Writing a Slowcore track from scratch

As I mentioned in this blog post, so much about making slowcore music is about embracing simplicity.

In today’s episode of Diary of a Music Maker, I show you how I produce instrumental slowcore music.

You see me write the track ‘Do you think that?’ from the album, The past is blurry by my instrumental slowcore project, I don’t know myself.

My approach falls into these steps:

1. Lay down the drums (usually the same drum pattern)

2. Record the main guitar line which is usually a bassline

3. Record a second guitar part that works in conjunction with the main guitar line

4. Record a melody line

5. If I am recording vocals I’d do that here

6. Record an ambient topline

7. Refine structure - I usually stick to an A-B-A-B-B structure

For the ‘master’ I keep it simple. On the stereo out bus, I keep it very simple with cassette emulation software by Wavesfactory and a limiter, PSP Xenon.