I wrote this one with my kids, mainly with my eldest Ben (who, incidentally, is by far more talented when it comes to music. He's already a much better keyboard player than I ever have been!) he decided he wanted to write it about video games. We worked together on a chord progression in BIAB and lyrics just before the lockdown. Most of the lyric writing consisted of me reading out gaming terms and asking "is this a thing?"

Unfortunately, he doesn't live with me so I have recorded the vocals and produced it without his input since his mum doesn't want him travelling between houses at the moment. Whenever this is all over and done with I'd like to record it with him singing it.

In terms of producing it I have used Odesi to come up with a few different tracks - the drum track was from Odesi. I copied the drum track over as audio. I quite like Odesi and I'm considering getting Captain Plugins as it's annoying having to go from BIAB to Odesi to Studio One rather than doing the whole thing in my DAW. But I'm not sure it's worthwhile paying $99 if it doesn't do anything Odesi doesn't do - if anyone has both I'd love to hear if it's worthwhile having Captain Plugins as well.

The RealTracks had midi data attached to them so I brought them into Studio One as midi instead so I could have more control over them. I used the AAS player (on the synth tracks) and Ultra Analogue Sessions (bass track) on the BIAB midi tracks. I then used a second bass track sample and a synth track from splice, as well as some video game sounding samples to use throughout the track. I've then used a lot of waves plugins on the tracks: Audiotrack and Trueverb on all of the tracks. I've also sidechained the bass to the vocals. Then DeBreath and WavesTune on the vocal as well and AutoTune and MetaFlanger to give it a electronic-y sound. I've also used UltraPitch and MondoMod on a second vocal track during the chorus.

I hope you enjoy the song, it was a lot of fun putting it together and hopefully will help me when I finally put together the song for the songwriting challenge - which I know I've missed the date for! I've recorded all the vocals for it so hopefully that'll done by the end of the weekend.

Style - _SELEKT.STY. Selekt Dancehall Synth Pop
RT1929: Synth, Bass, EuroDance VerseBass Ev 120 , Ed (Great Oz) Clare
RT1395: Synth, Rhythm, EuroDance SubduedHitsStraight Ev16 120 , Ed (Great Oz) Clare
RT1265: Synth Pad, PopShiningSoft Ev 120 , Blair Masters

Let's Play

Hello, 'RichardB1985' ...

I hope that you and your son had as much fun cooking up Let's Play as I did listening to it . It could have been a soundtrack for any one of the video arcades that sprang up seemingly everywhere in Chicago during the late 70's and early 80's.

Technically speaking, based on the production notes you posted, the song apparently went through a great deal of sound morphing and editing, which is impressive because that kind of activity takes time. Regardless, you and your son's hard work paid off for me. Not only are the sounds inventive and lively but they retained the aural ambience of the very electronic-sounding music that was always blasting out of the speakers in the arcades.

Listening to Let's Play was a high-energy, rip-roaringly retro bunch a' fun, as was your processed vocal performance !!!

LOREN (a.k.a. 'bluage')

Thank you for such positive feedback Bluage! That was exactly what I was going for so I'm glad that I seem to have got it right. I did have a lot of fun writing this with them, I'm going to write a lot more with them when this is all over and done with. Ben is really into his music so hopefully this can be the first step to him writing a lot more of his own music.

*I have reposted it on Bandlab and updated the linkas I wasn't sure about the guitar track at first and having listened to it again, I really didn't like it. I felt like it just didn't fit with the style of the song.

This sounds great! Love the sound effects and backing tracks. Your vocal is really good also. The mix is excellent.

This could have been the theme song to the movie "Pixels".

Thanks for taking the time to listen and give feedback MarioD.

I loved that movie, I'll have to send it across to Hollywood in case they decide to make a sequel!

I played a lot of these games and remember fondly the sounds. Your song brought on a tidal wave of nostalgia. Well done and thanks!

Thank you for taking the time to listen TuneMonger and I'm glad it helped take you on a nostalgia trip!