Project Viona Hertz – Experimental Journey into Music Production from Scratch

A journey from lockdown silence to digital soundscapes. This is the story of building music with no band, no budget, and no rules.

CREATEMUSIC PRODUCTION

The year was 2020, and the world felt like it had come to a stop. The pandemic had silenced cities. Streets were empty, calendars were meaningless, and days blurred into one another. Lockdown boredom, coupled with a low hum of anxiety, became part of daily life. But in that stillness, I found something unexpected: the space—and the need—to create.

I’d always been drawn to music. As a teenager, I daydreamed about playing bass guitar in a band. I even bought three bass guitars over the years, convinced that I’d one day commit and make it happen. I practiced a little, picked up the basics, but the discipline to get really good never stuck. Life moved on, and that teenage dream slowly faded into the background.

But then came technology. Virtual instruments and synths had become powerful, accessible, and—most importantly for me—cheap, often even free. Playing bass through a synthesizer just clicked with me in a way the real bass never did. The thick, gritty, futuristic sound of synth bass felt more exciting than the clunky, imperfect notes I used to stumble through on my guitar. I realized: synth bass wasn’t just a replacement for that old dream—it was my new passion.

During lockdown, another thought struck me: what if I could play all the instruments? Not with a room full of gear I couldn’t afford, but through software—virtual instruments, VST plugins, and synthesizers. As a tech nerd, the idea of controlling a whole band’s worth of sounds from my laptop wasn’t just appealing—it was a challenge I couldn’t resist. And if I could be a one-person band, why not take it a step further and create a virtual band?

That’s how Project Viona Hertz was born.

Viona Hertz wasn’t just a pseudonym; it was a concept. I drew inspiration from virtual acts like Gorillaz, Vocaloid singers, and even quirky fictional performers like Alvin and the Chipmunks. It fit my introverted nature—I could let the music speak for me without stepping into the spotlight myself. The band would be a coalition between human creativity and artificial intelligence, like Garry Kasparov’s idea of a human–AI “Centaur” partnership.

The name carried the idea: VIONA stands for Virtual Instruments Orchestration through syNthesis & Automation. Hertz, of course, ties it to the science of sound. The style? A cinematic blend of symphonic post-rock, post-metal, and synthwave—dark, atmospheric, and futuristic.

The challenge was simple but daunting: I had almost no music theory knowledge, no production experience, and no budget. My studio setup was a laptop, headphones, and the free DAW Cakewalk by BandLab. I scavenged the internet for free VSTs, downloading synths, samplers, and effects wherever I could find them. For the rest, I resorted to bootlegs when I had no other option. My university wasn’t YouTube—it was YouTube. I spent hours rewinding tutorials, slowly piecing together the basics of MIDI sequencing, mixing, and sound design.

I started with cover songs. The first was the Hawaii Five-O TV theme by Morton Stevens. I reimagined it with fast synth leads, sampled drums, metal guitar riffs, and high-energy tempos.
Link to YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/iSJZ9C0-cf4?si=K874dLwKcUGdXw1H

Then came Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee. I transformed it from a frantic orchestral piece into a wall of roaring synth pads, pounding double-kick drums, and distorted guitars.
Link to YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/OifWmJskuDo?si=dphLZHF8anGcFH0W

Those covers taught me more than any tutorial ever could. Every project forced me to wrestle with arrangements, layering, and the mix itself. And after a few experiments, I felt ready to take the leap into writing original music.

My first single was Gradient Descent, a mix of symphonic post-rock, metal heaviness, and synthwave textures.

https://youtu.be/Y_X79LGsZwo?si=pNeTT_aEYShYSqbU

It became the seed for my debut album: Back Propagation. Every track was named after AI algorithms—Cross Entropy, Regression, Random Forest—a playful nod to my life as a data scientist.
Link to YouTube video channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@vionahz9799/videos

Each track told its own story while contributing to a larger, atmospheric narrative:

I mixed and mastered everything in Cakewalk, teaching myself gain staging, EQ, and automation along the way. The dream album wasn’t completed yet, but I uploaded the six finished singles to Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and YouTube: [Links here].

https://vionahz.bandcamp.com/

https://soundcloud.com/user-101886973

https://www.youtube.com/@vionahz9799/videos

I had no expectation of millions of views or viral success—my goal was simply to learn how publishing works in the digital world, to see my music out there, alive and shareable.

And honestly, that was enough.

From 2023 onward, as life began returning to normal, my progress toward completing the album stalled. The inspiration and drive to create are still alive, but the momentum has slowed. Even so, I feel proud of what I’ve released. It may not compare to a polished, professionally recorded album from a studio, but for me it represents an accomplishment I never thought possible. At the same time, I recognize there’s much more to learn—music theory, songwriting, sound design, and engineering. This isn’t a career path for me, but a serious hobby. I don’t see myself as a professional musician—just an enthusiast, an amateur creator of electronic music.

Keeping this as a passion project actually feels natural, aligned with everything I’ve done in the past. It connects back to my background in electronic engineering, multimedia development, and my work as a data scientist. Music production, for me, is the perfect fusion of art, science, and technology.

Final thoughts

  • Technology has made it possible for anyone—with enough curiosity and passion—to become a musician or music producer. You don’t need expensive gear. You don’t need years of conservatory training. You can start with nothing but a laptop, headphones, and the will to figure it out.

  • Don’t let criticism stop you. Music is subjective, and not everyone will resonate with what you make. What matters is that you do. If the sounds you create give you joy, then you’ve already succeeded. And along the way, you’ll find people who share your taste and appreciate your work.

This is only the beginning of Project Viona Hertz—an experiment born out of lockdown boredom, shaped by technology, and fueled by a passion I thought I’d lost. The album may not be finished yet, but I know the journey isn’t over. The next phase will be about learning more, improving my craft, exploring sound design with hardware synthesizers, and experimenting with emerging technologies such as AI and modern synthesis techniques. My journey in electronic music production will be documented and shared through this blog site Tweaxter.Net, which I hope can also serve as a guide for beginners and aspiring music producers.

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