Out Of Key

richaux

TL;DR: this is a synth-pop track about being true to yourself.

For the last couple of days of January, I’d been listening to Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien”¹, on repeat, like a deranged teenager. The idea was to overdose on a song I liked, so that the song’s structure or ambience or intent would then seep – osmosis style – into my next creation. I’m not sure it has but I like the process.

Anyway, this track is about being true to yourself; being comfortable with your dubious decisions.

Technically, the drum sounds are from Groove Agent with some added Backbone sourced hi-hats. The various brass instruments are from NN-XT samples. Other synths from Thor and filtered, sampled sawtooth waves (NN19), stock Cubase Retrologue, Halion, Padshop in there too. Vocals are synthesised (not generated by our least popular technology 😶), with the Allen and Sandra 🤘 Vocaloid voices; their formant glitchiness tempered by EQ & saturation. I still prefer them to my singing.

Most tracks have EQ (current fave: Steinberg’s catchily named “Frequency 2”) for basic control at this point.

I enjoyed doodling with the compression settings too: tried out the Steinberg Black Valve compressor because it has a nice name and looks nice and has less knobs to twiddle. Side-chained the bass synth from the kick & snare to stop the latter getting trampled by the former. This is what counts as songwriting for me!

¹ https://youtu.be/GSrGvjTuNRI

Lyrics

This is my calling
This is my key
I can’t help but sing
This is my key

Spiked hair, cut by my own hand
Tattoo burnt by me
Clothing – from child labour – hidden
As the price beats the ethics, see