Two Post-punkish synthpop tracks I recorded (Jag/SH01a content)

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Whiny Minotaur
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Two Post-punkish synthpop tracks I recorded (Jag/SH01a content)

Post by Whiny Minotaur » Mon Jul 19, 2021 2:42 am

https://soundcloud.com/kkamaguicrow/sets/202107a

After a major case of writer's block which lasted nearly 2 years :fp: , I finally gave myself a good kick in the ass and recorded two tracks which I'm actually sort of satisfied with.

I've been into kitschy, slightly cheap synth sounds and trying to make them fit into the context of 'serious' songs. I wasn't able to quite make it all come together until now, and I'm pretty excited as the other 60 or so demos that've been lying around my laptop are just vying to be worked on using the lessons I've learned while recording these two.

The first song, Broken Promises is a dirgey, funeral type song which I had the bright idea to add some surf guitar-like appointments which turned out surprisingly well.

The main idea behind the song was for to have something which sounds serene became violent and brutal in the second half without making it sound jarring. I don't know if I was able to make the transition as smooth as I first envisioned it to be, but I think I like how abrupt it is. I'm also properly proud of the riff of the second half which shows up on the 1:50 mark. That amatuerish riff is actually probably the best riff I've ever written :D

For the more glitchy synth stuff, I ran the raw SH-01a sounds into pitchshifters which created some interesting sounds. I also used an arpeggiator which wasn't quite in sync with the tempo of the track which I thought would make it sound like a mess, but it actually worked quite well!

The second song, Falling is actually kind of cheating since it's a re-recording of a song I wrote 2 years ago. I always liked that song but I was really unhappy with the production on it, and wanted to have another go at it for the longest time. I thought about re-recording the vocals, but on consideration I decided against it. I was pretty surprised by how much younger I sounded two years ago. It's like the pandemic aged my voice by 10 years :'( I also used liberal amounts of a Boss RC-202 and the effects on it for my voice. Sounds sorta cheesy but that was what I was going for anyway.

On the original recording I used a Volca Keys on the climax, but I was never happy with how it came out. As much as I like that little thing, it never came out quite right on recordings, so I recorded a completely different riff using my guitar. I tried not to be too predictable with what I did with my guitar, but I'm too shit of a guitar player to not come up with something cliche. Still, what I came up works for the track so I'm not too bothered by that 8)

For more nerdy gear stuff, nearly all of the guitar/synth tracks have been recorded using a Squier Jag and an SH01-a, although I did probably throw on a little MS20 on the first song. For my 'amp' I used an Ampli-firebox, and for effects, I used a RE-20 on the first song, and a Whammy and Fulldrive 2 on the second song.
soundcloud.com/kkamaguicrow

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