the production thread

Think I’ll spend some quality time this week with pigments working on sound design. The update looks interesting. I’ve been starting everything on hardware the last few months, maybe time to change it up.

Unbroken1 It’s really deep. I’ve used it, almost more as a sample processor than anything else, but haven’t used it enough to really get to know it. I get the feeling like pigments could be all you need along with a daw for arrangement.

Haven’t tried the v collection, if I can’t make whatever I want with the gear I have, there’s a problem that isn’t going to be resolved by buying more synths. That said, I use the fx collection all the time. The space echo emulation is on everything I do. I’m impressed with the value arturia provides, most companies don’t offer this many (really good) free updates.

Yeah that makes sense. I’ve got the abl3 vet and a tb3, plus the syntakt, analog four, and dfam are all pretty capable of reproducing a decent 303 sound. I’ve been wanting to do an acid project for a while, maybe after the current album I’m working on is done.

I’ve found over time that if I take a week every once in a while and just do in the box sound design, that scratches the itch to just make noise. The patches and samples that come out of those session often end up being foundational for future tracks, so it’s a win-win.

Unbroken1 The best thing I did for my hardware set up was picking up the model 12 mixer. I’ve got all my synths wired in, a sub output on each channel that runs to the digitakt so I can sample any combination of inputs, 2 aux channels for the space echo pedal and the internal fx. I come up with a looped sequence that I like, track it out individually into ableton and arrange/process from there. I can do live takes for different sections, builds/breaks/etc.

It’s really made the workflow more fun. If I feel like just jamming out on hardware, I can. If I want to work hybrid or int he box, I’ve got those options too. It’s a lot to manage at the beginning, but it’s so worth it once the workflow clicks.

Unbroken1 That’s the one. I’ll probably upgrade it in the future, I could use a few more aux outs for proper dub mixing, but it’s doing the job for now.

Henry So I also kind of don’t have a clue, but I’ll try to stumble through this for you. And I’ll apologize in advance for the length.

The model 12 is just barely enough for what I need. I have it completely maxed out and don’t have my drumbrute or tb3 connected at the moment (forget that the drumbrute can output each track individually). I actually have the dt outputs running into the a4, then into one of the stereo inputs to save a channel. I have two other mono channels eaten up by the returns from the space echo pedal. If I had the budget and was looking for another mixer, I’d probably look at a much larger analog desk with more aux sends and all stereo inputs.

As for workflow, tracking to ableton is my least favorite part of the process. I’ve come to terms with it, but it’s so bloody tedious. I usually record dry individual tracks one at a time and will record a wet version if the fx are integral to the sound design. If I have a reverb across several DT tracks for instance, I really just use that reverb as a reference for the sound I’m looking for and use a vest reverb in ableton to make it cohesive. I just find that easier. Another thing I really like to do with chords is to get the kick/bass/hat pattern going in ableton, then just record a long jam of the dub chords (wet with the space echo). Sometimes I’ll take long sections of that for an arrangement and other times I’ll chop it up and resample hits to create different textures, repitch for ear candy, add variation, etc.

The whole this is a bit of a pain in the ass, but that’s the charm of hardware. I really don’t worry much about timing or imperfections anymore. I’ve learned to embrace the messiness of it and I think it helps me to come up with grooves and textures I wouldn’t otherwise. It’s also really great for layering sounds and gluing them together. Whether that’s several tracks from one box or layering multiple synths for sound design.

Sorry, that was a lot. Did that even come close to helping?

Great. There really isn’t a simple way to to just track everything out quickly. The more I use my hardware in early composition, the more I enjoy it though.

I’m way more loose with how I compose than I used to be and I think that’s a good thing. I used to be really obsessed with the grid and proper phrasing, now if it sounds good, I kind of don’t care. I think if I were writing specifically to be played by djs in clubs, it would be different. I really like swing, groove, and some randomness now. I think it’s a matter of now that I understand the rules, I know when to break them and don’t worry about it.