Arweave TX
Over 300 subscribers
I'm excited to share my latest album, “Scenes,” with all of you. As an artist who blends UK dance music, hip-hop, and soul, I’ve poured my heart into this project to take you on an emotional journey through nu-garage, jungle, breaks, and electronica. What makes “Scenes” truly special is the innovative fan engagement. I invited fans to submit their personal photographs and memories corresponding to each track, making this album a collaborative project that turns passive listening into an active, shared experience and you can explore it here.
My production covers all elements from UK garage to electronica, jungle, and breaks, with a thick vein of emotion running through each track. There’s a deeply personal element to my music, and in “Scenes,” I've even included samples of my daughter’s heartbeat.
In this blog, I'll take you through some of the production tips and tricks I used for “Scenes.”
Diva is a synth that is built on replicating some of the analogue classics such as Mini Moog and the Jupiter.
I love this synth. It’s in everything I do, and no matter how often I try to move away from it I always come back. As a pure sound source I don’t think there is much better out there at emulating analog warmth. The main sound that I started the song with is built on an arp preset, which I then played around with. In particular the Diva arpeggiator works really well with the trimmers tab setting’s ‘Oscillator Voice Detune’ section which gives interesting life to the sounds, almost like its continuously evolving and changing which I love and feels a lot like the imperfections you get in physical hardware.
TAIPE is a tape saturation plugin that has a really unique way of interacting with the input signal by using AI to create a unique response to the input, rather than applying the same processing to any sound… you can see a theme here, I love analogue, but also the flexibility of working in the box.
I use this plugin all other the place, it’s so flexible with really simple responsive controls. I use it to bring warmth and life to synths and also even EQ them using the ‘shape’ and ‘presence’ sliders to help fit them in the mix. The glue compression is great on drum busses if used carefully and I even use it on the master bus at times. In this track it’s on the drum bus and I’ve used it as if I was tracking my drums to tape or resampling them; it glues in the kick and snares and the compression adds a subtle pump and groove to feel to the percussion.
Try using it on everything.. no I’m serious. See how sounds respond to it, it’s a really creative tool. It’s especially great as a response to using anything from sample packs or presents, it’s like it de-polishes sounds (if that’s a word). It can be especially useful on busses as the way it responds to multiple sounds is really interesting and realistic, its really great as a glue that if you like music by people like Jamie XX, Caribou or Overmono and don’t own lots of expensive gear you can use it to find those cool warm textures you need in your music.
Sketch Cassette is a tape emulator but in a very different way. It’s simple and cheap and has loads of character.
I work in DAWs using mainly all plugin synths, and what I find is that saturation plugins like Sketch become an extension of the synth, they are a part of crafting the sound for me, but also just getting something vibey going as if I was picking up an instrument. I use it mainly on synths and instruments after the reverb as a way to EQ them and make them more interesting. I turn the hiss off and play with the preset tape models, usually with the wow and flutter rates turned down, it gives a slow modulation and life to it that doesn’t sound like a cheesy lo-fi effect. What I find is it helps instruments sound great in the mix, it’s not about working on the sounds in solo but more in context of the rest of the track.
Use it on instruments to make them sound like samples or like real recordings, don’t push it too far in terms of making it sound exactly like a cartoon version of tape : reduce the modulation depth and rates and then switch between the different tape models and play with the plugin mix (a great addition to any saturation plugin) and see where in the main mix it takes the synth or instrument. If you have degradation issues like harsh frequencies and distortion then pull it back using the mix and use something like Soothe to help control the harsh frequencies.
Crystallizer is referred to as a Granular Echo Synthesizer, but essentially it’s a brilliant creative delay tool.
This is a classic that I find is sonically unbeatable. In this track I use it on pads and all of the ambient palette that’s happening in the background. I’ve taken some vocal samples chopped them and found little interesting moments I like, I loop them and then run them through a couple instances of the Crystallizer in tandem. It gives them movement in and sits them back in the mix so they are not in the way, but gives you a tonal and emotional bed to build on. I love the presets and flick through them like I’m looking for a synth preset and then edit. Anything with detune, or Grantacular in the title are usually great! Play with a couple of them in tandem and reduce the mix and they blend and build on each other in really interesting ways. You can also drive it and use it to make your samples and synths more unique, its almost like a way of creating the sound rather than just adding delays to it.
Get creative with this. It’s got the ‘splice’ and ‘recycle’ settings which do a much more interesting version of reverse delays, and it also has a gate and threshold which allow it to respond to changes in the input signal in interesting ways. It’s really cool for ambient vibes to get you started when you don’t know what chords to play, you can create tonal and emotional beds using samples that can be really interesting to write on, whether you are making electronic music, or trap. I like plugins that are fun to play with and unpredictable as I think the best things often happen by mistake and this is really cool for that. Ive even build percussion parts and other rhythmical elements that can drive the track and add groove in unique ways.
