Darkwave

While I mostly frequent hardcore, shoegaze, and punk-adjacent shows in my local area's scene, growing up I learned the not-so-punk instrument of piano. That knowledge, coupled with a few theory classes I took as electives in college, lead me to search for cool and less-classical applications for the keys.

Luckily, keyboards combined with my tech-oriented interests lead me to picking up my first analog synthesizer.

I was already into a lot of post-punk acts and some late 80s bands that had a select few synthesizer tracks, but once I picked up my first Korg Ms-20 off Craigslist, I was hooked. I've since grown really fond of the darkwave, ebm, and industrial scenes.

With no knowledge of DAWs and a love for the tactile feel of knobs and sliders, I started to build a few small patches and sequences on my collection of hardware. Below you'll find some of the direct recordings from my mixer, all DAW-less.

Synth Demos

Antiquated Workflows - Sequencing MIDI

All of my "music" is currently made with real instruments. I'll typically create patches/voices on my synths, use a sequencer to trigger notes and parameter changes, and finally sync them all to a drum machine as a master clock.

This is admittedly archaic as it's nearly identical to how electronic music was created through the early days. However, I find the limitations force creativity within the bare-bones environment and that the overall experience is far less overwhelming than the endless options of plugins/software-instruments available in modern DAWs. I've been told repeatedly that there's no good reason to do this in the present day, but I personally enjoy and love watching talented musicians create sounds from tangible, non-computer hardware.

My least favorite thing is when I roll up to a darkwave band's show and they just pull out a Macbook and press play. If all of the synths and instruments are pre-recorded, and all you do is dance around stage and sing along, it's more like karaoke than a show.