How To Make Christmas Music On A Budget

November 13, 2025
CHRISTMAS PAGE / G.N.L. HUB / I @M SYNTHI@ / UNCATEGORIZED
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INTRODUCTION

Christmas music you either love it or hate and reminds me of my younger days around Christmas and listening to Christmas music. I know there is too much of the older hits which now I’m bored of them like All I Want For Christmas by Mariah Carey  the most played Christmas song and can be heard throughout the lands from shops, to the office and even in pubs and bars. It can seem like a daunting task to make Christmas music and especially on a budget or without any sort of knowledge on how to make it and what makes a great Christmas song but I’ll try and explain all this as I go along. To explain what makes a great Christmas song takes a few factors like lyric content if you have lyrics, the question does it evoke the Christmas feel but the sounds play a massive roll in shaping the song and final product. Web search for ideas on what are the Christmas instruments to use and your own collection of synthesizer plugins you use inside your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I use FL Studio but you might be using a different one. There are lots of free plugins and samples you can use and can be found all around the internet or there are some cheap paid stuff you can find which I’ll be going though both paid and non paid services as I know how I can’t afford those one of payments even though I have lots of plugins that I own from all the years I’ve been buying them they are my babies. The stuff I’ll be discussing you will need a DAW application but alternatively you can search online for free music making applications which are ready to go and are online based or free music making software like Garage Band is another good source. The great thing about Christmas music is it can come in many flavours from party stuff like House, Jungle/Drum and Bass, Techno and all the others from Hip Hop, Reggae, Pop and Electronic music I’ve made all the above apart from Techno and Pop actually as I don’t make Techno or Pop I’m not that kind of artist.     

MIDI

One thing that also makes a great Christmas song is a good Christmas carol and free sites which offer MIDI to all your favourite carols is a sure way to start with the right tools. MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is in short the pattern and only the pattern with no sound which you would use samples and plugins to get sound of it and hear the patten. It does take arranging as the file would be the whole pattern it’s up to you how to break the pattern into easier digestible portions which I like to use the selector and highlight a single line but first I play it to see where to start and end the selected bit and copy and paste the line into it’s own sampler repeating until it’s complete. I also number them as I go along and decide what goes where from 1-7 usually including the drum pattern which I name drums or something like that. For the bass I usually makes something up or take the very bottom notes of the MIDI pattern and use that as a bass to run along side the main stuff. To add my own touch to it I change the pattern ever so slightly or make up a pattern or ending as sometimes you need it to loop well so making up the end for the end of loop finish is a must unless it fits in the bar then you are good to go. There are many websites to chose from just search for stuff like free Christmas carols MIDI and you will get a wide selection of choices or if you know the carol search for the carol name followed by free MIDI. The great thing is you can release them on all major music streaming platforms as they are all in the public domain. I wouldn’t use contemporary songs if you want to sell them and put them up on all music streaming websites as it will never pass but places like Bandcamp is a great way to giveaway a free download of the remix or remixes and is totally free.                   

SYNTHESIZERS & SAMPLES

Now you have some MIDI you’re going to need some synthesizer sounds to go with it. There are plenty of free and paid stuff out there but the two I use and pick is for the paid stuff Splice.com and for the non paid stuff Pixabay.com. Splice.com has a wide range of synthesizer plugins which you can rent to own by paying anything from $5.99 – $25.99 a month and paying a bit off each time until it’s paid off and it’s yours to keep. It has all the top brands which are in fact emulators but are good as but was all taken from old hardware. Not only that it has a wide range of samples which you can spend as little as $5.99 for 500 samples a month which is more than enough to make several albums with and also has some good Christmas instruments which I like to cut up and make something new out of. I have quite a few plugins and used quite a lot of their samples from Splice.com which I’m happy about and use them in most of my Electronic and some rave stuff I make but are many sounds which evoke Christmas. Pixabay.com is a free sample based website which I find all the sound effects for all my Christmas stuff and also notes. There are loops and one shots and for the loops I like to cut them up into a one shot and make something new out of it’s how I also use the loops I bought off Loopmasters.com a very long time ago. Both Splice.com and Pixabay.com has good searches so it’s easy to search for things like trumpets, snow tread, clarinet etc and get what you are looking for also there is a lot of Santa related stuff for your Santa songs which I used a few times now in various of songs I made. Or you can use the MIDI in a different way and make something completely new up from the pattern revamping the carols as what I did in my second Christmas album I made. I made a Christmas synthesizer plugin called Chriszer and is a free download and can be found on this website but I’ll leave a link in the button below. But that is one plugin you can use to revoke the feel of Christmas or alternativly you can search on your web browser for things like free Christmas synths or cheap Christmas synths or free Christmas samples or cheap Christmas samples and you should get a good selection to choose from. Both the piano and the electric piano are both great tools to use to get you that feel with merry chords and you can’t lose.                                         

GO TO VST

WRITING A SONG

If you enjoy writing songs and you have the ability to sing or rap then making your next Christmas hit is always a fun way to do something practical. Depending on your ability of either rapping or singing or even both you first  start with some words and as it’s all about Christmas you use Christmas terms. If you are stuck on what words to use there are plenty of places you can go to find words associated with Christmas just type in stuff like all words associated with Christmas for a wide range of options to pick from. The steps I take when writing a song is firstly writing some sort of poem which I later convert into a song by either rewriting lines or answering like a response to what I wrote. For rhyming songs or raps there are also lots of free rhyming dictionaries online or just simple type in all words that rhyme with insert word here. Sometimes when I’m looking for a better word or words associated with that word I use rhyming dictionaries and other sources but I do say try and do the rhyming yourself and not depend too much on the online sources I mentioned. Having a beat or some sort of melody behind you while you write is always a given so feel free to put on some instrumental beats to your style or get on the instrument if you have one and start playing notes and see what you come up with failing that stick on something you feel it has to be what you feel and see where you go from there. Never make the lines too long  as it will be hard to sing and fit within the music sing back the lyrics each line you write making sure it ends correctly in the space of verse 1, hook, verse 2, hook, bridge, crescendo (the big finish). Topics to consider are things like loneliness, Santa, traditional themes like the birth of baby Jesus, The Three Kings, The North Star, to more jolly numbers like getting drunk around Christmas, Santa spending on you or even a song about mince pies you can always search the web for ideas on other topics but that’s a few to consider doing or writing about.                 

