Today, as promised, I wanted to go through the process of creating one of the tracks on my upcoming EP ‘Skeleton’. The track is Montreal Dreams and it’s actually one of the oldest tracks of mine, but still one of my personal favourites. I wrote this song in late 2007 while living in Glasgow, and the final edit of it was probably done around early 2008. The name was inspired because I had just come back from my first gig in Montreal, one of my favourite cities to visit and DJ in. My mindset with this track was to make something heavy with a lot of distortion variation, but without being too glitchy like other artists who were doing it at the time (Teenage Bad Girl, Justice’s ‘Waters of Nazareth’). I wanted to make something heavy in that sense, but more of a four to the floor groove that could work in more techno sets as well as heavy electro sets.

OK, so the track itself was written in two parts; the first part is everything before the breakdown (bar 89), and it was written fairly quickly- probably about 3-4hrs in one night. This track is really simple, and all the bulk work in variation is between modulating the rhythm of the volume and frequency of the main synth, and adjusting the distortions that have been applied to that synth. I will try to explain each different sound that was achieved.
Bars 1-41:
First off, Malstrom 2 is my main heavy synth for the track, it’s actually the only synth the entire track, other than the breakdown which uses Malstrom 1. So from bar 1-17 we hear a fairly muted distortion synth which starts to open up, this is achieved by opening the tone and presence of a Scream 4 unit from 0-127 gradually over those 16 bars. On 17, it fills up more of the headspace by bringing a light reverb unit (RV7000 3) from 0 to 2 in wetness (a very small adjustment!). On bar 24 I adjusted the spread of the synth to fill out the headspace completely for a one bar change of pace before the hi-hat loop drops in at 25. For the hh loop I just used a Dr Rex with distortion on it to give it an original spin and to match the synth tone. I cranked the mids and hi’s on this Dr. Rex distortion unit and dropped out the bass completely as to not take away from the main synth + bassdrum. I want to note that up until bar 41, the synth line is playing a 2 bar loop of the exact same notes. Any variation you hear is strictly done through effects and playing with the rhythm in the Mod B section of Malstrom 1. There is a great example of the synth opening up from bar 33-41 (right before the drums drop out), to achieve this I just adjusted the filter from being full at a value of 63 down to nothing. I’d like to note that the rhythm of the volume and filter sends have been going at a rate of 1/8, and thats why the synth grooves to a 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and pattern with the bassdrum for the majority of the track.
Bars 41-57:
Ok so this is where the main change of pace comes in for the track, there are two things I did to achieve a new sound before the drop at bar 57. The first was bringing the Mod B volume knob down from 63-0 gradually over these 16 bars. This is so that when it drops, it’s no longer rhythmically following the 1/8 modulation, but rather the original rhythm of the notes that I’ve drawn in myself. I’m also slowly bringing down the low-end on one of the distortion units on this synth so that there is no bass at all right before the drop, helping it feel heavier when everything does come back in at 57. The other big change is, the melody has now shifted from a 2 bar melody to an 8 bar melody, since there is now a variation on the final 2 bars of the phrase.
Bars 57-89:
So here the Malstrom 1 drops heavy without any Mod B variation. There is no modulation here for this entire section, only Scream 4 adjustments to keep the distortion varied. There are two Scream 4 distortion units working together here to keep the sound varied, one is set to ‘Distortion’ and the other is set to ‘Overdrive’. The overdrive presence is adjusted a lot, to toy between hi and low-end frequencies of distortion fading through. I’ll do a lot of gradual sweeps as well as quick ones at the end of phrases to keep it varied. Distortion automation runs this entire section.There is also a snare that drops in at bar 57. I put a reverse reverb on this, tempo syncing it to 2/16, and then moving the snare 2 16th notes before the 2 and 4 of every bar. This way when it hits, there is a whip sound, as it fades into the hit on the beat. Note that your Reverse dry/wet cannot be full otherwise there will be no punch on the actual beat. I also bring the Dr Rex hi-hat loop back in at 65, and then an open hi-hat on quarter notes at 73 for an extra push.
Bars 89-121:
Ok so here is the breakdown, probably the more complicated section of the track. Here Malstrom 2 drops out completely and Malstrom 1 fades in slowly to drop in at 97 at full volume. The melody that Malstrom 1 plays has the exact same notes as the original 2 bar melody of Malstrom 2 at Bar 1, the rhythm is just slightly varied to make it sound a bit different. I used the Vocoder here as an EQ to experiment with some new tones. I set it to 4 band equalizer and faded in slowly the lo and the lo-mid of this effect. This Malstrom also has a very mid-based distortion unit on it, as well as a Plate-style reverb to give it that tinny quality. I wanted to make this section as mid/treble-based as possible to make the drop at 121 hit as hard as possible. At bar 97 I drop in a light snap and clap on beats 2 and 4, with a very small amount of reverb as well (I basically put Reverb on everything except for my kickdrums). At 109, I altered the rhythm of the Malstrom 2 by adjusting the volume value to 63 of the Mod B to go at a rate of 1/8 (similar to what I did to Malstrom 2 earlier in the track). I also bring back the Dr Rex from earlier in the track, but without any Lo’s or Mid’s to make it match the trebly sound of this section. Before the drop at 121, I bring the volume rate back from 63-0 on the Malstrom, as well as take the lo-band out on the Vocoder EQ, to lose even more bass right before it hits.
Bars 121-End:
Here the Malstrom 2 drops back in full again, with no modulation. And I adjust the overdrive distortion presence in quick sweeps at the end of every 2 bars. I move this around a lot to keep this whole section alive. Hi-hats, snare are back in, and open hi-hat on quarter notes drops back in at 129. At 137 the Malstrom Mod B goes back to full filter and volume values to mimic the sound in the beginning of the track. I then move the rate from 1/8 to 4/4 to give a little variation before the mixout beat!

Phew, that’s it! If you have any questions it would be great if we could discuss it on the message board HERE. If not you can leave any questions in the comments and I will do my best to answer them there. However, message board is easiest for me so it would be great for everyone to sign up!

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I’m off to play in San Diego tonight, I hope everyone is well!

FC