30 Day Song Challenge 2025

Day 1 of the June challenge. Trying to make ocean waves on the hydrasynth followed by other shenanigans.

Day 1 - Galactic Ocean Long Haul

Day 2 - Insomnia

The wreck slept for centuries. Silent. Hollow. A forgotten relic on a forgotten moon.

But then—an echo. A faint, unfamiliar presence entering through a fracture in the hull.

A probe bot, lost, uncertain, it moved through the derelict ship as if drawn by some unspoken instinct.

And the ship... felt it. An ancient heartbeat quickened. Lights flickered. Power lines hummed. Long-dormant systems jolted awake—not with fear, but with recognition. This was no scavenger. This was the signal. The variable. The spark..

Buried deep, something remembered. A mission. A war. A last, unfinished hope. Not a weapon, but a chance. Still sealed. Still waiting.

The probe did not yet know why it had come.  But the ship did.

And in that moment, after centuries of silence—purpose and hope, long extinguished, flickered into being.

Day 3 - Forgotten Memories

More game type stuff, with gunslinger guitar.

Day 4 - Threat

Day 5 - Endurance

1 hour 20 minute challenge on Casio CTK-150

Day 6 - Chillwave

Day 7 - NightDrive

The creative prompt I made for myself:
- Dense chords
- Dark melodic layer
- ambient
- ~2-3 min long
- Title screen type music
- 1 hour 20 minutes (I went 10 minutes over)

Day 8 - Scifi Vibes

I wanted to make something with drums. Threw a #yolo synth solo in at the last moment. Next time, I think I need 2 sets of drums with some counter-rhythms to keep it interesting 🧠

Day 9 - Something with Drums

Lyrics:
Where's the rhythm?!?
Break it down...
I found the rhythm!
Hide the rhythm.. ♻️

Day 10 - The Saga of Rhythm

Verse 1:
Ah’m just a cun-tree boy tryin’ ta make it in this loooonely life
Got mah big ol’ truck an’ mah lil sweet dawg but now Ah need museellf a wahf
She should like cookin’ and cleanin’ and doing laundry, but hey, no drama
Ahm talkin’ full jeens, strong arms, crop top, freckled face, long hayur, my sexy baby mamma

Chorus:
Ah need a baby mama in ma life 
So if yer not somebodies babee mama already, yew kin swahp rahyt
Ah need a baby mama to make it rahyt
So just swahp rahyt an ahll come pick u up tnihgt
My new baby mama 

Verse 2:
Look whut u baby mommas missin’, checkout mmah new fif wheel
We could be grillin’ this here catfish sipping buds by moonlight, check mah pics, it reeeel!
My cuzin Rick told me 'bout this app, thinkin he a lahar, cuz ahm bigger man’n he
An stop akin me if ah sleep with mah belt buckle on, that just mean 

Chorus:
Ah need a baby mama in ma life 
So if yer not somebodies babee mama already, yew kin swahp rahyt
Ah need a baby mama to make it rahyt
So just swahp rahyt an ahll come pick u up tnihgt
My new baby mama 

Verse 3:
Well yew lost yeeer chance cuz this cowboy’s always on gaaaauuuurd
Yew stood me up Raj, it disrespectful when you ask fer another walmart gift caaahrd
Ah uninstall this app, ahh hate yew rick, you ex-communion’d fer tha!, 
An’ yew still got mah truck jack! Ah need it back, ahn I need a baby moma

Chorus:
Ah need a baby mama in ma life 
So if yer not somebodies babee mama already, yew kin swahp rahyt
Ah need a baby mama to make it rahyt
So just swahp rahyt an ahll come pick u up tnihgt
My new baby mama 


Day 11 - Baby Mama

I've never tried a sampling workflow. First experiments.

Day 12 - Something Sampled

I wanted to just rip on my LinnStrument today. I thought it might be fun to take a really heavy Juno-6 patch that I'd usually use for Bass and see how it could function as a solo instrument. I did about 5 takes where I was trying to come up with some melody ideas and I just wasn't feeling anything - I just wanted to rip. So this final take is just that, it's pretty rough and raw and covers the entire playing surface.

Tried to add enough backing instruments to give the notes a place to live in and some pads to add more drama during the 2nd half.

Day 13 - Something that rips

I wasn't happy with the last taiko arrangement I did, so I decided to revisit and make a track that is nothing but a giant intro.

Day 14 - Nothing But Intro

Trying to learn more about sampling workflows. Oof, lessons learned, the water is a little muddy on this one! Had fun searching archive.org for old samples to use.

Day 15 - Sampling The Universe

Woke up with 12-bar blues on my mind and haven't played them for years.

Lyrics:
all my caps are blown, my filters just hiss and whine
my oscillators are detuned, and nothing will align
My cutoff's stuck wide open, that's no sonic crime 
-At least I've got my soft-synths!

my patch bay’s a tangle, like my broken heart
Tried a square wave solo, but it tore my tone apart
Ooooh, don't get shocked like Richard, old amp gave him a start
-Watch out Richard!

Day 16 - Synth Blues

"I'm gonna make some EDM!"
3 hours later I have completed 20 minutes of a 45 minute tutorial and have made 8 bars of drum and bass 🤣

I did this on my M8 and had to figure out some optimization workflows to bounce tracks down to keep things running lite. 5 drum elements squeezed onto 4 tracks, 3 bass tracks (I only have 8 tracks to work with!)

I kept the kick separate because you need to sidechain to it so often but am merging everything else down so 3 tracks total for drums+bass 😄💪

Day 17 - EDM NEWBSAUS_5

More M8 tracker work trying to get an Intro-Break-Build-Drop. Learned a lot.

EDM NEWBSAUS_8

Day 26 - Sweat

Day 27 - Mining

Come gallop across the meadows of nostalgia and stare deep into the pools of reflection with Synth Stallion.

Synth Stallion consists of Zachary Burke (songwriter/producer). Zachary is inspired by the unique synth sounds from the past and present and enjoys crafting stories.