MUSESCORE

If you want to make sheet music or MP3s out of instruments then MuseScore 3 is a perfect tool to use. The interface is easy to use and you can either put the notes in one by one on the staff or you can stick your keyboard on and play something and it will record the notes and put on the staff. There are a number of instruments to choose from including percussion sounds, horns, strings and wind instruments so it’s perfect for the next classical Christmas instrument track. I like to make melodies and cut them up in FL Studio to make something else out of it from the MP3s saved from MuseScore. What’s also good about it it’s all free and takes a download of the app and setup to get it up and running but a part from that it’s good to go and endless fun making sheet music and MP3s. 

IN CONCLUSION

In conclusion there are lots of sites you can go to to find stuff for your Christmas music just by searching on Goggle will help you find the stuff you need. It may take some time to find the real good stuff but with a bit of patience and time you will find some decent stuff you can use in your Christmas production. Sometimes it’s worth paying some money to really get the sounds you want even if that means digging deep as you can always use it again cos there’s usually lots to choose from. As I said before getting the right sounds for your tracks really helps a big deal if you really want to stick to the traditional but unconventional route then be sure to go for authentic instruments and sounds  and once again stuff that evokes  the Christmas feel or go the other way and bring something new it’s all up to you how you handle it and how the tracks pans out, amazing hopefully.

L.A. Investigators – Sanctuary Or Satanic

August 31, 2025
G.N.L. HUB / I @M SYNTHI@ / UNCATEGORIZED
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INTRODUCTION

It’s a topic that has been brought up time after time and a damn right good one two the subject of backmasking in popular songs. For those who don’t know what backmasking is I explain quickly with a quick definition.  Backmasking is a recording technique where a message or sound is intentionally recorded backward onto an audio track that is played forward, creating hidden or reversed messages that can only be understood when the track is played in reverse. Artists have used this for artistic or comedic effect, for satiric purposes, or to censor explicit words for “clean” releases. While sometimes a deliberate artistic choice, backmasking gained notoriety in the 1980s amid conspiracy theories about secret satanic messages in heavy metal music, which have since been largely disproven. I’ve always been into finding new backmasking songs especially when I was younger which I used to make it jump to get the hidden message which okay isn’t good for the disk reader but boy did I get a thrill when I managed to hit it just in time. The first time was a fluke though which is how I discovered the so called hidden messages.  There are many allegations to why they back mask and it’s from the Illuminati to the devil worshipping to cooler but more scarier heights like secret plans and fixed terrorist plots like the 9/11 conspiracy which I think rings some truths in as something isn’t right but that’s a whole new story. The first recordings of backmasking was  “Car Trouble” by The Eligibles in 1959, which features two nonsense reversed passages. However, The Beatles popularized the technique with their experimental use of reversed tape in songs like “Tomorrow Never Knows” and the vocal backmasking in their 1966 single “Rain,” which also accidentally led to the “Paul is Dead” conspiracy theory. Rewind to the 2010s I would of been up in arms calling them all satanic devil worshippers but fast forward to now I’m in a good state and kept a open mind when compiling the tracks I have on this post. My conclusion will be at the end to what I think all this merlarky is about so stay tuned for that. After making a interactive post around backmasking and can be found on my randomgas.com/boiler-room page if you haven’t seen it already but after making that I decided to jump further down the rabbit hole so to speak and break down some of the sections of some of the songs I played in that interactive piece.  Below you will find well talked and debated about songs that are accused of using backmasking in their songs and many of things actually. I didn’t do the whole song which I cut up into bits and reversed it I did the juicy bits which I tried out myself and recorded each bit of the song and reversing it. You will find four versions of the clips the original clip which is played in forward motions and then you have the reversed clip of the original track and then the other two are me one in forward motion and the other in reversed to see if it was all by accident or more of a calculated plan of action stay tuned.   

LADY GAGA - PAPARAZZI

This song Paparazzi by Lady Gaga has been in some controversy surrounding backmasking and the hidden messages within the song. There’s a couple of messages about Lucifer  and some weird admissions but this is  just standard satanist vibes you would expect from a shed skinned creature we call A Star celebrities.  The first two clips are of the start of the song and reversing the first clip seen below you get the message 

“The star above, above he follow your wish no you’re not funny”     

 

It is suggested that the star refers to the Morning Star and is a Christian interpretation of Isaiah 14:12, which describes a once-exalted figure, the “morning star,” who has fallen from heaven. This term was later linked to the Latin word for “light-bringer,” Lucifer, and applied to the fallen angel, Satan. However, the biblical “morning star” is also a title for Jesus in Revelation 22:16, highlighting a stark contrast: Jesus is the true “bright morning star,” representing eternal light, while Satan’s “morning star” signifies his fall into darkness. It is also suggested that he refers to Lucifer or the devil and he followed their (the people she is meant to be singing about) wishes which is suggested to be a blood sacrifice or mass misconception one of the devils favourites tricks. And whatever it is she is not amused and telling someone they are not funny whatever that means I have no clue.

Saying it myself over the microphone and reversing the clip you kind of get the same message   but it tails off to some inaudible bits but listen carefully and you do get the message 

“The star above above he follow your wish”

 but tails off with the no you’re not funny part.  I’ll leave it in the sanctuary section and pass this off as a coincidence and something that wasn’t forced except for the last part the “No you’re not funny” part that didn’t transfer in my own recordings which does suggest a bit of hokey pokey.  

Play this part in reverse you get a shocking message which is

“The star above, above he modelled on the arts of Lucifer, on the baby”

It is suggested that Lucifer was the angel of music which they modelled the music on even though this is not true.  There is no biblical or definitive historical evidence that Lucifer was the angel of music While some interpretations of Ezekiel 28:13 suggest he had musical instruments incorporated into his being, this verse refers to the King of Tyre, and the terms “tabrets” and “pipes” are often translated to mean the settings for the precious jewels on his body, not actual a musical instrument but is still heavily speculated till this day.

Saying it myself over the microphone and reversing the clip you nearly get the message that she was singing I got 

“The star above above he… inaudible…arts of Lucifer” 

Know that I think about it the followed part did seem more force but I have no proof to back it up with so I’m going to leave it in the satanic pile as even though I don’t think she’s a devil worshipper as such it’s still roots.

Play this part in reverse you get another weird message which is

“On the arms of your bible, step on someone evil save us”

For those who don’t know celebrities as a whole are accused of being satanic and not following the bible hence why it’s suggested she’s saying your bible not our bible. They are also accused of stepping on people to get where they need and should be and also the conspiracy of Satan coming to save them on judgement day a day where they are supposed to align themselves more with the devil or Lucifer.  

 

Making my own recordings and reversing it I got;

“On the arms of your bible….inaudible…evil save us”

Bible and evil save us is pretty much clear but the rest is just gibberish so I pass this off as sanctuary and just a accident   or though and again there seems to be forced words I call them forced as they are words that have or may have been edited later on down the production line but who knows. 

Play this part in reverse you  get another weird message which is

“Help me please someone inside me”

It is speculated that the celebrities like Lady Gaga are leaving in misery and a slave to the Illuminati and they are pleading for people to free them from the mental and physical abuse they are supposed to live with. It is also speculated that Lady Gaga is just one of many who secretly live as reptilians and that is what is inside her or she is a proper loon and she lives with voices and torment this has all be speculated.   

My own recordings and reversing the clip I get a slight  message which is

“Help ma please”

It is hard to pick up the audio but if you listen carefully you will hear it but not the best clearest message in the list but it just about passes so I put this in the sanctuary pile and  call it another possible forced audio or it could just be a coincidence and it just sounds like that but who knows you can be the best judge.  

BILLIE EILISH - WHEN THE
PARTY'S OVER

This has to be one of the creepiest songs I’ve heard in a while and with that out the way you can definitely hear

“We walk in hell Satan”

in a part of this clip but it’s so hard to pick up anything that made sense and not dribbling black tar from their mouth lol but you really have to concentrate on the audio. 

Nothing in this one apart from the last word which is a very slurred Satan right at the end so another one for the sanctuary pile as much of it was inaudible and didn’t make no sense like the M.E.M. which called mean Eminem you see how easy it is to twist the subject around into something that makes complete sense.        

Play this clip backwards you will get the message 

“Kill it kill it kill it  kill it…inaudible” and “Like a lifer” a slang term for someone who is serving life in prison. 

This is a newish song from 2019 so way after the YouTube first stage of feeding us all with junk they call conspiracies so I don’t know much about the song but my guess is more so called satanic messages or her egging someone or us to kill someone  in subliminal tones but who knows what the official conspiracy is. 

Absolutely nothing in this reversed clip of my version just gibberish so this will go into once again the sanctuary pile. Maybe I could of done better with the voicing and the rhythm of the song but it was quite a hard one to get out for someone who just heard the song but nothing but gibberish in this clip.

MILEY CYRUS - WRECKING BALL

In this reversed clip well actually it’s inaudible for most of it but at the end it seems to say

“Whining” and “Tis I supposed to die maybe we should watch”

It could be suggested that Miley is singing about her being dispensable and at the hands of the Illuminati and the other secret society’s we know and don’t know about. And the maybe we should watch may be speculated about a snuff movie or her suffering and everyone watching in and making it a circus which is part of the puppet chain.

Nothing in this one either I recorded and reversed the clip but found nothing to report back  on with so another dead end. It sounded like nothing what Miley sang or spoke down that mic. So I guess this goes in the satanic pile as I feel now this a blatant forced message  or it could be by accident but there was no way I got that from this. 

Playing this part of the song in reverse you get the words.

“Leave, yeah eh eh eh heave eh eh eh loading we are. Oh we are soaking all in our lawn….inaudible…rucaliptian”  

Breaking it down into parts starting  with the first part “leave” which is actually self explanatory but  just for reference it is speculated that she’s telling someone to go possible to be a outcast in the real world or it was someone’s warning them to leave town or even the country someone high up and wouldn’t have to spend a night or their life in a cell. The “heave” part is suggested it’s on about slavery and particularly to the so called slaves who are at the bottom of the pyramid and food chain in hierarchy. “Oh we are soaking all in our lawn” people suggest it’s about soaking in the sun while the slaves run around like busy bees or possible soaking in blood and even worser things. Finally the word rucalipatian is meant to be about shape shifting and the so called reptilians who want to take over the world and the human race which is a pretty far out conspiracy theory I reckon.    

Okay maybe I could of sang the last bit better bit I didn’t find anything interesting in this clip only a indistinctive heave at the beginning and that was it. This will go into the sanctuary section as I didn’t find anything too shocking or worthy of putting it in the satanic pile so onwards and upwards. 

There are chopped up bits and pieces in this part of the song including

“Leave the illusion off with that”,  “No we are not movin”, “Satan”  and “Slow misery let me know” 

The rest is untranslated and speaking in some sort of Juju tongue but your ears might of heard something else. To explain the theory bit by bit “Leave the illusion off with that” is speculated about using smoke and mirrors like what they say about when the Twin Towers got hit on September 11th in 2001. They say it was a order by a higher up person who controls the media and businesses around the world and those people put out smoke and mirrors in order to keep us where they want us to be. I half believe in this as I do believe there are secret cabinets who do the bidding behind our backs and start wars etc for gain and profit including making new laws even if that means breaking them to make it which means cold murder in some cases. “Slow misery let me know” is suggested that they get off on seeing people down and hurt and they have the power to do such a thing which in that part of the song it could be suggested that it was a open invitation to cause pain, havoc and mayhem in the name Lucifer just one of their gods the celebrities are meant to worship instead of God and even Jesus.

Okay not much in this one either but I did notice 3 seconds in it sounds like I’m saying Satan but it’s pretty mangled and distorted. I’ll put this in the sanctuary pile as there wasn’t much in it and seems like a fluke or some sort of accident as I couldn’t find anything substantial in these clip. 

In this reversed clip it seems to be saying

“This is revenge what you did to me. Miss me honey”

It is suggested that she is on about a ex and tormenting him through this song. The honey part is suggested to be linked to the Monarch part of the Illuminati where celebrities like Miley Cyrus are brainwashed sex kittens and are controlled by handlers and they use trigger words like honey to make them do what they want. Interesting at it’s best scary at it’s worse but I think it’s pretty much exaggerated claims I think.

In my reversed clip I got 

“Revenge” and “Miss me honey”

Not the whole sentence but a bit of mix and match. It definity says “miss me honey” which I think is a coincidence and makes me laugh for some reason. I’ll put this in the sanctuary pile  as there was that coincidence and the rest didn’t make sense so in the pile it goes. 

BEYONCE - SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT)

In the revered clips it seems to be saying 

“Hail Lucifer” 

Not much to explain in this except more devil worshipping accusations from the conspiracy theorists and also trying to align herself more with the devil I mean it’s up to you to decide but they are wild accusations. 

Not much in my recordings or though it does seem to be saying

“Lucifer”

A couple of times but I’m not getting the hail bit which you do have to listen really carefully to hear it in the original song. I’ll put this in the sanctuary pile or though I won’t dispute a bit of forced audio in there but who knows.

In the reversed clip of this bit of the song it seems to say

“Lucifer, the world will..not..have..fun, the world will bow to me, people tears fall”

More accusations of devil worshipping  and the accusation of when the day comes the world will bow to Beyonce the queen of hell or the other one is she will replace Christianity and the world will bow and worship her instead. And the people’s tears fall part is to do with Aaliyah and the fact she so say killed her and how people still cry out for her a possible regret so called. The other one is another world wide thing that will affect us all and how our tears will fall like 9/11 all over again. And oh the world will not have fun part is meant to be about how she is laughing and saying how the world will be restricted and how we will not have fun like it has been since 9/11.

My reversed findings find it says

“The world…Inaudible…will not have fun” and “Gurl  will bow to me”

But the rest is inaudible and something I couldn’t pick up on. I’ll put this once again the sanctuary pile as I couldn’t find the sinister message in the audio and doesn’t find much of the clip.

In the reversed clip of the final bit it seems to be saying

“Galaxy” and “Lean on me”

Silly accusations that Beyonce is God as we all know the Gods open up all the galaxies so  they are saying she thinks she’s God and going to open up a galaxy which is meant to be blaspheming and disrespect to God and the Bible.  The “Lean on me” part is quite silly but she is meant to be the puppet and she’s the one they lean on IE take it out on and she’s meant to be tired of being leant on apparently.

In my reversed clip it says

“Galaxy” and “Lean on me”

Okay a bit jargoned but if you listen carefully it does say that the lean on me and galaxy are quite distinctive. I definitely put this in the sanctuary pile  as it was a natural recordings and nothing to suspect about it  even though it was the silly part of the song and nothing to be taken too seriously. 

IN CONCLUSION

Well we have come to the end of the post and I leave with my conclusion. I pretty much call it sanctuary over satanic and even though I did find some suspect or what I called forced audio it’s pretty much a coincidence and something that should be taken seriously.  They probably deliberately put messages in the songs for profit and sells even though they are all saints but not perfect as saints aren’t perfect. I don’t know maybe it’s the accent or the way it was sung and even though I did try to sing it or at least get the melody part right I found not a lot in it. I don’t know of a technique used to get hidden messages when reversing a part of a song but here is the conspiracy part of the post but maybe they have a technique or certain voices and accents sound different or maybe they have a book of words and the song writers use that to meet the satanic and sinister requirements but this is far fetched allegations from me and also not what I found in my own recordings. Whatever the case I myself think it’s pretty much BS unless it was all what I said above and more which I always keep a open mind when investigating and debating the topic. I wanted to make my own recordings and conclusions and I would suggest you do the same with the same clips and other well known songs to make up your own mind but I hope I helped.

5 Reasons Why Music Can Help With Your Mental Health

November 27, 2022
I @M SYNTHI@
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I got inspired after making my 24-hour mental health music marathon and I thought I’d do a blog post around mental health and music and how it helped me and also how it can help you with five ways music can help with your mental health with examples of songs for that topic. As I said before music has always been a blessing and a curse and at times music was my downfall but also my up fall too. I would have phases of different subjects but in the end I noticed positive tracks really helped me and the negative tracks sometimes worked just as long it wasn’t too violent as I’m not a violent person and that might of lead me down the wrong path which is not what you want when you are starting out to be someone. I started off using music as a remedy after a teacher said I should listen to some Classical and after hearing it I noticed how still my mind was, but it wasn’t my thing being around six at the time maybe seven. So, I began to hunt for tracks with the same side effects, but I lost my way and found some other tracks with lyrics like Queen Break Free and also Madona Live To Tell A Secret and noticed how that made me feel on top of a lot of House and a bit of Junge too. It’s safe to say music has been my savior though and I owe a lot to it also a few stern words with the music and myself for leading myself down the wrong paths which I’m not even walking a centimeter near it it’s a graveyard. I feel it can be a potential answer to some of your problems you might have and has answered some of my burning questions and at the worst to know I wasn’t alone even though it wasn’t my lifestyle and spent time differing the two. I do remember some music wasn’t good for my mental health as I said some tracks and albums made me angrier and I was on for doing the unthinkable, but it wasn’t murder but getting my own back. That is why I don’t play a lot of violent raps as it doesn’t make you want to do something bad, but it makes you in the name of Ludacris “Act A Fool” which I try and not do. Yes, true fact though I used Ludacris Act A Fool to calm down and not be so out there on the streets and worked when I wasn’t smoking weed as that was doing the job for me. I used to smoke a lot of weed whilst listening to music, I also collected quite a few tracks in the past and had a good decent number of tracks from all sorts of genres but all the old skool classic I probably had them at one point in my life. I had fun making my own playlists of different types of categories like relaxing, summer, morning etc it’s how I got the feel for each state of the day or season. My first music awakening was by Salt ‘n’ Pepa Unnecessary with the song None Of Your Business I really took a lot from that track alone, but it was how I dealt with racism I was getting from the kids at school which all ended up good in the end apart from one. Also, Janet Jackson’s That’s The Way Love Goes taught me a lot and not to be so hung up when things don’t go my way which I still have the same attuited to this day. Also Adventures Of Stevie V’s Taught me about the evil of money and corruption there’s been a few tracks I have learned from and mostly good. The weirdest learning curve through music was actually Barbie Girl where I realised it doesn’t matter if you were fake, you still could be a good person and not stale something I wished I took more attention to when growing up as I always let the haters get to my head which is now a thing of the past thankfully but that was a nightmare.    

1. To Relax

It goes without saying sleep is important and even though I do have a lot of all nighters I do get my sleep and catch up eventually, but music has always helped me with getting to sleep and also relaxing. My two choices for relaxing or sleeping are slow jams and classical music and when I’m in the mood I listen to that or used to should I say. I always make Sunday a calm one with playing slow songs but not always it helps me keep calm and also focus a lot which is what I need a lot of when I get distracted. Also rain and the sounds of the woodland that helps me relax as well and get to bed early but when I’m up its stuck. It’s hard to say what R’n’B singers help me relax because they all do all the best slow jams from the 90s especially which is more my specialty, or it used to be. For me there are two types of relaxing music stuff to unwind to and stuff to fall asleep and funny enough I used Janet Jackson’s song That’s The Way Love Goes and Anytime Anyplace also by Janet Jackson for my sleeping pattern as I find Janet has quite a soothing voice and especially on those tracks. Another song that comes to mind when I’m playing music to sleep is Aaliyah’s At Your Best (You Are Loved) or the Isely Brother’s original version, also Dru Hill’s Beauty because I always said I got my beauty sleep with that song, oh one last one Mariah Carey’s Rooftop Ft Mobb Deep that gets me asleep really quick and one more Johnny Gill My, My, My, the keys always put me asleep. For my just relaxing at home, I like to listen to a lot of Reggae Dub but not all the time and normal Reggae also Hip Hop and R’n’B but I try to play something different each day. I like to listen to relaxing mostly at night when it’s dark and more nighttime listening or though when I haven’t had much sleep I tend to listen to softer music and fall back asleep which sounds lazier than it is lol. Sleep is part of the well being cycle and as I said it’s important to get enough sleep even when you didn’t get any you have to catch up to stop the mind from wondering too much. Not only that it does help repair the tissue in the brain and that helps to regrow cells which we need in our brain to function right. Not getting enough sleep can lead to delusions like hearing and visions and also if you are already intolerant it could dramatically increase your mental illness if you ran yourself to the ground.      

2. To Vent

Say what you want music is good for venting angry and other emotions from your head just as long it’s in your own personal space and it’s not hurting anyone everyone needs to vent every now and then or it will fester into something more serious. I vent in many ways through music and the classic one is have a nice day won’t you putting it bluntly when dealing with haters something I won’t bring up as the music industry and Hollywood has taught me don’t give them too much light or they might grow bigger, and you wouldn’t want that. Venting could be any emotion, but I would say it’s more of a negative thing than a positive and has helped me get all my emotions like angrier out and has also guided me as the stuff they were rapping about haters I could feel that and know way before clout became in it was a thirsty mind set and was looked down at now it’s all topsy turvy. I also used songs to vent my anxieties and push past the barriers of fear and paranoia from weed and my mental health. It wasn’t easy and took a distraction like talking or singing the words to overcome the fear, but it was all in my head.  The last song I used to challenge demons was Lil’ Kim’s Haterz when it came out whenever that was, I was in college and there’s a lot of bitches it was a bit too much, but I completed the course for Business but that was a hard year for me. That was the last time I used a song to vent but when WAP came out wet ass you know what did come to mind for some next up shinny thing. Artists I tend to pick up a lot of talk about haters is from Notorious B.I.G, Lil’ Kim, Tupac, and Mobb Deep those were the artist I tend to listen to when I was and wasn’t thinking about my haters. I mean really you shouldn’t even let them unnerve you, but it is hard with all the comments they give but don’t want any real smoke. That’s how I use music to vent my angry out without losing all control as you don’t want a “sore loser” now do we. Music can also be to let the tears run though I’m don’t believe in sitting in trauma and pain though some circumstances obviously, time is a healer but there are some things you can easily recover from. Basically, it’s not as bad as you thought, I mean I’ve been through a lot of shitty stuff and know half the things that happen are just silly mishaps that you can easily get around the trick is not to soak for too long and a healthy routine or activity in your life can stop you from bouncing off the walls. Songs I listen to vent my feelings for angrier I play Lil’ Kim Backstabbers, Notorious B.I.G. Playa Haters and Big Pun Beware. For Sad songs I like Whitney Houston Ft Faith Evans & Kelly Price Heartbreak Hotel, Brian Knight Anytime, and Mary J Blige I’m Goin Down but on the flip side Changes I’ve Been Through which is more my thing less downy and more upbeat. 

