Studio Feed: Starting from Scratch #6 Pt. 5

Hey Everyone, back onto this WIP after a couple months off. The break was mostly because of my cross-country move, the holidays, etc. but I also saw that this one had some good potential yet it wasn't quite clicking in the first couple sessions. For me that usually means some extended time off is needed to come back with truly fresh ears and perspective.

My new monitors/room allowed me to hear a bit more of what was going on so I started the session making some mix adjustments.

I knew I wanted to the track to be a bit more focused on the groove, which would require some of the big sounds to be a bit sparser. With this in mind I went in ready to remove whatever wasn't needed. Not much got cut other than the main synth going half as often and the negative space replaced with a stabby noise layer to accentuate the bass rhythm. Note at 9:30 how I cmd select the bass and stab MIDI to see them in one window and then adjust the stab to match the bass (whereas my first instinct was a different groove).

After making the main drop synth half as frequent, I felt there was some missing energy in the empty space, even with that noise stab. At 19:00 I start messing around with FabFilter Saturn 2, pushing it to extremes that cause it to feedback on itself and I create a "response" to the "call" of the synth. This was somewhat of a happy accident, and the takeaway here is to experiment with processing chains and FX as tools to create variation or call/response in a riff (rather than more notes, for example).

Shortly after, I work on a specific reverb aux just for that new sound. This part has a useful little technique of using EQ and LFO Tool pre-reverb on the Aux so that the reverb is only reacting to a certain part of the overall sound

I then continue on making small adjustments here and there, including on the drums, trying to beef them up and make sure they're where they need to be. I also test out a second arp layer to give it more definition but change my mind. In the end, I actually replace the arp sound entirely, even though I've spent so much time working on it earlier (don't fall for the sunk cost fallacy!) I just was honest with myself and knew that as cool as that plugin is, it doesn't allow for much modulation and automation, which was going to be crucial in making the arp engaging for a song like this. But the plugin still inspired the idea so it's all worth it imo.

Stay tuned for the next video where I replace that arp...and then things really take off from there.