“Come Back” Keys & SFX Recording

Two weeks ago, I published the first production documentation article after almost a year. That type of article should help novices in the songwriting and production business to understand how to get specific results and should act as a source of inspiration for your future productions. For all others reading the article, it can be a small diary entry to be sure that we are continually working on our upcoming projects and get some behind-the-scenes insights of those as well as final release announcements. This time, I will briefly talk about the keys and sound effects (SFX) recording for "Come Back".

Technical Details

For the keys and SFX recording, I used my go-to keys setup that I already presented more in detail in one blog article in late February. If you hear the final version of the song, you will recognise certain influences of pop and metal/post-hardcore music. Therefore, we used tools of contemporary pop and urban music such as an 808 sub bass created with Arturia's Moog simulation to support the rhythm guitar in the chorus and rises done with the Sylenth1 synthesiser known from pop and electronic mainstream music. A dance lead synthesiser sound was also added to the song's chorus by using Lennar Digital's Sylenth1 to glue the various guitar tracks together and to fill the stereo image a little bit more. All other keys were placed in the C part of the song where the guitar solo takes place. Because of a minimised amount of rhythm guitar tracks, we lacked in warmth and could not fill the stereo image as we initially wanted to. For that reason, I added chords played with XLN Audio's Addictive Keys Studio Grand next to a synthesiser from the Keylab library by Arturia to colourise the passage and to support its mood. All in all, the production is very heavy in guitars and drums as it is typical for rock music, but at some points in the track, keys are used to support the intended mood and to optimise the sound image.

Used Equipment

What Is Next?

In a few days, we will continue with the bass recording, so you can expect an article about that recording next week. Talk to you next time :)