[Production] Share One Idea From Today.

[Críoch]

Feel free to share a small detail of something musical / production related that you did, learned or randomly discovered.

Me?

Been looking at video walkthroughs of Sequential Pro One synths again. Got me inspired to dial in 3 different LFOs; all on different rates, amounts & wave types, going at a really boring pad sound. Finally kept them just modulating the oscillator volumes.

A 4th LFO & an envelope were on the oscillator pitch.

Though strangely rhythmic.. it was still a bit meh overall. I know I strayed too far from the OG/Behr Pro1 feature set. Alas, it is still a worthwhile thing to remember for some other time. Maybe only use 2 LFOs & go for something more subtle (or extreme ).

[borg]

Headroom, headroom, headroom!
Had a look at the AE Machinedrum file, and first thing I noticed were the low volumes they had dialed in. Have been enjoying the unit like never before since.
I understand it much better now as well, feels like an instrument, instead of it just being a box you programmed and is playing back beats, maybe once a year (because it's such a petty you spent all that money once). Have been practicing routines, experimenting with the RAM machines and LFOs, all without stopping the music.
You don't always need a new machine! Going back to old gear, can just be as inspiring. It's big love now with the MD!
That's two ideas rolled in one!

[subvers^v]

Build a fucked up distorted bass intro which fades/evolves into a more regular bassline after a bar or two ..

[Monreal]

Use an any wavetable synth. My pick:

https://www.kv331audio.com/synthmaster.aspx

[Fourty Two]

Created tons of cool sounds with feeding back signal via returns in Ableton. Just stock FX, but heaps of fun. Pretty much generated all sounds for a track with kick and hihats, just resampling all those weird sounds coming out of returns, chop them up or just load them to sampler.
Made a tune without any vst within like 30 minutes. Wowsers.

[tsaro]

Something I hadn't done in a while, a way to get interesting almost semi random (ahem) delays going, or anything really, use your imagination. You can use a send, but I prefer to duplicate the track+source for more control, so you can get into all settings or even swap sounds without messing with your base sound. Add a tremolo. Synced, if you prefer, even if it kind of beats the point, it can also give interesting though much more predictable results, I'd not go faster than 1/4 and if possible use the offset modes), a noise gate set to taste, dismissing everything as set by your tremolo, full wet delay, and then send it through an envelope filter for example(or switch them around for a different flavour), which happens to be my favourite insert in this scenario because it means your filter also react differently when you mess with the tremolo, and since your gate does too, you're created one merry little monster that you can balance to your hearts content. I say tremolo, though I usually do this with an lfo coupled to a gain cell (or filter for that matter), with manual reset which you can space out to still keep the response of the patch somewhat predictable.

[mindstuff]

Elektron Digitone has a chord mode. Minor chord stabs all day. And changing up the filter envelope for each trig...sweet!

[buffered]

And changing up the filter envelope for each trig...sweet!

Good one.
Differing pattern length sequences controlling parameters. One to pitch. The other to filter or velocity. Simple but effective.

[orchard]

Really basic stuff but always a really good starting point...

Copy drum patterns to synth/bass parts or copy synth/bass patterns to drum parts.
A little bit of editing and you can get tight, relevant grooves that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

[Críoch]

Created tons of cool sounds with feeding back signal via returns in Ableton. Just stock FX, but heaps of fun. Pretty much generated all sounds for a track with kick and hihats, just resampling all those weird sounds coming out of returns, chop them up or just load them to sampler.
Made a tune without any vst within like 30 minutes. Wowsers.

I really must do.more feedback experimentation.. but I do like recording stuff similar to this. Mostly with an echoboy delay plug. Changing MS time. Bending sounds. Sampler food.

You can get some great stuff going especially on melodies / bass if you create a pattern of only a few notes, with gaps between. If you load it into a sampler, slice mode.. and use an ARP to cycle through the slices over different octaves, you can get some mighty variations going. Adjust to taste..

[Críoch]

Use an any wavetable synth. My pick:

https://www.kv331audio.com/synthmaster.aspx

Been meaning to load some new wavetables into my DSI MonoEvolver. Have some Ensoniq SQ80 (??) ones that I think could sound ok.. but recently found some Moog etc.. wavetables for the Korg ESX that might be better.

Been using the MonoEvolver a lot over the last week or so. It's a strange synth in a way. I find it pretty uninspiring trying to do 'normal' with it. I've made loads of patches for it, saved randomly, overwritten on stock presets. Decided last night that I need to do a memory dump. Reload my own patches. Delete everything else, then spend some time making sounds with no real goal in mind. Ready to use at some point down the road.

My approach with this synth is to do things I wouldnt normally do. Modulate stuff I wouldn't normally. Make sound in different ways, not just with waves & some filter. Those ones are the best.

[Críoch]

Really basic stuff but always a really good starting point...

Copy drum patterns to synth/bass parts or copy synth/bass patterns to drum parts.
A little bit of editing and you can get tight, relevant grooves that you wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

Yep.. then strip back the drum pattern to make some space.

[kronk]

didnt know you could load wavetables in the mono evolver!? had one for yrs... jeez savage wee synth that

[Críoch]

Yeah. Goals

https://www.sequential.com/wave-dump-utilities/

[Meatwad]

I assigned filter resonance and noise generator level to velocity in the Novation Peak's mod matrix. Sequencing the Peak with the Octatrack and using LFOs to modulate the velocity of each hit. Makes for some pretty good modulated bass line that seem to evolve consistently through each 8 bar phrase.

[Root]

Kill your darlings: I've been struggling with that hihat in one track for months now. Because of the hihat wasn't right, I also couldn't decide certain things regarding the arrangement, too. Something was strange about the energy flowing in the track. Tried everything, but something wasn't right all the time. Yesterday I just deleted it, added a different hihat and tadaaaa... mix is fine now, arrangement told me how to finished it naturally, track's finished, boom.

[Ben Kohonays]

Not strictly production, but:

Sell shit you're not using.

I tend to be a bit of a hoarder. And an impulse buyer (on low priced stuff), not a good combination.

Add to that not seeming to have the time to getting around to things....

All this extra time not doing much recently galvanised me into having a cull.

It's about f'kin time like.

Muppet.

[orchard]

I tend to be a bit of a hoarder. And an impulse buyer (on low priced stuff), not a good combination.

Add to that not seeming to have the time to getting around to things....

I wonder if we are related?

[over9000]

If you have a 4x4 kick pattern, the bass can be wonky and unstraight as fuck, if you have a breakbeat kick pattern it can sound good to have a straight bass pattern

[kronk]

..Sell shit you're not using. ...

this is the single most productive thing that ive found to do.
minimise the setup - makes you more focused & deeper into the gear