Finding a new way to use my Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man delay led me to create this sound. By using the device as an external effect on a send track in Ableton Live I’m able to apply the processor to any track in my set.
Normally when I perform I’m juggling the use of multiple keyboards, pedals, software, VSTs and a mixer. Too much activity already to add an external processor into the fray. But for some shows in small venues, dance clubs, or galleries live instruments complicate matters, so my group Keston and Westdal have a laptop set that we do on rare occasions.
Two producers in front of laptops isn’t my idea of an exciting live show, so it’s not our typical modus operandi. Therefore, for a private gallery show that we are playing tomorrow night, I’ve decided to add my Memory Man as a distraction from the trackpad and computer keyboard. This way I can create more sounds like this in the set. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Memory Man Beat
One of my favorite external processors is my 
A variation of this clip is probably going to end up in a new track that Nils Westdal and I are working on. After a recent session Nils left his Boss OC-1 pedal in the studio for me to mess around with. The first thing I did was plug the Rhodes into it. The cool thing about the OC-1 is that if you play intervals into it it gets confused and randomly switches between notes. The results are unpredictable, but it’s also possible to get consistently unpredictable results. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but duplicating certain intervals at specific dynamics allows you to mold the output into something usable. This is what I was going for in this example. I edited the recording to a suitable length, added some delay, and then automated a filter to manipulate the texture.
I time stretched this recording of my dog Tia barking on the PCM-D50 using the built in DPC or Digital Pitch Control. I don’t know why they call it pitch control when it doesn’t change the pitch, but rather time compresses or expands the audio by percentages, from -75% to +100%. The intent is for musicians to practice difficult passages, but I think it has a nice eerie, metallic effect on voice and other sounds. For comparison I’ve posted her barking with out the time expansion as well.
In order to get this example of feedback I ran my suitcase model Rhodes, which I confine to my studio, through an outboard processor with some nice amp modeling and cranked up the gain. For the processing I used an eleven year old Yamaha A3000 sampler. The A3000 allows you to edit and apply processing to an incoming signal and it has some pretty nice sounding effects. Once I had adjusted the processing I held down the sustain pedal on the Rhodes and let the amplification do the rest. Tapping or gently knocking the instrument also produced some nice sounds. Here’s a snippet of the results.