BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH, IT IS DONE! With three minutes to spare, lol.

This song is something of a miracle for me. Due to major issues with anxiety and depression, I have not completed a song in nearly a year. Believing in God, I felt prompted by Him to compete, even though I felt I had no time or energy. Through a series of small, amazing events that I had limited control over, I was able to get this done. It is somewhat unpolished. It is nowhere near as detailed as I would like for it to be. It doesn't have a very solid ending. But I am so freaking proud to have actually completed something that I am actually, well, proud of having made. I haven't felt this way about a song in a long time. I got to utilize all of my skills that I have developed over the past year of trying and failing to complete a song, and I am particularly pleased that the mix actually came out quite decent (based on my headphones' audio profile lol)

Here's what I used to produce the track:

Produced, mixed, and mastered in FL Studio 20.

Synths:

Vital... (by Matt Tytel - Bassline)

Minibit... (by Audiothing - chiptune leads, arps)

Addictive Keys Grand Piano... (by XLN Audio - piano)

BBC Discovery Orchestra... (by Spitfire Audio - strings)

Hybrid... (by Air - Moving pad with strong tremolo)

Flex... (FL Native - layered with BBC to add brightness to strings)

3xosc... (FL Native - white noise for filter sweep)

Effects:

Parametric EQ 2... (FL Native - soooo many instances)

Fruity Reverb 2... (FL Native - also lots of instances)

Fruity Delay Bank (FL Native - instances. Lots)

Fruity Phaser (if it's fruity, FL made it. A few instances to help clashing sounds mix better)

Trash 2... (by Izotope - chiptune distortion on drums at 2:51)

Ozone Imager 2... (also by Izotope - used for stereo widening)

Oracle... (by Soundspot - extra reverb on claps at 3:22)

Glitch... (also by Soundspot - tremolo and gate effects)

Evade... (I like some Soundspot stuff. Volume shaper used to sidechain bass frequencies)

Soundgoodizer... (FL Native - mostly on kicks)

Saturation Knob... (by Softube - because who doesn't use it?)

Transient Shaper... (also by Softube - largely used on percussion)

Opticom XLA-3... (by Acme Audio - character compressor, adds saturation)

Rough Rider 3... (by Audio Damage - VERY hard compressor with a nice sound, used to fatten gated pad)

HG-2... (by Black Box Analog Design - adds some warmth to the bassline)

Sandman Pro... (by Unfiltered Audio - adds some spacey delay/reverb to the lead)

BX Limiter... (by Brainworx - freaking incredible limiter plugin that sounds amazing)

BX Masterdesk... (also by Brainworx - used to master the track. Workflow of plugin allows mastering in minutes)

Sample Packs came from:

Ghosthack (variety of samples used)

BT's Breaktweaker packs (variety of samples used)

WA Production

Musicradar

Noiiz

Vengeance Essential Electro 3

Slate Digital

Rekkerd.ord

All samples used were either purchased by me or are part of free packs from reputable distributors.

All plugins used were either purchased by me or are part of free plugins from reputable distributors.

My copy of FL Studio was purchased directly from Image-Line.

Everything I have purchased and used in this track was worth every penny.

Buy your own stuff everyone! It instills a sense of confidence that is worth the sacrifice.