From the mind of Ricardo:

Lux nova, what an interesting project this has been! The song bloomed from my girlfriend encouraging me to learn to play the Ukulele, which I did. I learned how to tune it and chords. Fairly quickly came up with the chord sequences, and the picking patterns in the Ukulele. 

September 25th, 2021
Decided to record what I had in my head as far as the Ukulele went. I started by using the GarageBand app. This little fucker is a powerful tool! I came up with a drum beat that fit my vision with the Uke. I kept hearing a simple techno beat. As I discovered more in the app, the more I was able to add to the song, pianos and ambience sounds added a very deep enhancement to what built to be a majestic sound with a modern edge.

September 27th, 2021
I opened a SoundCloud profile and uploaded it along 5 other demos I had in the archives. This song is marvelous! My intentions were to keep it instrumental but I think with the right person the song can be elevated even further. I contacted Kelly Rose, whom I have worked before with in “Poem Without Words.” She loved the track and agreed to be part of the song. I honestly can’t think of anyone more appropriate to sing in this song! I’m looking forward to it. 

September 28th, 2021
Katy, my girlfriend, has a keen ear to catch small imperfections in the song, to which I agreed there were some windows of opportunity:
- Turned up the bass and turned on the Stand-Up Bass. It helped smooth the attack kid the bass. Using both basses at the same time made the song more “thumpy”
- Drum fills were revised, re-edited and recalibrated. Smoother flow on transitions
- Added Ukulele work on second movement. Adding the Uke to the build up before the transition made the bass lines less awkward. 
- Mixing

September 29th, 2021
Dreamt about playing the song and not liking the intro, it’s… not good. Went ahead and removed the whole ‘Guitar Ambient” and screwed up the algorithm so I placed it back and fixed it. So I decided to start them at the second bar and recorded just a C3 all the way to the integration of the rest of the song. It’s perfect now!
- Mixed drums. Added Echo (25%) and Reverb (50%). Turned up the bass drum. (Completely removed at a later hour)

Addition of 808s:
Decided to add 808s to the song. I didn’t have an 808 Synth program so I did the next best thing:
- Added an additional bass track by duplicating ‘Retro Bass’. Turned Compression and Bass levels all the way and worked my way backwards during mixing.
- Note to remember: the best way to control flow with the 808s is to make the note as long as the note that’s being drop.
- Mixing notes: during mixing I upped what little I could with the  DAW I’m using. Compression, Echo and Reverb were controlled further to bring out more sound during the mix. It’s far better! But now the bleed out at the end of the song doesn’t bounce right. I’m not sure how to fix it. Maybe I can just leave it for post-production.

Lux Nova

Old track of a un-mixed song featuring myself on vocals

The Taphoist

I played guitar 1 on 13 Cent Kill’s album “Kill Your Neighbor Music”

This was the song the band had me audition for when I tried out for the band. Right away I was able to the scale progression in the chorus and a solo. This song became the staple of the sound of the band.

13 Cent Kill- Who I Am

Terra Incógnita was the only song I wrote the music for in the album “Kill Your Neighbor Music”. Definitely the heaviest in the record.

13 Cent Kill - Terra Incognita

From 13 Cent Kill’s album “Kill Your Neighbor Music”. I really liked this song. It was written in the bass. The opening/main riff was approached by me by playing it inverted from the notes in the bass and it worked quite nicely.

13 Cent Kill - My New Misery

A little industrial thing I felt like doing. VERY EXPLICIT!

HATEF*CK (Explicit content)

Holistic Chaos (Faova - feat. Eric Moon)

Another self-development song. I enjoy this one

Kid Cyborg

Sky Remains Black (2016 Faova demo)

This song was an experiment to see how it would work to write songs with people abroad. I worked with Santiago Velazquez from Colombia, who mixed this song as well played bass for it. He did those bass solos. Turned out great!

Silver Eclipse (Feat. Santiago Velazquez)

Thank you for being here!
My name is Ricardo Montoya. I reside in Oklahoma City.
I’ve decided to compile a few of recordings, demos and oddities I have worked on throughout the years. If you have any recordings of me, I’d love to have a copy of it. I hope you enjoy my music.
I want to thank all the musicians and producers I have worked with throughout the years!

Rikarthius

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