Digicore

History and character

Digicore is a scene born in the late 2010s among teenagers producing and releasing music from home on SoundCloud, Discord and YouTube, closely tied to hyperpop and glitchcore. It mixes hyperpop, emo rap, trap, pop-punk, cloud rap, plugg and sometimes drum and bass, with heavily processed vocals (Auto-Tune, pitch shift), emo acoustic or electric guitars, distorted 808s and DIY production. The name evokes the “digital” nature of the scene, which formed through Discord servers and online collectives (for example Helix Tears and other groups of very young artists).

Artists: glaive, ericdoa, quinn, midwxst, brakence, aldn, d0llywood1, Angelus, kurtains, eaglewolfdragon, 8485; also close are Jane Remover (then dltzk), Underscores, ag3 and the 100 gecs circle as an influence. The scene exploded during the 2020 lockdowns, when many tracks went viral on TikTok and ended up on Spotify's hyperpop playlist; according to Wikipedia digicore and glitchcore are closely tied to hyperpop, and microgenres such as dariacore also came out of this environment.

Characteristics: very short tracks (1:30–2:30), confessional teenage lyrics about anxiety, love, loneliness and the internet; young voices with heavy Auto-Tune and high pitch; production with a “noisy,” deliberately imperfect mix; alternation between soft parts (emo acoustic guitar, pads) and distorted drops; influences from video game and internet culture.

Scales and keys

In the modes, Roman numerals refer to the scale of the mode; in minor, to the natural minor.

Natural minor (Aeolian) — emo

• Formula: 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 (T S T T S T T). In C# minor: C# D# E F# G# A B.
• Characteristic note: b6 (A): teenage melancholy.
• Chords: i C#m – III E – iv F#m – VI A – VII B.
• Use: emo acoustic guitar loops, i–VI–III–VII.

Major (Ionian) — bright pop-punk

• Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. In D: D E F# G A B C#.
• Use: I–V–vi–IV in power chords, “happy-sad” choruses.

Dorian and maj7 (midwest emo, plugg)

• Dorian: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 b7 — in E: E F# G A B C# D. Chords with sevenths and ninths on guitar (Em9, Amaj7, Cmaj7), a legacy of midwest emo and plugg.

Minor pentatonic (flow)

• 1 b3 4 5 b7: sung-rap melodies with Auto-Tune.

How to choose

Emo sadness: Aeolian. Pop-punk energy: major. Sophisticated melancholy: Dorian with maj7. Flow: minor pentatonic.

Harmony

Function

Loops of 2–4 chords (often played on acoustic guitar or sampled) that repeat; simple, melancholic harmony, with maj7 and add9 in the softer tracks. The distorted sections often reduce everything to power chords or a single chord.

Techniques

• Acoustic guitar loops with open chords and maj7.
• Power chords in the pop-punk sections.
• 808 pedal with chords above.
• Pitch shift of the loop to change sections.

Voicing

Guitars with open strings, maj7 and add9; bright synths in the high register; very low 808s.

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

Half-time trap with triplet hats and rolls, rage (distorted 808s, saturated synths), fast eighth-note pop-punk, drum and bass or breakcore sections, drumless parts with guitar alone. Swing 0%; frequent glitch and stutter; sudden tempo changes.

Drums

Kick

Syncopated, distorted kick and 808 (steps 1, 8, 11 in half time); in eighth notes in pop-punk.

Snare and clap

On 3 (half time) or on 2 and 4; trap claps; glitch snare rolls.

Hi-hat and percussion

Trap hats with rolls; video game samples; glitch.

Interaction

The vocal is always the center; drums and 808 sit underneath, but are very loud in the drops.

By section

Intro with guitar or synth; trap verse; chorus with distorted drop; bridge with acoustic guitar; short ending.

Fills and sounds

Stutter, tape stop, risers; standard trap sounds processed with distortion and bitcrush. Mistakes: track too long; drop with no contrast.

Bass

• Sound: distorted, saturated 808s, reese, rage basses.
• Notes: root, octave slides.
• Relationship with the kick: kick and 808 fused with a clipper.
• Examples: glaive — astrid, ericdoa — sad4whattt.

Harmonic instruments

Acoustic and electric guitar (emo), bright synths and plucks, pads, piano, video game samples, vocal chops. Voicings with open strings and maj7.

Melody and vocals

• Vocals: young voices, with heavy Auto-Tune (retune 0), high pitch, sometimes formant shift; alternation between melodic singing and rap; emo screams in the drops.
• Melody: simple, melancholic, repeated hooks; verses in rap flow.
• Effects: Auto-Tune, pitch shift, distortion, delay, reverb, tight doubles.

Instruments

DAW (FL Studio is very common in the scene), voice with Auto-Tune, guitars, 808s, trap drum machines and samples, synths, video game samples.

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• DX7 V — FM bells and plucks: Bright plucks and bells in the plugg/digicore style.
• Jup-8 V — Supersaw and pads: Pads and chords for drops and choruses.
• Korg MS-20 V — Distorted leads: Saturated rage leads.
• CZ V — Digital leads: “8-bit” and digital timbres.
• Piano V — Piano: Melancholic loops.

Song structure

Length 1:30–2:30.

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

Loud, saturated and “noisy” but with the vocal in front; imperfections accepted (DIY mix). References: glaive — astrid, ericdoa — sad4whattt, midwxst — Trying, brakence — rosier, Jane Remover — Frailty.

Kick and 808

HP 25 Hz; single bus with clipper and distortion; sub 40–55 Hz; presence at 1 kHz; mono.

Guitars

Acoustic: HP 120 Hz, compression 3 dB, room reverb. Distorted electric: HP 100 Hz, L/R doubles.

Synths and plucks

HP 200 Hz; OTT 20–40%; light sidechain.

Vocal

Auto-Tune (retune 0) → pitch/formant → EQ (HP 120 Hz, presence +4 dB at 3–5 kHz, air +3 dB) → heavy compression (12–15 dB) → parallel distortion → de-esser → tempo-synced delay, short reverb.

Buses and groups

Drum bus with clipper; vocal bus with saturation.

Master

Chain clipper → limiter. Target −6/−4 LUFS, true peak ≤ −1 dBTP (often exceeded in the scene), PLR 5–7 dB.

Common mistakes

Vocal covered by the 808s; Auto-Tune set to the wrong key; sub that disappears in the clipper; tracks too long for the format.

Mix reference tracks

glaive — astrid (2020); ericdoa — sad4whattt (2020); midwxst — Trying (2020); brakence — rosier (2020).

Reference listening

• glaive — astrid (2020)
• ericdoa — sad4whattt (2020)
• midwxst — Trying (2020)
• brakence — rosier (2020)
• quinn — i don't want to talk (2020)
• Jane Remover (dltzk) — Frailty (album, 2021)