After almost three years, I finally completed the ‘Neon Overdrive’ EP. Having moved across the pond to the USA, I had little time to set up my computer based DAW system, and instead spent time concentrating on messing about with a DAWless setup. While that lead to a lot of random experiments and some instant results, this synthwave project got left behind. 2020 has delivered extreme disruption to everyone, and it certainly blitzed my plans to rule the world with some major analog audio-bombs. I finally landed a tiny cubbyhole in which to make music, which ended the possibility of continuing my DAWless project. Being able to get back to completing ‘Neon Overdrive’ was the silver lining. One issue that I faced was that after having spent a year messing around with analog gear, my style and sound had changed somewhat. I originally had around eight songs lined up to feature on the album. When I listened to the various tracks that I had added to the track-list, I found that only three truly represented the original concept of the album. Three tracks is not an album, it’s an EP, and so an EP it became.
https://robonobo.bandcamp.com/album/neon-overdrive
Tomahawk Down
The 1980’s was a great era for a boy to grow up in. TV delivered so much action-packed content, it was impossible for a kid to resist. The ‘A-Team’ brought us crack commandos turned renegade mercenaries who made it their mission to deliver justice for the worthy. ‘Knight Rider’ and ‘Streethawk’ gave us modern warriors patrolling the streets in futuristically enhanced vehicles. ‘Blue Thunder’ and ‘Airwolf’ performed a similar role, but in helicopter form. I became obsessed with choppers, and spent hours playing ‘Gunship’ on the ZX Spectrum, patrolling battle fields in my AH-64 Apache. The H-2 Tomahawk was another such attack helicopter, and I had the inspiration for my track.
One of the most useful developments in creating this track was the compilation of a 1980’s style drum rack in Ableton Live. Crunching compression in the chain helped me deliver the OTT punch that the track required.
While most of this track was completed around early 2019, it needed some final organisation in the Ableton Live arrangement view, as well as a closing element… a piercing guitar solo to complete the track. I dusted off my Epiphone Les Paul and plugged into Guitar Rig Pro.
Heartbreak
One thing I don’t particularly enthuse over is singing, but given that it was nigh on impossible to find a vocalist who was interested in my project, I was reluctantly compelled to fill in the role with my own cringe-inducing dulcet tones. ‘Heartbreak’ originated as a track that I composed as background music for a YouTube software demonstration video. It has something of a hip-hop beat feel to it, but it still seems to fit within the scope of the EP.
This time, as the project was composed entirely in Logic Pro, I decided to use a tweaked Logic Pro preset for the drums. The Ultrabeat interface looks clunky a decade down the line, but it still packs an audio punch.
The rest of the track is a showcase for Native Instruments Komplete. Massive was used for the bass, Massive X provides the synth lead and I went for my trusty old favourite Absynth for the opening pad sound.
One of the key 80’s elements I used on this track was provided by a fantastic vocal sampler instrument available as a free download for Native Instruments Kontakt users.
My final shameful admission, which is clearly evident to any modern producer is that I autotuned the shit out of my crappy vocals. Luckily, Logic’s proprietary plugin does a great job.
Strontium Dogs
The final track on the EP happens to be the first of the three that I completed.
The inspiration for this one may be self evident. ‘Strontium Dog’ was a comic series set in the incredible cyberpunk world of 2000 AD. The main character, Johnny Alpha is a mutant bounty hunter primed to dispatch chaos in a dreddful, post-nuclear dystopia.
It’s a long track, coming in at 5:44 and is all instrumental.
Massive was a major player in this track, used to create the bass and two leads.
One of the most unique pieces of gear on this track, and the only piece of dedicated sound-generating hardware used on the EP was my Roland V-Synth XT, which was used to handle the vocoder effect.
Mastering
There was never any danger of this EP ever having to compete with the creme de la creme of modern music, so for mastering, I used the DIY approach. In undertaking this project, I managed to create a mastering channel strip in Logic that made the track super loud, while giving it some high-end sparkle. Perfect for my needs!
Final Thoughts
Neon Overdrive was a project which helped me extend my knowledge of the Native Instruments Komplete synthesizers and samplers. Other take aways were that I generated a great 80’s drum rack, and my mastering experiments yielded a reusable and ready-to-go mastering channel strip in Logic Pro X. I hadn’t really gotten my head around arrangement view in Ableton Live before, and I certainly got used to mixing using that work-flow too. The EP is the end of an era in some ways for my production style, as my new sound is quite different. So much so, that I was unable to make some of my new material fit in with the sound presented on the EP. This also gives me great excitement for what’s coming next. While I might never threaten the heady heights of the Spotify top streaming list, I will certainly be able to venture into further sonic explorations to sate my own twisted, phonaesthetic desires.
Neon Overdrive is available for download at robonobo.bandcamp.com
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