Charli XCX released Brat, her sixth studio album, on June 7, 2024, and achieved a score of 95 out of 100 on Metacritic, making it the artist's highest-rated album of the year and the sixteenth of all time.

The album evokes and channels the illegal London rave scene, where Charli XCX began performing "when she was 14 or 15." According to Charli, Brat is "her most aggressive and confrontational record", but also her most vulnerable.

Brat is a club,​ hyperpop,​ and dance record. According to Charli XCX, Brat is produced from a tight collection of sounds to create "this unique minimalism that's very loud and edgy."

In this article I wanted to deconstruct the opening track of the album, ‘360’, recreating from scratch all the synths, drums and vocals, as well as its production. Listen to it below, and read the whole process step by step below!

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CHARLI XCX - 360: SYNTHS PRODUCTION

As we have said, the tracks have a minimalist style, and the variety of sounds is limited in some songs, as is the case of ‘360’. The song is based on 6 tracks with different synth sounds that we will see below, and that is all. Only the snare and the voice are added to this instrumental. Download all of these synth patches on my patreon and support my work!

First of all we have this keys sound that opens the intro. To recreate it I have used Arturia’s MiniFreak with the following parameters. I have used the Two Op. FM and KarplusStr waveforms simultaneously and I have applied chorus and delay. Listen below to the Two Op. FM waveform separately, and both together to see the difference.

Charli XCX - 360 Keys Two Op. FM osc

Charli XCX - 360 Keys full sound

This sound is layered with the same notes using this other sound that I recreated in a "bells" style. Listen to it below, and then listen to both together to see how they complement each other and achieve that layering effect.

Charli XCX - 360 Bell sound

Charli XCX - 360 Bell + Keys

For the low end, we find a synth-bass when the verse starts. I recreated it again with the MiniFreak (taking advantage of the fact that I have it in physical version!). I used a SawX waveform and another FM/RM waveform and applied chorus with the following settings.

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Charli XCX - 360 Synth-bass

At some points in the second half, a more distorted synth-bass sound also appears, which I recreated using the same SawX waveform but adding a Comb Filter on the second oscillator to break up the sound and a Bit Crusher effect from the MiniFreak itself (I love its built-in effects!). Listen to the sound below without the effects, and then with the filter and distortion effects mentioned.

Charli XCX - 360 Bass-synth 2 without filter and bit crusher

Charli XCX - 360 Bass-synth 2

In the choruses, a final synth appears, maintaining a sequence on the same note. I recreated it with the MiniFreak with a SuperWave waveform mainly to give it that lead feel, and it was important to add the delay effect to give it that sequencer style. Listen to it without and with delay to hear the difference.

Charli XCX - 360 Lead synth without delay

Charli XCX - 360 Lead synth

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CHARLI XCX - 360 DRUMS

In Charli XCX's 360 drum machine section we only have kick and snare/clap in this song. The snare is very distinctive, with a clap sound, and I'd bet he repeats the same snare sample in several of her songs on the album. Listen to it here.

Charli XCX - 360 Snare/clap sample

Added to this is an 808 kick drum that I recreated with the following preset on Arturia's Synthi. It packs a punch and in addition to the kicks, it adds different tones, following the same notes of the synth-bass. Listen to it below.

Charli XCX - 360 Kick 808 sound

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CHARLI XCX - 360: VOCAL PRODUCTION

Charli XCX's vocals on the Brat album are quite pop, direct, abusing autotune in some cases, and mostly with a touch of distortion or saturation that makes her voice more aggressive.

I recorded a single vocal track, with the help of the incredible voice of Devon Garcia. The basic effects chain I use is the same one I use on all my remakes and consists of EQ, compressors, DeEsser and Doubler. I used fast retune speed on Autotune in this track to recreate the sound of the original song. You can check this chain in my older articles!

Then I use Waves CLA Vocals with the Baby Double preset and then Waves Doubler4 to get that stereo on the vocal from a single recorded vocal track. Finally it has a bit of reverb with ValhallaVintageVerb and one send to Empty Room Systems' DimD64 for chorus effect.

Listen to the solo vocal here!

Charli XCX - 360 Solo Vocals

I hope you liked this remake of Charli XCX's Brat album that has become so popular these last few months! Remember that I put a lot of time into each remake and your support on my Patreon is a huge help!

Don't forget to watch the remake on youtube! See you in the next one!

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