Mixcop1983

An important part of Timecop1983’s sound is the production, which features lush ambient space, created through the tasteful use of delay and reverb, to add the dreamy element to compliment the 80s elements. In the synth audio examples above I found that treating the synths with heavy compression, delay and reverb helped the sound. For compression, I used Ableton’s Glue Compressor, which is pretty transparent sounding, and for the delay I used Filter Delay to get an analogue-like wide delay sound, with the delays occupying the stereo channels. For reverb, I found a big hall sound with space at maximum and time over 3 seconds worked perfectly. In Ableton Reverb, I also boosted Reflect and Diffuse to really make the reverb signal sparkle.

“I don’t have a particular technique or anything, but I do have a FL Studio template I use all the time. It consists of a multiband compressor, parametric EQ and a limiter. This gives my music the same feel and sound every time.”

Another detail to note is that his drum tracks often eschew hi-hats and cymbals, and instead rely solely on simple kick and snare patterns, sometimes with toms for fills. The lack of hi-hats and cymbals gives his songs a sparseness and gives up a lot of frequency room for the synth elements.

Melodycop1983

“The basis is always a short loop — 6-7 seconds — that has all the sounds that are played in the middle of the track, and from there I start working on the build-up and break-down of the track.”

One of the elements that makes Timecop1983’s music sound so catchy is the choice of harmony in his songs. A chord progression he really likes is the IV – V – vi – I progression, which has an ascending bassline and sounds interesting because it doesn’t start on the I chord. It is the basis of the songs Come Back and Lovers; in the key of C Major the chords are F – G – Am – C, and they sound like this: