This track is one of my pieces from my EP-491 project, "Csound in Dance Music." My goal was to create dance songs using exclusively Csound for any synthesis work. The ONLY sounds in this track that are not Csound are some very minimal vocals. Percussion, synthesizers, everything else come from completely original Csound instruments.

Set Me Free is the first song I completed and is actually the last track that I began work on. It is also the piece that I presented at the senior showcase. Composition wise, it is quite a departure from the tracks that I usually write. It is heavily influenced by dubstep music, and in my opinion, is quite an interesting mix between dubstep and progressive house. The track begins with Csound- processed vocals and a granularized synth patch, the un-granularized version being one of the textural focuses of the piece. Set Me Free follows some generally accepted “rules” of progressive house, such as a tempo of 128 bpm. However, with the exception of the section from 1:47 to 2:48, it does not feature a standard “4-on-the-floor” kick drum pattern, but instead, a sparcer, more dubstep influenced pattern.

Originally I was working with the entire piece at 128 bpm, which had a rather unique flavor with the dubstep style percussion, but I eventually decided to make the jump up to 142 bpm (standard of dubstep) at 3:34 for the final section. I am very please with how this came out, and I believe the rather abrupt change in tempo feels natural, but still unexpected.

All of the Csound instruments are completely original and my own. All of the sequencing was performed in Logic Pro 8, and all of the mixing was performed in Pro Tools 8. All material in this song has now been copyrighted by me, but all are welcome to download the track. Any feedback is welcomed!

I hope you enjoy!

-Evan Allen

http://www.soundcloud.com/evan-allen
http://www.evanallenproductions.com