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Picking up from their celebrated 2023 collaboration “Everything,” GRAMMY®-nominated electronic music producer Mild Minds and Melbourne-based musician edapollo return with “IN YOUR EYES.” This new single, released under ODESZA’s Foreign Family Collective highlights the duo’s ability to merge their unique sounds into a cohesive and captivating track. The combination of Mild Minds’ polished sound design and Edapollo’s natural instrumentation creates an engaging listening experience, marking their second official collaboration.
We had the chance to catch up with these lads to talk about what plugins they used to make a tack that’s as texturally dense and emotionally charged as this one because if ODESZA’s catching notice of what these guys can do, they must be doing more than just a few things right in the studio. So take a listen to the track below, as always we recommend listening a few times over to acclimate your ears to the sauce they’re about to share, and then dive into the latest iteration of How It Was Made: edapollo & Mild Minds – IN YOUR EYES (Foreign Family Collective).
Serum
The main plucky synth on this track is from the Serum VST, I use a mix of analog synths and VSTs but lately I’ve been moving around a lot, so working in the box has been easier. Serum is great because its very versatile and you can get pretty creative with creating unique patches or adapting the many great presets.
I used the ‘PL_D_pluck’ preset as a starting point, then played with many parameters. I like to get expressive by using automation on synths across my tracks to add dynamics and build tension at different moments. In this track, the pluck is mostly very tight, with the decay and release set very quick, but sometimes, at the end of a bar or phrase, I will automate those parameters to be longer for a brief moment, then pull them back in; this push and pull creates a lot of interest and vibe for me.
At the same time as doing this, I’m automation other parameters like the cut-off and resonance to add further flavor and excitement. In addition to all this, I like to add delay and reverb to my synths and also automate the amount of wet signal is being sent to the synth at different moments, you can get expressive with all these things and create something more engaging in my opinion.
Another little trick I like to do on synths like this once I’ve dialled in all these details, is to record the audio of the synth on a separate track, then manipulate the audio in experimental ways, for example, extending the waveform so it’s longer than it should be, then reversing it and cutting small segments of the audio and placing it at unique points in the timeline, perhaps with some creative panning decisions and / or adding more reverb to make it feel distinctly different to the main driving synth but to act as more of a sound design layer that supports the main synth.
I think experimenting is key with these kinds of plugins. Often, I stumble my way around new plugins, clicking things until I understand what they do! I would say get creative both inside the plug-in and with adding other effects plugins because you can really take a sound in a completely different direction doing so.
RC-20
This is the RC-20 Retro colour, probably one of my most used plugins, it allows things to sound more analog and adds a lot of character to sounds. I like to add a minimal amount of ‘wobble’ on a lot of synth sounds; it gives it that tiny bit of extra vibe and makes it feel slightly less digital. The distortion is also great for adding extra bite and flavour to sounds, you can also target specific parts of the frequency range to distort which allows you to refine the sound to your tastes.
I started at the preset ‘Depth for plucks’ on this track and then automated the different parameters until it felt right for the song. As you can see, the distortion is quite high. I felt like it gave the synth a lot of presence and made it more grabby to the listener.
This plugin is great but sometimes you have to use it subtly to sound effective. I guess it depends what sound you are going for, but its a powerful tool for adding depth to any sound source
Timeless 3
This is the Timeless 3 delay plugin, a beautiful delay which can create some super interesting and experimental sounds. I used this on the main synth subtly to add dynamic and tension at different points, I normally set the EQ part to the higher frequencies as i find this helps the overall mix sound cleaner.
This plugin has so many awesome presets, so I’d say that is a good starting point. I know some producers get funny about using presets, but honestly, I don’t think it matters. They can be a great starting point, at least to help you tweak and hone the sound you want.
Quick-Fire Production Tips
Tip #1: Create a great chord pattern or note sequence that resonates with you emotionally
Tip #2: Try sending in through different synth patches and find a sound that you feel really works with the chords and excites you
Tip #3: Create a beat that locks with the synth you made
Tip #4: start to experiment with adding other layers, auditioning different elements until something really stands out to you
Tip #5: Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to try something interesting or different. There’s so much music out there, and something unique could really make you stand out. For example, sampling a voice note of your friend talking and then auto-tuning it to the track or some field recordings processed creatively—anything that adds an individuality to your track that no one else will have.
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