So, carrying on from the last one in a way.
Another sound made by sending an outboard synth through some heavy DSP type things. Different out come though.
This time I was playing with the Monotron. For some reason I really like noodling with it. I think the fact that it has such a simple interface, and immediate too, makes it a real joy to just mess about with! The sound is great, if it's the type of sound you're after, but not today!
I thought it would be fun to try out making some dark drone and ambient effects with it. In a way, I had in mind the idea of real time sound tracking almost. As I said, the interface is incredibly immediate, so it would be cool to alter the sound enough to make it suitable for some real dark thriller sound track and be able to play along to the visuals. I think with a bit of practice it could be surprisingly effective.
The Monotron is running into Reaktor, and straight into a Spectral resynthesis patch I built. This straight away has a massive affect on the tone. Really lush over tones and weird harmonics. With the LFO on the monotron going at full whack, and the resonance right up you get some really out there tones!
After that it's just a big old reverb patch from the Space Designer instrument, still one of my favourites! Then I just hit records and started tweaking. Most satisfying was quickly flicking the cutoff down to get a hit out of the resonance. Nice big Spectral twang!!
MONOTRON-DRONE by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Showing posts with label Analogue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Analogue. Show all posts
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Friday, 4 March 2011
Sound-A-Day 04.03.2011
Here's something a bit different.
Something that has always interested me is generative music, but I've never really tried to make anything like that so I thought I'd give it a bash.
What I found hardest was finding the balance of input. As in how much is the patch doing completely autonomously, and how much is from my suggestion.
I started off by building a fairly simple sample based drum machine, which I split into 3 parts. One sequencer lane for the kick, one for snare, and a third for percussion noises. Next I spent a couple hours making short snappy drum sounds with an SH101. Made about 50 in total, I also made one straight up kick drum sound, and one snare sound.
I loaded the kick and snare into their own sample modules, and the remaining samples all got loaded into one sample module. I also built a automation channel for sample selection. This meant that I could sequence a solid Kick Snare pattern and allow the percussion to wander around.
Next I made a couple of randomising LFO's which sync to the main clock. One of these was assigned to percussion sample selection, the other to percussion sample pitch.
Finally I built a comb filter and ran the entire drum mix through it. I assigned another Tempo synced LFO to control the pitch of the comb filtering. Put the output through a heavy compressor, and that's about it for the drums.
This was sounding pretty cool, but needed something more to make it a bit more musical.
I loaded up an old FM synth I built a while ago, and sent the trigger from the snare pattern into the gate of the synth. Then another random LFO to control the FM interval. Finally I built a pretty complex macro for controlling the pitch of the notes played based on a few other things going on in the patch. Ran this through the compressor too, which gave quite a nice side chain style pumping.
Lastly, I brought up the recorder box, hit record and then pressed play, this is what came out.
GENERATIVE 1 by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Pretty cool I think. Reminds me quite a bit of Autechre, although a long way from the complexities they have in their music. Some similarity for sure though. I do really like its completely emotionless mechanical quality, definitely something I couldn't have written if I had tried, but I do feel that I still could have had less involvement in the composition. Certainly going to give this another try!
Something that has always interested me is generative music, but I've never really tried to make anything like that so I thought I'd give it a bash.
What I found hardest was finding the balance of input. As in how much is the patch doing completely autonomously, and how much is from my suggestion.
I started off by building a fairly simple sample based drum machine, which I split into 3 parts. One sequencer lane for the kick, one for snare, and a third for percussion noises. Next I spent a couple hours making short snappy drum sounds with an SH101. Made about 50 in total, I also made one straight up kick drum sound, and one snare sound.
I loaded the kick and snare into their own sample modules, and the remaining samples all got loaded into one sample module. I also built a automation channel for sample selection. This meant that I could sequence a solid Kick Snare pattern and allow the percussion to wander around.
Next I made a couple of randomising LFO's which sync to the main clock. One of these was assigned to percussion sample selection, the other to percussion sample pitch.
