Known for his pivotal role in the Acid Techno sub-genre revival through his label, InvolveRecords, Regal’s latest work revisits the genre’s essence while infusing it with a fresh, modern twist. Under his ACIDBOYalias, his latest album, ‘The Final Chapter’, is a nostalgic and forward-looking expression of an artist who has grown and adapted but remains true to his core musical identity. This eleven-track project blends the high-energy sounds that first defined my career with the depth and maturity gained over years of evolution whilst also honoring an unforgettable era of one of electronic music’s boldest and most expressive-sub-genres and artists. With the titular track having been just released, Regal breaks it down in our latest installment of How It Was Made.
Words and photos by Rega
My new track ‘The Final Chapter’ was produced in my home studio in Madrid in the past few months. It was actually quite a wild ride as I’ve finished the final version quite last minute, in the middle of the summer. During the production process, I was indeed in an album production mood and looking for something special that could be used both as an intro or the beginning of a DJ set and as a peak time banger at the same time, depending on the moment of when the track starts. So it had to have a long intro and something that would tear off the roof of warehouse.
To do this, I had to be very careful with the arrangement and the track progression, the single blocks of the track. So, I decided to start with a sax sample, which is calming and beautiful but at the same time eerie, especially as suddenly there also comes a vocal. This was a vocal that I had saved in my inspiration notes, but then suddenly it became part of a techno track.
The first thing I worked on was the percussion, as the very first idea was to create a percussive only, kind of 2000s hard groove track where the main element would have been the drums. Basically, the full percussion part was made with the Roland 909 clone from Behringer and then modified it and made it a bit more interesting with digital plug ins.
Once the percussion was done, I felt that the track was not powerful enough, so I decided to add an acid sequence. However, I didn’t want it to be too obvious, so I decided to do something similar like I did on my track “Still Raving” a few years ago, which is adding the acid bassline more or less in the middle of the track as a surprise element. I did this with the TT303, one of the many 303 clones in the market, and then I added some digital distortion. Then I added some FX and samples elements and ta-da, the track was done!
Grab your copy of The Final Chapter here.
The post How It Was Made: Regal Presents ACIDBOY – The Final Chapter [Involve Records] appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.