Velocity 128 Perspective on Odd Treks

We are excited to share Velocity 128's new track "Odd Treks"! Our goal at SongBlog is to highlight outstanding new music and give you a peek at the artist’s world behind the music. In this blog we get a chance to sit down with Velocity 128 to learn all about the inspiration, concepts, and creative energy that it took to create and produce "Odd Treks". We hope you enjoy and please feel free to ask Velocity 128 anything!

What inspired this song?

Answer:

This project was inspired by an episode of "Toys That Made Us" on Netflix about the Star Trek line of toys. They mentioned how "Star Trek the Motion Picture" was a dud for kids and grown-ups when it was released. So I imagined a more dynamic film score using arps, strings, and piano sounds from Native Instruments and Ableton VSTs. Eric (aka, Iterations) programmed the 808 and 707 dance beats using the TR8S drum machine and added a Roland D-05 pad. The pad sounds like a dance remix of a cinematic score from the 1980s to 90s if you happened to walk through Tysons Corner Galleria somewhere between Rainforest Cafe and Nordstrom's. Haha. I added the lounge piano solo on top of all that.

The pic and video are taken from my GoPro footage during my cross-country road trip. This stretch was from driving to Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It turned into an unplanned hiking trip around Devil's Tower in the snow.

Which production tools and plugins would you recommed to aspiring producers?

Answer:

For this one, I used quite a bit of Native Instruments synths and effects, Ableton devices, and mixing tools like iZotope Neutron to go along with Eric's TR8S drum machine and Roland D-05 Boutique synth module. A hybrid of hardware and software instruments tends to complement our sound. Neutron has saved a lot of time by automating a lot of EQ and compressor settings as a starting point for the mixing process.

What was the biggest drawback when producing this track?

Answer:

We jammed on the initial synth loops and beats for a long time in practice and live onstage. For the studio recording, we had to focus on fewer elements for a final version. Streamlining individual parts made them more cohesive in the end. Otherwise, my galleria piano part could've gone on forever. Haha!

What is your favorite type of music related content to watch or follow?

Answer:

The YouTube synth community has been a regular part of our music production journey as Velocity 128. It's fun to geek out on different synths and other gear of the moment. It's great to see how others use the gear you already have or considering to buy. Sonic State, Andrew Huang, Bo Beats, Audio Pilz' Bad Gear series, and many others do a great job of demonstrating gear and being informative in personable ways.

Artist Perspective - What do you want to ask?