How I Use Remixes For Inspiration

Neon Notes — Week [12]

Writer's block is a real thing, whether you write lyrics, instrumentals, or both, this can be frustrating.

When I'm having a little writer's block, I tend to do a few things to help me overcome it. I'll either go into an old project and make a new version, sound design in Serum for future songs, or remix someone else's song.

Most of the time, sound designing or going into an old project just help me stay sharp, but remixes usually give me some kind of inspiration.

There are various ways to get vocals from popular mainstream songs, but that's another post on its own, and any remix I make using these vocals are only for me. While I may let people hear them, they are never uploaded to any streaming sites.

One example is a remix I'm working on using the stripped vocals from a song by Dua Lipa titled Break My Heart.

When I do a remix like this, I purposely stay away from referencing the original song. I may be familiar with the song, but I don't want any influences other than my own creativity and the vocals to drive the song forward.

I want my song to sound completely different from the original, so this is how I use remixes for inspiration.

I listen to the stripped vocals, no music, no beat. I just listen and try to imagine my own song around the vocals.

I may leave the vocals lined up like the original song, sometimes I'll chop or rearrange them.

For the Break My Heart remix, I chose to leave them as is, follow the sections and put my own spin on it.

I wasn't too familiar with this particular song, so when I heard the vocals, I had no song reference to go by.

I laid the vocal track into my DAW and got to work.

From there I start the remix like I start all my songs.

I experiment with tempo, bass patterns, different drum patterns until I get something that feels good, and complements the vocals.

I may go through a few iterations until I have something that works, but this is where this helps with inspiration.

Once I find the starting point, the rest of the song tends to fall in place.

This is the beauty of remixes. Sure, I might not always finish the songs, but great ideas come from them. I may use the main drum pattern in another song, or use a whole section to rewrite a song around that.

Sometimes, I'll just strip the vocals and keep it as an instrumental, or add different vocals that are royalty free.

Remixes have helped me get out of that stuck feeling.

In the end, it's not about making a slightly different version of the original, it's about sparking inspiration to make the song mine.

Now Creating

• The last song of the EP is out
• Still working on website
• Working on new artwork for old songs

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

How I Use Deadlines To Finish More Songs

Neon Notes — Week [11]

Deadlines are very important, and they are the key factor in why I'm able to finish most songs that I start. 

I briefly touched on it in an older blog post, but I thought I'd dig a bit deeper today.

I made up my mind early on, that I needed to create deadlines for myself. I viewed it as a way to force myself into making more deliberate decisions.

So I landed on a two week deadline. This did two things for me. It gave me enough time to use every bit of my limited skillset, while also forcing me to make more concrete decisions.

And let me say that while I have collaborated on a few projects recently that used real guitar and real bass. My solo Laxrax projects are purely electronic based  songs, so I'm aware of the extra time it takes when using instruments.

My idea after "finishing" my first song was to give each song two weeks. I give it all I have and once the two weeks is up, I listen to the song, find one thing I'd like to improve upon, and then I would upload the song to SoundCloud and YouTube.

Then I would start a new song the day that I uploaded the newly finished song, and do it all over again. For the longest time, the song I was currently working on was the only song that wasn't finished.

I didn't have a 20 or 30 projects that were half completed or barely started. I just had the one I was working on.

Moving into the next song, I would look at my notes from my last song and try to make sure to fix at least one thing. 

Looking back to when I uploaded my first song, I wasn't really too nervous to share it publicly, but it did give me a pretty good rush. It felt really good, and I was proud that I was able to make a somewhat coherent song.

It also taught me that getting it out there, even with all it's flaws, was better than waiting for it to be perfect. If I did that, then I'd never release anything.

Fast forward to today, I don't use the strict  two week deadline anymore. I've conditioned myself to finish songs without it now. My workflow is faster now that my decisions are more concrete, and my ear is a lot better.

I also no longer just have one unfinished song. At the time of this post, I have 15 finished songs waiting for release, and another 10 in the works. 

