This was 2006. I can still remember the grey LogicPro GUI on the old 4:3 CRT monitor, the Rose-Painted Ibanez Jem (the guitar used on this track), and the ESI400 and Roland2080 boxes blinking away in the corner. It was late evening, and fan of good ambient flatmate Kaz was mellowing out with a post-work vodka behind me in the big wooden-walled living room. Totally vibey. Joy was still to track her vocals in a candle-lit studio.
I was rummaging through the pile of old CD ROMS (google it) and found a whole load of songs and films I composed for around 1997-2005. Amongst them was a bunch of songs composed with a certain soundset and vibe, and although I was very creative and detailed in the sound design the tones still tie the songs into this era. I rather like it, and I’ll still purposely use 90’s sounds now to make a sonic statement.
I’ll never bung chorus on an acoustic gat though. Ew to the Max.
The gating on that main ‘pad’ was done very manually back then to save processing power on a MacG3. I still have habits from only being able to run 8 tracks of digital audio in 1994 or from cutting 4-track tape for effect; I’d bounce an entire track then lay back and cut the entire track into 16ths (alt+cmd+cut for Logic users), deleting every second 16th. It’s carpal tunnel work. Fade and add delays; bounce again.
Along with the beautiful song and vocal that Joy Ramirez wrote in 2004, this track and it’s refrain became the second track on my album ‘Bliss’ in 2013. I still love this refrain, and will probably bring it back along with those old synth boxes and some new bits.