- How do I tell chillwave from dream pop?
- Look at the foundation. Dream pop is a guitar band: the wall of sound comes from heavily effected electric guitar. Chillwave is built on synthesizers and a drum machine, with acoustic drums rarely present. Both are hazy — one is a band's haze, the other a synthesizer's. Name the instrumentation and the generation stays put.
- How far back should the vocal actually sit?
- Roughly level with the pads: the melodic contour should read while most of the words do not. Prompt 'vocal balanced with the synths, heavy reverb and delay, blurred lyrics' and avoid 'vocal up front', which drags the result back toward ordinary synth-pop.
- My generation is a wash of mud. How do I rescue it?
- Keep one or two elements dry as anchors — usually kick and bass. Add 'bass and kick stay dry, everything else heavily reverbed' to the prompt and the haze survives while the rhythmic skeleton stays legible. Keeping one dry element also gives you a reference point when you extend the track.
