Two Spliffs In The Ashtray – New Year Special; Top Ten House Tracks; EP 2

December 31, 2022
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I’m back with another podcast and it’s a New Year’s Eve Special and a top ten of my favourite House tracks so this podcast will be all House music I will do other genres in the future but sandwich in with other topics. House has always been a salvation to me and there are loads of tracks I used to have which I downloaded but I couldn’t get them off my old laptop which broke and I didn’t backup files like I do now. I hope all the songs are high energy and you like them there isn’t much talking but more music in this one I will try and do a more and less talking kind of routine depending on the topic and time of year. I picked the best release songs that make me want to dance or dance harder and I also did it from my least to favourite if I can use the word least favourite loosely as they are all my favourites and may of over played most of them just a little bit.  I’m not doing anything tonight as tonight is New Year’s Eve and the last afternoon of the year which I hope my year is more better if only I can get moving but I’m trying and doing my thing. This year has been a eventful year I mean it’s funny as I always believed something bad was going to happen in 2022 and the queen dying was proof I was right without being too much of a smart ass about it. I would say I’m glad another year is over but I’m really not I’ll be 38 next year so I’m nearly 40 even though I don’t look like it apart from the grey hair which I refuse to dye for multiple reasons. Anyway whatever you are doing or did depending on when you read this Happy New Year and have a safe and good or I hope you had a safe and good one.  PS there isn’t much talk of New Year’s Eve just music and talk why I love the track etc so if you are a House fan and it’s past New Year I encourage you to listen to it anyway, I hope you enjoy it and once again Happy New Year. 🙂 

THE PLAYLISTS

Two Spliffs In The Ashtray Podcast; Introduction – EP 1

December 30, 2022
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My first podcast and a bit of music and talk from haters, clout, female rappers, my life, mental health, police,  institutional racism and more with music from Madonna, Martin Ikin, E-Zee-Posse and more in this hour-and-a-half random talk. Just a warning there is bad language and I am unscripted so if you like a bit of banter and serious talk please stick around. I do plan on doing more podcasts in the future probably starting with one every week to two weeks and then a month thereafter. It will be different topics each time but this one is mainly about me and just a small introduction of myself and a bit about me. This podcast can also be found on my SoundCloud page and also on Podbean for now but will always be under the main menu of this site randomgas.com. I hope to do a lot of research and make some interesting podcasts but for now here is myself talking I am new to this and was kind of shy so please excuse me if there were any mistakes I did try to edit it as best as possible I must admit though I didn’t do it the best way anyway here is my first podcast and I will shorten it down the next one as this one was a bit long but alright to make apart from the editing the wav files. Oh, one last thing I hate getting on the mic usually and I’ve been meaning to get on the mic and talk or even better the camera but I’ve been too shy to do that so I decided to start on the mic and work my way up. This nearly didn’t happen as I was going to use AI text-to-speech with my own voice though and type it up but now I did it I’m glad I did as it wasn’t that bad after all.    

THE PLAYLIST

5 Reasons Why Music Can Help With Your Mental Health

November 27, 2022
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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.

Synergy Synths – Harmony VST Plugin

November 21, 2022
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I made another plugin and this one is going to be a series called Synergy trying to get that synth word in there somehow lol. The VST is for Windows and Mac and I made the sounds myself using Serum, I also made the GUI too which I’m now happy with. I had quite a few sounds already from what I had over the years of making sounds but I did add 20 more which I made from scratch. Once again some I am happy with and some I’m not but it is a free VST and I’m still a beginner so not all the sounds are perfect. I did add extra knobs like a filter, delay, reverb, chorus and some other knobs as I found some of the sounds were a bit dry but there are always knobs in the synth anyway. This VST was going to be a sampler from one of my old keyboards that aren’t midi and is a Yamaha but I am not sure if they would be happy if I resampled the whole collection on the keyboard and gave it away for free and I think is copyright infringement so I decided to make the sounds myself which I will be doing plenty more of in the future with various of plugins that you can make sounds from scratch with, with the right guide that is. My favourite part of making the plugin was doing the GUI and making the sounds which took some hours but is fun doing and as I said, lucky I had a bag full of sounds already which I tried to make  better and upgrade a little.  I tested it on Windows and it works on Windows but I haven’t got a Mac computer so I’m not sure if it will work on Mac also I used FL Studio as my DAW so it works in FL but I’m not sure if it works on other DAW so please respond and let me know if it works on your DAW and computer.  This is a free download and feedback will be appreciated it’s partly what I like about synths dark, melodic and light and thick and comes with synths and basses.  

THUMBNAIL

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Synthia’s Mixtapes 2

June 13, 2022
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Part two of four of synthy beats to keep you entertained for a while and a special mixtape. I had this idea of having a synth bot which plays synthesizer beats from internal speakers and this is what it was playing. The mixtapes are from all old synthy beats from albums I made from 2018 which I can’t release again so I thought I’d give them away as a free download so enjoy the free music.

