Blame It On The Bucky Compilation - Behind the Scenes

In this long read, we get behind the scenes from 7 music producers on how they made their tracks for our most recent compilation of synth music.

In it, they talk about

• How they were inspired to make the track

• What tricks they used in the production of it

• An insight into how they mixed and mastered their track

There will be a 2nd part to this blog in the future where we hear from the other 7 artists involved!

Papa Sob

CANDLES, MOODY LIGHTING, RESIDENT EVIL

I started working on the track after seeing Lo Rays perform live in Glasgow. I loved their wacky vibe and knew we had to make a track together. When I started writing the track all I knew was that we want it to sound ethereal and mysterious. Big drums, groovy basslines and lots of reverb, which was a mix of Depeche Mode and Perturbator. Once the track was written I sent it to Laura (the singer) and let her take full control of the lyrics. She felt the track and knew where to take it right away.

I made pretty much the whole track in one night excluding the lyrics. I just sat high with candles, moody lighting and watched Resident Evil on my other monitor and somehow the whole song was written, which is funny because you wouldn't think there is any RE inspo in the track as its all about portals, the edge, magic stuff and defeating (or rather taking down) this ominous evil, which sort of fits I suppose. When Laura asked how she should do the vocals I just told her to do whatever she wanted, whether that was screaming, whispering or anything else as long as it sounds "wacky and weird".

This was the first time I actually outsourced a track and it was to my friend Joe Bispham who's a great mix and mastering engineer. I didn't even send him a reference track because what we had made was so different and out there. It was like a mixture of synthwave / pop and I just gave him general tips on where I want each instrument. Laura recorded all the vocals at home since neither of us had time to travel EDI / GLASGOW. 

Clementine Blue

The idea of water and space material flowing in and out of the earth

This track was part of an original soundtrack created for local artist Melanie King, for her exhibition 'Wavelength'.

This recording is inspired by the idea of water and space material flowing in and out of the earth. The track uses samples of star pulsars, radio waves from the earth and bubbling water going through midi information.

I think there is more freedom about mixing ambient material, so I followed my intuition and mixed / mastered the track myself.

BlackAD

THE WORLD IS GONNA END SO HERE'S A TUNE I MADE IN THE BATH

the world is going to end in exactly seven minutes and one second . . . in a Berlin nightclub, there's just enough time for one last tune

the song was conceived in the bath and played entirely on analog hardware synthesisers (not in the bath) and a Roland TR-707 drum machine with some reverb, delay and overdrive thrown in for good measure

It was mixed and mastered to be as loud as possible (and why not, for it is the final tune ever to be played)

Ty Lumnus

A MODULAR SYSTEM 6 YEARS IN THE MAKING

This is the first track on an EP called 'Distinct Entities and Morphological Connections' released on Waxing Crescent Records Jan 2022. Inspiration for the ep is based around abstract concepts and loose thinking. 

I produce music on a modular system that I've been building for the last 5-6 years. I use a Motu 828 as an interface and record into Ableton. When I jam on my system I record up to 20 channels simultaneously. 

When I'm writing I start with a clean slate every time. I never attempt to replicate a sound from elsewhere or allow myself to be influenced by anything else I've heard. (I've done it in the past and it just doesn't work for me.) 

The great thing about a modular system is that it makes a noise as soon as you switch it on. Its down to you to sculpt how is sounds. I usually start with setting a bpm and then set the key I want to work with. I use and 8-channel sequencer for my melodic synths and three different sequencers for my percussion synths. 

On the melodic sequencer I start to punch in patterns visually - that helps set variation across the channels. Then I adjust pitch on each note followed by adjusting the envelopes on each channel. Once I've done that I have a listen to hear what it sounds like. By that stage I'm decent way towards having a tune. It's tweaking from that point on. My percussive sequencers generate reproducable rhythms that I use as start points. An iterative process of tweaking melody to suit rhythm and vice versa then rolls through.

Because of how I work I it's critical to have a really good mix from the outset. At the point when I'm recording the session, the mix is pretty much sorted. 9 times out of 10 the recordings I make when jamming are pretty much what gets released. Start to finish most tracks take 2-3hrs at most. Each week I release a new track via my YouTube channel (TyLumnus).

I don't tend to master those. However when releasing via a label I always get tracks mastered by someone other than me. That different perspective on your sound, in particular in a different environment (both room acoustics and monitors) is always an important part of the process. Every bit as important is the conversation you have with the mastering engineer and the points of reference you give them.

The Amusements

You have a pocket full of coins and an hour or two to spend playing the coolest games with the coolest graphics and the coolest sounds

Double Dragon is inspired by the thrill and rush of video game arcades. You have a pocket full of coins and an hour or two to spend playing the coolest games with the coolest graphics and the coolest sounds. Double Dragon was a quintessential title of the era and one of many violent and bloody beat em ups that I adored. 

