Mare Imbrium

If you’ve read past entries covering some of my ambient tracks and how I go about producing them, you’ve learned some of my tricks. Things like drawing in periodic oscillations for moving faders and filters, or copying and pasting tracks between different instruments and finding fun ways to make them interact. And all of that was my plan for the evening, especially after I found the primary sound that would anchor this track. I quickly … Continue reading

I Can See What’s Coming

Almost immediately after posting Laika, I started a new project and got to work. My intent was to try an instrument or plugin that I hadn’t used yet. After scanning through the options, I decided that it sounded fun to do a chiptune track, and fired up Plogue Chipsounds. This plug models a bunch of sound chips from older computers and video games systems like the Atari 2600, Commodore 64, and Nintendo Entertainment System. After … Continue reading

Across the Plains

We arrive at the month’s first dodged bullet. My time management over the weekend, complicated by impromptu hang outs with our neighbors in the evenings, led to me getting a late start. It’s hard to go to bed at a decent hour when you don’t go into the studio before midnight, but I was generally happy with both Continental Transit and Mare Vaporum, so I had no reason to think this one would be any … Continue reading

Mare Vaporum

Once again, going into the studio having already decided to do something instrumental took some of the pressure off. I loaded up a piano and a pad sound and started playing to figure out where I wanted to go. And then, I immediately went there. The piano part you hear is pretty much the first thing I played. Except that I wasn’t recording. Luckily, my recording software added a feature a version or two ago … Continue reading

Get Out of the Way

I spent about five hours yesterday battling a hippy-happy-house track. The track wasn’t the problem, it was the lyrics. Happy lyrics, as you may know, don’t often come naturally to me. After a short procrastination break at the neighbors I came back and worked for another 30 minutes before saving the project into the “sketches” folder and starting a new one. I thought this pivot, as they so often are, would end up being an … Continue reading