Finally I built a comb filter and ran the entire drum mix through it. I assigned another Tempo synced LFO to control the pitch of the comb filtering. Put the output through a heavy compressor, and that's about it for the drums.
This was sounding pretty cool, but needed something more to make it a bit more musical.
I loaded up an old FM synth I built a while ago, and sent the trigger from the snare pattern into the gate of the synth. Then another random LFO to control the FM interval. Finally I built a pretty complex macro for controlling the pitch of the notes played based on a few other things going on in the patch. Ran this through the compressor too, which gave quite a nice side chain style pumping.
Lastly, I brought up the recorder box, hit record and then pressed play, this is what came out.
GENERATIVE 1 by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Pretty cool I think. Reminds me quite a bit of Autechre, although a long way from the complexities they have in their music. Some similarity for sure though. I do really like its completely emotionless mechanical quality, definitely something I couldn't have written if I had tried, but I do feel that I still could have had less involvement in the composition. Certainly going to give this another try!
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
Gear Lust
Just a little something extra for today.
At the end of last year I was lucky enough to go on a little tour of North America. Something I'd wanted to do for a long time. I got to meet some really friendly people, go to some cool places, and play some really fun shows too.
Earlier today I was sorting through some of the photos I'd taken while I was over there, and found a few that I thought would be worth sharing.
While I was in Calgary I got to visit a museum called Cantos, which houses a huge collection of keyboard instruments. Some absolutely drool worthy things there. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the area, just be warned, you will leave with a chronic case of gear lust!
At the end of last year I was lucky enough to go on a little tour of North America. Something I'd wanted to do for a long time. I got to meet some really friendly people, go to some cool places, and play some really fun shows too.
Earlier today I was sorting through some of the photos I'd taken while I was over there, and found a few that I thought would be worth sharing.
While I was in Calgary I got to visit a museum called Cantos, which houses a huge collection of keyboard instruments. Some absolutely drool worthy things there. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in the area, just be warned, you will leave with a chronic case of gear lust!
Monday, 28 February 2011
Sound-A-Day 25.02.2011
Well, I did it again!
As I may have mentioned previously, I am currently unemployed having quit my last job. One of the wonderful things about being unemployed is the amount of free time you get to working on the things you love. One of the downsides is it's all to easy to loose track of where in the week you are. I thought that Friday was Saturday, and therefore not a sound-a-day day... oh well.
So as way of apology, I hope you'll accept a nice track instead of just a sound. After all, a track is made up of many sounds, talk about value for money!!
This is a track from an EP I released late last year as a free MP3 download. Just a fun little side project I had been busy with. One way I find really nice to write music is just to get a few synths running together and jam about with things. The EP was a few of those jams, edited and arranged into more coherent tracks. Not my usual style of output, but I still really love these tracks, and so I hope you enjoy it!
ROT13 TRACK4 by Noisy Neighbour Sound
If you fancy checking out the rest of the EP, you can download it for free HERE
As I said, it's all ideas that started from jams, so expect drifting tuning, rough mixing and all the rest, but I like that aspect, bit of the charm for me, especially considering how particular I normally get with tracks.
As I may have mentioned previously, I am currently unemployed having quit my last job. One of the wonderful things about being unemployed is the amount of free time you get to working on the things you love. One of the downsides is it's all to easy to loose track of where in the week you are. I thought that Friday was Saturday, and therefore not a sound-a-day day... oh well.
So as way of apology, I hope you'll accept a nice track instead of just a sound. After all, a track is made up of many sounds, talk about value for money!!
This is a track from an EP I released late last year as a free MP3 download. Just a fun little side project I had been busy with. One way I find really nice to write music is just to get a few synths running together and jam about with things. The EP was a few of those jams, edited and arranged into more coherent tracks. Not my usual style of output, but I still really love these tracks, and so I hope you enjoy it!
ROT13 TRACK4 by Noisy Neighbour Sound
If you fancy checking out the rest of the EP, you can download it for free HERE
As I said, it's all ideas that started from jams, so expect drifting tuning, rough mixing and all the rest, but I like that aspect, bit of the charm for me, especially considering how particular I normally get with tracks.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Sound-A-Day 07.02.2011
Pffff, unbelievably stressed out today!
