Cosmic Revenant by Andy Pickford

...and then I went and got a (Behringer) ARP 2600.
If you know me then you know I spent many years dissing "old telephone exchanges" and swearing I'd never succumb to the lure of such beasties. Well this is embarrassing hehehe... I'm afraid I have indeed succumbed. If I ever doubted that knob-boxes designed 50+ years ago could sound better than nice shiny new synths, then this put paid to that. My goodness! You simply cannot achieve these sounds and their dynamism on new kit. End of. And of course I'm now able to actually figure out where to put patch cables and make it work. So in short, everything on this album which isn't drums, pads or voice samples, is the 2600. Even then, some of the drum and pad sounds were created on the 2600.

Cosmic Revenant
Hey, it's catchy, it's strong and... it's bound to fall on its arse then! DnB Electronica at 180bpm. Don't let that sway you, it's a classic synth track in all but tempo. Aside from the 2600, drum loops and pad, you'll hear an ostinato violin section c/o Spitfire Abbey Road One. Check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkKHjfjdNTc

Mistral
Apologies to The French, as Mistral is a cold wind but this is anything but cold. It's a slower tempo to contrast the opening track. Again, only the pads and drums are not 2600. One of the underlying pads here is, however. Pads, incidentally, are all c/o Omnisphere.

The Wobble
Right, Here Be Dragons! Got to wake you guys up a bit hehehe! This is kinda industrial techno EDM, allowing me to create all manner of 2600 sounds associated with that kind of style. Called it The Wobble because the sequence does sound wobbly and unstable.

Astradrone
How FAT are those filter sounds?!!! Especially when you get flaring effects coming through. I have been composing tracks just like this one for 40yrs+ My style is essentially the same but they sound a lot better now :-)

Cold Fire
A mid-tempo piece to bring us back from Drone-land. Going slightly off the beaten track here, but if you've noticed the Atmos sound field is even more 3D (especially on headphones) on this album, it's because I've inverted the mix method. Instead of putting drums and bass at the front, they're now from the middle (bass) and to the rear (drums). Melodies, sequences etc are at the front and reverb/delay is somewhere up in the sky.

Dark Lane
My 2nd piece ever done with the 2600. The first is over on Synth Music Direct. Pad and soprano lead doubling the 2600, these are the only non-2600 sounds on this track. A more traditional sounding electronica piece.

Shepherd Star
A nice anthemic melody to round off the album. Rather psychedelic and spacy sounding, likely due to a ton of flanging I used. In all, I think this is quite a strong sounding album, but then again I've been know to say that only to see it fall flat on it's arse. Let's see.

Artwork, by the way, is done by myself on Midjourney AI.

Atmos work is now all done on Pro Tools' internal renderer. It does seem that tweeks have been made to how it sounds because it seems more pronounced to my ears than it used to be. The problem they'll never surmount is that it's still just psychoacoustics. It's never going to be true 3D definition. But in terms of it sounding immersive, yes it sounds a little improved over the various updates. Mastering, in usual terms, is not really applicable to Atmos. I can get the EQ and shelving right but I daren't post-produce after Atmos has been added. It doesn't sound right and it kills the 3D field. Really, I just have to do my best to get levels right using good old fashioned trial and error. For this reason you may notice the loud gets very loud and the quiet is very quiet. You may like this I don't know, as it opens up a far greater dynamic range.

Now I have an urge to do something new with RadioSilence. I've got some lovely analogue synths, it'd be nice to get them working all together in a live mixing/improv. environment.

I make immersive synth music, create my own art, eat, drink, shit and exist. Everybody knows my name but only few brave souls dare come here... like a wild night out in Scunthorpe.

andypickford.uk