I came across this old late night session of sleepy Rhodes melodies and decided to render about fifty eight seconds of it. It was originally recorded on November 3, 2006 at about 12:53am. I love electronic timestamps.
There are two separate tracks of Rhodes, each running through separate processing. I added auto-panning to each track in opposite phase as a quick final touch before bouncing it down. The tracks are also running through equalization, amp modeling, two separate delays, and reverberation.
This spooky sound was created in Ableton Live using a variety of processing. The main device responsible is Pluggo’s Feedback Network. I ran a modulated synth pad into it, then removed all of the dry signal after automating several parameters. I re-sampled the results then pitched it all down two octaves being careful to filter out inaudible low frequencies. Finally, over the top I added a ping pong delay so the audio swirls around the stereo spectrum adding to the disturbing qualities of the sound.
A lack of galactic space time has forced me to go backwards for the One Sound Every Day project, but I hope you’ll enjoy this track from Keston and Westdal’s latest release, One Day to Save All Life. Cover Your Eyes started out as a loop of sustained Rhodes notes that I had dropped into Ableton Live during a rehearsal for a show. If I remember correctly, we ended up performing the piece the same night that we created it. I love the samples Nils added that are destroyed with processing creating some complex and swirling textures throughout the piece.
An issue that I often contemplate is, when is it acceptable to use factory presets and samples? I tend not to use them most of the time in favor of inventing new sounds and sampling from my own recordings and instruments. However, sometimes I make exceptions, such as using presets for classic keyboard sounds like pianos and organs, or individual drum samples for programming beats. Personally I have an aversion to using them, but I don’t doubt that lots of excellent music is produced using unchanged samples and factory presets. So the question remains, when is it a good idea and when is it a bad idea to rely on what has been painstakingly produced for us by industry professionals?
When I use presets I usually make some adjustments to in order to get closer to what I’m after sonically. In the piece Rihaku that I wrote with Nils Westdal for our album Truth is Stranger I used the factory sampled piano on the Yamaha A3000. I would have preferred to use an acoustic piano, but opted to give the sampler a go for budgetary reasons. In order to get a bit more sustain out of the sound I made some subtle but effective changes to the patch including manipulating the envelope, adjusting the velocity sensitivity, and slightly compressing the output.
I created this piece today by starting with a few percussive micro samples from a recent field recording and using them as percussion. After programming a simple pattern I ran it through Pluggo’s Harmonic Filter and resampled the results to get two musical loops; one with a low frequency hit that forms the bass in the piece and another with a simple descending melody.
I put a triplet ping-pong delay on one send and an enormous reverb on another then made a quick 1:40 minute mix to hear how it all sounded together. I haven’t explained all the details by any means, so if you have any questions about what you’re hearing post a comment and I’ll give you more information.