The musical inspiration came from experimenting with FM synthesis. 

Once I had the main synth line down, I knew that an FM synth naturally gives an 80s flavour. To give it a modern touch, I used a harmonic drone generator to give a texture and an 808 kit for some punch in the drums, at the same time as fitting with the retro feel. I also used a lot of voices from the Ableton Voice Box Pack which allows for easily creating instruments and sounds out of the human voice. 

Made entirely within Ableton, Double Dragon is a very simple track. An 808 core kit extended with some maracas and dirty hats make up the drums. An FM synth using Sampler provides the main riff. The harmonic drone generator gives a "sample and hold" style bed when put through a buffer shuffler. Vocal samples using the Voice Box Ableton Pack add sparkle to the upper frequencies and take the track's energy levels up a notch. Once I had the main FM Synth part down the rest was easy to write. It was about taking the energy levels to the next stage at the right point, then adding in variations to the main idea. This is where Voice Box came in handy. 

Simple ingredients make for a relatively straight forward mix. I added a sub for more bottom end to compensate for tightening up the 808 kick. This track was the first one where I learned the power of the Gate. A simple device but one that is crucial in bring out the groove of a drum or synth part. There is also vocoder everywhere. But mainly the voices are made up of vocal samples and instruments from Voice Box. Even when they are heavily processed and disguised the human connection seems to come across with this track even only if on a subliminal level. 

But in terms of mixing, there is very little involved. Some EQ, saturation and a bit of compression is all that was applied to the tracks. This was one track where the sounds were designed specifically for their part in the song, so the eq and compression was baked in from the start. 

Mastering was less straight forward. I needed to tame the lows and boost up the high mids. I use Izotope products mainly in mastering. Maximiser is their limiter set at -2db True Peak using their IRC IV algorhythm for a more transparent type of limiting. The 808 kick was causing me problems so I needed to smooth things out. I've not used an 808 kick since. I also used a vintage tape emulation and Ableton Saturator to reduce the dynamic range and get things smoothed out even more. A bit of stereo width in the upper frequencies was also added at Mastering. Maybe I should paid more attention at the mix stage. I wrote this track in June and finished it two months later. But I only finished mastering it and decided to release it in November. I can write really quickly, but the mix and master stage will take months because I need to let the initial excitement for a track fade away before I can analyse it objectively.  

Dusty Hayes

VHS AND 90’S VIBES

I was originally playing around with these big swirly pads sounds and didn't know where to go and had some chords worked out, but as soon as I put the chords to the Korg M1 piano I instantly changed tact and made this into a 90's throwback housey number, which is quite different to what I normally go for. Heavy influences on this track are definitely some of dance outfits from the early 90s like 808 State along with more recent influences like Lone. 

I was trying to go for a much more 90s vibe, so I used 3 instances of Europa to recreate the lately bass preset sound, mostly 909 drum samples, and a lot of Korg M1 presets, by limiting these as the sound sources it forced me to be more creative with things like compression, saturation, reverbs and delays to make it sound more modern but keeping the essence of early 90s house.

I did struggle at points to put in a couple of extra elements, so I did decide to shamelessly rip off 808 State but firing in a loon sample. also some weird reversed vocals for good measure.

There's a secret sauce in the mix which is a return track which is just the baby audio super VHS plug in which emulates the sound of VHS as has some really nice chorus, drift and bit reduction, so a little bit of everything is going there and that sits just under most of the mix, but without it the overall track sounds empty.  

KRYTICAL MASS

Scooby’s story of shark boi becomes an epic synth track!

Inspired initially by the vocal sample used; the story is of Shark Boy, a porpoise-like boy who turns into his final form when encountering a vicious school of sharks. The recording is of my friend Scooby whilst on a work trip abroad, who was labelled Shark Boy with his reflective sunglasses, which made him look pretty "shark"-like to his colleagues. Scooby then fills us in on the character's backstory in his idiosyncratic storytelling style. 

Starting out with a percussive loop in Ableton. I used a filter on the initial beat under the vocal sample and built on from there. I used some cool sample packs from a synth advent calendar suggested by Dave last year to add extra risers and drops and further water drop samples do give it that oceanic vibe. 

I leaned quite heavily into the reverb on the vocal, whilst keeping other elements crisper. The kick drum is important as the underpinning driving force, which used two and three layers, each with compression, EQ and saturation to achieve the desired sound. As well as filtering the intro music, I also worked with automated filtering on the bass line in one of the bridge sections, allowing the music to dip into a lull before another loud riffy section!

The track was then expertly mastered by James Maitland giving it that big bright and bassy sound.