Electronic music can be a very tricky place. Between the booming techno industry and the sweaty EDM boom, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we're all basically here to have fun.
Of course, electronic music is an art and some of us do it for a living. But when we think about why we opened up a DAW or picked up a synth in the first place, it's the simple joys of cracking, crushing and tweaking sounds - and the promise of where it can lead - that's all. Most of us are addicts.
Nathan Mikey's music takes what he hears and amplifies it to the umpteenth degree. Mickey's latest album, A Dream for God , brings a welcome sense of optimism and lighthearted humor to a genre that's often taken too seriously. Insanely loud and utterly absurd, this record oozes sound and impact in eleven lively songs that debunk the old adage "less is more".
In Mickey's world, more means more and the music is better. Synths layer up as a stadium-sized tune blasts through the stereo, followed by a sparkling reverberation. The same track features trance synths, 808s and breakbeats happily coexisting with live banjos, Nickelodeon cartoon samples, canned vocal hooks and '90s vinyl scraps. Out of this incredible chaos emerged the undeniable feelings that Micah and I shared. Right time.
It was probably the only album released that year to accompany the first multiplayer board game
"During the pandemic, electronic music got serious," Mikay told us. “I think this album shouldn't be too difficult. I take my job seriously and I work really hard, but that doesn't mean everything has to be like this... " I'm an artist" , you know what I mean? Making this album was like reliving childhood and making music that is fun and enjoyable. The project's hugs of dirt and laughter go beyond what you'd expect: perhaps the only album to be released this year, it's said to be a fusion of Jumanji and Hellraiser that comes with the first multiplayer board game.
Although his debut was released in 2012 under the name Bwana, Mikay has been releasing everything under his own name since 2018. This discographic juxtaposition culminates in 2018's debut Disaster , a Technicolor track that set the blueprint for the album to come: Sunrise's red-eyed drifter mid-bender, part of the track's mid-tempo. Because glittering synthesizers and glittering melodies create a healthy atmosphere that evokes the utopian optimism of the 90s and takes a step forward.
Mickey's soundtrack is proof that you don't need a $5,000 hardware synth to have one.
Two years later, Mika was asked to host an HBO series that went on to become one of the most talked about TV shows of the year. The industry follows a group of wide-eyed graduates into the world of high-end finance: Mikays' beautiful synthesizer-based score, created with a few plug-ins and a laptop keyboard, is proof that that is not necessary . The $5,000 hardware synth you've dreamed of. Some manufacturers collect vintage gear by hoarding it in the dusty depths of old studios, but Mikias is a collector who scours the darkest corners of the internet for his YouTube-buried library of specialized contacts and outdated music samples.
We caught up with Mikias from the Copenhagen studio to find out more about how Taylor Swift, obscure plugins and the joy of presets make you dream, for goodness sake.
How did you get into electronic music?
"I've always made my own music, but that wasn't the goal of making music as a musician. In high school I used GarageBand and made this four-channel bluegrass record. Back then I loved bluegrass and could play the banjo.” , violin, mandolin and guitar – I used to do these horrible recordings – I've been using a mic on my Mac since 2007, so you can imagine how brutal that sounds. You can probably hear my family talking in the background.
"It was my first time making music and the idea was to record something, but around 2011 I started to take it more seriously. I was still in college and I hated the school I went to, it was very party oriented. I loved dubstep and…” Post-dubstep and all of that.
“I started making some songs and putting them out on SoundCloud. I compose one song a week - every Sunday I compose a new song. About eight months after I did that, some of my songs exploded and I jumped on them. It's been a lifesaver ever since, but now I'm in a place where I can feel confident about making music.
Has your experience with acoustic instruments influenced your approach to electronic music and production?
"I wouldn't say it was easy, but it certainly gave me an insight into how to synthesize melodies beyond sampling, which really helped me in my work on the music — excuse the pun." But yes it really helped me.
All I had for all of my previous albums and sheet music were the A through L keys on my Apple keyboard.
"I discovered it when I was making dance music and I was like, 'Hey, how do I make music?' I just have to go with the rehearsal..." But legally I can't do that if I'm clearly killing. So I use real guitar and VST synths, but I have to write my own melodies and I think I have guitar and alto behind me, that really helps me.
We were told that they set up a studio in Copenhagen after the pandemic. can you tell me about it
“The construction studio was not big! My friend is Danish so we moved here and I was lucky enough to get a place through a friend. I've been working here ever since. Not much has changed in my facility since Berlin. I' I'm still very focused although the effects are working now, I use guitar, viola and viola but yeah very similar.
