… Synthlove EP has been released …

“Synthlove”, an EP of 1980’s synthpop covers, has been released. The songs were sequenced on a Nintendo DSi using the Korg DS-10+ cart. “Synthlove”, is a companion piece to the 2009 album “Bits” (an album inspired by Atari 2600 games).

It is available directly from Distropolis, or on the iTunes US store.

My love for early synthpop has combined with the immediacy of sequencing on a handheld game console.

How did I do it?
I sequenced the songs in “dual” mode on the Korg DS-10+ cart. This was a challenge due to the 4 note limit of the software! It is hard to squeeze any chordal depth or texture out of such a limited tone range. The DS also exhibits a great deal of aliasing, so sounds had to be chosen carefully. At times, I had to use the tracks that are dedicated to percussion as additional tonal instruments.

After the sequencing was completed, I plugged the headphone jack of the DSi into my audio interface and recorded the sequences into my computer using Sonar 8.5PE. I recorded the vocals over the instrumental sequences using an AKG 414, mixed, mastered and done! I licensed the songs for digital distribution through Limelight.

Enjoy!