The EDU edition is the Flagship version of Bitwig Studio, discounted at only 269 USD / 269 EUR (Original price €399 EUR).

How to get the Bitwig Studio EDU edition?

1. Purchase one of my Bitwig courses here.
2. Go to Bitwig Webstore EDU link here.
3. Press BUY and purchase Bitwig Studio EDU product.
4. In your “verification process email” to Bitwig, you can attach your “Order confirmation email” from us (Morningdew Media Education). Or mention that you purchased a course from Morningdew Media Education, the course name + your order number.
5. Done!

As long as the course is a Bitwig related course you are eligable to receive the EDU discount!

I’m super excited to be able to offer this to all Bitwig students! If you’re on Bitwig 8-track, or thinking about moving from other DAW to Bitwig…this is a GREAT opportunity to jump in.

Thank YOU all for joining!

// Mattias

The post 🎁 Exciting News for Bitwig students – big discount on Bitwig Studio flagship edition! 🥳 appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Here’s what you’ll gain:

• Demystifying Ambient Concepts: Gain a solid understanding of the core principles and philosophies behind ambient music creation.
• Logic Pro X Skills: Explore the extensive capabilities of Logic Pro X, learning how to utilize its built-in plugins and instruments to weave captivating textures and atmospheres.
• Step-by-Step Creation: Follow along as we construct a complete ambient song from scratch, providing you with a practical blueprint for crafting your own masterpieces.
• Bonus Presets: Take advantage of exclusive presets designed specifically to fuel your ambient production journey.

This course is perfect for:

• Aspiring ambient music producers eager to learn the fundamentals and unlock their creative potential.
• Established musicians seeking to broaden their skillset and explore new sonic territories.
• Logic Pro X enthusiasts looking to delve deeper into the software’s capabilities for crafting ambient soundscapes.

What you get in the course

Access to Morningdew Media Education. A dedicated place to enjoy the courses, get project files, extra material and much more.

21 episodes packed with ambient sound knowledge!

3 hour 11minutes of video tutorials.

4K crisp video quality.

Subtitles / captions (in most languages)

Additional Content, Project Files, shortkeys, tips and tricks!

 Ask questions directly to the course author (Mattias).

 Enjoy the course on any device with a browser; mobile, desktop / TV etc.

Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity! Enroll today and embark on your path to creating mesmerizing soundscapes.

Here’s a free episode from my YouTube channel:

The post Unleash Your Inner Soundscape: Master Ambient Music Production in Logic Pro X appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Welcome to the Arranging Course – your ticket to transforming those small four-bar loops into epic song arrangements that will leave your audience begging for more.

Why Arrange a Track?

Arranging a track is like weaving a musical tapestry that unfolds before your audience’s ears. It’s about creating excitement and a sense of tension and release that keeps your listeners engaged from the very first note to the last. It’s a powerful skill that can elevate your music to new heights and make you stand out as an artist.

What You’ll Learn in the Arranging Course

In this comprehensive course, led by the talented Mattias, you’ll gain the tools and knowledge you need to breathe life into your musical ideas and kiss writer’s block goodbye. Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect:

Create Your Arrangement Roadmap: You’ll learn how to craft a roadmap that guides you through the songwriting process, ensuring your ideas flow seamlessly into a complete arrangement.

Master Song Structure: Dive deep into the intricacies of song structure and discover how to compose various parts of a song, all starting from a simple musical idea.

Universal Techniques: While we work in Logic Pro during the course, the techniques and concepts you’ll master are applicable to any music application. So, no matter your DAW of choice, you’ll be well-equipped.

Access to Resources: Gain access to a treasure trove of resources, including video episodes, project files, and presets through our dedicated e-learning platform, Morningdew Media Education.

Stay on Track: Keep your progress on point with our user-friendly web app, which allows you to track your learning journey and receive notifications when new course content is released.