"I just got a really nice big old keyboard that I didn't have in Berlin. So this is great. All I had for all of my previous albums and sheet music were the A through L keys on my Apple keyboard. That's how I write a lot of my songs. So that's really the biggest change. I'm not much of a tech, but I have the great Kontakt library, a nebulous plug-in mind. All my goodness comes from there.
When did you start working on material for Dream God ?
“The first song was written in February 2021, it is the first track on the album. My sweat dries in the heat . It was during the plague and I had very little time to kill. I was looking for a way to get away from my previous Blue Spring album and wrote this song which I think is a great start and a great development on what was already there. So I sent it to the label and they said yes, go with the mood. So I started writing tracks when I had some time between all the effects I was making and it quickly built up.
“I wrote most of the music when I first came to Denmark. Now I don't have any space to work and most of it is on the kitchen table in my friend's apartment. I literally write while sitting on a wooden chair at the kitchen table. I have this beefy iMac and I just took it with me in this military bag and put it on the kitchen counter. This was written in 2021 and early 2022.
Can you tell us a bit about some of the musical influences behind the record? We're told that pop is a big influence right now.
"I'm a big swifty. No irony, I've been a huge Taylor Swift fan since sixth grade. I've always been a fan of anyone who can make catchy sounding melodic arrangements. Caroline Polachek I was there during the outbreak and she took everything to a whole new level. Just falsetto and how it sounds with auto-tune, but no.
Less doesn't mean more. If I could put ten different weird noises together that would be awesome.
“Also, now I'm fascinated by this whole interesting trend of distortion and sound processing. During the outbreak, my roommate was working at Native Instruments, which I think got iZotope during the outbreak, so I started getting iZotope stuff for free. Very fun to play.
"It was a big impact. I also started getting back into 80's pop music. Big production. William Orbit got a photo with Madonna. It basically started - I think the whole era was really great. Nothing about the rules, like...let's get the guitars out loud! I loved it. With this album I tried to take a less, not so much "let's try" approach. Ten different weird sounds work together. It would be great if I could.
What iZotope plugins did you use?
“I think it's called RX8. This is a nice plugin that you can use to isolate things. As I said, I do a lot at the kitchen table, which objectively helps me decide what to record when I hear a lot of other things in the background. I also use their twist, thrash. But of all the iZotope stuff, the ones I use the most are soundtoys: Decapitator and Devil-Loc are pretty cool on all channels.
Soundtoys Decapitator and Devil-Loc are pretty cool on all channels.
"The funny thing is I used it in production and then sent it to Michael at Muncord Studios who mixed it. It is then replaced with actual outdoor gear designed for the plugin. So it was a fun thing where I spent hours trying to get something right and then sent it to him and he deleted all my plugins and everything I had done. I sent him the wav file of the original treatment I had and he made it himself, which I think is one of the reasons it took so long, but it's definitely better.
“At the end of Taring he comes out with this big digital beat, distorts the synthesizer and re-records it via external transport. I don't know what she used but it's crazy - it looks so much deeper and fresher.
The synthesizer is an important part of your sound. You're a big fan of soft synths, right?
“I only use soft synths. I almost bought the Moog One at the time of the outbreak. Because we're all at home and you know... why not? I watched the Oneohtrix Point Never video about it, he used it on uncut gems and I was like do I really need it? Maybe one day.
“As far as composers go, Diva is my starting point. Everything is included on this album. But it does include all of the custom synths I've bought from Kontakt and made a lot of. There is a brand like this, Karanyi Sounds. This is just one of many places where a small contacts library resides. In particular, this results in some very good sounding synthesizer libraries. That's all on the album, but as workhorses go, Diva is still on her own.
Can you tell us about other plugins you found?
"No way. To get more organic sounds I use this website called PianoBook. There are probably around 2000-3000 free contact libraries out there. Some are great, but some are very good. Most are very simple, e.g. B. here I have 20 notes on trash guitar but you can use this as a starting point, some reverb or something else sounded good when I started playing. I have quite a collection.
As far as synthesizers go, Diva is my number one choice. It's all in this album.
“Then I bought all these awesome synth plugins. Slate + Ash, I'm obsessed with them. Also, they are all in albums. This is a progressive duo from Bristol, the best thing about Contact right now. They only have three libraries, but every time they release one I jump straight into it. I often use this library called AURAS. It was designed to work with MPE, but I don't have the necessary tools. So I will automate it myself, which may or may not help. I love these things.
“I follow a YouTube channel called Sample Library Review . Every Friday they check what's available that week and what's on sale. So I go there every Friday. I bought raw strings made by one person. The thing is, I can't give you the names of many of these companies because only one person makes them, and that's it. You understand.
