I worked closely with electro-pop / dance songwriter Dokter Nomi for another catchy and cool track. Nomi sent me a scratch vocal sung to a beat. I expanded his melody to make it, well, more melodic, and laid down a chord progression on the piano to carry it. While Nomi’s melody suggested a clear I –> vi –> IV –> V progression, I introduced a Major III chord (in place of the Minor III) to put a little twist on the tried and true progression.

I played the new melody on my keyboard and sent it back to Nomi with a basic synth arrangement and beat. Some time later, we recorded his vocal in my home studio and I continued to develop the electro-pop synth arrangement with breakdowns and build ups.

Editing and Mixing process

I used Melodyne to centre each sung note, and reduce the vibrato to zero to make his voice sound more like a synthesizer. The contour tool in Melodyne let me edit the pitch movement between notes, from a hard cut to a smooth modulation up or down. I used a mix of both in shaping the melody.

For this kind of music, it’s important that the vocals be tight with the rhythm. I also eliminated any of Nomi’s breath sounds to give the vocal performance a more robotic quality.

Finally, I introduced phaser and chorus effects to the vocal to reintroduce some modulation in a more artificial way.

For the music bed, I used EQ and compression to give a punchy, pop sound.

Final track

Nomi writes cute and catchy love songs in a cool, original way. It’s always great fun to work with him, and I’m looking forward to our next collaboration!

Here’s the final version of Fallen Star: