Listening to some of the post-punk/darkwave/synthwave music I’ve been listening to these past few weeks has inspired me not only to pick up the bass once again, but to get back to playing around with some songwriting and DAW recording as well. [DAW = digital audio workshop, a home studio option for the modern era].
As I was discussing this direction in comments with Chris, I began to think that it might be interesting to at least some of you to share with folks the general thought process and progression of how some of us — or at least I do — get about to writing music.
What I share might never end up in becoming a full song, with lyrics, singing, chord changes and the like, which is why I think of them as “songlets”. They may become something more than a soundbite, but they are intended more as experimentation and exploration than full songs. Mileage may vary.
As an exhibition of my thought process, these are rough mixed and don’t follow standard song structure. Instead, I am showcasing how the sound evolves as I play with a small section of what might be a larger piece if I decide to pursue it.
In this particular case, my goal is more to create that retro post-punk sound from around 1979-1985 and to get a feel for the best analogue settings to record my electric bass guitar, which is complicated by the face that it has an onboard driver for EQ (a pre-amp with tonal modification), technology that is new to me.
This songlet was written and recorded in the space of about three hours. About another hour of engineering followed to get it into a listenable [sic] and sharable format.
Timestamped notes about what is going on follow the audio. The sequential nature of the songlet is intentional. It is not intended to represent a final, polished song.
Without further ado (you may need to visit the webpage to listen to this instead of listening in the Jetpack app or WordPress reader):
Time Stamp 0:00 minutes
The intro is just a basic drum line. Nothing special: bass drum beats on the 1, 2 and 3-count, snare on the 4-count (4/4 time signature, 120 beats per minute (bpm)). At this stage it is more metronome than drums. I used a software drum machine with synthwave settings and tweaked the sounds a bit to feel a little less techno, but wanted to keep that electronic early drum machine feel.
Time Stamp 0:08 minutes
This is when I added the analogue bass guitar. Again, a simple rhythm — nothing fancy. This guy is just trying to find his groove again after a long while and doesn’t feel all that adventuresome. I can relate to him.
The original recorded version does not have the added effects. It is pretty “dead” without the reverb (to give a sense of space), mild chorus and minor EQ tweaks I added. Punchy, standard style for a post-punk band of the period. More Joy Division than New Order.
Time Stamp 0:24 minutes
Time to add some minor spice to that rather drab drum line, innit? So I added some high hat cymbals on the offbeat, mixed up the snare ending with two variations and added the occasional crash. Okay… that sounds a bit more interesting, right? A little less like an elementary school kid and a little more like someone who likes mild spices.
Time Stamp 0:40 minutes
Well, it seems like a good time to toss in some keyboards to round out the sound so that it isn’t quite some rhythm oriented. Now, let me tell you, this was a frustrating section for me in spite of the keyboard lines themselves fully in the “minimalist” category. My softsynth kept crashing on me, even though I was happy with the voice I was using. I eventually chucked it and went with a voice that was similar, but not quite as lush, from a different softsynth. I might eventually try to sculpt my own synth sounds, but that will have to wait until another day.
Again, the sound of the time period was not complex in how it was played. Bands tended to keep it to half-notes and whole notes on keyboards and leave the more complex melodies to the guitar (which were often more about aural tricks than complexities as well).
Time Stamp 0:56 minutes
Oh! Hai! There’s a guitar line to fill out the sound further. Again, to give it a bit of variety, I switched the third bar out with a different melody (starting at 1:12 minutes) before returning to the previous melody on the fourth bar. Then repeat to fade. I’ll be honest here, I didn’t like the sound of my acoustic, even with effects and my cats killed my old electric guitar. I could have borrowed my daughter’s electric, but it was just as easy to approach this with a sampled softsynth mean to mimic a guitar from the late 80s/early 90s. I added a bit more reverb and and tweaked the EQ a bit, but it was minimal production. As far as synth guitars go, I love this one (I also like the Cocteau Twins inspired softsynth/sampled I have worked with in the past) and it sounds fairly plausible and not too synthy for certain genres.
Time Stamp 1:44 minutes
The end! I hopefully didn’t make you scream too loudly. You made it this far, so you get a big gold star from me. ⭐
Well, what did you think? I have an earlier piece that was more complex and written for two basses (as I threatened in one of my posts) along these same lines, but I feel that needs some more TLC before it can be made ready to listen to. While that piece was more about pushing a personal envelope, this was more about quickly replicating a “sound” from the post-punk era. Comments are always welcome as long as they are constructive in content.
19 responses to “Songlet — 06 apr 25”
Some groovy beats! 🎶👍🏻
Thank you Michele 💙
Firstly, I like this. The progression and build up, along with the general feel, are very much something that I would listen to. I think that you have captured the feel of the period really well – strong bass leading into the swell of slow keys is right up my street.
The influences here are clear – but I’m not going to dwell because, let’s face it, everything is influenced by something.
I really wanted to conjure up some dark lyrics to juxtapose the initial feel. Sadly all I came up with was this (sort of) chorus which you can laugh at as much as you like!:
‘And in our dream time
Our shadows dance
One on one,
And in another space
We let ourselves
Come undone’
Hmm.
Looking forward to hearing more.
Hmm I’ll have to play with that and see if I can effect my way out of sounding awful as a vocalist. (There’s an app for that!)
I’m glad you liked it. If there is any era of music I love most it’s that early and mid eighties sound. It always felt full of untapped potential, as evidenced by so many bands that stretched and broke boundaries at the time. And they still left plenty for us to discover in their wake.
This is true, and yes, it’s a time frame musically speaking to which I am drawn. I often see influences from the era in much more recent music – never a bad thing. Untapped potential, as you say.
No, never a bad thing. 🙂
I enjoyed this. Kudos to you! Because my role is that of music reviewer, not creator/performer, I’m always put in the “sounds like” mode when listening to something for the first time. Your “sounds like” is a slowed-down version of the frenetic Joy Division “Transmission.” And that makes me happy. 🙂 Good stuff!
Heh 😅
Yeah I realized it was reminiscent of Transmission when I was almost done and I suppose it says a lot about who I was listening to when I first started learning bass guitar in the eighties. You always go back to what you know when it’s been a while, I guess.
Thanks!
Very cool! The 80’s had so much heart in the music.
Thank you. The sky was the limit. Knowing how to play was actually a hindrance at the time 🙂
It has a really nice progression from childhood to teenager is the feeling to me. It’s like, lachkey kids to high-top sneakers and girlfriends. It’s laid back enough for summer but could easily be the fall, going back to school and sweaters.
But the main importance is what would you like the song to be about. If it’s about the sound then maybe it’s about you playing base again and enjoying the creative flow.
I do apologize, I end up having more thoughts, thus more comments. You do know that currently, the radio plays a lot of bands trying for that 80’s sound right now but it’s being called indie rock/rock alternative? They are desperately trying for creativity and heart and desperately need guidance. Seems relevent somehow if maybe just for encouragement and fun to think about. You now have something more than before.
We used to call it that (alternative or indie) before people needed to find ever smaller boxes for their genres. And then it went mainstream, so it was hard to call it either of those things.
I think what hinders them making great music are a couple of factors: they follow “rules” too much, whether is is music theory or technical elements, that era was about trashing the rules; they rely too much on digital recording gimmicks instead of going for a more authentic multitrack sound, just because you have infinite tracks doesn’t mean you should use them; and for gods’ sake, do your own thing instead of trying to sound like XXX band’s song YYY — experiment with sound, don’t replicate what you hear.
[/soapbox]
This was more about getting that sound/vibe going for myself. Post-2000 music production for me was more focused on highly electronic sounds sequenced and loop sounds after some serious folk/acoustic burnout.
With this, I wanted to take what I’ve learned since I was a teenager and apply that knowledge to where my early-80s roots lay.
This is wonderful. Great job!!
Thanks Bob, it was fun to put together.
Nice rundown of your thought process while you constructed this. Watched Spinal Tap last night for fun. Two words: Big Bottom. All of them are playing bass, reminiscent of BÖC’s five electric guitar attack. And of course Derek Smalls with his soon-to-be-world-famous double necked electric bass 😂🤣
One of my fave songs from that movie. Along with Tonight, We’re Gonna Rock You Tonight.
Stonehenge is a bit silly, but that’s fun too.
Thanks!
I like “listen . . . to what the flower people say . . .” Also: “Do I have to come right flat out and say it? Gimme some money . . .”😂