So following on from Friday, as I mentioned one of my monitors decided it was time to die, and did so. I managed to arrange someone to repair it for me thanks goodness, and bought myself a lovely new pair of headphones to keep me going in the mean time.
Get home and get back into a couple projects I've been working on. Just getting into it when wooop, PC crashes.. ah bugger. No worries, saved not so long ago, can redo the things Ive just done. Restart, reload project, 5 minutes later booof, down she goes again. Repeat this process for the entire duration of yesterday and today.
Trying to make anything in 5 minute stints is pretty much impossible, it's driving me round the bend, not to mention the sheer amount Ive got on at the moment. So much work I need to be doing! STRESSSSssss..
Well, I'm certain that a complete back up and reformat/reinstall is on the cards for tomorrow, that'll be fun!
Anyway, not wanting to be a sore bod all day, I've still managed to get something together for sharing which feels somewhat appropriate.
It's a short little fun track I made a using more or less no computer at all, only running a couple sequences. All sound sources are analogue, and with the exception of the compression, all processing is external too.
Since a few people who check this blog are folks from www.watmm.com, I thought I'd put something together especially for them, something with more than a little Aphex influence...
ZEBRA-CUSTARD by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Well, hope you enjoy it. In all honesty it is really fun to have a break from a computer and make music on outboard kit, I hope to be back on the DSP tomorrow, wish me luck!
So following on from Friday, as I mentioned one of my monitors decided it was time to die, and did so. I managed to arrange someone to repair it for me thanks goodness, and bought myself a lovely new pair of headphones to keep me going in the mean time.
Get home and get back into a couple projects I've been working on. Just getting into it when wooop, PC crashes.. ah bugger. No worries, saved not so long ago, can redo the things Ive just done. Restart, reload project, 5 minutes later booof, down she goes again. Repeat this process for the entire duration of yesterday and today.
Trying to make anything in 5 minute stints is pretty much impossible, it's driving me round the bend, not to mention the sheer amount Ive got on at the moment. So much work I need to be doing! STRESSSSssss..
Well, I'm certain that a complete back up and reformat/reinstall is on the cards for tomorrow, that'll be fun!
Anyway, not wanting to be a sore bod all day, I've still managed to get something together for sharing which feels somewhat appropriate.
It's a short little fun track I made a using more or less no computer at all, only running a couple sequences. All sound sources are analogue, and with the exception of the compression, all processing is external too.
Since a few people who check this blog are folks from www.watmm.com, I thought I'd put something together especially for them, something with more than a little Aphex influence...
ZEBRA-CUSTARD by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Well, hope you enjoy it. In all honesty it is really fun to have a break from a computer and make music on outboard kit, I hope to be back on the DSP tomorrow, wish me luck!
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Sound-A-Day 25.01.2011
WOW!! Well, what can I say.. I'm terrible and I'm really sorry!
In my defense however, I've actually been really poorly the last few days. Dragging myself to work each evening taken it out of me, and I just needed to crash each night. Feeling much better now though, you'll be pleased to know.
So, it appears I have some catching up to do, no worries, I have some sounds ready for you're eager ears!
This one is another Monotron noise, again using the SH101 as an input into the filter. This time I recorded the sound into sound forge and added some further editing. Thanks to a Doppler plugin, the result came out as a kinda old school sci fi space ship whizzing by. I like it!!
Fly by by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Really made me think a lot about the really old approaches to sound design, before computers and digital processing. I'm in the mood for trying some tape loop experiments now, haven't done that for years! Just need to track down my old tape machine......
In my defense however, I've actually been really poorly the last few days. Dragging myself to work each evening taken it out of me, and I just needed to crash each night. Feeling much better now though, you'll be pleased to know.
So, it appears I have some catching up to do, no worries, I have some sounds ready for you're eager ears!
This one is another Monotron noise, again using the SH101 as an input into the filter. This time I recorded the sound into sound forge and added some further editing. Thanks to a Doppler plugin, the result came out as a kinda old school sci fi space ship whizzing by. I like it!!