Ask Questions: Stuck on a concept or need some clarification? Our interactive platform makes it easy to ask questions and get the support you need.

Watch the Arranging Course introduction video and learn more!

Meet Your Instructor

Allow us to introduce Mattias, your course instructor, and guide through this musical journey. With his background in media composition, songwriting for bands since 1994 and passion for arranging, Mattias will share invaluable insights, tips, and tricks that will transform your approach to music production.

Don’t let writer’s block hold you back any longer. Embrace the art of arranging and unlock your full creative potential. Join us today and embark on a musical adventure that will forever change the way you approach your craft.

Ready to take your music to the next level? Enroll now, and we’ll see you on the other side of the creative spectrum. Say goodbye to writer’s block, and hello to endless musical possibilities.

Sign up for the Arranging Mastery Course at Morningdew Media Education and let your creativity flourish!

The post 🎶 Introducing the Ultimate Arranging Course: From Loop to Finished Song 🎵 appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Tula Mic Features

• Great Sound Quality!
• Portable recording with 10-12 hours of battery.
• Noise cancellation via the BRUSFRI AI algorithm (courtesy of Klevgrand)
• Audio Interface for your computer
• USB-C port
• Durable Steel construction
• Headphones Out
• Line in
• Accessible features via many buttons…no menu diving!
• + an app that will be released in 2023 (more info here)

8 Reasons Why Tula Microphone Is The Best Microphone For Content Creators

If you’re a content creator, you know that having the right equipment is crucial for producing high-quality content. And one of the most important pieces of equipment you’ll need is a good microphone. With so many options on the market, it can be tough to determine which microphone will work best for your needs. But if you’re looking for a microphone that can provide exceptional sound quality and ease of use, you should definitely consider the Tula Microphone. In this article, we’ll go through 8 reasons why the Tula Microphone is the best microphone for content creators.

Exceptional Sound Quality

The Tula Microphone is designed to capture crystal clear audio that is rich, warm, and natural. It features a dual capsule design, omni (omnidirectional) & uni (cardioid) that provides excellent sensitivity and frequency response. Whether you’re recording vocals, music, or podcasting, the Tula Microphone delivers the kind of sound quality that will make your content stand out.

Easy To Use

One of the best things about the Tula Microphone is how easy it is to use. It’s a plug-and-play device that requires no drivers or software to be installed. You simply connect it to your computer or mobile device via USB and start recording.

Note: If you want to use the Tula mic with an iPhones lightning port you need the Apple Camera Connection Adapter.

The Tula Microphone also features all the buttons you need to allow control of the microphone’s gain, mute, headphone volume, noise cancellation + much more making it even easier to use.

Versatile

The Tula Microphone is an incredibly versatile microphone that can be used for a variety of content creation tasks. Whether you’re recording voiceovers, podcasts, music, or live streams, the Tula Microphone has got you covered. Its large diaphragm condenser capsule provides excellent sensitivity and frequency response, which makes it suitable for recording a wide range of instruments and vocals.

The Tula Mic is a great sound quality lift for your iPhone video recordings, zoom calls. Or even meetings. Just turn on the omnidirectional mode and record all the people sitting around a table.

Portable

If you’re a content creator who is always on the go, you’ll appreciate the portability of the Tula Microphone. It’s a compact and lightweight device that can be easily carried in your bag or backpack. The Tula Microphone also comes with a stylish protective case that keeps it safe and secure during transportation. The battery lasts for around 10-12 hours depending on the functions you activate. If you activate the noise cancelling feature the battery lasts about 10 hours.

Stylish design

The Tula Microphone is not only functional but also stylish. It features a sleek and modern design that is sure to impress. The microphone comes in a variety of colors, including black, cream white, and red, so you can choose the one that best matches your personality and style.

Compatible With Multiple Devices

The Tula Microphone is designed to work with a variety of devices, including Mac, PC, Android, and iOS devices. It also works with popular recording software like GarageBand, Audacity, and Adobe Audition. Whether you’re recording on your laptop, desktop, or mobile device, the Tula Microphone has got you covered.

