This article is based on this dutch article of Martijn Benders
I got freedom chains, I know I like
That’s what an automated A.I. translator makes of the first line of the opening track of my album.
I’ve got rhythm check
Alohaly
Is what it actually says. Quite a difference, of course. But that doesn’t make the A.I. interpretation any less poetic.
Other beautiful lines that A.I. manages to abstract from the song:
Dope echoes call, stars in the night
Join the rhythm, the dub of the speed
Feed the croak, it’s on the beat
Feel the wharf in the heart of the night
In short, looking at it poetically, there’s a lot to experience in the opening track already. Yesterday, Pull up Radio in France played a song from the album. Over 500 people have listened to the album on Spotify in 2 days, which is a nice boost.
How do you get a beat so dry? I used two Distressors and a UAD channel strip for it (on the hi-hats) and applied some effects on the snare via reverb and displacement.
I also threw a Fatso Smoosh into the mix. FATSO stands for Full Analog Tape Simulator and Optimizer – it’s quite a rare compressor that looks like this:
But the one I have is via the P11 Abyss which has a Fatso simulator onboard. Many of these machines look downright intimidating at first, but I grew up with ghetto blasters, so I’m used to turning knobs to see what they do. So, over the past two years, I’ve tried to understand all the machines I use. The core question in mastering is WHAT and then HOW. What do you want to achieve, what should be different, what’s not right?
That FATSO is no longer available, and I don’t think it exists as a VST either. The P11 Abyss from Pulsar Modular (a fantastic little company) is about the only place where you can simulate it.
In short, some background information on the mastering of this song. I’m now at a level where I can master quite well; I have my own style and instruments. What might be noteworthy is that I haven’t picked up my skills from tutorials but almost everything is the result of self-experimentation, although you do need to learn some basic techniques first.
And now, a real album.
With this, I conclude the discussion of the first track. For those without Spotify, I’m also going to put all the songs one by one on Soundcloud starting today: