I saw the One Synth Challenge last year, and I wanted to participate, but last FAWM was a "serious album attempt" kind of a year, so I gave it a miss.
This year I have mostly been goofing off, so it seems like a good opportunity to give this Challenge a try. As the track title suggests, I used Cubase Pro 11's "Retrologue 2" analogue synth plugin, and plenty of it.
A lot of polishing was needed, so this took quite a bit longer than I expected.
@timfatchen Mar 2022
The polishing shows, as does the original structure. I often find the electronica, especially where it's rhythmic like this rather than dreamily ambient, drives me nuts with repetitious monotony. This composition is as far away from that as one could get! Works really well and and it would sound good with a conventional orchestra too! Worth the effort you took, sez I!
@st8st8 Mar 2022
I don't know the synth, but you managed to make it make a bunch of well placed interesting noises over the drums, which also feel like they are constantly shifting. It reminds me of playing Flashback actually!
@dock Mar 2022
Nice bass lines, and the melodies are pretty cool. The happy chorus is a nice switch-up from the more mysterious verses. Good sound choices. A friendly song. :-)
@elainedimasi Mar 2022
It's already good at 0:22 before the bass line comes in, I was digging on the slow-attack rampy scrapy synth sound that was defining the beat. It's very cool how the voices conversing from ~ 1:00 give each other so much room to speak.
Sometimes people's electronica is rather piled-up and that can be even harder to control with "one synth" unless one pays lots of attention to sound design and separation. You are showing how it should be done! Tons of space and separation while all the parts build the journey together.
Frankly it's a party by the end of the piece, considering the beginning which was like that first guest knocking on the apartment door. And a cheery "bye all!" at the end as they head out happy.
@metalfoot Mar 2022
Very enjoyable song. Loved the groove to the track.