It’s class compliant USB, so just hook it up to your USB device and the Tula Mic will appear as an audio interface ready for recording!

Excellent Build Quality

The Tula Microphone is built to last. It features a solid metal construction that is both durable and sturdy. The microphone is also designed to resist shocks and vibrations, which helps to minimize unwanted noise and distortion.

Affordable Price

Affordable Price Despite its high-quality construction and features, the Tula Microphone is surprisingly affordable. It’s an excellent value for the price, especially considering its exceptional sound quality, ease of use, and versatility.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Tula Microphone is an excellent choice for content creators who want to produce high-quality audio content. Its exceptional sound quality, ease of use, versatility, portability, stylish design, compatibility with multiple devices, excellent build quality, and affordable price make it the best microphone for content creators. Whether you’re a podcaster, musician, or voiceover artist, the Tula Microphone has all the features you need to create outstanding content.

So, if you’re in the market for a high-quality microphone that will help take your content creation to the next level, you should definitely consider the Tula Microphone. Its exceptional sound quality, ease of use, and versatility make it an excellent choice for both beginners and professionals alike.

In addition, the Tula Microphone is a great investment for anyone who wants to produce high-quality content on a budget. Despite its affordable price, it offers all the features and capabilities you’d expect from a much more expensive microphone. So, if you’re looking for an excellent microphone that won’t break the bank, the Tula Microphone is definitely worth considering.

In summary, the Tula Microphone is an excellent choice for content creators looking to produce high-quality audio content. Its exceptional sound quality, ease of use, versatility, portability, stylish design, compatibility with multiple devices, excellent build quality, and affordable price make it the best microphone for content creators. So, if you want to take your content creation to the next level, consider investing in the Tula Microphone today.

The post 8 Reasons Why Tula Microphone Is The Best Microphone For Content Creators appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Should you mix at high volume?

The short answer is: NO, at least not at an early mixing stage. But we need to dig deeper into the details why mixing at high volume overall is really bad practise.

One of the most common mixing mistake you can do is to start a mixing session with the volume cranked up high. Of course we’re eager to hear our song blasting at full volume in all it’s glory. We’re so keen on what the final master will feel like when we play the track to our friends.

Why is mixing at high volume bad?

1. Ear fatigue due to listening at high volume output

The most obvious reason is that listening at high volumes for longer periods will cause ear fatigue / listening fatigue. When ear fatigue strikes you will not be able to make good mixing decisions. Your judgement will be gone and you will need to come back another day and continue the mixing session.

If you are listening to very high volume levels ear fatigue can strike pretty fast, so be aware and never start your mixing sessions at high volume levels.

2. Balancing track levels at high volumes is much harder

Trying to find the right balance / audio level between the tracks of your song will be much harder when listening at high volume. If you reduce the volume to a more quiet level your ears will not be stressed by the high volume and can focus more clearly and identify the track levels more accurately.

If your working on a new song mix, reduce the volume drastically. Now, did you notice that some sounds “poke out” (are too loud) in your mix.

OK, good!

Now you can clearly see (I mean hear) how much easier it is to identify audio level problems between tracks when mixing at low volume.

So is it all bad mixing at high volume?

Not at all, of course you will need to adjust the volume from time to time to get a good perception on how it will sound when it’s cranked. But overall it’s not good practise to mix with high volume throughout the whole mixing session, especially when setting the track levels (see above).

What is the industry standard mixing level?

85 dB SPL is an industry standard in calibrating professional studio monitor levels.

BUT, mixing at 85 dB in a small bedroom is ludicrous, at these levels you will be messing up the room acoustics and risk ear fatigue on top of that. A more realistic level in a home studios and small rooms is around 65 dB SPL – 79 dB SPL. This will reduce (but not eliminate) room interference, your ears will stay healthy and your neighbours might not come barking.

Continue and learn more about mixing and gain staging in this other article I did on mixing!

The post Should you mix at high volume? appeared first on Morningdew Media.

How much time do you spend making a track?

First I would like to ask how much time you spend on average making a track? 45 minutes? Two weeks…. a month?

There are many ways to write and produce songs. And you might have another method that works best for you. But this is the method I use when I have deadlines and know I need to produce quality songs on time.

And for me this songwriting process definitely works!

How can we finish songs faster?

Producing songs can be really painful. With all the distractions (read: plugins, apps, DAWs, sample libraries) it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and ultimately lost in the process. It’s like art, if you begin with the details you loose track of the big picture.

That’s why painters always makes sketches and block in key components before going into the refined details. A professional painter have a very clear process to work out the final art piece.

Below is me blocking in the major parts of an elephant painting (drafting). Then to the right we have the detail painting (production).

The three step process to finishing songs faster

First I divide my songwriting process into three distinct steps:

1. Focus
2. Drafting
3. Production

Before we get going with the actual songwriting we need to find our focus to be able to channel our inspiration. This is not some “mumbojumbo” spirtual deep-dive, but I think it’s important to really think about your whole workflow & process to be able to find out what works for you.

Focus, and prepare for the songwriting process

This step is important to get our focus on the right path. To help us understand we need to set aside a specific amount of time to focus on one single part – the song idea, or motif / theme if you will. Put aside all the distractions of the DAW, computer and phone.

This whole process doesn’t work if we have our focus split. 

Writing a song is about coming up with rhythm and melody. At this stage it’s not about browsing presets, finding sounds / instruments or arranging.

If we try to do too much at the same time, one area will probably suffer. Your song will suffer.

Trust me, if you focus on one single part of the process, the rest will be so much easier. You will have a stronger foundation to work with. In the focus phase we prepare ourselves before starting to draft ideas.

To start the drafting we set our laser sight focus on the core of your song, which essentially is rhythm and melody!

Drafting, the rhythm and melody of your song.

With the focus and determination in place, we can now get started creating a rough song draft.

The reason we are doing a song draft is to get a strong foundation for our song.

If your song works and sounds good as a draft, you can be confident it will work when it’s arranged and fully produced later in the production phase.

Pick up the instrument you feel most comfortable with, maybe a guitar or a piano. To me, it’s the piano. Or load up a piano patch in the DAW if you don’t have a piano around.

In the drafting phase I work with a single instrument, a guitar, or more often the piano. Because the piano is my main instrument and also the instrument I feel most confident playing. A chord instrument will also make it easy to test out harmony (and bass) with our melody.

If we put aside all distractions we can focus on the rhythm and melody rather than the sounds that we will use later in the production.

Production, expand the song draft into a full song

We now have a solid idea from the previous drafting phase. It’s time to take the draft idea and produce it into a full song. 

The drafting process probably also gave you many ideas for how this melody can be arranged. Maybe what instruments you could try and how the rhythm section should be built.

In my demonstration project in the “How to finish songs faster” I replaced the piano melody with a guitar and since the client vision was all about sustainability I wanted to give the track a very organic feel with many real instruments and organic sounds…rather than synthetic sounds.

I made some of the percussive sounds with my mouth, like hi-hats. And also played on the body of the acoustic guitar for those woody percussive sounds. It all comes together in the production.

How to finish songs faster – process summary

In conclusion, we probably saved tons of time by excluding sound browsing in the drafting phase. We focused solely on the song idea, the melody and rhythm.

It’s much quicker to make changes on the fly when you are playing the piano than it is to make changes to a fully produced song. I know it’s possible, but it’s faster to make changes when you just have the basic outline melody to work with.

My drafting process took about 15 minutes for this track which is super quick. At the same time I also tossed up another draft for a second song. The production phase obviously took longer, about 2 days.

