tomsynths

[tomsynths]

FM synthesis song cover

For my third track I decided to do a song cover on the Elektron Model Cycles. This groove box is very deep and I wanted to take this opportunity to learn a lot more about it. 

It took me a while to figure out what song I wanted to do, if I wanted to do a classical piece or something glitchy from Aphex Twin.

in the end I covered Chamber of Reflection by Mac Demarco:

Here is how I did it:

[tomsynths]

West Coast

For this track, I wanted to buy a west coast based synth. I found the West Pest relatively cheap on eBay and after a sweaty eBay war, I managed to snag it. 

I didn’t want to use my daw very much for this song, and just wanted to explore some sounds to see what would happen. I synched it up to my Model Cycle via MIDI and used the groove boxes chance options for randomisation. 

This was really fun to make, and definitely some concepts I will familiarise myself with a lot more in the future. The random and chance based approach to composition is very interesting and brings in happy accidents. 

[tomsynths]

East Coast

Having the issues with VCV rack, I had a chat with my lecturer who informed me that I was able to create the tracks using my hardware synthesisers at home. 

With this first track, I knew I wanted it to be based around the TD3-MO. It is an acid bassline module and is quite famous for it’s acid squelchy basslines. It is based of the Roland TB3 but is significantly cheaper. 

I didn’t want much DAW intefereance and wanted the track to be something I could perform live. After some playing around, I decided on the TD3, the Elektron Model Cycles and the Korg Microkorg. 

My first piece sounded good, but there were issues with MIDI connectivity. It was all synched, but the slow time signuture to get the sound I wanted wasn’t really jelling with the Model Cycles. I think it was due to the bassline being 15 steps long. The offness would of worked if it was for something more ambient, but I wanted the track to be quite straight. 

Here’s my first draft:

https://on.soundcloud.com/ix57f

It kind of sounds a bit like this no?

I decided to restart. I created a sequence and decided to just play with it for 3 minutes and then work off the top of it. 

Having similar issues with the Model Cycles, I recorded all the drums freehand. I think that I definitely am the issue and that it could be sorted, but I worked around it. 

I then added some lead tones using the Korg Microkorg and creating patches from scratch. You can see how I created them in these videos.

With all these different elements put in, I am pleased with the final outcome of this track. It is reminiscent of early Gotye and Fat Freddie's Drop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Ql8jRjXig

[tomsynths]

Etudes:

Etude 1:

For this first etude we were asked to create a synthesiser with multiple oscillators tuned differently. 

I did this buy adding a few different oscillators and 2 vcfs for my left and right output. 

I added the volt p oct of the keyboard controller into the V/oct of the VCO. I picked a different wave shape for every VCO and patched them into the mixer. I patched them from the mixer into a VCF and then into a VCA, then into a reverb and then out of the Audio module. To control this, I attached the gate of the midi controller into an ADSR and to the VCA. 

I think this route does the trick demanded. The reverb sounds amazing as well. 

Etude 2 - Modulation:

I felt that this was a little more tricky, I did a similar process to my first project, but used clocks into a Shepard tone generator to try and modulate the harmony and levels of the Oscillators. 

Also putting the timbre of different Oscillators into the triangle wave of the shepards tone and changing the the speed of it cycling through the waveform. 

Etude 3 - West Coast:

For this patch, I used a random sampler module, into a rampage module and into a valley synthesiser module,  the random sampler sends pulses at random intervals and the rampage modulates them in interesting ways which gave it a sort of indeterministic feel, and then making sure it picked the correct notes in the scale using a QNT. 

I did the same approach with the rhythm section but using different modules and stand alone hat and snare modules. The piece reminds me of Reborn by Colin Stetson. 

Etude 4:

For this etude I wanted to emulate a backing string section with a soft attack. I used different voices with LFO to emulate all the different parts of an instrument. The original pluck to the vibration of strings on a violin being played for too long. 

This was all manipulated using LFO’s and ADSR’s.

[tomsynths]

Problems straight away

Following on from lectures, I was eager to get started on VCV rack and create some patches. 

I decided the best place to start was to recreate some patches of other youtubers to get me used to the software. I found this series by Red Means Recording really helpful.

I also wanted to recreate the Subharmonicon by Moog, and followed this patch along. 

I felt really pleased to have been able to follow along and then made tweaks of my own to the patches and found myself creating some interesting soundscapes. 

But.... 

A few days later, I tried reopening my patches, and my computer had suffered a bug that wasn’t allowing me to reopen old patches. 

This was a real problem, I tried a lot of different work arounds, re-installing, looking online, and using older versions. But nothing was working. For the etude submissions, I would have to film myself creating the patches and use that as a submission. It is a real shame as I was really flowing with the software and it killed all momentum I had built up. 

[tomsynths]

Background

Prior to being at university, I had very limited knowledge about synthesis, and it wasn’t really something I had ever put much time into developing. In my first year, I downloaded the Arturia collection and fell in love with the endless possibilities synthesisers could do. I ended up spending most of my time learning how to use them and doing as much research as I could.

This module has arrived in good time, I am currently in the process of joining a band and am acquiring some hardware synthesiser and groove boxes. It is going to be interested to learn these bits of kit, and see what exciting stuff happens.