Note: This post was written in 2025 and backdated to appear on the day I wrote and published the track.
I’m not sure what this style / genre would have been called back in the 80s, but these days it’s called Synthwave. This is as “stereotypical” a synthwave track as I can think of, yet it’s absolutely true to an actual 80s track by Jan Hammer or Giorgio Moroder.
- The Search for Tubbs Ray Toler 3:18
The arrangement is simple, as is the instrumentation: drums, bass, guitar, electric piano, and two synths. The guitar is a real one (as opposed to a sampled or modeled one). I’m pleased with how it turned out as I’m not really a soloist. I’ve read that lead guitarists tend to one of two camps: those who compose their solos and those who play in the moment. I would definitely be in the former because I would never trust myself to play well enough to wing it.
I hand-selected the drum samples for XO and programmed the patterns from scratch. No surprise, they’re Linndrum samples. I’m looking forward to getting the structured cabling done in the house so I can get some of my old hardware back into action, but these samples sound pretty great.
Strangely, I don’t have the same negative “this was too easy” feelings that I did for Lo-Fi (see: Saltblind). It was easy, but for some reason it just seems different. There’s no logical reason for that, which makes it all the more confounding to me.
Colophon
Instruments & Samples
XO, Pigments, Hive2, Falcon, Generate, Slate + Ash Choreographs, Squire Stratocaster
Effects, Mixing, & Mastering
FabFilter, Gullfoss, Rocktron Chameleon