Non v'è certezza
Eighteen months ago I set myself some creative constraints: think in new ways, visit unfamiliar genres, and do more with less - especially with tools I knew too well. That’s how Non v’è certezza began: the fifth piece in a “music for spas” set that tried to make upmarket elevator music – slow, airy, ambient. The first four landed. This one… didn’t. I liked the instrumentation and the vibe, but something wouldn’t sit.
This week I stopped forcing it. The track didn’t want to chill; it wanted to groove. The moment I introduced a beat and a light vocal texture, everything snapped into focus. The new problem was structural: six minutes felt like a string of related scenes rather than one piece.
The fix was to define a sonic universe first, then glue the parts inside it.
Stereo field & space
Mono below ~120 Hz; low-end center anchors the groove.
Mid/Side housekeeping: trim side energy in the low-mids (~150–300 Hz) to keep warmth from smearing the rhythm; allow width to live in upper mids/highs.
Shared FX returns (one short room, one longer modulated delay) so disparate elements feel like they’re in the same place. Reverb tails sidechained gently to the kick so space breathes with the groove.
Cohesion & tone
Saturation as glue: subtle tape-style on the mix bus for soft compression and head-bump weight; tube/console flavors on groups (drums, music, vox) to align harmonics. Keep drive low, mix 10–20%, output gained down to avoid loudness creep.
Light bus compression (think slow attack, medium release, 1.5–2:1, 1–2 dB GR) to catch peaks without flattening transients.
Dynamic EQ nudges: duck competing bands when vocals enter; release restores tone between phrases.
Motifs & movement
Introduce two subtle audio motifs that recur: a filtered percussive tick and a breathy pad swell. Automate their density not their level—e.g., increase LFO depth, widen Auto Pan amount, open filter Q—so sections feel related as they evolve.
Use call-and-response: drums state, vocals reply; then reverse. Small changes (kick pattern swap, off-hat placement, delayed clap) signal section shifts without adding layers.
Negative space as punctuation: one-bar drop before the final lift, tails carry the groove forward.
Lesson: trust the track that shows up, not the one you planned. Once I stopped insisting on “spa,” added a groove, and built a shared space for everything to live in, the whole piece clicked.