Fly by by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Really made me think a lot about the really old approaches to sound design, before computers and digital processing. I'm in the mood for trying some tape loop experiments now, haven't done that for years! Just need to track down my old tape machine......
Monday, 24 January 2011
Sound-A-Day 24.01.2011
Monday evening means back on with sound a day!
Super busy weekend, got loads to be getting on with! I had hoped to have my first Reaktor patch available for Download today, but alas, it wasn't to be. Still a few bugs to iron out before I feel happy exposing it to the world, and need to rope in a favour for hosting it too!
I also made the first small steps into a very big new project which should be unfolding as the year progresses. Don't want to reveal too much just yet. Enough to say that it's involving a few other people who I'm very excited to be working with. I'll be sure to document the whole thing on here.
Enough about that, here's a sound for today..
A friend John was kind enough to lend me his Korg Monotron for a few days. What an awesome little toy it is! The filter on it's own is an absolute blast, really great for just making a good old racket. I've got to get one of these things myself, especially to rip it open and mod it!
In spite of its very resonant filter circuit, I wanted to try and get something a touch more subdued and moody from it. I didn't get along with the tiny touch keyboard so well, but still wanting to keep it analogue, so I decided to use the AUX input for the filter and ran the SH101 through it. The 101 is playing a slightly filtered random note pattern, with just a touch of ENV mod on the cutoff. The monotron has a medium resonance setting and a very slowly sweeping LFO on the cutoff. This then goes into a nice metallic reverb patch from the Lexicon plugins.
Monotron Atmosphere by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Really nice full sound. I think its amazing just how great 2 very simply pieces of kit can sound. Without wanting to sound like a snob, but there's something about analogue.. just has that sound!
Super busy weekend, got loads to be getting on with! I had hoped to have my first Reaktor patch available for Download today, but alas, it wasn't to be. Still a few bugs to iron out before I feel happy exposing it to the world, and need to rope in a favour for hosting it too!
I also made the first small steps into a very big new project which should be unfolding as the year progresses. Don't want to reveal too much just yet. Enough to say that it's involving a few other people who I'm very excited to be working with. I'll be sure to document the whole thing on here.
Enough about that, here's a sound for today..
A friend John was kind enough to lend me his Korg Monotron for a few days. What an awesome little toy it is! The filter on it's own is an absolute blast, really great for just making a good old racket. I've got to get one of these things myself, especially to rip it open and mod it!
In spite of its very resonant filter circuit, I wanted to try and get something a touch more subdued and moody from it. I didn't get along with the tiny touch keyboard so well, but still wanting to keep it analogue, so I decided to use the AUX input for the filter and ran the SH101 through it. The 101 is playing a slightly filtered random note pattern, with just a touch of ENV mod on the cutoff. The monotron has a medium resonance setting and a very slowly sweeping LFO on the cutoff. This then goes into a nice metallic reverb patch from the Lexicon plugins.
Monotron Atmosphere by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Really nice full sound. I think its amazing just how great 2 very simply pieces of kit can sound. Without wanting to sound like a snob, but there's something about analogue.. just has that sound!
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Sound-A-Day 19.01.2011
Woke up this morning to find an unexpected guest in my room. Thought I'd see if they was up for a bit of a collab, and got everything fired up. He zipped about the place, from one piece of gear to another. Eventually ended up on my K station where he stayed for a while, before pooping on it and disappearing out of the window. Lesson learned, Birds are analogue purists.
Here's a pic of the little guy.
Anyway, back on with the task at hand. A sound for today.
I've never had any formal production lessons, only music theory etc. So I'm pretty much self taught with all this stuff. I do from time to time read books and bits n pieces in magazines, and there are always a few "rules" that reappear time and time again, in particular, ordering of effect chains. Never put X before Y, always put A before B and so on.
