Super proud of this one!

Thunderbird is the power metal Castlevania soundtrack I wrote for my morning commute. The idea had been floating around my earlobes for quite a while, but I didn't feel I had the time or ability to pull it off. Until now! Two years of investing a bit more time and energy in the hobby that sent me on my musical journey have left me quite pleased with the progress I've made so far.  

Thank you so much for listening!

- Benny

Thunderbird

Okie dokie, so... 

Rose Gold was the first tune I actually finished. By “finished” I mean there's a beginning, middle, and end. Everything up to this point had either a beginning, middle, OR end.

As far as mixing, my High School offered a few classes in recording and sound engineering, so I fell back on what I learned as well as what YouTube had to teach me (a LOT of YouTube). I kept my toolbox pretty limited to what FL offers in the box so not to overwhelm myself. To tie it all together, I mainly rely on automating the volume and low pass on each instrument. 

With the first four tunes I put together, I began exploring different palettes of sound and what I enjoyed most. I’ve always been a sucker for the 80s aesthetic, so the synths and drums I used (and continue to gravitate toward) began to follow suit.

Rose Gold

“It’s C-Y-B-E-R-CHASE!” - Any 2000s PBS kids?... okie dokie.. 

Motherboard’s the second tune I wrote and it began with the music. I really enjoyed the main progression I stumbled upon just messing around, especially the shift to IV four bars in. I thought it had a pretty neat “blade runner flying over the misty dystopia” kind of vibe. From there, I built the rest of the track experimenting with arpeggiation and half time in the A’ section (the last section when the main progression returns).

The mixing here isn’t great. I’ve got a lot of voices going on and they don’t all have the space they need (they’re also in desperate need of some better EQing, but I didn’t know what I was doing at this point). The main lead gets a bit laser-beamy as well and isn’t very organic. But ya know, you live and learn! I still really enjoy this one and will probably return to it sometime in the future. 👍

Motherboard

Skyline... oh nelly.

Skyline was my initial attempt at writing something a bit more relaxed and dreamy compared to the other tunes I was working on. I was not a huge fan at the get go. I didn’t find it very interesting and felt like it was more filler for the EP than anything. Still, I wanted to challenge myself and try something different.

All in all, Skyline has really grown on me. I quite enjoy the light, little twinkles through out and the Rhodes synth underneath keeping everyone cozy and comfortable (by the time I finished writing, I had actually based the music off of a love song I wrote for a partner of mine in college). This is definitely a palette I’d like to play around with again once I’ve practiced a bit more. 

Like the other tunes, I mixed things as best I could given what I knew. I was mostly burnt out and tried not to over analyze. I need to continuously remind myself that these are skills I will slowly improve upon with time and practice. No need to sound super professional out of the gate. With that in mind, I think I did pretty A-Okay. 🤓

Skyline

So... Valkyrie is when things really began to click. I had discovered these really neat guitar sounding synths and fell right into a “Pegasus flying through the clouds power fantasy” sort of vibe. 

The melody was one I had written early on when I first began learning FL. To make things more interesting, I played around with adding a lower countermelody like I had done with the intro-piano in Rose Gold. That turned into two leads in counterpoint with one another panned slightly left & right. In my mind, there would be two main characters in this adventure.

To set the scene, my brain put the words “guitar” & “choir” together and ended up with four screechy voices slowly shredding the ear drums before the characters were introduced. In hindsight, I was no where near ready to mix this kind of arrangement, but it was wicked fun playing around with the idea. 

This is my favorite tune of the first four and really narrowed down the sound I most enjoyed working with. I admit, the consistent side-chaining can get repetitive.. but I still like it hehe. I’ll probably return to a palette like this when I’ve practiced a bit more, but for now, Valkyrie is as 
Benny as it gets.

Valkyrie

Maverick and Anatomy fell full force into the palette of Valkyrie. More electric and big, acoustic snares emulating an 80s metal band sort of arrangement. 

Maverick began with the arpeggiated synth introduced in the A section (a little annoying in hindsight since it has to share space with the pad). I really enjoyed the cinematic groove which coupled with the electric lead forming the main idea. I kept envisioning clouds and flying, so things began to sound a bit “Top Gear” pretty quickly.

