, Dm13, Bm
Once the Pro Tools track with the Akkord parts was complete, I quickly composed a Viola melody part and a Violin harmony part; Maya plays Violin too, and Harmony is her middle name! I printed the parts using Finale Music Notation software and recorded Maya playing them. The Viola and Violin were recorded with an Avantone CR-14 ribbon microphone through a Focusrite Clarett 8PreX. The mix features plugins from Focusrite, Native Instruments and Waves.
So much fun! I love this. Brava Maya! Well done Barry.