3. To Lose Time & Forget

Music is a good key to lose track of time and forget your troubles even if it was worth a x number of minutes. I use music to speed up the clock and make things go a bit faster in the day and at night my music is on low and to also forget my troubles and is a good source for doing so. For me it started at a club or rave and losing track of time there, so it was only natural to bring it home with me. I notice though it didn’t have to be ravy and could be something relaxing and calm you can easily shut your brain off and zone out but not too much as that is bad for you. The quickest way though to pass time is to put on something clubby and long and the time soon goes there’s been a couple of times where I was listening to a really long mix, and it was over before I knew it which was what I was looking for also having something to do with the brain and fingers that helps and is sort of like binge watching on YouTube or wherever. If I’m really feeling the music or I am already up I might do a quick twirl on the dancefloor and that helps me relax later down in the day when I’m still energetic. I use music to speed up things mainly when I want the days to go quicker or if I’m just bored but I feel a bit of music warms the place up and can stop it from feeling isolated and empty. Also I make music music and that keeps me busy doing stuff when I’m actually making music, but I don’t watch TV as I don’t pay a TV licence, so I watch YouTube and make music instead which is a lot more fun than sitting in front of the box and switching off, but TV is another aider for time passing if there is something good on that is. I like to leave the music on throughout the day and night as it keeps me company and I tend to listen to my radio Ghosting Radio home to all my music as I just want some background noise and don’t want to change over every two minutes it drives me mental lol. On my way to London, I noticed how fast it would go if I had the right music so it may take a bit of practice to fully get your mind to fully switch off but it’s worth it. I also never used to travel anywhere on foot or on the bus without my MP3 or Walkman in the 90s it’s the only thing that gets me through the travel as I don’t really like travelling no more and stay busy on my computer. Music helps me zone out and also concentrate which I tend to put something suitable on depending on what the task is, but I use my music to concentrate on things I do creative wise and need undescribed music and my music fits the bill. Music wise to lose time to Missy Elliot Click Clack which could be seen as a vent song also, Dem Franchise Boyz Oh I Think They Like Me, DJ Zinc Supa Sharp Shooters, Da Brat Fab 5 Freedy which is another vent song and lastly Sticky Ft Kele Roc Things We Do which I always have to turn up loud for that one. I would say they were some of my release songs that has helped me through a lot like dealing with haters, getting money and also life in general which was a huge learning curve for me never again though life is always hard when you are a kid growing up. 

4. To Remember

The real magic of music it unlocks memories and yes for the good and bad, but I like to concentrate on the good side. I have countless memories with ties to music but the ones that come to mind is partying but I’m sure I had some sensible times as well. There are lots of good times I had with music that I now have lost or didn’t find which is a shame, but I have lots of songs I remember and some I don’t. I have songs for every occasion from summer, summer in the 90s, Christmas, birthdays and many more events I was a part of and lucky to be a part of. I love when I’m walking with my MP3 on, and I suddenly get a memory out of the blue I haven’t had any like that for a while now but that was the fact I was listening to music whilst walking. What I don’t like is being on a bus and getting a flashback as I like to think in my own time when no one is around which sometimes I over think things, but I hate that and try to turn the music off before I have a laughter fit and people start looking at me funny. I might have said this already on a different webpage but if you are trying to get some old memories back try playing some songs from that time maybe from the charts or whatever you were playing at the time which does trigger the memoires and believe me, they can be shocking and unbelievable as I didn’t believe myself, but music does help with rusty brains especially if there are a few years missing in your memory calendar. It may take a few goes and best when you are not distracted by things around you, but I got a lot of my memories back with the help of playing the old bangers which can be taxing on your mind and make you feel like you are going mad. Also, I used music to memorize a function when I was working at an agency which had a whole of rhythm to it and found it easier with some music and an hour to memorize the 5 handles left, right, angle, arms up, head tilt. What I also like to do is pick and rap song cos my singing is crappy, but I would learn the song step by step and get confident enough to rap it out loud it’s good for motor skills and for memory. There are a few songs I know off by heart and can do some blindfolded which I still don’t know how I got through it since I haven’t listened to the tracks in quite a while but it’s good to know I still have the memory space I thought I lost it. Another good practise is playing keyboard and I used to be better at learning new songs I haven’t tried in a while now like 3 years as I haven’t got the motive to do it, but I want to and want to do another Bach piece and something easy at first.  My songs that I have memories with is Salt ‘n’ Pepa Whatta Man that has a lot of memories attached to it, Corona Rhythm Of The Night which reminds me of the good times in the early 90s, Lumidee Uh Oh which reminds me when I was at St Pauls Carnival and where I was hearing a lot of Reggaeton which was all good and easy to dance to. You might as well say the whole How High album by Redman & Method Man but their tracks Let’s Do It is my favourite and has a lot of memories. It reminds me of my young self with bongs and going raving whenever we had the money. Lastly Sean Paul’s album but mainly Gimmie The Light as that’s a club banger and I got drunk and danced to that quite a few times and they are all similar to my bus ride reflections a bit cringe but laughable, I’m always up for a laugh though within reason but that’s why I enjoyed raving and clubbing as it was a good chance to have a laugh.

5. To Laugh

I do like a good song to laugh to and I think music can help you laugh it out and is a good way to boast your mood if you are feeling low and have several songs that do that for me. It all started with the TLC Crazy Sexy Cool interlude you know the one where she is missing some toilettes  items in a prank call that always boasted my mood no matter how much it made me cringe it always made me laugh. There are a few interludes and skits that make me laugh and mainly in Hip Hop but some R’n’B too it’s always good for a laugh and to also forget where you are for a minute which when bored or low is always a handy tool to have and thanks to YouTube, Spotify and other music platforms they are all at our finger tips and you just need a good memory to know what album it was on as that was the problem I faced when looking for those skits and interludes. I supposed the more shocking or true to life is the ones I usually play like the ones that you are like I can’t believe you said that or ha true that those are my favourite to play. It’s also memories you can laugh at the memories you had or though I won’t go on about it again but they are good for remembering your memories with the people and things you hold dear to you. As I mention in all my status I like to have a laugh and think it’s important not to take yourself seriously as you have no fun in life. Though saying that there is a time and place for having a laugh but I think it’s important to let go every now and then even if Becky is bitching about how fabulous she thinks she is you should let them bitch and do you don’t worry about the haters as I say I don’t live for my haters which mean say what you want we ain’t related or in any kind of friendship I’m going do me. That’s why it’s also good to laugh at your haters and the people who chat shit and there are a lot of songs that help me laugh at them. I always say like the saying goes there’s no point sitting there in the dumps with the why me attitude as the haters will be having a field day so I use music to also help me laugh and put my middle finger up to the bullshit and say not today thank you. I also use music to rap along and entertain myself for a few hours at the most which I put on the funny songs to help me get in the mood with things but I always rap the most sensible lyrics and leave out the most obscene. I don’t really remember all the funny songs but I used to have quite a lot of tracks that I deemed as funny but I have lost them now. I say it’s good for your mental health and it can help boast your mood but also your confidence and has helped me a lot during my hardest times to laugh it out and make me forget about the situation or know it wasn’t worth it as those people are stupid and not worth fighting over or going to prison, which they would of won the fight and once again we can’t be having that now lol. Do you think of a song and say that reminds me of ol Keshia and not Cole lol it’s how I found balance actually and think it’s a good way to balance yourself out without going too over the top. I also use music that makes me laugh when I’m overthinking and feeling not myself it’s how I get back into the swing of it which usually takes a couple of days when I’m feeling really low. Songs that make me laugh is Notorious B.I.G. Story To Tell, Rick James Cold Blooded, Quinn Doin The Most, Lil’ Kim Big Momma Thang, and Good Girl ft Mulatto Thirsty cos it’s not just those you know who are thirsty. I think they are good funny but true to life songs that always make me laugh and also cry at some of them I love music like that. 

