BDUFFS - Clockwork (Tech House, 2018)
Making a comeback as "BDUFFS" (formerly SineFX)
/ brandonduffany
How I made this song:
In terms of composition, I had a visual of flickering sound waves that I drew on paper, then tried to craft a song around that visual. I started with the 4-bar loop at 0:52 then sort of expanded left (taking layers out of the loop until I was left with just the kick then adding some slight variations), then expanded right. One technique I used was adding a section where I sliced up the original loop and sort of mixed and matched different parts of the section to create a groovy variation on the original.
In terms of sound design I'm most proud of the "chord" sound I designed that you hear quite a bit starting from 1:30. I think I nailed the "purple-hued" moody, woody house organ chord vibe. There are a few sections where I got a bit lazy, such as the beat starting at 1:05 just before the second "organ"-like section, and the melody at 1:15 (not sure if it really vibes with the rest of the song; to me it seems kind of yellow-hued and it contrasts with the purple too much).
Fun fact: the sound at 0:08 is a heavily processed "G" said by none other than Jim Carey in the movie "Bruce Almighty," when he says "It's GooOOod!
In terms of mixing and mastering, I have a Maximus on the master track with a smooth-kneed compression on each of the low/mid/high bands, as well as the master output. I also compressed a few channels heavily (e.g. the snare is distorted then compressed). This time I avoided artificially increasing the high end by too much and sort of let the sounds do their own thing within the frequency bands that I let them occupy.
Excited to hear what you guys think!