Blugazer’s latest single, “The Home Between My Walls,” released on Enhanced Chill, brings a fresh twist to the melodic house scene by blending rich piano sounds with the vibrant energy of dance music. This track stands out because it uses traditional instruments like the piano to add depth and emotion, connecting it deeply with listeners.
The production behind the track cleverly integrates both synthetic and organic sounds, setting a perfect stage for Blugazer’s discussion of the tools and techniques that shape his music. While the specifics of his approach are nuanced, the result is a layered, dynamic sound that captures the essence of both the electronic and acoustic worlds.
Blugazer hints at using innovative software and plugins to craft the unique sounds that define his tracks. These tools allow him to explore new textures and add complexity to his music, enhancing the listening experience. This aspect of his creative process is crucial for achieving the atmospheric and textured feel that his fans love.
Overall, the combination of these elements makes “The Home Between My Walls” not only a track that appeals to fans of electronic music but also those who appreciate the emotional resonance of classical instruments. Blugazer’s method, which balances the use of modern technology with traditional music-making, is what gives this track its distinctive character.
Main Plugin Or Synth
The lead sound in “The Home Between My Walls” might surprise you. It’s actually a combination of two sources! I used a bright, upright piano sample from Native Instruments’ Una Corda to create a base layer. Then, I layered a custom lead sound I designed on my Novation Summit synth. I love the Summit because it lets me create unique sounds from scratch. It has both classic wave types and built-in wavetables, giving me a huge range of sonic possibilities.
For this song, I used two sawtooth waves, slightly detuned from each other, to create a warm, pad-like base for the lead. I added some subtle distortion and delay from the Summit to give the layered sound more depth and character, making it sit well in the mix. The Una Corda sound is a bright upright piano sound with an almost refined lo-fi sound, so the Summit layer had to complement that sound to give it the spotlight. The flexibility of the Summit is incredible.
This layering is very common in my music; I adore synthesizers and the level of depth they offer. Equally, the sound of organic instruments, such as the piano, resonate with me emotionally – so why only use one? The trick here is to be intentional with layering and have each layer complement each other to form a unified sound. Additionally, ensuring frequencies do not clash between layers will make mixing a layered sound much easier.
Omnisphere
One thing that defines my sound is these dreamy, atmospheric pads that linger in the background. They add a sense of space and mystery to the music. To achieve this, I, once again, layer different sounds together.
I used Omnisphere to create these layered pads. It has a great library of sounds and lets you combine them in different ways. A lot of the onboard samples are very unique – burning pianos, whale sounds, you name it! This is perfect for building complex, atmospheric textures.
For the airy pad in “The Home Between My Walls,” I started with a preset called “Cryogenic Freeze” in Omnisphere. This preset already has a light and airy quality, so I just tweaked it slightly to make it smoother. Then, I layered a few other sounds on top: a gentle drone, a sustained vocal pad, and a single cello note. Each element adds a little something extra to the overall texture, making the pad feel fuller and more interesting. Finally, I added a long delay and reverb to create a sense of space and depth.
Butterfly Effect
In my music, I love taking sounds and textures and transforming them into these atmospheric washes. For a long time, I achieved this by layering sounds and then building a complex chain of effects processors like reverbs, delays, and filters. It’s a fun process, but it can also be time-consuming.
Recently, I discovered a plugin called Butterfly Effect by Soundbetter that can achieve similar textural results much faster. For the song “The Home Between My Walls,” I started with a deep pad sound I created in Omnisphere and a piano sample from Splice. Then, I used the “Light Airy Pad” preset in Butterfly Effect. This plugin combines a bunch of different effects – shimmer, reverb, chorus – to create a lush, atmospheric sound.
Butterfly Effect really brings those two sounds together, adding space, shimmer, and a bit of movement. It takes my layered sounds and transforms them into a perfect wash of sound for building my atmospheric textures.
Multi-input Sidechainer
In my music, I like to keep the background sounds present and interesting, but they can’t overpower the lead instruments. To achieve this, I use a technique called “ducking.” This typically involves using a plugin that lowers the volume of the background sounds whenever another instrument plays. The challenge was that some songs required a lot of ducking for different background elements. Using multiple ducking plugins on one channel became cumbersome.
That’s why I created a custom tool in Bitwig called the Multi-input Sidechainer. It streamlines the ducking process by letting me manage all the ducking controls in one place. Essentially, it allows me to set up individual ducking for different frequency ranges of the background sounds based on different instruments.
Being a software engineer by day definitely fuels my creativity. It allows me to see the tools I use not just for their intended purpose, but also for their potential. In this case, it meant pushing Bitwig’s capabilities to create a tool that perfectly suits my sound design needs.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
