Seylow - Mirrors

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  Track Artwork

Inspiration

Alright... There is some background behind this track. When I first started producing it, I kind of did not get the feeling of what I was producing. You know, I have always been invested in learning about new technologies and implementing them into my life and what I do as a music producer daily. It personally helps me keep fresh. It didn't matter how much I knew because, at the end of the day, I felt like everything was too superficial and that I was just making a robot song for a big digital world that I hadn't seen yet.Then, that is when it hit me. I realized that I was not "feeling it" because of the lack of emotion and the idea of trying to portray something that is completely artificial. Nevertheless, that was the sweet spot: "it does not matter how artificial something can be; we as humans are all the time trying to put emotions into things that do not have them naturally." For example, Tron. We can see how the main character joins the grid as a human with the purpose of finding his dad, who is trapped in his own creation of a digital world. After that enlightenment, I had enough momentum to keep on with what I was creating. 

What it does

Basically, it started as an EDM sort of futuristic electro house song. Then, after having some clarity on the project, I started implementing organic instruments: strings, piano, percussion. The organic elements are meant to represent the human presence in everything that we do. In addition, the main idea that the track is trying to show is that we, as humans, create out of emotion. Even if it is a digital world in which we do not have physical encounters, we are still having the same human experiences, which are feelings. It makes no difference whether we play fiction games in VR in the Metaverse; what matters is that we as humans will feel and react to those experiences.

How we made it

I have been producing music for four or five years now. I started with FL Studio and I still use it now as my preferred DAW. I sometimes use Ableton and definitely use Pro Tools for recordings. As for this project, I used both Ableton and FL Studio. Technically speaking, I produced the song in FL Studio and did the mixing and mastering process in Ableton. I usually start with a chord progression. It makes me connect with the intention, so I just start playing in my MIDI until I come across something. As mentioned before, Tron was sort of what was on my mind when thinking about this project, so I sort of created a similar ambiance. From my side, I added a little bit more of a human touch to the atmosphere with real instruments and recorded percussion. I wanted this track to feel like a real mixture of the worlds and In my ears, it is just in the spot.

Challenges we ran into

To be honest, it wasn't easy to feel comfortable using real instruments for this project. I felt like I had to completely create a futuristic and artificial atmosphere. Nevertheless, I started by writing all the melodies first because it was the thing that felt the most logical to do at the moment. When I finally started feeling connected to the mood of the track, I moved to choosing the sound design for every single section. It was hard at first, because at the beginning, I also thought that if I was to add organic elements like the real instruments, I should do it from the very beginning. Either way, at the end, the idea was solid. At the very end of the creative process, I felt a bit limited by the CPU as these analog emulators and organic simulation plugins need a lot of performance. I stopped and tried to keep the track full but simple. The truth is that the hardest part of this project was the mixing and mastering because the acoustics of the different sounds are different. In technical aspects, this track puts the organic sounds as its main characters because it would have been too messy to play with all of these frequencies all at once. 

Accomplishments that we're proud of 

The first time I listened to the final result, it just felt odd to me, sort of like I had produced two different separate tracks in the same audio. Finally, when I totally processed the entire final product, I remembered what the intention was at the end... Even if it is a completely "different world," it is still the same in the same space. Then, when I started listening again, I really started enjoying the project with the perspective of having this mixture of worlds. Overall, what I liked the most about the track was the ambiance. The atmosphere that is created around the main elements and the way it feels in the ears.  What we learned In the end, there is a human touch to everything we do. Personally, the purpose of even attending this event was unclear. When I thought about making a song about the vision of the metaverse, I was completely excited, but I did not know what the real intention behind this project was. In addition, I feel like I have found a part of myself as an artist. The whole process of this project helped me understand how we want to empathise with everything, for the most part, creating and sharing things that will help us connect with others and even ourselves. The metaverse is a huge creation that will allow people to create, share, and live a lot of experiences that will still generate feelings and exciting emotions.

What's next for you? Seylow: Mirrors

Hopefully, there will be a great path for this track! I would like to share the vision of the whole project, including this text. This song will probably be sent to a record label for release, and hopefully bring a meaningful experience for the listeners who see the perspective of the intention behind this track.  The very fact that this song is in this competition makes it special, and that is what matters, because despite the rewards, the vision and the intention of what the song wants to transmit to the people is always going to be there!

Built With

• ableton
• flstudio
• livesuit
• ozone