If you’ve been following Partition 36 on Facebook or Twitter (and if you don’t, you should), then you’ve probably read that I finished a new track recently.  It started out as an experiment with FM synthesis to create a slappy bass sound similar to what I used to hear in Sega Genesis games growing up.  Unfortunately the experiment itself failed, but I still managed to pull a new song out of it called “Midnight Highway”.

The song has a strong soundtrack-like flavor to it and, to me, sounds reminiscent of the track “Face Toward The Horizon” off of my last album.  During production I had a heck of a time finding a good bass sound to use for it.  In the end I found that a subtle yet deep sound worked best for what I had in mind, and so programmed one into my Moog Modular V software.  I also had a hard time deciding whether I should keep the chorus effect on the main melody, but ended up sticking with it in the end.

During production it had the file name of “Whoa 80s” due to the use of a bell sound that sounds an awful lot like something off the classic Roland D-50 synthesizer.  But as it got closer to being finished I decided to change this to its current title based on an image I saw in my head.  I could almost picture Priss, a character from my favorite anime, Bubblegum Crisis, riding her motorcycle on a highway late at night.  As she stops for a rest and looks out over the light laden city of Mega Tokyo.  Although the style of my song is quite different from the soundtrack in the anime, they still share some of the same timbres.  Thus, I decided to name it “Midnight Highway” based on this image.

I’ve attached a short clip of the song to this post, so please check it out!  I’d love to hear what everyone thinks of it.