“I have one called the EW Harp II that I use for all sorts of things. It doesn't really look like a harp, but it's amazing. I bought another company called Maleeventum . They made this really cool library: There's Viking Horn and then there's Columbia Flutes and Whistle. They have... a crazy rare library of horns and whistles. She is also on the album. They are amazing.
I can buy a Moog One for €6,000 or 200 small plug-ins for €30 each.
“I got this from Atelier Series Musical Sampling. They have a library of singing examples named Maggie, Amy, and Fakegarian. This is the most realistic sound you will ever hear. I just finished the soundtrack for a new movie that's coming out on HBO and there's a lot of singing at the end and they ask me, 'Who should we thank for that?' and I'm like, 'No, it's Contact.'" Library - looks very real though. The vocals have incredible legato and control. That's one of the secrets I tell a lot of my friends.
“Carani Sounds, which I mentioned earlier, has a plugin called Steam Keys that I purchased. It's funny - when you look at it, everything looks like the Steamwave Windows home page or something. But they really shape the beauty and mood of the sound. He recorded all these great presets from old 90's digital synths.
“Those things are on the album. I have a lot of these little contact libraries. I decide to buy a Moog One for €6,000 or whatever, or I can buy 200 little things for €30 each. Some of these are really bad: I usually only buy them if they're under $30 and they look good.
When developing patches for a synth like Diva, are you creating a sound from scratch or tweaking a preset?
"I'm setting up a preset. It's funny when I started I thought the sampling was rigged and I thought the presets were rigged. Then I saw the famous Legowelt video where he shows some synthesizers running around his apartment. So when he started handing out these preset sample sets from these synths, and then I heard all these samples on the Four Tet track, I thought...don't cheat! Nobody cares.
When I started I thought the sampling and using presets was cheating. Nobody cares!
“I take presets from Diva and usually tweak or chain them. I like making chains from scratch, I don't like making sounds from scratch. Although one could probably argue that the circuit still produces new sounds. I don't have time to make a sound on the synth, I just want to see the presets and then I'll find something and say okay.
“With presets in a synthesizer, string library or something like that, listening makes it easy for me to imagine how I'm going to carry that sound over to the next. I am good at it. But if you send me to a synth shop and give me an Oberheim synth, it will take some time to program it.
You mentioned earlier that you put a lot of effort into editing the soft synth to give it a warmer analog sound. How are you compatible?
"To be honest, when I'm feeling lazy only Ableton's saturation level reaches 20. It seems to be working. The biggest trick is to agree with me. I did the classic job of extracting the sound, dividing it into three low, mid and high frequencies, and making sure each covered the frequency range I wanted.
“I usually boost the mids and lows to the point where they blend into the overtones and lose any sharpness. You know that when you have an Instagram sketch or something? It's the complete opposite. But then I made the top really hot and it seemed like the perfect warm combination.
In the past, when I was shooting and having meetings with the directors, they would always ask: where is your equipment? I very...
"It's been a lot of fun over the past few years. Many magazines wrote that I should use more equipment. In the past, when I've written soundtracks and had meetings with directors and things like that, they've been like, "Where's your gear?" Yes...I have my Mac keyboard here. There were a couple of times I would hold up the laptop and hit the number pad on it and I would hear these big synthesizer sounds and they would be like, "Oh great."
“Also, I take a Diva patch and stick it on top of every other pattern I can find. Now what all these new VSTs are doing is a layering technique that lets you make something more interesting out of your stuff.
I love the variety of sounds on the new record - it offers everything from banjo to scratch. What brings you to these particular contextual voices?
"You deserve and are safe to access р and יעלוגראס עישון ממלעסאלו." You can also indicate that you want to access it. Blow, I can cut the banjo. You have the opportunity to engage in work ለማግኘት እድለኛ ነኝ ። You can also count on creating your program by changing your dates ቤተ-መጽሐፍት አለ።
"A range of information for you and your customers. I ran a series of tests to solve the problem MIDI data and now you can also download new information resources. ነገር።
The first and last edition of a free app, isn't it?
"A set of information resources" You can also make a reservation. ልበም መስራቴን የቀጠልኩበት - ለብዙ ፕሮጄክቶቼ የመሠረት ድንጋይ ነው - በ᥊ ነ ዚህ የዩቲዩብ ቻናሎች ላይ ለአሮጌ ተዘጋጅቻለሁ። You have the opportunity to receive new information. እሄዳለሁ።
300 points more for 300 days. ሁን ስለሌሉ ነው። Video Downloader You can also make a request on this message. "
Yes?