I'm a massive Zappa fan, have been since I was about 14. One of the things I really like is his really distinct solo guitar tone. I remember finally figuring it out one day, putting the wah after the distortion. The wrong way round by convention, but ultimately interesting and characteristic. So today I decided to go against everything I read in books and put things in completely the wrong order, pay no attention to digital clipping etc, and just see how things come out. (WARNING!! ABRASIVE!!)
HARD-DIST by Noisy Neighbour Sound
I like it, a lot!! Nearly all of the drum sounds are running through one mixer channel, straight into a reverb. This is then running through a Guitar rig patch, then a VERY hard compression, then EQ, and finally a limiter. Most of the levels are hitting the red full on, and i had to bring the channel volume down quite considerably so as to avoid distorting the master bus as well.
The drum sounds are a mixture of Module Drum sounds, and noisy filter snaps from an SH101. The metallic tones are made by hitting two large metal crow bars together. The ambient drone is a little patch from the K station, which has been heavily processed inside Sound forge.
What I found most surprising is just how much effect the reverb has on the level of distortion. Without any this sounds relatively tame, but adding more and more reverb causes the real grittiness, and the tails going through the hard compression make a really satisfying breathing noise effect. I really recommend trying this out, very cool fun!
Here's a pic of the little guy.
Anyway, back on with the task at hand. A sound for today.
I've never had any formal production lessons, only music theory etc. So I'm pretty much self taught with all this stuff. I do from time to time read books and bits n pieces in magazines, and there are always a few "rules" that reappear time and time again, in particular, ordering of effect chains. Never put X before Y, always put A before B and so on.
I'm a massive Zappa fan, have been since I was about 14. One of the things I really like is his really distinct solo guitar tone. I remember finally figuring it out one day, putting the wah after the distortion. The wrong way round by convention, but ultimately interesting and characteristic. So today I decided to go against everything I read in books and put things in completely the wrong order, pay no attention to digital clipping etc, and just see how things come out. (WARNING!! ABRASIVE!!)
HARD-DIST by Noisy Neighbour Sound
I like it, a lot!! Nearly all of the drum sounds are running through one mixer channel, straight into a reverb. This is then running through a Guitar rig patch, then a VERY hard compression, then EQ, and finally a limiter. Most of the levels are hitting the red full on, and i had to bring the channel volume down quite considerably so as to avoid distorting the master bus as well.
The drum sounds are a mixture of Module Drum sounds, and noisy filter snaps from an SH101. The metallic tones are made by hitting two large metal crow bars together. The ambient drone is a little patch from the K station, which has been heavily processed inside Sound forge.
What I found most surprising is just how much effect the reverb has on the level of distortion. Without any this sounds relatively tame, but adding more and more reverb causes the real grittiness, and the tails going through the hard compression make a really satisfying breathing noise effect. I really recommend trying this out, very cool fun!
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Sound-A-Day 04.01.2011
Something a bit different this time around. While yesterdays post was a bit of experimenting with some really new things, today's is more about appreciating the old. I personally don't buy into the Analogue Vs Digital argument. Both can sound great in my opinion, and both play an important part in modern electronic music.
One thing that old analogue synths are great for, is making very simple patches sound incredibly full and warm. I imagine it's because of the slight modulations in pitch and amplitude that such circuitry causes. Regardless, for pad sounds especially, it can sound awesome!
This is a short looping pad made using a very old Korg PE1000. Since it has no Midi connections, I created a multi sample patch inside Reaktor. I decided not to attempt to recreate the filter, since the filter on the PE1000 is pretty unique and would've been hard to emulate. The only thing I did add was a small Macro to allow for scaling note input. This means you can control the amount of "detune" from subtle fullness to atonality.
The multi sample instrument was then ran through 2 separate effect chains. One with a reverb setting, and the other with a very slight frequency shift and delay.
Drifting-Pad by Noisy Neighbour Sound
I really like this pad, It has a nice simplicity to it, but the slight variations in the tone make it involving too. One of my favourite albums is "Selected Ambient Works" by Aphex Twin. Its full of great warm pads, and I hoped to capture something similar. I'm pretty pleased with the result.
(Image credit: Veerle Pirson)
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