My newest track is entitled Skyward!
This is a demo track created for Sonic Underworld's Nyah soundset for the Uhe's Zebra synth.
For this track, I tried to evoke an uplifting and dare I say, euphoric feeling of breaking through at the end.
Instruments and mixing wise, I included orchestral elements like brass, light strings and voices. With the exception of the final swell, I try to keep these non-synth elements at the back, so the synth sounds can shine through.
In the Nyah playlist, there is an additional "naked" version that contains only the Nyah patches. You can find it at the second last entry of the following playlist.
When I start writing a new piece of music, I usually start clueless what I was going to write. Usually the first one or two ideas would not be usable. By 30% into the track, I would usually get a good feel of whether the idea is worth developing to the end.
For Skyward, it was different. After coming up with an opening section, the direction of the song just continued to write itself in my mind.
It was not all uphill, unfortunately. At about half-way through the song (around 1 minute 30 seconds), I hit a block and did not know how to proceed. How do I start to resolve and bring the music to an end. As I continued to build up and bring the tension along, the mood of the piece seemed to get darker and darker, and my hope of ending it in a strong and positive light became further and further from my grasp. At that point I was even wondering if I should start with another idea. This part of the production took the longest.
After I managed to resolve it, the rest of the song became almost automatic. I was merely executing the plan that would resolve the idea to the end, and the efficiency spiked at that point.
