'Chamber of Reflection' really stands out on 'Salad Days' as the only song with none of Mac's signature chorused-guitar playing, instead using layers of dreamy sounding, swirling synths. Interestingly the hook of this song is lifted from a 1975 Shigeo Sekito song called "The Word II". A lot of sites and comments erroneously refer to … Continue reading Mac DeMarco – Chamber of Reflection Synth Tutorial
Trashing Your Songs with Lo-Fi Guitar Pedals
I'm a big fan of lo-fi music and I'm going to look at two guitar pedals that I frequently run tracks through to get a dirty lo-fi sound: the ZVex Instant Lo-Fi Junky and the Chase Bliss Warped Vinyl mkII. These pedals emulate the noise, tone and wow & flutter of gramophone / vinyl record players, which is … Continue reading Trashing Your Songs with Lo-Fi Guitar Pedals
Tame Impala Synths Pt.3
Welcome back to more Tame Impala synths. In this part I'll mostly tackle the synths sounds found on 'Lonerism'. I've already looked at 'Mind Mischief' and 'Feels Like We Only Go Backwards' in previous parts, so if you haven't already then check them out. I'll also look at the elusive Roland JV-1080 that was used to … Continue reading Tame Impala Synths Pt.3
Tycho – Awake Synth Sound
Tycho started out as something of a solo project for bandleader Scott Hansen, and has since evolved into an ambient rock band whose signature sound consists of swirling pads, dreamy synth leads, and muted electric guitars, usually backed by live drums and bass guitar, all washed out with a saturated wall of reverb. I'm going to talk about the synth … Continue reading Tycho – Awake Synth Sound
Pond – Sweep Me Off My Feet Synths
'Sweep Me Off My Feet' by Australian psychedelic band Pond is a space-y synthpop-esque song from upcoming album 'This Weather'. It features heavily layered synths to underscore frontman Nick Allbrook's fantastic vocal performance. Synth Bass The song starts with a thick sounding deep synth bass, I tried a couple of synths and the Prophet was the one … Continue reading Pond – Sweep Me Off My Feet Synths
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Behind ‘Phone Call’
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind came out in 2004 and is now regarded as one of the greatest films of the 2000s. A memorable aspect of the film is Jon Brion's soundtrack that combines lush strings, lo-fi nylon string guitars and melancholy piano. Brion's work on the soundtrack led to him working with Kanye West on … Continue reading Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Behind ‘Phone Call’
Tame Impala Synths Pt.2
Welcome back to another episode of Tame Impala Synth Sounds; Part 1 was mainly about the Roland Juno-106 patches on 'Currents' and how to recreate them using the original hardware or using software. In this article I'm going to look at some of the different sounds used and how to recreate them. As I go … Continue reading Tame Impala Synths Pt.2
How to Recreate Synth Sounds
I'm going to write a few thoughts about recreating specific synth sounds that your hear in songs and want to recreate yourself. If you only have access to limited gear this can be great as a lot of tutorials you find on the internet will focus on synths you might not have; also it's really … Continue reading How to Recreate Synth Sounds
Tame Impala Synth Sounds
Tame Impala are a psychedelic band from Australia, their sound has mostly consisted of guitar heavy 60s/70s-style rock, washed out with delay and phasers. However their most recent album 'Currents' features heavy use of synthesizers and electronic elements, continuing the electronic experimentation found on 'Lonerism'. Although there is a huge variety of interesting sounds on … Continue reading Tame Impala Synth Sounds
Ableton Live Workflow Tips
I've been using Ableton Live for coming up to 10 years now, at first while I was still experimenting with it I was pretty disorganised with my projects, but since learning more about the program and using it for more serious projects I've come up with a couple of ways to organise my tracks and … Continue reading Ableton Live Workflow Tips
