Music Spot: Memories Overdrive - Vincent Thomas

Memories Overdrive

Blending a rolling arp lead, simple bass, and subtle cutoff movement, this synthwave track turns 80s nostalgia into a clean, head-nodding ride with sharp attention to sound. Memories Overdrive by Vincent Thomas is this month's MusicSpot!

What’s the real meaning of this track beneath the surface?

I wanted to make a simple synthwave track, which carries a nostalgia feeling (like most synthwave tracks). The title idea came at the end of the production, when I started watching some ‘’80s nostalgia’’ videos using this song as soundtrack. Naturally, seeing the 80s movies brought back a lot of ‘’memories’’. The ‘’overdrive’’ idea came when seeing the overdrive knob from ''back to the future'' 😊.

What line (or moment) is the emotional core of the track?

The arp lead from the intro is running throughout the track, which is typical in synthwave. Even though it moves from the foreground to the background in certain sections, it is for me the main signature of the track.

What was the first spark?

I wanted to work on ‘’typical synthwave intros’’. I was not intending to do a full track at first. But in this case, the arp and polysix bass gave me the initial spark that evolved into a full song.

Walk us through your process from first idea to final version.

1. I started with the intro (I forced myself to stick to a synth (arp) and a simple bass line, working on sound design until it felt decent enough.
2. Then I worked on the drums (with different patterns and fills that I could use in different sections of the track).
3. With the foundation done, I started experimenting with chord pads, leads, etc. The idea was to keep the intro arp rolling with shifting chords/bass (typical synthwave).

What was the hardest part, and how did you solve it?

As always for me the hardest part is to escape the ‘’8 bar loop trap’’. Especially with synthwave music, which often has this ‘’repetitive motion’’ DNA. The first trick was to break the arp pattern at the end of the 8 bar (just to restart the momentum) and then experiment also with background synths (for harmonies changes) that come and go.

Name one hidden detail you’re proud of that most listeners might miss.

Nobody will hear it (I actually forgot about it too) but the snare is heavily clipped. I managed to reduce my peaks by 8dB without altering the tone of the snare (most snares from 80s drum machine are far from perfect and often have these transient killer spikes). I can't say that I'm proud of it, but clipping helped me later on for compression and limiting during mixing (even though the final loudness is really not that high (~-14 LUFS)).

What’s the must-listen moment in the track?

The track is fairly simple (not many elements) and synthwave is mostly defined (for me) by constant rolling motion rather than big drops/moments. This being said, when I listen to it, the defining moment is probably at 0:16 when the sub is introduced and the kick starts pounding (maybe a little loud now that I listen to it again…). Then at 0:32 when the synths open up the track.

If the track’s world was one image/scene, what is it?

The image that did fit well in my opinion during the video editing was the ‘’Breakfast Club detention dance’’ at 0:18 (see youtube video).

Which production element carries the feeling the most?

Maybe the arp lead which is running throughout the track (typical in synthwave). But the basic drum pattern is probably what makes people nod their head when listening.

What’s the perfect listening moment for this track?

Whenever you need to take your Delorean for a drive.

If you had to tell listeners to focus on one thing while listening what should it be?

If you want to train your ears you might want to focus on the simple cutoff frequency automation on the lead arp which moves up and down (between 0:32 and 1:04). It’s subtle but helps the arp perpetual motion I think. Then it drops in the background during the break and comes back up from 1:20 to 1:35, etc.

Give 1–2 references you had in mind for this track

This is the first time I worked with a reference track (from production to mixing). I used different tracks from the synthwave artist Killstar (from the album ‘’Worlds Apart’’).

 

You can listen to Memories Overdrive by Vincent Thomas on the SoundGym Charts, and you can also listen to it on Soundcloud and YouTube

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