I may not use hard deadlines anymore, but they are the main reason I'm so consistent today. They are a direct influence on how I make decisions now, and my deliberate workflow might not have happened without it.

Now Creating

• One song left until the full EP is available everywhere
• Finalizing new website tweaks
• More consistent music releases
• More collaborative music planned

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

How I Blend 80's Sounds With Modern Production

Neon Notes — Week [10]

In last weeks post, I talked about WHY I blend 80's sounds into my music. Now I'm going to tell you HOW I blend them together.

It's actually a very simple concept, and just by adding this one element to a song, I can instantly give it a retro feel. 

The gated reverb snare.

The gated reverb snare was discovered by accident, and is a staple of the retro sound. But this is not the only thing I add to my songs to give them a retro feel.

So let's dive into.

The vocal samples I use are definitely not retro, so there's the first step in making the song sound modern. The next steps are what I do to blend the modern vocals with retro sounds.

I don't use it in every song, but my go to snare is the LinnDrum snare from the iconic LinnDrum drum machine. I like the snap and punch of this snare, and also the retro sound.

In Ableton I use a return track to send the gated reverb signal to the main snare track.

The way I create my gated snare is to put a reverb onto the return track set to 100% wet, 5 - 6 seconds of decay with a low cut to get rid of mud. 

After the reverb I put a gate, set it to sidechain from the snare channel, and I have the floor set to -inf dB. I bring the threshold down until I start to hear the reverb in the snare and adjust it to taste, usually somewhere between -40dB to -50dB.

Depending on the tempo of the song, I set my release and hold so that the reverb tail fades out before the next snare hit.

Lately I've been using a retro sounding kick, and I really only have about 4 kicks that I use. They all have good punch to give the song a modern feel. I just go with whatever I think sounds good for the song.

Next, I like to use a lot of synths in my productions. In my older songs I used the stock Ableton Operator or some of the stock Ableton presets before getting Serum. Currently I use Serum 2 to create all my synth sounds.

Once I get the chord progression laid out, I like to sound design either a soft pad or an aggressive saw wave patch, depending on the mood of the song. Most of the time, the next step is to add a warble, or a slight wavering detune to the chords.

I will either use a plugin called Tape Cassette 2 or add lfo's to the oscillators in Serum 2.

If I use Tape Cassette 2, I will adjust the wow and flutter knobs to give it a warped tape effect.

If I use Serum, I'll add lfo's to the fine tune section in the oscillators, and I'll adjust how exaggerated the detune is based on taste. What this does is forces the oscillator to slightly detune up and down, which gives it the warble/warped effect.

Tape Cassette 2 is quick and easy, but using the lfo in Serum 2 gives much more control, although it's much more work if you're going for a very specific effect.

Depending on the song, I might add some tom drum fills. I like to add a little reverb to the toms to give it a retro sound, but this is on a song by song basis.

Next is my bass design. This is where I use a lot of modern ideas. A few of my songs have deliberate 80's sounding bass, but most of the time I use modern techniques like a Reese bass or a modern Deephouse bass. 

I want the bass to sound current with a lot of warmth and impact. The basslines themselves usually sound retro, but the actual design is based on current ideas.

My go to bass is a patch that I designed consisting of a saw wave and a squarewave with heavy unison on both oscillators. I like to put a utility on the bass track and set everything under 125-135 Hz to mono to avoid phasing.

Depending on the tempo and energy of the song, I like to adjust the filter cuttoff to give it a bounce. 

Another thing I like to do is add a clear break or bridge into my songs. Most new songs these days are shorter and they skip these, so i think that's another way that I can give the song a retro feel.

Now on to the actual mixing of the songs.

Most retro songs go for the true retro sound, keeping everything kind of washed out, like it was recorded on old equipment. I love songs like that, but I want a modern sound with my music.

I like my drums to hit, I want you to feel it when it's playing at a club or a roller rink on a Saturday night.

In the end, it all comes back to a balance between the two. In my last post, I talked about why I like the 80s sound, and this is my idea of how to bring that into what I make today. I’m not trying to exactly recreate the 80's, I just want to a mixture of the two ideas. Something that takes both ideas and gives it my spin.

Now Creating

• New song later today!
• Replacing old ai artwork with my own, real artwork
• New website ideas
• Remixing/remastering old songs

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

Why I Blend Modern Production With An 80's Sound

Neon Notes — Week [9]

I like to blend modern with retro.

I make sure everything is clipping, and I also make sure that the snare is so gated that it disappears completely.

And of course, I always remember to export at the lowest bit rate to give it that vintage sound.

April Fools! Now, on to the real post.

I touched on this briefly in a previous post, but there’s something about that 80s sound that keeps me coming back.

From the warm analog synths to the slight imperfections and warble, it just feels nostalgic.

But I never wanted to make music that could be mistaken for something that actually came out of the 80s. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it just wasn’t what I had in my head.

I wanted something more modern while keeping that love of the 80s.

Something that takes the feeling of the 80s and blends it with the clarity and punch of today’s pop music.

A lot of that starts with the vocals I choose. They have a definite modern sound, and I try to build a song around them with retro sounds that complement them.

Looking back, I don’t think I fully appreciated 80s music at the time. My taste has always been all over the place. But once I started making music again, it hit me all at once that those songs from the 80s were so unique and were much more than I first thought.

There are also a lot of newer artists recreating the 80s in their music, and they’re keeping it more faithful to the whole 80s aesthetic, which I love.

But the sound I’m going for sits somewhere between the 80s and now.

I want my songs to have a retro vibe, but with clarity and punch.

When I moved away from more instrumental synthwave style tracks, I immediately had an idea. I wanted less of the washed out drums and fuzz of the 80s sound, and more of the polished modern pop sound fused with the 80s.

From artists like The Weeknd or Dua Lipa, I wanted a modern, hard hitting pop sound with lots of retro elements like gated snares and synth sounds with some tape distortion.

That’s what keeps me coming back to this style.

It’s not just about recreating the sound. It’s about making it my sound

Now Creating

• More website redesigning
• Refining my sound (A definite shift in my sound)
• Lot's of new music coming soon!

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

Why I Build Songs Around Vocals

Neon Notes — Week [9]

At first, I didn’t think I wanted vocals in my music.

The creative part of me had other plans.

I started experimenting with vocals just to see what would happen. I really had no idea what I was doing. Just dropping them into a track, messing around, chopping them. I didn’t really plan on using them much.

That didn’t last long.

The vocals quickly became more than just a layer. They started to become the foundation.

I’ve talked before about how I usually start a song. Sometimes it’s chords, sometimes vocals. But what I didn’t really get into is how different a song can be based on those early decisions, and why I build songs around vocals now.

When I start with chords, I’m really laying the foundation of what I hear in my head. It’s because I already have an idea going in.

But when I start with a vocal, I feel a bit more emotion in what I’m writing.

Sometimes I’ll leave the vocal as is, and other times I’ll chop it up, timestretch it, or completely change the tempo based on how the song evolves.

It’s less about the vocal deciding the direction, and more about seeing how I can turn it into something I want.

Instead of asking myself, “What kind of song do I want to make?”

It becomes, “What can I turn this into?”

Asking myself that question changes everything.

It puts me into an experimental mindset. I’m just moving with the music, letting my creativity take control.

Sometimes that means letting the vocal carry the emotion. Other times it means building something more nuanced around it, adding atmosphere and texture.

I’ll loop the vocal over and over and just listen. No writing, no sound design, just letting my mind figure out where the song is headed. I try to let the ideas form naturally and not force anything.

A melody or chord progression might come from the rhythm of the vocal. A bassline might pop into my head, or a drum beat might form.

Things start to connect.

And even if I decide to change the vocal completely, chopping it or stretching it, that original idea is what sparked everything.

That’s why I keep coming back to vocals.

Something about the human voice is so powerful, and it makes me approach music completely differently than before.

It's a different way of building a song from when I first started, but it feels more natural now.

The challenge of taking the vocals and changing them into something that's mine is so satisfying.

And that's what it's really all about.

Finding that spark, that idea, and following it wherever it takes you.

Now Creating

• Working on new music, and a new sound
• Still updating the website
• Almost done with Electric Skyline 2

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

How I Got Signed With Only 8 Months Of Experience

Neon Notes — Week [8]

When I began making music again in 2023, I didn't have any notion of it being anything more than just a hobby. Sure, I uploaded my first song to SoundCloud and made it public, but I really didn't expect anyone to listen. And I was right. At the time of this blog, "Synthia" has 44 streams on SoundCloud.

But streams aren't the goal with my music. Sure it feels great, but if you're not making it for you, then I think that misses the point of making art in the first place. I initially put them on SoundCloud so I could listen to them wherever I was, and I just decided to share them publicly because I was proud of them. I am still proud of them.

I just kept making songs and uploading them, trying to improve with each release. I studied everything I could about music production, and still study today.

After about 6 months of producing, I noticed that my songs sounded so much better than before, and I started getting a lot of scam messages on SoundCloud about how they loved my song or how some big-name artist wanted to work with me. Of course I dismissed all of them.

Then a few months later in July, I released several songs that I feel were a step up in my production. Songs like "Mistakes and Perfume" and "Toxic" had spikes in listeners on SoundCloud, and "I Fall" got over 10,000 views on YouTube. Shortly after that I released "Wide Awake" and "Everything", a song I dedicated to my dog that passed away.

At this point I felt like people were noticing my music. I was starting to get messages on SoundCloud and YouTube telling me how much they liked my music, and not just from people trying to scam me.

That's when I got a message a few months later in October on SoundCloud that was different from the rest. Normally, when it's a scam, they don't get specific. They say things like, "I really liked your song" or "Your music resonates with me."

This message was specific. It mentioned "To Love You", the title of the song they liked, and seemed more genuine than the other messages.

Of course I was skeptical. Who wouldn't be? I wasn't going to message them back, but my wife said, "What's it going to hurt? If it's a scam you'll know." So I messaged them back about five hours later.

We had a brief discussion on SoundCloud, then moved it to email correspondence. In the emails, they introduced themselves more formally. The label was Triptych Music and the publisher was Blue Pie Records, a company that works with music licensing and sync placements. Lauren, who runs the label, explained that they were interested in signing me as a sync artist.

At the time, I had only been producing music for about ten months, but the songs she was referencing I made with only eight months of experience. So hearing that a label wanted to work with me just didn't seem real.

For anyone that doesn't know, a sync deal means your music can potentially be placed in things like television shows, films, advertisements, or other forms of media. Instead of focusing only on streaming platforms, the music is pitched for opportunities where it can be licensed and used in visual media.

Of course, I did my homework. I looked up the label and publisher, the artists they worked with, and tried to make sure everything was legitimate. After all the scam messages I received on SoundCloud, I had to be skeptical.

But the more we talked, the more I realized that this was real.

I wanted to be transparent and explained that I had less than a year of music production experience. I think Lauren was a bit surprised when she found out, but I also think she realized I still had room to grow, and that my productions would only get better.

So I did it. I signed, and they released several of my songs on all the major streaming platforms and pitched them for sync placements.

• To Love You
• Let Go
• Just A Game
• I Need Your Love
• See Me Fly
• I'm The Darkness
• Cold Embrace
• Too Late
• Good Liar
• I Am The Storm
• Drown Me In Your Love
• Are You Lucky Now?
• Put Your Love On Me
• I Don't Need Saving
• Eyes On Me
• Don't Worry
• All I Need
• Out Of My Mind

It was also humbling. I never expected anything like this. Not to say I thought my music was bad, but I am a realist and I try to stay grounded.

Signing that deal didn’t mean I had it all figured out. I was still learning and trying to improve with every song I made.

What it did show me was something really important.

Just share your work. Let people hear it.

If I had kept those early songs private, none of this would've happened. The only reason that opportunity existed was because I was willing to share my music while I was still learning.

Looking back, those first songs were rough, but I still enjoy them. Now my mixing is better, my writing is better, and my production skills are way ahead of where they were back then.

Those songs were the best I could do with the knowledge I had, and I think sharing each one shows the progress I've made.

Getting signed wasn't something that I ever thought about, and getting signed from songs I made with only eight months of producing experience was definitely unexpected.

I was just making music and not being afraid of letting people hear it.

Sometimes the best thing you can do as a creator is just make it and share it.

Now Creating

• Replacing old cover art
• Physical merch?
• Finishing up some songs for Electric Skyline Volume 2

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.

From Death Metal to Retro Pop: How Did I Get Here?

Neon Notes — Week [7]

I wasn't always into electronic music.

Don't get me wrong, there were some great Synthpop and New Wave songs that I loved from the 80s, but I was more into Rap and R&B at the time.

That all started to shift in 1999, when Slipknot's first album came out. I had listened to some rock over the years, but Slipknot was an awakening.

After my short experiments with MTV Music Generator in the early 2000s, I had all but moved away from anything that didn't have distorted guitar. I couldn't get enough. It was like a drug, and I had to find music that was heavier and heavier just to get my fix.

To me, 2005 was a golden year in metal. So many bands were making their mark, and I was there for it. The Black Dahlia Murder, Killswitch Engage, and As I Lay Dying, just to name a few. That's when I decided to get a guitar. I thought, if I couldn't find the next heavy song, I'd just make my own heavy riffs.

So that's what I did. When I wasn't listening to heavy metal, I was writing riffs. I had no formal training, just a guy with a guitar, figuring it out. At first it was all power chords, no nuance, just right to the face. Then it became palm-muted, chuggy riffs that had groove but still sounded angry. Lots of hammer-ons and pull-offs, keeping the riffs tight and melodic.

But then another shift happened. I discovered Dubstep. It was raw, and it appealed to my love for distorted guitar. It was a short stint, but it was enough to nudge me back toward electronic music.

That's when I heard a few songs from Ladyhawke. They were rock, but they had a retro sound. I couldn't quite place them into a genre in my head, and that led me to my first real synthwave experience. "Collateral" by The Midnight was the first time I heard anything like it, and I was enamoured all over again. I all but moved away from metal this time and had to consume more and more of this newfound love.

Fast forward to the present day, and all those experiences helped shape the way I write music. Instead of a guitar, I use a synth, and instead of distortion pedals, I stack synth layers.

I may not consume as much metal as I used to, but it's still with me when I write synth melodies and in the way I program my drums. I still think in riffs and technical drum fills. I use repetition with intention, and I still try to keep the melodies tight.

Even when I’m writing shimmering leads or thick synth basslines, there’s still a part of me thinking like a guitar player. I’m looking for that moment where a section locks in and I get goosebumps. I want the drums to hit with purpose. I want the melody to feel like it could stand on its own, just like a good riff.

The sounds changed. The mindset didn’t.

Metal taught me about energy. About commitment. About not holding back once you find something that works. Dubstep reminded me that texture and grit matter. And synthwave showed me that atmosphere and melody can carry just as much weight as distortion.

So how did I get here?

Not by abandoning what I loved before. Not by randomly jumping genres.

I got here by following whatever moved me at the time.

Every phase left something behind in my writing. You can hear metal in the way I structure sections. You can hear electronic influence in the sound design. You can hear nostalgia in the melodies.

The guitars might not be front and center anymore.

But the riffs never really left.

Now Creating

•  Remastering some older songs
•  Working on a new and improved website
•  Finishing up some songs for Electric Skyline Volume 2

Thanks for reading.
If you have thoughts about any of this, I’d love to hear them.

This post is part of my weekly Neon Notes series. New posts go live every Wednesday.