Small fixes for lo-fi synthesizers
None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. This is less a primer and more a record of what worked for me. The demo had something the final version never quite recaptured. For a long time I treated mixing as an afterthought.
The setup
Room sound is free reverb, if the room is kind to you. It is not glamorous, but it holds up. I wrote most of this on a hushed Saturday morning.
I altered my mind about drones twice while writing this. Most of the record was tracked in the spare room with the window open. It took me four attempts to see the pattern. If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you.
Limitations make decisions for you, and that is a gift. Good tape loops is mostly a series of small, unglamorous decisions. Mixing tired is how good songs get ruined. There is a version of this that is much more complicated. This is not that version.
In practice
Half of the work is deciding what to leave out. I like arrangements that shows the marks of how it was made. I wrote most of this on a hushed Sunday morning. The trick, if there is one, is to leave plenty of room for slip-ups.
It is easy to overthink writing on piano. It is harder to just start. Good field recordings is mostly a series of small, unglamorous decisions. I recorded the birds by accident and kept them in the mix.
I keep a short list of things to try next; sampling is near the top. Nothing here requires a field recorder, though it does make things easier. I would rather do one thing carefully than five things fast.
- Start with piano sketches and nothing else
- Give writing on piano a full spring
- Budget twice the time you expect
- Ask someone at the forest at dawn
Every winter I revisit the same questions about cassettes. It is easy to overthink sampling. It is harder to just start.