Homemade 80s Styled Goth (made recently)

(Little summary first)
For years I've fantasized about making this genre of music. Since the early 2000s... gone through a few bad old school style punk bands, the Navy, marriage, alcohol and drug problems... survived everything, made it to my 30s almost unscathed (reading too much ATS for almost a decade helps).

Past few years ... worked my butt off in a cotton mill, built a home studio, downloaded ableton live and worked on it doing daily tasks... watching YouTube tutorials.

After many stressful nights of no sleep... it all started clicking. I'd make corny dance tracks, industrial, eventually synthpop like Depeche mode stuff, all types of awesome 80s music never thought possible. Guitars, pianos, string instruments... hated digital sounds though. So I immersed myself into lo-fi saturation and plug-ins of all types that crushed, gated, and expanded than smashed the bits. Sound design is addictive! Mixing old world gramophone melodies with highly compressed and cleaned up drum hits with vinyl crackling piano and little violin doo-dah for good measure sounds very indifferent yet intriguing 😀

Anyways... within this audible onslaught... I did some joy division/sisters of mercy/molchat doma sounding tracks. I've amassed quite a few catchy guitar licks, with basic post punk four on the floor drum patterns, cool and dark bass synth lines. I've developed my own way of creating these now... very quickly.

a reply to: MikhailBakunin

I appreciate the genre. I like Sisters, and Depeche, and NIN, and the like for sure. My wife is really into Fields of the Nephelim.

I was really excited when I heard the backing track, that sounds really good.
Then I got a bit deflated when I heard the guitar and the vocals.

Not trying to sound mean but the ideas are really good you just need some guitar and or vocal lessons/practise and all is well!
Also the vocal mix is too high and it is clipping too.

But keep on going!
I can see what you are going for and it's gonna be good!

I appreciate the honesty!

The bassline deflated me when I first heard it. Sounds more like ebm dance oontz oontz thing... you know? But it was catchy... so I kept it. The guitar picking is a real joy division type minimalist influenced lick, jumping an octave and back using the G and D strings, I thought was pretty catchy and stays on beat, repetitive like the classic 80s post punk goth tracks. It sticks to the pentatonic scale and uses a lot of chorus effect for that dreamy shimmer Cure type feel to the effects, you know? Doubling up on that begins to sound more like a synthesizer. Which I end up doing a lot with my guitar work in later releases.

The vocals are a whispery quiet deal with the mic turned up and going in and out giving it a more experimentalist vibe to mask my weird lyrics. I normally do monotone almost talking like Andrew eldritch so this was something different I did in one take (I was a huge Rozz Williams fan at one point... so I would sometimes attempt that deal or something related). I thought it was cool hahahaha but it isn't my forte and not my normal voice.

Drums are a 4 on the floor Lynn drum 80s deal you hear in all those classic synthpop tracks.

But yeah, I held back a lot on everything to make a basic goth track... but so far I'm the only one who actually digs it. :/ 🤔 🤔 🤔
Hahaha

I have displayed more guitar chops in guitar heavy instrumentals with no vocals... which is pretty fun!
I love creating a buildup into the main guitar progression. But It's not really appreciated by many, I don't think.

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
a reply to: MikhailBakunin

I appreciate the genre. I like Sisters, and Depeche, and NIN, and the like for sure. My wife is really into Fields of the Nephelim.

I was really excited when I heard the backing track, that sounds really good.
Then I got a bit deflated when I heard the guitar and the vocals.

Not trying to sound mean but the ideas are really good you just need some guitar and or vocal lessons/practise and all is well!
Also the vocal mix is too high and it is clipping too.

But keep on going!
I can see what you are going for and it's gonna be good!

It's pretty much what I grew up with.

I started out with Depeche Mode but today I'm digging VNV Nation.



You've clearly put in some work and it shows.

You should be proud of your efforts.

Thanks for the explanation!

I am just thinking there were some sloppy riffs and some flat notes and stuff so practise practise practise.
No one wants to hear bad notes or bad timing, it just turns the whole song off. Do you play with a click?