But it’s important to know I saved tons of time and headach by making a solid draft before going into production.

So that’s basically my workflow for making music!

You can learn more about my process in the following article & video where we create some game music cues.

When you have become an experienced songwriter

With time and more experience you can probably dive in at various stages and even do the drafting and production at the same time. But when I feel discouraged and lost with a deadline closing in, I can always rely on this three step songwriting process to finish my songs faster!

What’s your typical workflow to write songs?

Now what’s your typical workflow, how do you make your songs? Please let me know in the comments!

If you want to learn more about music production, sound design and creativity please subscribe to my newsletter!

The post How to finish songs faster appeared first on Morningdew Media.

The new version, Bitwig Studio 4, features new musical timelines, Operators, Apple M1 Mac support, mp3 export and Ableton Live file import!

Bitwig feature roadmap at a glance

Bitwig Studio have definitely found their place among the big names in the DAW industry with exciting features for the modern music producer. Especially if you are into any kind of EDM or experimental music. While Bitwig 3 announced the Grid system with a complete modular environment living within Bitwig Studio, version 4 takes this organic feature set even further with note operators.

Making organic music in Bitwig 4 with conditional note events

Bitwig 4 features continues down the road of playful & organic randomization to breath life into stale composition. With the past releases we have had many modulators to breath movement into our parameters and sounds. In Bitwig 4 you have note Operators.

If you ever played an Elektron device, like the Digitakt, with conditional triggers you know what the trigs, err I mean “note Operator” can do.

What are Operators in Bitwig 4?

Operators are rules triggered by note and audio events. Like “trigs” they represent the continued evolution of the DAW from something that has everything frozen in time and, well, boring, to an environment that’s more generative and dynamic.

Chance – Throw a dice and find out if a note event will trigger. Chance is a great feature to quickly make your midi arpeggios come alive!

Repeat – Note event repeats. How many times should a specific note be repeated?

Occurance – Lets you set certain conditions for each event to determine whether it should play. Is this the first loop? Is the performance control “fill” button turned on?

Recurrence – Recurrence allows you to dictate when an event plays during a set number of looping cycle.

Feature trailer of Bitwig Studio 4!

Check out the exciting video from Bitwig Studio team!

Export audio to mp3 in Bitwig Studio 4

Finally, mp3 export options in Bitwig! The export screen have been re-designed slightly with some new modes. Mp3 export in Bitwig should satisfy many producers.

Track Comping in Bitwig Studio 4

Comping lives within the clips. It’s easy to activate comping with the overdub button (below PLAY). Track comping in Bitwig Studio 4 works within the arranger and within the clip launcher so you can work in your prefered environment. Furthermore, you can even drag comp takes between the arranger and the clip launcher! Great!

Is Bitwig Apple M1 compatible?

Yes, with Bitwig Studio 4, Bitwig can run in apple M1 mode (native arm64). With the flexible plugin support in Bitwig, it basically runs the DAW and plugins separately. You can safely run native arm64 plugins AND intel VST plugins alongside each other. If a plugin does crash, Bitwig Studio keeps running. And you can just restart / replace the plugin that crashed.

If you want to find out more about the Apple Silicon M1 architecture and technology you can check my previous articles and videos here.

Is Apple M1 good for music production?

Amazing Strings in Bitwig 4.1.2

Bitwig teamed up with Orchestral Tools for the release of Bitwig 4.1.2 to include a sweet package of orchestral strings. You get pizzicato, sustained, sordino and spiccato. Check out my walkthrough video where we also compose an orchestral music cue.

What’s missing in Bitwig Studio 4 release?

With such a huge set of new features… are there still major features missing that I wish the Bitwig developers would implement? I actually spoke to one of the key developers (Claes) at NAMM 2020 about this. Video support!

VIDEO SUPPORT!