Mind 24 Hour Mental Health Music Marathon

If you enjoyed that then please head over to this page for a 24 hour mental health music I streamed with more sensible songs on that is high energy and all in your feelings. It was going to be on YouTube but it was kicked to the curb like I thought it would of done so for now you can find it on this website and also on Mixcloud it has genres from House, Jungle/Drum & Bass, Motown, Soul, a bit of Reggae, Hip Hop and R’n’B and much more all from the 60s and up to present day, it’s more of a mental health music party with only  a few sad songs on there as I kept it feel good and bouncy with a couple of sad songs in there for mix.

My Seven Mental Health Songs

May 10, 2022
I @M SYNTHI@ / LATEST
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MY MENTAL HEALTH JOURNEY

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week here in the UK so I thought I’d do something around mental health and something with music. But before I do that I’d like to talk a little bit about my journey with mental health and where I feel I am today. My experience with hearing voices came from an early age after an unfortunate event in my life I won’t get into but all of a sudden I was hearing voices and I was alone and in my own world for decades before I got help in 2016. But all before that I lived with hearing voices and having paranoid thoughts due to smoking the wrong weed called K2  and other synthetic drugs I didn’t know were synthetic but that was the worse stages of the episodes and thoughts that are invading and can get quite rough. But tIt caused me to act weird which as an embarrassed teen around that time I used to cringe at my outbursts but not now I kind of look pasts that and know I don’t do that and was just the young me trying to survive in the ever-changing world. The silly thing was I never told anyone that I was hearing voices and that was because I felt safe and it was always fun to wake up to do something I was also adventurous and I still am in a way but I was always on the go and loved each day with my dog and the few people I let into my life as I was paranoid but all for the good reasons and at the end of the day kept me safe and off the hard drugs which I’ve never touched and I mean non Class A party drugs like heroin or crack. It was also some other events in my life that made the voices intense to more I’m going die vibes which were fueled by outside thoughts and people it was bad but I always fought the devils and tried to do my best till it got too much and I kind of gave up for the meantime and focused on getting my mental and health together and get over all the things that had happened in the past. In 2016 I was admitted to a hospital ward for psychosis and I’ve been taking medication ever since which helps with the irrational thoughts and the episodes which I am grateful for. I’ve built my confidence up and my memory is getting stronger as I kind of lost my memory or at least I forgot about all the good things and concentrated on the bad which suffocated me and lead me down a dark and lonely path which was hell and somewhere I won’t be going back to as I wouldn’t let it get that bad again oh no. It makes you do outrageous things and the paranoid thoughts are intense and not something I enjoyed especially when smoking weed and taking some drugs which I did bring on myself but I was self-medicating and trying to cope in my own way while making great moves in life but as I said that came as a toll which was the stresses and lifestyle choices equaled to a more unstable me but it wasn’t the work. Somehow the paranoid thoughts got worse and I could no longer feel like I could work or even get out of bed there were days when I wouldn’t even go anywhere and was too paranoid to go to anyone I thought I was being watched and thought everyone was talking about me or wanted to do some sort of harm but to be fair this started at an early age but it came back and got worse each time with stuff I was adding up that didn’t even come up to the right total and now I think about it it was common math problems but being young and unknowing it was hard to judge it right and of course, my mind wasn’t in the right place though I was pretending it didn’t exist in the most difficult situations I choose when to listen to the voices as sometimes the information must have been my sub conscious talking to me like old memories but it came in the form of people in my head talking to me and it was good and bad stuff but mainly a mix of dark and light slash funny stuff.

I have cut off a lot of people I knew in the past like old friends as I wasn’t comfortable being around them and always thought negative thoughts about how they see me and so forth which soon came with evidence now we have grown apart and it’s been a long time so it’s the time apart that did it but no one makes the effort even me as I have seen they didn’t so it was kind of like well I don’t need this and left it for them to get in touch with me if they wanted but some people I left as I do not like to be the donkey of the group and made small because of my beliefs or where I was going or even been which is not here or there but I’ve been to a lot of good places which causes a lot of hate and I have my own band of haters but we all do so apparently it’s normal. Getting rid of toxic people and being with the people that make you happy not like a piece of poop but that is something I had to do to heal myself which was a long and drawn-out process also admitting and wanting the help that comes from you and only when I was ready which was after I was admitted and I realized I couldn’t even go back to the being the local nutter and try to revert back to when I was cooler and calmer which was certain times like being on holiday where it was easy to forget the problems I had but when I didn’t go on holiday which was must years I would go for walks or go out of the city for the day but I don’t really go anywhere nowadays. I’ve been thinking recently and I’m now looking for a change I don’t want fame and never wanted fame but I do want to be comfortable like most people where I don’t have to worry about certain things. But more importantly, I’m alone and looking for something to do instead of being in my room thinking and over making music which I now want to do a bit less which means not every day but I do worry people will forget me quick so that is why I post nearly every day. I mean I do like being alone I’m used to being alone and doing something as I like to be occupied and can’t be sitting down doing anything as I might have oversaid by now but that’s the other reason. I do vow to do something about it though and have made a few arrangements that will hopefully make my life better or worse but I’m a big believer in the new start it does take some work though but when I’m on something I’m on it. The truth is I stagnated for too long and now I’m trying to break out of that shell and try and do something new and hopefully meet more friends or meet old ones but I’m way over that paranoid feeling I’m more I have to grab the bull by the horns times and do it cos I can’t keep up with the isolation routine it’s numbing but I do speak to people though. The stigma of having a mental illness is something that I have also experienced throughout my mental health experience and even though we have come a long way it still is unheard of. I feel people are undermined or looked down on if they have a mental health problem and I also feel no matter how much you hear it can happen and you bet I did it even though I was “ill” like go to university which some people are doubting me because of my illness which is why I can’t forgive these people or want to know them for any more time I mean the haters, okay but my friends and family well I’ve seen enough.

