Known for their deep house hits and pulsing electronic mixes, Aberdeen pair t e s t p r e s s have been making waves in the music industry. Their unique sound and undeniable talent have earned them early support from renowned artists such as Denis Sulta, Skream, TSHA, and KETTAMA, to name a few.With releases on esteemed labels such as Shall Not Fade, &Friends, Trick, Wave Lengths, and Hot Haus Records, t e s t p r e s s has been building a solid discography that showcases their versatility and musical prowess. And, this summer their trajectory is expected to continue with performances at Parklife, Society, Invisible Wind Factory, TRNSMT Festival and Beat Herder Festival.
Words and Photos by T E S T P R E S S
ARRANGEMENT
PIANO CHOPS – TAL SAMPLER
The original piano is sampled from the 1991 song “I Need You” by Nikita Warren. We decided for progression that we wanted to chop the piano loop and build it up to the full sample which happens in the final build/last drop. To achieve this we used 3 instances of the TAL SAMPLER to chop the sample into sections so we could then use the piano roll in Fruity Loops to create our own patterns. Finally, we added some delay and reverb to the created stabs with the internal FX in the TAL.
BASS – ROLAND CLOUD JUNO 106 (SOFTWARE)
For the bass we used the Juno 106 and a famous patch from it. This patch is the Juno Solid Bass which is an iconic 80s synth sound due to its prevalence on early house records and for that reason you can still hear it everywhere today. We tweaked some of the parameters from the original patch inside the VST to get the exact sound we
wanted. Throughout the track we used automation clips to control the low pass filter and release parameters at certain points of the track to create some movement.
PLUCK – ROLAND CLOUD JUNO 106 (SOFTWARE)
For the plucks we have another instance of the Juno 106. These plucks are quite low in the mix and only appear for a few sections of the track. Their primary function is just to add depth to the drop sections to help fill out the sections where the piano is lowpassed. We used the piano plucks preset and again tweaked certain parameters till we got the exact sound we wanted.
PAD – SERUM
This pad is a custom patch that we made for Serum. It’s heavily inspired by
the old 2013 Disclosure-type sound and is highly versatile as it tends to work really well in most tracks. Serum made the most sense for creating this pad due
to the huge range of options in this VST allowing for very malleable sounds that are super powerful.
STRINGS – KORG M1 (SOFTWARE)
Once the track was almost complete, we felt like the final build-up was missing something. As this track was inspired by the early 90s house sound we thought to include a string pattern to compliment the piano sample. If we are using strings in a track we always tend to go for the m1 as it has a nice old rich sound that is perfect for dance music.
AUTOMATION
EXTRA MIXER FX
SOOTHE
We love using soothe for taking out some harsh resonant frequencies in anything from vocals to synths to hats etc. It’s super powerful, simple to use, and you have the CPU to handle it then it is a must.
PANMAN
We always use Panman to add stereo width and movement. We usually automate it on synths or vocals at certain parts of the track as these elements seem to create the best overall effect with the goal of creating a sense of depth to the mix.
RC – 20 RETRO COLOUR
This plugin is great for adding texture to synths and any other instruments like pianos etc. There are a bunch of great presets to choose from that are easily tweaked to taste.
VALHALLA VINTAGE VERB
This is another go-to plugin for us which you will hear in all of our productions. It sounds great even on the initial start-up preset. We always have a reverb send channel set up in the mixer with a number of our tracks being routed to using automation to
control the amount at different points of the track.
Grab your copy here.
