music production

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 … 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 … 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 … Continue reading

Doxastic Truth

With only about 5-6 hours of sleep for the last couple of nights, I woke up with grand plans to knock out two tracks today. I even had some rough ideas of what both were going to be. It ended up being rabbit hole day, with each one taking me a tiny bit farther away from my plan. The first two tracks this month were written, and initially mixed, on headphones. I’ve done this before … Continue reading

Clastic Monolith

Typically, I write these posts the day after posting a song, typically just before starting the next one. This entry, however, is being written on the sixth. Over the years, I’ve certainly had plenty of late Song-A-Day nights. Heck, I wrote a song about it on day 5 of my first year: I Get No Sleep. This year, however, has been bad from the beginning, with no song being posted before about 3 am. It’s … Continue reading