Track number #29! We are headed into the home stretch!
This one is somewhat of a departure for me. While clearly electronic and not even trying to sound orchestral, this feels more like a soundtrack to me. It’s more like something that would be in a late 1980s science fiction B-movie opening credits scene than a dance track.
This track started with the bass this time, and I wasn’t actually setting out to work on track 29. I was mostly playing around with bass sound design on Sunday and the final patch is kind of an involved mix of two different Hybrid VST synth patches, with extensive automation of several parameters. When I got done making the new patch, I had pretty much stumbled over the bass line as it exists in the final track. I tweaked it a bit here and there to fit in with the subsequent elements, including adding a sidechain compressor to it, and in turn driving a couple other elements with their own sidechain compressors using the bass line as input to arrive at this final form.
The rest of the track is mostly in a supporting role. The harmony is minimal. There’s an implied simple i-i7-iv6-V progression in parts, but it’s pretty simple and calling it harmony is a stretch.
The final feel is sparse, and yet somehow dense and atmospheric, I think, and I am mostly pleased with the final results, but I don’t know if it will make the final album cut. Here’s my top 7 of 8 as I see them right now.
- Terahertz
- Miskatonic Surf Club
- Time On Target
- Reliquary (recall that I didn’t care for this one as much at first. It’s grown on me since!)
- Stochasm
- Time And Tide (I like this one a lot, but not sure if it will fit the vibe of everything else)
- (MAYBE) Home On The Strange (if I do this in 2023, I will use actual guitar on the melodies)
- and beyond, TBD, nothing so far I feel makes the cut for 2023.
I’m not crazy about the two remixes I’ve done, but I am deliberately excluding remixes from consideration regardless of quality. There’s a few other things I kind of like, but they’re more goofy (Space Karen, There Will Be A Test), genre mismatch (Hometown, Long Weekend) or just plain fucking weird (Mothership Returns, Cult Hive).
I hope you enjoy this one! Even if I’m not considering this 2023 project fodder, I’m still reasonably satisfied.
Saturday Sounds 