Since it’s really a continuation of Valkyrie, Maverick falls victim to similar issues. There are a lot of straight tones through out and while the kick side chain helps (kinda), it gets repetitive. Still working on getting the leads to sound a bit more organic and interesting (some decay would be nice, but I don’t know enough to tweak the synths to my liking just yet. “Hey Benny, why don’t you just learn electric guitar?” Cause I’m learning ukulele right now and practicing piano, so back off please). 

As far as mixing, I kind of gave up toward the end. Since I was mostly working on my level and panning skills, I didn’t try very hard with anything else. I had just finished reading The Handbook for Mixing Engineers by Bobby Owsinski and was working on implementing some of the things I learned there. In the end, I really enjoy the idea, and as with most of these tunes, will probably come back later with more experience. 👍

Maverick

It didn’t do it on purpose, but Anatomy really began to tell a story. I kinda just fell into it and everything took shape from there. 

The initial idea came from Black Cat by Janet Jackson. An absolute metal tune (and amazing album), I wanted to play around with the style and arrangement. I began by modeling the melody off Black Cat’s motif and then got stuck for a while. I wasn’t sure where to go from there, until one long afternoon I went with my gut and ended up laying the foundation of the whole tune.

(WARNING - the following may be considered explicit material, but I’d like to keep this a sex positive environment, sooo..)

Anatomy is a sex song. Or rather, a song about sexuality. In a nut shell, the A and B section introduce a vibrant, liberated sexuality (at least from my experience. Also, I think cow bell is one of the most under rated sexy instruments) and the bridge the turmoil between sexual expression and a more conservative upbringing. This culminates in the last section where each idea struggles for dominance until the motif of the opening bars wins out and concludes the listener’s journey (ended up forming a pretty neat build up I really enjoy hehe).

As in Maverick, I didn’t try very hard with the mixing other than levels and panning. But as the first tune that took on a definitive story, I’m pretty proud of what I was able to put together. 😅

Anatomy

Scarlet Skies was attempt number two at writing something a bit different (like Skyline before it. A lot of “sky” going on around here, sheesh). It kind of ended up sounding like what I was going for (not really). I was trying to achieve something along the lines of “Portrait” or “Full Circle” by Oliver. Something full and chorally motivated. I know it’s going to take a larger library of sounds and breadth of knowledge to really get down, but until then, I tried. 😁

I do like the little satellite that pings back and forth though. Makes me feel super floaty hehe. 🎈

Scarlet Skies

Okie Dokie!

So, the Variations on ABC act as a nice exercise for improving my sound. Each tune is arranged in a similar manner meant to keep my brain focused on mixing. At least that was the idea, but then I got a little carried away with No. 2 & 3. In any case, I wanted to focus on two things here, improving my mix and exploring different palettes of sound (like different colors of synth and forcing myself to write in major for No. 2 hehe. The cover art reflects a bit of this as well, hence the three splashes of pretty rainbow). The big difference here is I’ve now read the books on EQ, compression, and reverb by Nathan Nyquist leading to clear (broad stroke) decisions in balancing frequencies and making sure everyone has a nice place of their own to spend time together. I think I did pretty okay in implementing some of these new ideas and am super proud of what came together. Let me know what you think and thank you so much for stopping by!

Variations on ABC No. 3

Variations on ABC No. 2

Variations on ABC No. 1

Hi there 👋

I’m Benny - He/They :]

I’m here to document my progress as an artist, musician and producer in training. 👍

A bit about me:

- My Fandoms are ranked as follows:
   1. Star Wars
   2. Lord of the Rings
   3. The Witcher

- My love for music blossomed in high school through the discovery of EDM & FL Studio.

- I initially went to college for sound engineering, but ended up studying classical singing & arts administration by the time I finished up.

- I’m incredibly interested in sexuality & gender, especially in how they pertain to tenets of traditional masculinity.

- I’m super into gaming and read a bunch as well!

Feel free to read each tracks description. I’ll be doing my best to sum up how everything came to fruition. We’ll see how it goes hehe.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  🤓💕

Benny

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