IMO Bitwig should have included video support in Bitwig Studio 4.0. Everyone is making music to videos these days. May it be the huge amount of short films, games, TikTok, YouTube or Instagram stories. I really would have liked video support with this release. All other top DAWs have this feature. So I hope the Bitwig development team will include it in an upcoming “minor” release, maybe 4.1!?

All in all it’s a very welcome release in Bitwig Studio 4.

Try out Bitwig Studio 4 before official release

If you have an active license subscription of Bitwig Studio you can download the Bitwig 4 beta today!

Don’t have Bitwig yet?

You can always purchase Bitwig via my affiliate links + 10% discount code here.

If you have some suggestions of content you would like me to highlight or show in future videos, please PM me on Instagram!

I also have a very exciting announcement to make, but…all in due time!

Thanks!

// Mattias Holmgren – Your Bitwig instructor!

The post Bitwig Studio 4: explore “new musical timelines” with Operators, flexible comping and Apple M1 support! appeared first on Morningdew Media.

In the halloween music tutorial we talk about arrangement, harmony, melody, instrumentation, templates and much more. At the end I hope you will be able to produce your own Halloween music themes!

Enjoy!

The post How to make Halloween music appeared first on Morningdew Media.

1. Set the whole arrangement before adding the details

Flesh out the arrangement early. Add clips for intro, verse, chorus, bridges and outro. This means you will have setup the basic song structure before you start diving into picking the right instruments, sounds etc. This is like giving you mini-rewards on the way as you will have a better picture of how the song will end up. How long will the song be? When will the drop probably hit? Where should the breakdown section come in?

2. Keep it simple and limit yourself

Remove instruments and sounds rather than add. We often tend to add too much to the mix anyway. If the mix is too busy it will be hard for the listener to focus on the key element of your track. Think about what’s important to the song and work on that. It’s probably the main melody and bass.

3. Emphasize your main melody

If you need to add something. Maybe just emphasize your main melody with a second layer to fill out the frequency space, rather than adding more melodies which draws attention from your main voice (melody).

4. Listen to the top hits list on Spotify

It’s probably a good reason why the top hit tracks often have sparse arrangements. They don’t have that many tracks going. The tracks they do have use pristine quality samples (yes, and instruments). A winning concept is probably a good starting point if you want to learn how to produce songs properly.

5. Use a reference mix

If you are working in a DAW it’s easy to get a reference track going with your favourite song. Or just look up your favourite artist on YouTube. But don’t compare the actual song to yours. Just listen if your mix lack bass / clarity… Or again, is the music too crowded with melodies or sounds.

6. Grab the best sounding samples

Grab the best sounding samples you can afford. Samples suitable for the genre you are producing. There are plenty of great sample packs for every genre out there. Not everybody need to make their own kicks and snares and synth sounds. You can check out our sound packs here.

7. It’s fine to use presets

Use quality presets for the genre your are producing. It’s totally fine to use vst-instrument presets, mix channel settings and plugin presets. They are often a very good starting point and will let you focus on the important songwriting.

8. Write music with different tools

Working in the same way can keep you locked from exploring new areas of melodies and harmony. We are wired to take the shortest path solving a problem.

Flip to a hardware unit. Maybe boot up that MPC, Elektron Digitakt, Maschine+, Maschine mk3, Hardware Synths. Twist some real knobs and get fresh ideas.

Or add notes with the pen tool in the piano roll… rather than playing and performing on a keyboard / piano / guitar.

It’s important to understand that muscle memory will effect the way you write, if you are writing with an instrument.

Muscle memory forces you to play the same licks, accents, phrases etc. Just give it a try to get some fresh ideas you didn’t think of. I did an article on muscle memory here.

9. Sound design should be a separate session

One thing at a time. Many producers start with a dedicated sound design session where they just create 100 different sounds. Then they come back another day and make music with this custom sample pack. Importantly, you will have your own unique sounds to work with.

I did plenty of sound design videos which you can watch here.

