This track was made week of 4th of July 2020.
I was reviewing my stats for the last few months, some of my top played tracks on soundcloud are faster bpm / electronic leaning tracks with an industrial vibe (Come With Me, Stir Crazy, Waiting on Forever). I thought I would do another one along these lines and see if the trend could continue or not, I bumped the BPM up to 135 and started in on a new track.
I started with the quirky electric bass line, which is actually not a real bass. I used reason electric basses for it. I preferred the programmed / fakeish sound for the style of the track. I played it in on my Keystation 61, and quantized aggressively.
There is no main standout part of this track, I think this is a ‘production track’ in that its not about the lyrics, the bass playing, or solos, its just a wild and over-the-top production that is fun to listen to.
I wanted to spend more time in Izotope Trash, and used it a lot on this track. Trash has a lot of presets to browse, i started with combing through those while the track was playing to see what it did mix wise. I found a few i liked and put them it on various layers and places.
I’m going to start twitch streaming production as i do it, its not the most entertaining thing to watch, but it makes a nice video record of what im up to and in a way people can watch and ask question in real-time. I think its a good fit for the project. I will post 2 twitch videos per track , for a bit. First in early phases, and another one while working on feedback revisions.
Twitch VODS:
Updates after feedback review: Trying to extend the track, and bringing out the kick (night 1)
Compiled feedback and change idea review
Some of building the track on day 1
There are 7 drum kits used, these i play in segments via my keystation. Some percussive sections repeat and others i play all the way through for more variation. A big part of the ‘Somewhat Incognito’ sound (i think) is the densely layered percussion, and my style of doing it.
The “POOF” Snare
Those 4 poofs on the bottom were Murr‘s idea, I love them- I learned something new here, there is a beatboxing term for a “PF Snare“. And when murr suggested a POOF im honestly not sure if this is what he meant. Some googling lead me to a term called “PF Snare”. I didnt know what this was until this track, and Murr‘s comment. Its basically a hard P and F sound at the same time beatbox style to make a PFFT kinda sounding vocal snare. I love the idea and what they do in the song (they hit at the end of first verse every other bar. However i need to work on them in regards to the mix a bit more i think. I think I want it to sound like its coming from all directions more, more high end to it as well.
I did a bunch of them in a row into my SM7B microphone. I took 2 that I liked and split them into 4 total layers.
I have not yet put the track out for feedback. I want to work on it a bit more yet before doing that. The 2nd verse needs more variation. I think might want to double the 2nd chorus and make it evolve a bit in the 2nd pass before ending.
In the context of the song, its a garnish of detail, but one i really like:
The High Voice
Getting those silly voice effects out of Nepune pitch adjuster. Its set to A Natural Minor with a 5 semi ton upwared transpose, and an uptick on the formant shift. Correction speed is set to high to make it more synthetic.
I’m using trash to get some extra character to the higher frequencies of it. Nectar to clean it up and even it out, pump to open space, and a retro transformer just because i thought it sounded cooler like that.
The MASSIVE Synth
There is this huge thumping kick drum like synth that hits throughout the track and is the most dominant sonic force in the layering. Its a serum preset called Downunder with PHATstat saturation, HIKU, and PUMP added in the reason rack.
The part is played on a keyboard and quantized.
