1 Ugly Salon
2. Returning
3. Fever High
4. Now
5. Insomnia (Remix)
6. Grim Wua
7. Absorbed (Remix)
8. Spring Morning (Spring Day Remix)
9. Fun With ElectricityÂ
Ghosting Radio Spring 2022 Mix
Music News – New EP Release; You Got Mail
MUSIC NEWS
17/03/2022 - New EP Release; You Got Mail
Mr. Postman’s joke though it’s not really a joke and just a play on the song by the Please Mr. Postman by The Marvelettes the Motown song and not actually about the song itself in the tracks. I used to get excited to see the postman even though it wasn’t that much but it was important now I just leave it to fill up and pick the mounting letters up when I’m ready to as its bills bills bills or buy buy buy and all my money mostly goes on my music and I’ve put in some money along the way as I feel it does help though a bit unfair at times. I hate writing though with pen and I’m so glad those days are over and we now type which is a lot faster and cleaner for the environment but most important of all it means my hands don’t get stiff or dead from overwriting but yes it’s much better now but I must say I do like expression and that happens a lot in letters and stuff which is why I used to love writing especially to the stars of Hollywood which I’m glad I never got a reply as I would have passed out or something which is not cool for me lol….or uncool funny enough.
Winter Crimbo Mix
1. Awake
2. Snowfall
3. Robin Red Breast
4. Yule Log
5. Gold Frankincense & Myrrh
6. Pulling Crackers
7. Kandy Kane
8. Advent
9. Underneath The Mistletoe
10. Elf
Gas No Light House Mix 1
1. Divinity (Comprehend This House Mix)Â
2. No Flex Zone
3. Other MindsÂ
4. Freedom To DanceÂ
5. Live LifeÂ
6. Missing Time (House Remix)Â
7. No Excuse (Dirty Cash)
8. I See You Baby
9. Whispers On The DancefloorÂ
10. Lemon
11. Sour
12. Rushing For ItÂ
13. OccasionsÂ
14. Tide
15. I’m SpeakingÂ
16. Dip
Top 5 Favourite Synth Plugins
Synth Heaven
I’ve got a few synthesizers plugins now and I thought I do my top five of the ones I use and really like. They are an arm and a leg some of them in fact nearly all but I do think they are worth it and when you have them you can get a lot of use out of them and can reuse parts if needed to but there is so much selection you never go back to the old sounds. I like the old synths myself the original hard hitters and even though they are replicated you can still get good sounds out of them depending on what genres you make you will find a lot of good sounds but I make mostly synthy stuff from synthwave to vaporwave to generally synthy music which hasn’t really got a genre but inspiration from other genres all mixed with a bit of what I call a Hip Hop drum beat but I do make normal patterns as well but I like to experiment with drums and the synths itself. As I said probably a million times before I love my synthesizers and have always been obsessed with them from an early age and like dark and light sounds but I do like thick basses and dark and moody basses I like those also subs obviously the sub is the easiest to work with. Anyway here’s my top five synths I use and really love with some tracks I made all used with the same plugin for each plugin I used and there are two tracks per plugin so ten altogether.Â
#5. Uhe - Diva/£179
Diva The is a good synth plugin and has some good sounds in there, especially the laid-back sounds similar to Omishphere but do the same job as in relaxing mellow vibes. It has dark and moody basses to which I love and also some edgy synth sounds which I also like about the synths as dark and edgy is what I like to make but as I said I like to make nice mellow soft beats too. The synth is a analogue synth and is an emulator of the analogue era and comes with loads of filters and knobs to turn to tweak the sounds which are also a good feature but I’m too impressed with the sounds and make them in the box. It does have a high CPU usage so a computer with good ram and hard drive space is needed it works better on a desktop computer rather than a laptop. Here are two tracks used with the synth plugin you can download the tracks for free the link with will at the bottom of this post or on the track itself in the player.
#4. Artuia - Vocoder V3/£199
The Vocoder V is a good synth plugin and though it doesn’t have the choices of different sounds and is minimal what it has is great for retro genres and can make some good tracks out of them, it does cost a bit on its own but if you head over to splice.com you can get a good price a rent to own system where you pay $24.99 a month until you pay it off you get the Vocoder V and also a whole bunch of other synths to put into your mixes. I mean the V collection from Arturia is one of my favourites and there is a lot to choose from and just what I look for as I make retro genres but also spice the synths up with some new flavors I just put together. I notice there was a unique sound used or was similar to something that was used in famous Jungle tracks in the 90s and I didn’t use it in the example I used it a few times and got a good result out of it but I didn’t release it as it sounded like the old stuff I love and heard from earlier artists. As I said it doesn’t have a lot of selection but what it does have is worth putting in and works well for Electro Funk and other genres like that.
#3. Artuia - Arp 2600 V3/£149
If you are looking for a dark and moody synth that is also light and warm the Arp 2600 is the one for you and has a good selection of both dark and light sounds I like to use or I used to use a lot in my tracks. It has a good selection of basses and sequencers that you will be lost in I know I was. It has a lot of knobs and things to tweak which I don’t like to use and also it has its own sequencer built-in which you can use on any sound you choose all the Arturia products have that feature built-in. Like all the products featured in this list they are great for other genres this one I noticed was good for Drum and Bass and Jungle which is surprising as it’s an old synth and is a replica of the original Arp 2600 which was out in the 70s. It has some really good thick basses that remind me of Progressive Rock Basses and G Funk which I always loved. The Arp 2600 comes with the V collection on Splice.com and can be rent to own like all of the Artuia products on here. I find this synth works well with retro genres but also Halloween projects which I like to do around that time of year and the most surprising it makes okay House tracks but not anything current these are retro synths.Â
#2. Uhe - Repro/£149
Repro is a great synth and comes in two Repro 1 and Repro 5 so two for one you know I love a good bargain. It has a lot of great choices and has everything from bass to strings like all the products listed here. The synth has knobs to turn to modify the sounds and also has its own built-in sequencer for those not listed under the sequencer page. The synth has some great sounds and I used it a lot in older works, especially an album called Racial Harmony but it was under a different title before I thought how special the plugin was and I used it a lot in some of the new works but gave it a rest for a while to give the other synths a chance. I like how there are two plugins to choose from and the amount of good sounds there were and also used it on Rebitten By The Lizard album I made quite a while ago now which can all be found on my Bandcamp page. The sounds you get I found were hard-hitting and edgy and I love that kind of thing but also it has some mellow strings and other mellow sounds for those downtempo tracks. It does have a retro feel to it and I’m not sure what else it is good for as I only use it for synthy stuff but I’m sure it’s good for other genres too.Â
#1 Artuia - Mini V3/£149
In at number one, my favourite synth plugin has to the Mini V3 and has a lot of thick basses and nice synths to put into your mix. I’ve made my best tracks with this synth and I think there is something special about it that brings something to the table or maybe it’s just my musical taste. My favourite parts are the basses and the synths which are thick dark and light which is an example on the first track of this section. It has a lot of Progressive Rock-like tones and also some weird and strange sounds that I think it’s appealing to the ear or again it could be my musical taste. It has a lot to choose from and I remember when I first got it I was lost on the number of basses or sounds that I would choose from and I tend to use this quite a lot or did in the past but again I retired it for a while to make way for some other sounds as it can sound a bit samey if you put too much in an album or EP or whatever. I like the whole sound of it and put this at number one as it’s my most used synth plugin and something I go back to even if it’s just for the bass or another part that I like, and it’s an old synth to the original Mini by Moog from the 70s and has been reincarnatedÂ
Music News – New EP Release; Topical
MUSIC NEWS
01/03/2022 - New EP Release; Topical
I’ve made a new EP called Topical and is called that as it’s all based on current affairs of things that were happening in January and February like the strong winds that reached over 100 mph here in the UK to Rihanna getting pregnant and congratulations once again. Also the war between Russia and Ukraine and a weird dream I had which isn’t really topical but it’s currently what I was doing so I added that in there too.  The strong winds were strong and nearly knocked me backward I was only going to the shop and also the shocking pregnancy of Rihanna well I was shocked but not shocked, but more surprised but not that much. I’m not nearly really tuning in to the war that is happening right now it’s too much doom and gloom and I noticed some newspapers were really bringing it home with a nuclear explosion and they are going to attack that it’s all too much so I did a little blackout and save it for another day. The dream I had was kind of weird and was on a really nice tropical beach hence the name of the track but I can’t remember much of it and it was a short dream before it changed it always does that and I kind of lose the plot a little in the dream but what does it mean? It has got dramatic all of a sudden with COVID and the war and all the other drama I have thankfully forgotten. Â
Why I Love 80’s Music
Some say the 80s music wasn’t that good and was naff which I beg to differ and think there were loads of songs out that were good and tracks I still like to this day. I was born in the 80s and even though I was too young to remember or understand the context of tracks I still enjoyed them and the more I got older the more I understood and realized how good music was. I make music in my spare time and I feel if it wasn’t for the 80s and 90s my music taste would have been different and is where I get my obsession with synthesizers which is 70s too and House which was the 80s phenomenon that exploded and is still here and are the most popular and influential genre that and Drum & Bass. What I also liked about the 80s music was the fact there was so much good stuff and seemed the world was making music there was so much obscure stuff not just from your favorite artists but people you would have never heard of or heard of again yes there was a lot of one-hit wonders and some of them was naff but the beats though. That reminds me people say or said that some of it was too naff and the content was a bit cheesy but the beats were classic and seemed like Electro-Funk but I love my Rare Groove the hits that came from that genre alone which know seems like 80s Pop but whatever it was still good no matter how cheesy it seemed to people. Even though I listened to the mainstream on the radio and tapes and later CD there was a lot of underground artists that I used to listen to from the Electro-Funk and New Groove genres going from pillar to post I heard a lot of music some I would never hear again until I come across it someday like some of them thanks for sharing them. How innocent it was there was no swearing or sex overdrive content which is happening now and all over the place but there would have been a Mary Whitehouse figure who would have brought down the hammer and made actions against this new crisis swiping our neighbourhood. Compared to 90s music where it had a dramatic revamp with gangster rap and R’n’B which I’m surprised some of the lyrics got through as they were racy back then it was all love and candles and wetness but yes compared to the 90s 80s music seemed innocent and all fun and energetic which is why I love 80s music as a whole it was lively not all of it though there was a lot of ballads too which I also like. I have to say it was quite stylish which was fitting for the era and there was a lot of fashion moments from the 80s that people still wear today and it comes back around but it wasn’t the best era for fashion I mean bright colors and baggy stuff and big hair it was all about the hair, hair was a big thing back then. Â
The thing that really impressed me and is what I love is Electro Funk and Electro Boogaloo that is my obsession and is something I really love but never can find the right tracks. When I was younger I used to listen to them and think I will make something like this one day and I do every now and then at least the backdrop to the songs but I love Electro from the 80s and I’m still not sure what to call it as it has rap in but it’s listed under something else stuff like off Wildstyle off GTA Vice City that is my favorite genre from the 80s and I can listen to that all day. The main artist I listened to when I was younger was the four main artists from the 80s Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince and Queen but all the artists from the early 80s and 70s and 60s were the main four I listened to a lot. There are tracks that I got bored of though and that’s thanks to radio play and overplaying it myself I won’t name any names but there are a few I no longer play and retired for now. In my spare time, I liked to hunt for obscure tracks I had forgotten and go through lists of tracks to find the best ones which take a lot of time but it’s worth it I feel. I remember Sundays being Top 40 on the radio and Friday was Top Of The Pops which were two shows I used to tune into and did for two decades before it got boring and I had other options but Friday and Sunday were the music days for me. Other than New Groove, Electro, and Rap I love 80s House and there is so much of it that was released from 1985 onwards and I noticed but never released that the tracks from the 80s were rereleased from 2011 and were some of the most famous House tracks. The rave scene that populated the mid-80s which is still a living thing till this day but more over ground was a once in a lifetime thing and though it is long gone it is remembered by some as the most memorable thing to come out of the 80s with the music scene that went alongside it and if it wasn’t for the Chicago House scene there wouldn’t be much of a House scene at the very least as there was a lot of genres that was made during or after House that populated rave scenes but House was the first scene to break into this world.
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Guy – Groove Me
Rene & Angela – I'll Be Good
I Feel for You
Love Come Down (12" Version)
The model – Kraftwerk
New Order – Blue Monday
Laser – Laser (1981)
Ralphi Rosario – You Used To Hold Me
Jamie Jupitor – Computer Power (HD) – 1984
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That 80’s & 90’s Thing
Man, I miss the old days no offensive kids but it was a lot more fun and fewer laws even though I was still a child in the 90s I did witness and take part in some great stuff that is sadly no longer allowed all these laws it’s a nanny state. Anyway, this ain’t a moan about how life is crap now cos the law and governments drained all the fun from the earth which they didn’t it was time that did it as things have moved on and are noted to be more drama central and got weirder after the 2010s but it has been interesting and fun a few no they didn’t and a few jeez someone get me out of here this is a disaster but we all hold on to our mental well being even though I do work hard and I am always up or staying awake but I do get my beauty sleep as we all know that one must be practised well. There are a lot of things you can’t do now and I feel it’s too restricted people need to let their hair down in many different ways but camping and raving are two things that come to mind when it’s time to let your hair down sitting at home are boring but not with a computer but it’s always good to go out and see and meet new people seems like a same old conversation but it’s true and being restricted it’s harder to do that. Maybe you are lucky and you have a nice mayor, government, and police with fair laws like the Netherlands where it’s relaxed but strict here in the UK we have restrictions like no camping, no illegal raves, and no trespassing on private land which for a hiker like me it’s a burden keep saying is this field it’s a field and it’s going towards a nice scenic walk can we have our freedom back please as I’m starting to wear a tin hat…not really lol but really! I would say things are more acceptable but it’s kind of vice versa and things are accepted and not accepted but it’s good there is more we are here kind of attitude and people who are nonbinary and the LBGT community have taken a bolder stance in the last decade for the good and bad though there has been a lot of hate mail I know I shouldn’t laugh at after a while it got kind of overbearing, I bring that up as the famous song Relax in the ’80s wasn’t received well by all and was another hate train only the anything before the 2010s where it was more relaxed no pun intended but anything before that it was all wrong and shunned upon I noticed that in the media. I got to say being in the now is great downloads, internet access, a portal to your dreams basically as anything is possible and even though it was still possible the chances of hitting targets if you hustle hard cos closed mouths don’t get fed in boulevard lol but seriously though that ain’t a joke.
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I do miss being young I was always about music, games, technology, and writing fan mail to my favourite artists which started after and my best friend at the time made a scrapbook of cutouts that featured TLC and another artist I think Snoop Dogg they were out the Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits Magazines either one or the other or both but that was another thing I used to buy you don’t get any more do they even make The Source anymore I know NME is still going strong another good magazine I thought it was just rock stuff I called it the rock non-rock magazine. Talking about Top Of The Pops that’s another thing I miss can you imagine the WAP song on there and they say Relax was too sexed-up Another thing I miss is Slush Puppies my favourite was Cherry or Raspberry which gave you brain freeze more than Cherry and it reminds me of playing in Blaize Castle Park where the van always used to be by the park or in the car park or near the woods sometimes. They probably weren’t healthy for you and the amount of sugar that went in one cup is ridiculous but it gave me the energy lol high on the slush puppy. I don’t miss going to school but I do miss my school friends and the fun we used to have I wished I was an adult as there were a lot of fun things floating around for the adults and kids too but there were a lot of free things floating around I mean who remembers having a free domain and website no package or money needed that was around 1998 but I was just a kid who was overwhelmed by all the things you had to do to run your own site which I got a lot of tips from my dad’s friends and people who I knew that helped me launch my site as in getting it in the cloud the hardest bit of the whole process. Also, the internet as we know was slow and took ages with that horrible noise when it used to dial I’ll never miss that it now reminds me of fallout of some sort and probably an SOS signal as when I was still in school there was a mini explosion at a plant not so far from the city and I got home and I put on the internet and spooked myself from that day on but it gives me a good idea for a track or an EP of some sort.Â
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The music was great too as I said I was too young to understand lyric content but I knew a great beat when I saw one and that probably is why I try to make the best every time as the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s were good eras for music. I’m kind of obsessed with synthesizers and I wouldn’t like to blame the ’70s and 80s music in particular but 90s and later too but also Motown, Reggae, and Funk from the 60s and 70s I’ll admit it I love music and was obsessed with it now I enjoy making music rather than listen to it but I listen to current songs too from the last couple of years to see who is new and hot so to speak but I love my classics from the ’60s onwards. Music has changed dramatically and it ain’t all have a nice day attitude which is all good but I do miss the innocent songs even though I thought they were a little corny I still love them. Got to love being in the now though with all that old and new music we have at our fingertips but again going to the record shop to buy the single you craved right now I miss and I spent a lot of pocket money and when I was working too on singles and albums from shops that are no more. All in the good old Walkman the thing that kept me going and I always had one near me even though it was a cheap thing it still worked though it always fell out of my pocket until I noticed and secured it so this one wouldn’t break so easily. The amount of time I spent making mixtapes and taping off the radio with my few tapes and a boombox, a kids radio set at one point. I did kind of overdid it with the taping but there were so many good songs out that they would play I kind of had to limit myself to the number of tracks as I only had a few tapes and they were expensive to buy wow over my pocket money in the early days but more affordable as time went on.
Music News – New EP Release; Moving Ahead
MUSIC NEWS
14/02/2022 - New Album Release; Moving Ahead
You know sometimes in life you feel you have to move forward or else be that stagnated person in the pond well at the moment that’s how I feel and I keep thinking of things to advance myself further as I was quite active growing up but then I got my flat it became boring and I quickly forgot my old life but I was happy to take a rest as it’s not good for the body and mind all that partying and on the go attitude that I have still got but more in a creative way now which is a lot different to the old me but still too creative in my spare time. I’m actually ready for the next bit of my journey and have been doing bits and bobs around town surely I can get back into things if only I could remember all the things I learned along the way I mean I know a little bit but to get me to where I want to be in life which is happy and doing something creative and I actually love to work in teams and brainstorm etc I don’t know why I’m not in the advertising industry no no no music is my passion and doing things on the computer like photoshopping and video editing.
Music News – New EP Release; Hop Skip & Jump
MUSIC NEWS
09/02/2022 - New EP Release; Hop Skip & Jump
Another synthy EP I’ve made and this one is dark and light at the same time. I called it Hop Skip & Jump as it feels that is what I’m doing with the amount of stuff I’ve been doing like building this website and also making games from templates which is new to me and something I’m probably not equipped for but making music has also been my love just a bit boring doing the same EQing and compression routines and it’s nice to have change into something different. I kept it synthy throughout and what I call Synergy which is a mix of synth and energy, not my words though but somewhere where I saw it. It’s relaxing in parts and upbeat in some others which is how I like my music also I made some tracks dark and edgy as that’s the music I seem to make the best out and some of my favorite tracks are dark but saying that most of them are light songs. It takes energy to do a hop skip and jump and hopefully I will find it in me to get out there and do a leap but at the moment I’m just resting and taking each day as they come.