The idea is what counts and that was very good ideawise .



a reply to: MikhailBakunin

a reply to: MikhailBakunin

Thank you.

Hearing that reminded me strongly of a friend's band back in the mid 1980s. They wrote and rehearsed and wrote and rehearsed but never recorded or played live.

But almost 40 years later I can still remember the lyrics to some of their songs.

Yours is a great start - keep it up and keep sharing.

Edit: listening to it again, I get Silver Apples too!

Of course, this is just one genre. I also love and do... folk (the first genre I did, due to first really enjoying Bob Dylan as a teen and first learning guitar on an acoustic). Finding out most mainstream folks guitar based songs are easily done with open chords like GCD. It really boosted my confidence. Bob Dylan couldn't really sing Sing... you know. So when the computers became cheap and 8n houses more with free AOL online cds... I tried recording with a handheld recorder and played from the heart. I have quite a few open air tracks. I re-found these tracks a few years ago and put them on YouTube for archiving. I can hear some unpolished gems in the making... a few. My favorite out of the bunch, I tried remastering but there's just so much open airness it's hard to make clear. But you can hear it better. I do acoustic folk/indie stuff today and it sounds 10x better but the heart and other stuff behind the voice is just different.

This is the first one of this sort... I've been told by my ex drummer to make an album of tracks like this and I'd be alright. So this one is probably the track I should share in the main post.

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
Do you play with a click?





a reply to: MikhailBakunin

a click? No. Is that like a metronome?

(googled it) so it's a frame of reference for where the beats are. I simply play to the beat I made... which I watch the kicks and snares hit but I don't over analyze it so I can get the natural feel as Joy Division did when they recorded *they were pretty young and would have mistakes ... more of the punk ethic ... instead of being uber corporate and anal about every little thing* So it's kind of an ethical position as... I want to be more analog and old school. I'm very anti-metal head.... shredding with perfect licks and compressed distortion... pertaining to guitar playing, I think that's where guitarists Metallica fell off.

(I'm actually a huge 70's throbbing gristle proto-punk type guy, so sometimes these nuances end up bleeding into my other instrumentation... Do as thou wilt type jargon, which can definitely be a problem as you point out in basic stuff like guitar playing, so I've started to actually use midi instruments now with saturation to play guitar... which I hate due to it being digital however I have figured out how to make it sound analog using fancy lo-fi plugins like Vulf, RC-20, among a few others, getting the notes PERFECT and onbeat... which makes me use a glitch plugin to make some slightly off hahahaha, I've developed far past this track you've heard now... and do more synth-based stuff using 80s soft synths, lotsa moog and other retrowave... which can get close to EBM, which is okay ... sometimes)

I think this ... based on contemporary darkwave/post-punk standards... I would say this is peak performance pertaining to my input on the style today. The intro really builds up in a few parts and once the main beat hits with the dance bass line, this is a really praised track by my own peers. I've been hesitant to do vocals because I have no confidence and feel I've already over done my potential. I just listen and smile 😃 (like it can't possibly get any cooler now, so just enjoy hahaha)

a reply to: MikhailBakunin

How'd you do the bass/synth sequencing for the opening first 15 seconds? And using what, in box, out both, combo, or what?

I love NIN sequencing but analog synth sequencing (and gear) is something I haven't tried yet and learning is very time consuming, patches and filters, etc, but *really* want to do, even though my stuff is more traditional rock oriented and structured.

I first make the drum pattern, duplicate that loop [I mean the whole track], double click on my favorite midi synth [in ableton live it takes the place of drums but leaves everything else like the sequence, effects, everything]. Diva's square synth is amazing for that 80s synthpop sound but there's hundreds. Technology today rocks 😀

so once I have bass playing exactly the kick snare hat hits... I drag and drop delays on particular notes, set it all to A minor (magical stairway to heaven, fur Elise scale). Minor changes go a long way at this point and stay on beat if you keep the kick notes but take one off on the 3rd measure [I use 4 measures to go with the 4/4 drum pattern].

