Steady Tremor is a relatively recent track (given my studio drought of the last few years). It was produced in January of 2005, a time of year (fall/winter) when I am generally most productive in the studio. (I not a fan of sitting in a studio during the hot summer, and air-conditioners tend to interfere with the sound/air flow).
Anyhow, the track has a nice tribalesque groove and a choppy synth line bouncing over it. It also has a sibling, a jam titled The Ploy, which is a different idea dropped over the same beats. We’ll cover that one later, but for now, catch the tremor.
Decade Of Dissonance started out as a remix of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. That idea was quickly dropped and the track took a direction of its own. However, things kept getting in the way and it would take more than a year before it was done. Its another relatively long track and it takes a bit of turn around the 5th minute before getting back on, well… track.
The main line is played through Native Instruments’ insane modular software studio (to put it mildly), Reaktor, which allows you to create your own instruments and ensembles by literally drawing out the components (generators, knobs, faders, etc.) and connecting them into the signal flow as you see fit. NI produces some of my favorite software based instruments including Absynth (also used on this track), Battery and the newer Massive. To beef up the tone and give it some air I usually run the digital sounds through an analog device, preferably a preamp and/or a compressor, which was the case here.
(Speaking of preamps and compressors, I’ve gone through a few over the years and some of the highlights were a JoeMeek box, a Focusrite compressor (which I still have), and FMR Audio’s RNC 1773. Nowadays, I find that the Universal Audio’s UAD powered plugins provide accurate emulations of the favorite analog hardware while allowing project-related presets.)
Yet another NI plugin, Guitar Rig was used on the guitar which meanders in the background and is more prominent in the break. Guitar Rig does a decent job of simulating classic guitar amps and sounds, but it also offers some weird effects such as the one used here.
Exclusive: As you’ll see below, this post features the original (wav) format file for download. This the mastered version of the original mixdown available here with no compression. Enjoy.