“One day there is an ad crossroads to attack people. Downloading MIDI files You can select MIDI files in your MIDI farm. ኙ። You can select MIDI files and select MIDI in your farm. ዳ ዜማዎች አስተካክላቸው። healthcare
What did you say?
"They can create more than just a few photos for you." ው። You have the opportunity to receive new information. Healthcare እኔ ራሴ ለማድረግ ጊዜ አላገኘሁም እና እንደሞከርኩት አሰብኩ ።
What information have you read?
«Адпаведнасць и ацэнка арыгіналаў አቅሙን አውቅ ነበር። You can now place an order so that your goal can no longer be reached. ይሄ እብድ መሳሪያ አለው - እዚያ ምን እንደነሳ ልነግርህ ስለ ማርሽ በቂ አላ ውቅም። ግን እብድ ነው። እሱ ብዙ አለው። You have the option to delete your data and I have never done anything else
"You don't know you need to make the effort to change your mind I've encountered a number of problems at work You have an opportunity to embark on a search for a new solution ። አሁን ለእሱ You have the opportunity to prepare for your trip ናስቀምጠው እና እናስገባው።
What is FOMO FOMO Depression?
"You can invoke various devices and information technologies to solve your problem." እርግጥ 'ሲኒማቲክ' የምንለውን ሙዚቃ ከእ ንግዲህ አይፈልጉም። It is not easy to solve a problem ጉት ይመስለኛል። Калі ласка, запытайцеся, калі ласка, запытайце "Вядома!" እንሆናለን። You have the option to connect to your computer. You can also email us your information.
You can request the registration confirmation "Zapen". ን ሙዚቃ ከእንግዲህ አይፈልጉም።
There are more ways to engage in work የመሆን ችሎታን ረድቶኛል። You can also make a request for information. ቅ በጣም አጠር ያሉ ናቸው። 20 seconds ago. I've never had a new experience You could still pack something but you didn't manage to do it? ።
“One of the many things I need is a good idea. 15 Gadows selection 15 centimeter selection. With the additional information for you from 40 days you can book for more than 40 days. Healthcare እስካሁን ያገኘሁት ውጤት በማስቆጠር ረገድ በጣም የተለመደ ነገር
Адпаведна, калі ласка, адкрыйце for сябе аператар አሳይቷል። What information have you read?
"ያ ብቻ ነው ዲቫ፣ በጣም። Arturia, I am very satisfied. Spitfire is a new version of Spitfire. I have never had a new experience ው።
You can also send a request to another provider. ይ ተጽእኖ ስለመሆኑ ተናግረሃል። What do you want to do?
Adkret for Oneohtrix Point Never Never. Education is a good idea, but you can't use your finances anymore.
Ex Machina ፣ Annihilation of Devs. There were already 81 stars before you that you got to know. ይንት ነበራቸው። እቃቸው በጣም ሸካራ እና ጨለማ እና አሪፍ ነው። ለእኔ፣ ያ ሲኒማቲክ ነው - እነሱ የሚያደርጉትን በትክክል ያውቃሉ። You can download and publish this information. ድ ሥራ ተሳሰርን። ምናልባት የእኛ ትልቁ የመዳሰሻ ድንጋይ ነበር - ሁሉንም ነገር አልፈናል ።
Which place would you like to take?
“A number of sources of information for you. You can download this information on this page. У вас ёсць магчымасць адказаць на наступную фармацыю аб… ለን። ሳቅ - ሁሉም ውርርዶች ጠፍተዋል።
You can also wrap it, but you don't have to. Are you glad you might have made it?
“A set of popular apps on the HBO television network. ቀልደኛ የሆነ ብዙ ነገር ማድረግ ነበረብኝ። ከዚህ በፊት አስቂኝ ሙዚቃ ፅፌ አላውቅም። Learning በትክክል የምታስበው ነገር አይደለም። ስለዚህ ያ ሀሳብ እንደሰጠኝ እገምታለሁ። You can leave a review... You can also send a request to someone else.
You can do this now! What's wrong with you?
“A useful source of information for your business is the best solution you need It's been more than 30 days for you. More than 40 orders for you. You could introduce yourself. There are more problems with finding a new solution ያስፈልገውም ብዬ አሰብኩ። There are more ways to find your way around. ግን ሁሉም ነገር መሆን አለበት ማለት አይደለም… ' አርቲስት ነኝ' ፣ ምን ለማ What is wrong with you?
About አለው። Do you want to stop knowing what you're doing?
"Good news... Information about ናኝ፣ ተጫዋች ሙዚቃን መስራት ብቻ። Watching is not over yet It's not all! What's up?
LUCKYME® ላይ ወጥቷል ።
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