Sunchase – Moulded Remix Competition Entry

Here is the remix I am submitting for the Sunchase “Moulded” remix competition. I spent a lot of time on this and feel good about how it turned out. The two main things I wanted to do was expand on the excellent moody vibe of the original, and also focus on the “futuristic” elements. It’s funny, but to me anything that sounds futuristic reminds of the “old” analog synth sounds – stuff you hear in 80s sci-fi classics like Blade Runner. Or stuff you would hear from artists like Jean MIchael-Jarre or Vangelis. The irony is that these synths have been around for like 40 years, and yet to me they still and probably always will sound futuristic.

I did this in Sonar, and I am still learning my way around the features and quirks of Sonar. All in all, I think it’s a great piece of software, which is why I bought it. However, there are still intricacies I am trying to wrap my head around. The good news is that I learned a lot during this. So regardless of the outcome, I am better for having done it.

I had my doubts about the little guitar and classical segment that I close with. I wasn’t sure that it “fit.” However, as I was working on building up elements for the song, this theme would not leave my head… and I’m a big believer in following inspiration whenever it rears it’s head. So, I spent a lot of time transcribing it from my head, the way I heard it and I decided to go with it, for better or for worse.

Anyways, enough chatter. Here’s the song:

Sunchase – Moulded (Mojo’s Final Truth Remix) by DJMojo

And here’s a clip of the original, for context:

Sunchase – Moulded [ Drone Audio 003 ] by Sunchase

Thanks for listening!

Mojo Tunes – Bionic Brew

During the last Winter Quarter, I took the Advanced Electronic Music class, as required by my Recording Arts minor. I was excited to do so as I had just purchased Cakewalk Sonar 8 and was anxious to get working with it. We were tasked to create another original piece and while most of the class was again using Pro-Tools, my professor was gracious enough to let me do my thing with Sonar. This song is the result.

I’ve always enjoyed contrasts, so this song is an attempt to contrast organic sounding material with synthetic elements; also contrasting an upbeat jazzy mood with darker, moodier tones. Hence the name Bionic Brew. The initial melody line is latin lounge flavored with a little bit of funkiness; again my exposure to the Hotel Costes type sound is showing. Then it gets into an analogue synth arpeggiation and on into a spy vs. spy kind of bridge, capped off with a touch of scratching. One of the things I experimented with a lot on this tune is the use of LFO to modulate different parameters of a waveform through another waveform and I was able to come up with a few interesting sounds using Sonar’s z3ta synth module in this fashion. Again, probably not the most dance floor ready or DJ-friendly track, nonetheless… I present Bionic Brew.

Bionic Brew

Bionic Brew © 2008 Mojo’s Dojo