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Top 5 Favourite Synth Plugins

March 13, 2022
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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. 

Buy 2600

#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. 

Buy Repro

#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 

Buy Mini V3

Why I Love 80’s Music

February 27, 2022
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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.

Nuclear Dreams

February 21, 2022
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About two years ago I was having some weird dreams about being in a nuclear attack and I had about six dreams altogether which I think are anxiety dreams which I’m unsure what they are really about. I made two EPs now which one wasn’t that good in sound quality, so I redid it and this blog post is about those dreams I was having. I’ve had a few dreams now where I was in some sort of war zone and being attacked which I think is from all the terror attacks and all the other stresses of the world that have gotten to me. It mainly happens when I don’t smoke and haven’t got any which is interesting as the times I don’t smoke is the times I would get the same sort of dreams but in different places and like all dreams they move so quickly and rapidly from one place to the next and can get very dark and strange. I was trying to find out what it means and I got no answer it could be repressed anger or it could be dissatisfaction it is just to be known but they were cool and the best bit is waking up and knowing it was just a dream and I can go back to sleep or get up but yeah they were scary being in them and would dread the day hopefully that will never happen again. I’m rewriting this from memory and my old tracklists of the old EP I did so it may be jumpy like my dream. 

The first bit I remember was being in a hut which was like in the country and somewhere foreign. The door was open and we were talking I was about to leave the hut when suddenly I saw a mushroom cloud in the background with a massive bang which scared all of us. After the explosion we saw people leave their huts and make their way to where the explosion happened around a mile away, we were not so far behind. We made our way to what seemed like a field and there were lots of people standing around panicking and wondering what was going to happen next when suddenly there was another explosion but this time around a statue which there was a bright flash which nearly blinded us and then it was all burnt and marble looking which people rushed to put out the fire and panic some more. Whilst this was going on they were moving the cattle to a safer place which I suggested and was over the hill and kind of like the Elephant Graveyard in Lion King in all sense in distant and visual wise. They didn’t want to go but they knew it was best and started moving the cattle and dogs to the safer ground whilst we talked about what was happening and what we were going to do and it was suggested the only place safe was where they were taking the animals to the Elephant Graveyard like place which was around 100 miles but you could just see it in the distant where the sun was setting.  

The next bit gets weird cruel and eerie as for some reason the dream moves on to a stadium I’m unsure if someone said to go there or if it just went there but I was there not with the same people and we were in a stadium which was like a baseball stadium it’s out of a game which I can’t think of the name it’s a shooting game and you have to sneak up to the alarms and disable them but you are in a stadium and it looked a lot like that all dingy and dark looking. We were quite a way up in the seating area of the stadium and I could see Vladimir Putin talking on the mic and there was a dog next to him. He was standing next to what looked like a dock with water all around him and he was standing at the foot of the water but in a dry area. There was some dispute about what Putin said and all of a sudden he pressed a button and another explosion happened in the background and was another mushroom cloud which was around 100 miles and could be seen in the far distance. There was another argument this time what to do with the injured dog that was next to Putin as there was no room for any injured animals or even people so to everyone’s surprise Putin drowned the dog in the water and everyone including myself rushed off in all sorts of directions to stop us from seeing the final blow. 

The next bit changed quickly after that and was outside the council building which is a Civic Centre and no one was around no one was on the street walking or driving on the roads it was deserted. There was a building that used to be the old council building for nonworkers seen in the distance of the picture which was open. The door was usually automatic but this time it was wide open so I go and see if anyone else is around and to my surprise, there wasn’t and was just an empty reception and an empty waiting area which was always busy and full of people so it was weird to see the place like that and felt like a bank just before it closes empty and still which is different if you go there midday or in the morning or even afternoon. I took a look around to see if anyone was around but before I could look in the offices there was someone behind me I didn’t know who it was and didn’t hang around to see who it was or what they were about to do and was back on the street before I knew it. 

The last part of the dream was with my gran and my friend from school who we just bumped into each other or maybe we were just with each other as dreams are rapid. There was news of another nuclear attack and we had to get out the way by going to the Highlands in Scotland which was the safest place to be. There were other people there and so was my dog Patch people didn’t want her coming on the bus to the Highlands so I and my friend got on the next bus which was a couple of minutes after the first bus so it was not that long to wait. When we got there we were led to a cottage to rest but we didn’t have time as there was another explosion but no mushroom cloud and we all rushed to the evacuation hut which was in the garden and that’s when the story ended. There was probably lots more to the dreams and were on all different days but I had to write it down somehow.  As I said I’ve made two EPs about the nuclear dreams I had and one can be found on all major platforms and the other on Bandcamp.  

Nuclear Dreams (Part 1)

Nuclear Dreams (Part 2)

Nuclear Mix