Song-A-Day 2022

In Time

Today’s song started at a reasonable time. I was reasonably successful in not procrastinating or finding things to distract me. I still went to bed at 2:30 am, but I’m almost adjusted to the shift. Actually, I really thought this track was going to be ready for final polish and export by around midnight, meaning I’d get to bed by 1, which would have been really nice. In a way, it’s a good example of scope creep, but it’s also a good example of knowing that something’s not quite finished. The bulk of the day was spent writing entries for … Continue reading

Henotic Cryptography

I’m actually live blogging this track as I write it, and I could not have asked for a better starting scenario. Opened up Digital Performer, decided I was starting with soft synths, and opted for Serum, a fairly popular wavetable synth, especially with the dub step and EDM crowd. I typically go straight for either arpeggiated sounds or pads. For those who don’t speak synthnerd, arpeggiators automatically play patterns of notes or do some other type of rhythmic effect, and pads are the big washes of sounds that are normally held for a long time. As I scrolled through them, … Continue reading

Going Under

Ok. Forget what I said yesterday. Today is the day I get two of these done, because I already have a huge headstart on one, and I’m starting around noon, an hour or two after getting up. My plan is to work on this track until about 6 pm, post it, then get tomorrow’s track written (probably another ambient piece) and be in bed by midnight. Remember when I talked about gremlins yesterday? Well, in typical gremlin fashion, XO works just fine today. Multi-channel out is working. Stem export is working. Holy crap, I might be in bed by 11 … Continue reading

Fluvial Desert

Today is the day. I’m going to get two of these things done. I started writing about 3pm. Plenty of time. Since yesterday was done entirely in safe, warm, and cozy, Omnisphere I’m going to try some of my newer software hoping to get some of those “new sounds, new songs” moments. Hive2 from u-He was my starting point. Almost right off the bat I found the really funky chord-stab synth that opens the track, along with a great beat out of a really nice drum sequencer, XO from XLN Audio. Because I needed a “real” bass for what was … Continue reading

Existential Transcendentalism

Another track with no plan going in. After a few days of hardware production, I decided to turn to another old, comfortable, warm, fuzzy… virtual synth. Omnisphere has been a primary tool for me for years. In fact, it’s one of a very short list of “if I could only have one thing” tools in the studio. Along, with Stylus RMX for drums, it’s the first software I install after Digital Performer, my digital audio workstation (DAW). I used to think of it as a chameleon – it can be pretty much anything and covers a lot of synthesis ground … Continue reading