So this is my entry for round 1 of this years Audio Death Match (2021). I set myself the task of only using this old Realistic Concertmate-460 keyboard:

Initially I totally expected to have to layer in other instruments to make it workable but I'm happy to say I've pulled it off! Well, I have recorded vocals but other than that, it's just this baby played in by hand.

I obviously had to use some interesting production techniques to improve the sounds I was working with, I ran the keyboard through this Realistic mixing desk that has great distortion when you drive the mic-pres:

I also used this trick I got from Bruce Swedien (Michael Jackson's sound engineer, off a video I've never met the guy) where you basically just re-record any synthetic elements, simply by blasting them through speakers and micing up the room. You then mix that back in and bosh. (Kinda like a poor mans reamp job)

I used a XY pair of Superlux ECM-999's and a mono T.Bone RB100 for room mics and repositioned them for each source, so everything had it's own place in the mix. Here are some pics:

Other than that, just your standard bits of compression and EQ from the waves V series and Sony Oxford plug-ins, a bit of saturation from Fabfilter Saturn, a little push to the bass parts from Waves Rbass, a splash of chorus and extra verb on the vocals from Classic Chorus by Kjaerhus Audio and Lexicon Pantheon and finally a "fuck it that'll do" master just using Fabfilter Saturn again and Waves Infected Mushroom Pusher. I spat it out at about -9LUFS because I think that's a good compromise bewteen the -14LUFS standard for streaming and the actual industry standard -6LUFS that mainstream pop tends to go for.

I have to say I'm chuffed with how this came out as a fun experiment, I love trashy lo-fi sounds and I enjoy exploring a more rap style of vocal from time to time.

Here are the lyrics:

I wake up,

Feeling destressed,

Feeling depressed,

Feeling like I'm trying my best but,

It's never good enough for you,

Never good enough for me too,

Oh we're all slowly sliding,

No pass,

Empty glass,

Not even half full now it's kicking my ass,

Too much focus in the passed,

Don't know if I'm guna last,

Oh we're all just slowly sliding,

Down down down,

All slowly sliding,

Down down down,

Another 3 days,

Trynna find some leeway,

Trynna strive to free my mind and see the world in new ways,

Hold up,

Hold up,

Hold up damn,

Trynna learn this lesson but it's slipping through my hands,

I am,

But one man,

An' I hide from my problems by smoking,

An' I know when your stressed you be toking,

Cos we're all just slowly sliding,

Down down down,

All slowly sliding,

Down down down,

Standing out in the rain,

Soaked to the skin but we feel ok,

Just trynna stay sane,

Just trynna keep from slowly slidding,

Down down down,

From slowly sliding,

Down down down,

You take my hand,

Say we're guna travel to foreign lands,

We could start again,

And maybe stop just slowly sliding,

Find a place to reside in,

Really see ourselves shinning,

I know that I've got you to catch me,

If I ever start sliding,

Down down down,

If I ever start sliding,

Down down down,

I know that I've got you to catch me yeah,

If I ever start sliding,

Down down down,

Topic wise this is loosely based on my relationship with my lady friend @CariTheBean we both suffer from bouts of depression and very much rely on support from each other to get through the hard times and we have dreams of bailing from the UK to Canada at some point in our future. So yeah, there's my entry. 😘

Edit:

I've had a little time free after I got home from work, so I've taken on board what @Projectsoary mentioned in his review and made some mix tweaks. Basically, I've narrow cut a few frequencies in the bass and drums, to give the vocals more room and I've re-balanced the lows between the bass and drums. Oh and slightly tweaked the master chain because I was rushing to get this done with the previous bounce thinking I wouldn't have any more time on it before the submission deadline. It's Aug 15th, 15:35 EST as I've posted this, Happy Clock Day!

Final Edit:

Another quick mix tweak, when I listened back today the vocals were sounding a bit sibilant and it was annoying me. So I've just drop a bit of top end on the vocal with a shelf and notched a bit of 9.3kHz to tame it a bit. Time stamp for this is Aug 16th, 14:33 EST