So, truth be told I made this one early Sunday morning, not today, but who's counting really?
This came from a thread on a forum I like to visit from time to time called "We are the music makers". Great site for geeking out over AFX and SP, also general web trash. There is also a sub forum dedicated to discussing music making.
Someone had started a thread on there about making an Acid track in 30 mins, full thread is HERE It's well worth having a look as there are some pretty cool tracks to listen too.
I'm absolutely terrible at finishing tracks, I will sit for hours tweaking and changing something over and over again. While I KNOW I should just take a step back and go "OK, it's finished!" sometimes I just cant. Decided that trying to make a track in such a short amount of time would be a good exercise for me.
First step was making a acid line. Fired up the SH101 and using the built in sequencer I tapped in some notes, without paying too much attention to what I was playing in. Did this a couple times till I had a line rolling that I liked. Turned out with 10 beats per bar, ah well, something different...
I left that looping and tweaked the synth till I had a tone I liked, hit record and ran through the sequence a couple times with different filter settings. Trim them to loop at the right length, done!
Next step was the drums. I've been working on a 808 style drum machine patch in Reaktor, so as good a chance as any to try it out in a track. Programmed in a straight forward pattern on the kick, snare, and hats, a couple off beats on the rim shot, 16th Maraca rhythm, finished!
The next thing the track needed was some kinda theme or hook. Figured some big stab type synth patch would work well. Found an old Jupiter style synth from Reaktor 2, loaded that up, tweaked it about a bit till I had the sound I liked, few notes in the Piano Roll, hmmm OK that's cool....
Running low on time now... should get the structure sorted. Best thing about acid is that it doesn't need to do a lot. For me it's more about having a good tight groove, a few simple lines working well together. All I needed to do was an easy build up, drop, a few extra sounds, drop out, finish. Didn't take long to get this part done, wow 4 mins?? hmm need a couple more bits.
Put a couple low notes in to cycle each repeat nicely, used a patch I made in carbon 2, thick moog-ish saw type patch. Chuck that into some reverb for fullness, yikes, 5 mins left!!!
Next I loaded up a multi sample patch I made of the PE1000, short plucked type of sound. Made a little pattern, into some delay, what else?
Last up, just wanted a sound to lead into the main section. Connected up the Monotron, turned resonance to full, fast lfo to the cutoff, and recorded myself winding down the lfo rate. Chop that up and nudge about till its sort of in time. Also dug out an old recording I took of a rave horn, drop that every so often, old school! Nice =D
Put the Waves C1 compressor and L2 limiter on the master bus, quick effort at "mastering" the track (ahem...), Save, Render, Done!!
Here it is in all its glory..
TEN STEP ACID by Noisy Neighbour Sound
Well, to be honest, I took somewhere around 40 mins total. Even so, that pretty good going for me! Would like to say that some of that time was spent getting annoyed at the power supply for the SH101, was making an irritating hum which I ended up just leaving. You can here it when the acid line starts.
Funny thing is, there's not really anything I'd like to change even if I had the time to do so. Perhaps I just regard the track as throw away, and so don't really care how it sounds. But strangely enough, I really like how it sounds!
Either way, I hope this will help me to finish the tracks I do care about! Would recommend the exercise to everyone, see what you can make in half an hour.
Showing posts with label Monotron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monotron. Show all posts
Monday, 28 March 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Sound-A-Day 23.03.2011
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
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
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!
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