Try to keep the composition on a separate day apart from sound design. When you write the actual melodies, bass and chord progressions. Keeping focus on one thing at a time makes it easier to approach the finish line. Ultimately, finishing the song!

10. Celebrate and reward your progress

It’s important to acknowledge and reward your work. If you are going to stay motivated to finish your track, you’ve got to reward yourself. Plan an event when you hit certain milestones. Maybe share a songwriting session with your subscribers on YouTube.

Showcase a small portion of your song on social media. Sharing on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook etc. during the process of making your song can be good to build your fanbase as you go. Importantly, also to gather inspiration and ideas from your friends.

11. Re-create a popular track (bonus tip)

If you want to learn how the top producers make their tracks it can be really insightful to re-create a popular track from scratch. The process helps you understand how a melody can be harmonized and arranged. You will learn beat programming, type (and amount) of effects used. Vocal arranging and processing… and so much more.

It’s really a gem. Personally, I’ve been re-creating parts of tracks in all kinds of genres through the years to get insight into the track creation process.

Importantly, this is useful in any type of craft: design, art, construction, needle felting, sound design, music production etc.

Re-creating tracks can sometimes feel discouraging, your end product might not sound as polished as the original. That’s totally fine! The purpose is not to make an exact copy anyway, but to learn the craft of music producing.

In the long run re-creating tracks will help you grow in so many areas of music production. I can’t stress this enough!

Rounding up the best tips to finish your songs

That’s just a few tips to get you going and finish your song. Hope it can be helpful to someone. We have many more tips on music production and songwriting in other articles on this website. I hope to see you around!

Cheers!

We are almost at 14.000 subs on my YouTube channel. Wow, thank you so much for watching my videos, reading my articles and supporting my work!

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

Be sure to sign up to our newsletter for new exciting articles in design, music production and sound design.

The post 10 Best Tips To Help You Finish Your Songs appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Ever wanted to travel back to the (glorious!?) 80’s and make some smooth music of the time? We have a whole “wave” of genres depicting some of the lovely smooth sounds of the time. Synthwave, retrowave, vapourwave….wave… Are we surfing or making music???

We look at arrangement, instrument layering, bass, concepts & lyrics, melody, production, plugins and vocal processing.

About Shields Up – How to Synthwave!

I first decided to write a song in the synthwave genre. No, it’s not the genre I typically write in. But I’ve done my share of 80’s tracks while practising composition in school. That’s a whole other chapter we will come back to.

The red thread in your song

To me it really helps to define an exciting topic, or concept when writing songs. The concept will help you on the path of finishing the piece of music.

The topic is your red thread throughout the session.

For Shields Up I pictured myself walking the streets of Tokyo during the 80s with arcade halls all over the place. I was wearing a yellow jacket and the rain was pouring down as I jumped into one of those arcade halls to play one of the games.

Need some great Synthwave drum sounds? Check out Beatmaker VICE from Ujam.

The yellow jacket…Totoro goes Synthwave

Hmm, I wonder if that yellow jacket idea was unconsciously stolen from Totoro… It’s weird how inspiration works. This happens all the time both in music, writing, design and…basically anything we create. We draw inspiration unconsciously.

I grew up with Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST and all these gaming machines so it’s kinda second nature. And I wanted to include these machines in this retro track. One game in particular came to my mind, R-Type.

So Shields Up became kinda of an R-TYPE tribute song.

R-Type is an uber hard retro shooter! Try it if you don’t believe me! I wanted to capture the essence and vibe of this golden gaming era with blazing shooters. I hope you can hear that in the final song.

Ok, so that’s a little introduction to the track. Now go check out the Synthwave tutorial and learn more about the actual music production.

Listen to GELHEIN – Shields Up on Spotify

Peace!

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

Be sure to sign up to our newsletter for new exciting articles in design, music production and sound design.

The post Synthwave tutorial – Gelhein – Shields Up appeared first on Morningdew Media.