*For the intro... I line both sequences up... cut and paste this loop at the beginning of the bass and drum tracks. Highlight and duplicate 4 times then start deleting and minimalize the first view measures. This song I cut off the first few drum measures, chop up the bassline [I like cutting the time in half to play half speed, take off bass hits, and bring in each drum hits sequentially based on the time signature]. Allott every 5 seconds or so to particular hits or chopped up bass notes from the main sequence. Throw a snare roll ... crash and bring in the original drum and bass loop at full speed.

Bam. Intro made. Now start shaking your booty, dude.

originally posted by: SirHardHarry
a reply to: MikhailBakunin

How'd you do the bass/synth sequencing for the opening first 15 seconds? And using what, in box, out both, combo, or what?

I love NIN sequencing but analog synth sequencing (and gear) is something I haven't tried yet and learning is very time consuming, patches and filters, etc, but *really* want to do, even though my stuff is more traditional rock oriented and structured.

The drums is a whole project by itself. But once you sorted it out with the gated verb and compression you don't touch that stuff again. I started out using a dude's retrowave linn drum preset, made for ableton live. It's called Fail Machine Drums hahaha... it's sick if you're new and wanna skip the sound designing.

[Now... I make my own... gate verb presets by hand with Waves plug-ins and chop them up to get big trap beat type thump, hip hop crowd call it "knock" it's fun in a car with bass. But I use it on post punk and industrial music hahaha

Something I like to do as a signature in all my tracks is a retarded roll [my own personal name hahaha]. Which I use to bring in the main bassline sequence at full speed. I will make a roll and cut out a snare hit here and there, change the velocity hits to build it up... random pause the roll... and start it again. Like if it was having a seizure. You know or glitch. Then hit a full roll... sometimes with Toms if you feeling sexy.

The date of that video is before I hit a cusp and have evolved due to the mistakes pointed out by previous posters.

So I've developed a few subgenres via mixing post punk, synthpop, and the like... here is a little diddy....

Since I decimated this thing, that was once known as a thread... I can be 100%.

This isn't a song. It's a concept I put down in audio form; when my sleep aid hits [a FckToN of benadryl] I randomly get these melodies in my head. If I don't record it... I forget it and it goes off into the ether. [I have a lot of these actually, in 4 different phones]. Totally ad lib, one take, nothing is written down because of such high doses of dph. I get cottonmouth and my fingers don't cooperate. [I can't sleep if I don't find Mr. Comatose].

I used it because I didn't think anyone would notice and give me a pat on the buttocks and an atta boy.

If you hit "writer's block" or just want a boost of creativity... overload on DPH (it can make you hallucinate, so be prepared; have your phone or pen and paper ready, but don't force it. Let it come to you.

You will get your mind blown... literally and figuratively.

This is a pretty basic dark post punk track besides switching the guitar effects to the D55 and play the guitar clean accompanied with Peter Murphy influenced vocals.

The bassline plays along with the kick and snare (this was before I started using arpeggiators).

I did write lyrics for this one and was not on any substances... a little different than the OP track hahaha


I don't like sharing my personal favorites, the world has yet to earn it.

I doubt anyone on ats can catch all the references made in the audio and video. When I listen I spot them... it's all unintentional. There's a lot of Rozz and Genesis P. Influences going on... including a TG guitar I was designing at the time in the opening image.

The kick is a distorted stomp bass ala Throbbing Gristle's Discipline, the weird creepy almost talking weird stuff about death and God... that's all Rozz. But he didn't have the monotone vocals, that's more of a Peter Murphy infatuation thing. The guitar reminds me of a few cinema strange tracks (I normally use that three finger picking style for apocalyptic folk, not dark post punk/cold wave).

It'd be cool if others posted their works. Surely I'm not the only d.i.y. or die pseudo producer here?

Based on a lot of ATS posts, I guess, half of you died from blood clots?