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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / Matthew Flook's music / Exit Signs - Week #3

Exit Signs - Week #3

By Matthew Flook on January 19, 2014 3:46 am

Stemming from a perfunctory moment in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Interstate 5, ideas for this song rapidly began flowing in my head. I quickly popped open my favorite Mini Recorder app on my Lumia 920 Windows Phone to record the surrounding traffic noise as I sat motionless in the car. This ambience forms the intro and background noise of the song presented here. Next, I recorded myself beat-boxing a simple 3/4 drum pattern idea into my phone's mic for later reference. Now, I only had to enter the studio to begin bringing this thing to life...


Choosing percussion sounds one by one to build the drum kit took some time, but the rhythm and eventual synth melodies came together rapidly from this point on. My go-to V-Station plug-in handled the main synth melody and bass line, while the beautiful and eerie Phonec plug-in filled the role of warbly lead synth. Finally, Maschine's built-in Grain Delay effect got some heavy use on the outro of the song, which was used in reverse mode to pitch shift the drums into oblivion.


Key equipment/software used for production:

- Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone / Mini Recorder app
- Novation V-Station plug-in
- Physic Modulation Phonec plug-in
- ValhallaRoom & ValhallaShimmer plug-ins
- Native Instruments Maschine MKI


Key: F# Major
BPM: 72
Time Signature: 3/4


http://blog.exitsignsmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/exitsigns
https://twitter.com/exitsignsmusic

Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)

really great beats and oh my god i love slightly pitch bended synths, they just sound so desolate and eerie. i really liked the noise in the background that sounded like some sort of highly distorted noise, which gives a feeling of isolation to the track. the introduction of the bass is really well done too. i really liked this one.

good job again! success for week #4!

You guys are too kind. Thanks for the feedback! I added a detailed description of the process I followed to record this track, including the instruments/plug-ins used. I am mildly hooked on that Phonec synth, which does indeed sound haunting and beautiful with its unstable pitch modulation.

that subtle almost horn-like synth sitting on top of the other sounds does it for me... maybe that's

oops... that's the slightly pitch bent synth johnfn mentioned

This is so good and I enjoy reading the story behind the track

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