Week 3: Queer beats

Within week 3 we were set the task to create a piece inspired by queer and industrial music.

My piece is a guitar driven track with a lot of distortion/saturation to add harsh grit and reverb to give it space. Throughout the track I have a repeating drum pattern created using samples of a Roland CR-68 played though the decent sampler plug-in. I fee like this adds a lot of character to the tone of the drums as this old drum machine has a lot of grit and warmth as it is real samples recorded from the real machine. This acts as an anchor point throughout the song to keep it moving and almost feels like steps pacing along with momentum. This anchor system is very common in a lot of industrial and experimental music as it keeps everything consistent and just on the edge of total chaos as all the other elements dance around this anchor. This is described well by the YouTube channel
“Broken English Prod” when discussing production techniques for the artist Arca.

throughout this track I also use automation to change the characteristics of many of the sounds. The drums in this track are a main focus so as the track progresses, I push a tube saturator plug-in harder and harder on the drum track until it starts to blow out and sound harsh and fully distorted. I also used compression in unusual and creative ways to challenge my views on how to typically use compression in a mix.

I added a blown out compressor on the reverb aux of the track and side chained it to trigger on the kick drum. All of the tracks were sent though the reverb aux to give the whole song a sense of space but the reverb ducks and distorts when the kick drum triggers the compressor that then affects the rest of the track to really push the kick drum to the front of the mix as it’s the main anchor within the song.

ultimately I think this style of production can really benefit a lot of producers as even if you are not creating a more experimental track, thinking this way can really help you break out of thinking in the box to help solve problems in the mix or even to create new sounds. Experimentation is so important for music production as every aspect is a very creative process so finding new ways to reach a goal or to find something new in itself is very creative and explorative

References:

Broken English Prod (2023) What makes Arca’s production so unique?  Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7tA7AiIppI. [accessed 23rd October 2025]

Christian Henson – Pianobook. Available at: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/posh-drum-machine/.[accessed 23rd October 2025]

Tau, M (2022) Extreme music. Feral House (Page 34)

Weekhout, H (2019)Music production: learn how to record, mix, and master music. New York : Routledge (Page 139)