MUSIC AND MY MENTAL HEALTH

From an early age, I used music not only to express myself but also to understand my pains and problems and mental health was one thing I used a lot which started with Queen I’m Going Simply Mad but went to stuff that wasn’t really about mental health but the love fall out and other tracks which I felt helped me to understand and overcome some of my problems. This is why I believe in music healing and believe songs can unlock your heartache and cure it. Of course, the dark side to it which there was a dark side on some tracks made me think more negative let’s just say but I tend to stay away from the negative songs and concentrate on the more club and of course, the ladies in the 90s rap game which I found helped me with some of the problems like haters. I played the keyboard and write silly songs and poems about my feelings growing up and that also helped me with my problems but that was inspired by the 90s heartbreak songs the point where I felt low due to my voices in the early 90s. It wasn’t really I’m going to sit down and listen to these songs and feel I was in the room and heard it and thought how I could use more of this in my life. When I listen to music I like to remember things and think music is good for bringing back your memory and the right song like that obscure song you were obsessed about or that one-hit-wonder you used to hit the town with which puts me in a sort of delusional state as it was so long ago and a one-off moment in time you say that was the best I’ll never forget but decades down the line you can hardly remember what day it is or some times how old you are I’m now 37. There is always that one song that stays with you but there are lots of songs that can strike memories the more decades you go back you can kind of see the past but it’s a quick flash to the past sometimes I’m standing in the room and that is due to heavy isolation way before they were doing it lol. I mean I use music for everything and listen to it a lot in my downtime when I’m not making music which I also listen to but I’ve recently started getting back into music from other people like from yesteryear and beyond and it’s surprising what I remember. I have a few playlists on my hub if you want to listen to them, it’s in the Testing Site section and it’s called Jukebox. Thankfully liking music helped me grow tastes that were different but it always helped me express how I was feeling which was always a good outlet to let it all go and as I said make me remember the younger me which was a chaotic time for me. My favorite genres for helping with mental health has to be House, R’n’B, and Hip Hop, and those are the three that helped me but in earlier years dance music from the 80s to 2005 and the old house helped me to understand people. That’s the thing I also think it’s good for younger people and kids to understand the world but people I mean I can play a track and feel like they were talking about someone I knew as it was so universal in the laungeue of hate or whatever it was. I mean I feel some people look down at their nose too much House is too gay, or some R’n’B is just for the ladies it’s just music, and as long as it does something like keep you going it’s a good thing as long as you like it that’s all that matters.  

Reggae from the 70s really helped me overcome problems I mean if you really want a genre that ticks all the boxes for mental health struggles reggae is the answer I mean it’s all about feelings and how they feel about situations and statements which I do miss having statements in fashion and in also music only cos everyone had their own identity or there were groups who dress a certain way but also have their own lifestyle. But reggae always made me happy and reminds me of a lot of good times it’s also good for chilling at home on a sunny day of course. I remember the words like kicking them to the curb which is something I still do to this day but I remember it like I was taking the advice of the drunk stranger if you excuse the phrase who would get drunk and tell you your truths as your ride home from the youth club it was sort of like that or though I thought that was a drastic thing to do at the time I got stronger. Sometimes I found myself kicking myself for not going with my gut when I listened to that one song so I did find it useful I will be like I’m going to be the next Fast Lane victim washed up on the streets and so forth or dealing with the haters which I have had a few. Listening to positive music helps with your mental health and can do great things for you I mean the one song I can think of well two actually is I Will Survive or Survoir which are two songs that seem to talk about a woman’s pains it could be anybody but granted I Will Survive is the more woman’s anthem but they are two songs anybody could listen to that will make you see the positive side if you ain’t feeling sorry for yourself and that is somewhere I have been but will never go that low again cos at the end of the day happiness does come from within and that means keeping yourself happy at all costs but not your kids though just throw that in there. I don’t really listen to sad songs when I’m down no more I just sit there it’s best not to feed it positive or negative emotion as it does lead to funny consequences and all that whatever talk just looks silly especially when you are not in the right state of mind I mean silence is something I begin to like and when I’m bored I have nothing else to do but to sit in silence but I think its good to have a bit of silence I mean I used to go the woods with my dog and just chill there and listen to the birds and watch the sky it’s really nice to get out and enjoy nature and have that alone time-space you probably won’t found in a city but that could be listening to music too. What I also like about music and mental health is it brings people together and it’s easier to talk about your problems there have been times in the past where I’ve seen a comment a low person on a sad song but it was either a desperate cry for attention or just someone lost but I was taken back by the sensible responses to the post and be like it’s still a caring world or it was now it’s getting sinister and remotely childish but less said about that but that’s the other thing social media is draining our souls and trust me I love all the platforms even though I’m never or never will be on them as I would probably struggle to found an audience and also I’m really not looking for celebrity status lol which I’m not saying I would have but I’m happy working in the back it somewhere I’ve always been in the back doing something either something that seemed pointless or something creative. I will leave a playlist that has a mental health theme to it and there is a couple about being lonely which goes with this year’s mental health theme which started yesterday 09/05/2022 and runs for a week here in the UK but there is a World Mental Health Day on the 10th October so if I can I do another blog post as it’s something close to my heart. hopefully, there’s a theme you know I love my themes and always doing something theme-based or I used to do.            

Top 5 Favourite Synth Plugins

March 13, 2022
I @M SYNTHI@
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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. 

#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.

Buy Diva

#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.

Buy Vocoder V

#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. 

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#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. 

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#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 reincarnated 

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Why I Love 80’s Music

February 27, 2022
I @M SYNTHI@
5
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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.  

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.

That 80’s & 90’s Thing

February 24, 2022
I @M SYNTHI@
0
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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.

 

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. 

 

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.