This edition of Magnetic Magazine’s How It Was Made series focuses on Fundido’s “Drops of Time,” the new single from Brooklyn duo Latane Hughes and Billy Scher for Mexico’s Boyanza Records, featuring vocals from Emma Dufaux. Written during a prolonged summer rainstorm in New York City, the track began as a simple loop shared between the two producers before evolving into a fully formed song shaped by live performance and extended studio improvisation. What started as a casual file exchange quickly became a piece rooted in mood, environment, and real-time collaboration.
The track took on its final form at Studio Sisserou in Dumbo alongside producer and engineer Miles Felix, where the original synth sequence was reworked and recorded through a Juno-6 with live filter and resonance movements captured in a single take. An out-of-tune upright piano became another defining element, recorded during long improvised sessions and later revisited months after the initial mix to build the Piano Mix version. Vocals from Emma Dufaux were also developed through extended looped performances, with improvised ad-libs cut and placed throughout the arrangement to give the song its breathy, hypnotic character.
Rather than relying on rigid arrangement or heavy editing, “Drops of Time” grew through looping, jamming, and selective excavation of long recordings made in the moment. The final track reflects Fundido’s approach to production as documentation of a session rather than construction from parts, where synth lines, piano phrases, and vocal textures were shaped by timing, weather, and instinct as much as by gear. In this How It Was Made edition, the duo break down how the song moved from a rain-soaked sketch into a finished release built on performance, patience, and careful listening.
Produciton Breakdown
The initial creation of this tune happened over the course of a couple hours while there was one of those long extended rain storms happening in NYC. Billy sent over a loop of drums, bass, and a repetitive synth sequence over to Latane with the file named ‘Drops of Time’ as a casual/mindless reference to the rain drops falling outside. Latane picked up the baton and wrote the top line later that day during the same storm, obviously referencing the rain… so it ended up feeling right to stick with the title through to the end.
Latane extended the loop to start structuring a fuller track, which we then brought to Studio Sisserou in Dumbo with our producer/engineer Miles Felix (Sisserou).
With Miles in tow, we reworked the synth sequence a bit and then ran the midi through a Juno 6 while recording live manipulation of the cutoff frequency and resonance parameters. What you hear in the final recording is actually a single take that felt so special that we just printed it and never looked back.
Next we added the piano. At that time we were having a love affair with the acoustic upright piano Miles keeps in the studio. We had recently made a track called ‘Amor’ (which is actually the track that connected us to Boyanza) using this piano. The piano is not perfectly in tune so it gives things a very human and imperfect feel which we love. We played the current iteration of the ‘Drops of Time’ track on loop for 10-15 minutes while Miles improvised on the piano, recording the entire extended jam. We used pieces of the recording to make the main piano loop you hear in the original mix, and parts from the rest of that jam were later dug up and used in the piano mix (almost a full six months after the making of the original mix).
Lastly we brought in our very talented friend Emma Dufaux, who sang the original topline with her breathy stylized vocal and nailed it quickly. We then let the track loop for 15-20 minutes with the record button on, and let Emma do extra ‘ad-lib’ vocals throughout the song, riffing off the original lyrics and melody. She is great at this and gave us tons to work with. We went through this extended improv recording and picked out and chopped up our favorite parts and added them throughout the track.
Finally we sent it to Stu Turner for mastering who applied his magic touch (check out his productions under his Forge alias!) and that was it.
PRODUCTION TIPS
Tip #1
Take a break from a track and work on something else and come back to it. Or just stop playing music entirely for a minute, have some food /leave the studio, and return with a fresh ear and a different mindset. For example, we would record the improvised sessions mentioned above, and then work on something else or take a break. We would return to the improv recordings later with a fresh mind/ear and start to pick through our favorite parts. With the above being said, it is important to try to limit the number of versions and remember you’re trying to capture a moment in time.
Tip #2
Don’t be afraid to trash an idea if it doesn’t seem to be working, even if you’ve spent hours on it. It may seem tough in the moment, but 20 minutes later you won’t care at all.
Tip #3
Make time and give time to jam in a live setting (ie midi too) with the goal of adding human elements to your track. Make sure you are always recording everything, and not deleting anything permanently. You don’t want to miss anything, and you also may return a recording many months later and find something new – ie we made an entire separate ‘Piano Mix’ version after revisiting the piano recording session six months later after initial session. Same thing with vocals – give the singer time to improvise a bit if they’re up for it.
Tip #4
Plug in tip – The Shaperbox by Cableguys is used in almost every session. It has an incredibly versatile side chain shaping tool but with 11 effects total, it can be utilized in countless ways.
Tip #5
Kind of an obvious one these days , but try out tracks in the club even when they are not fully finished. Try to bounce something every session that might be playable on a big system, even if you know there’s more mixdown work to do. As they say… that’s why they have those knobs on the DJ mixer baby.
The post How It Was Made: Fundido – “Drops of Time” (Boyanza Records / Cosmic House) appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.