synthesispessimist-blog

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Mixing and submitting my tracks

I kept mixing to a very minimum on my tracks, I wanted the synthesised sounds to remain as true as possible to when I created them so didn’t mess to extensively with the dynamics or frequencies.

The work I did with the EQ was almost exclusively used to create room in the mix when 2 melodies of similar frequencies were playing together, I also used some corrective EQ to remove irritating frequencies. The compression I used was again used almost only to create room in the mixes, I would side chain the compression to make the track pump with a kick for example. I used reverbs and delays to make some synths sound more interesting and full, a useful reverb technique I found for making my leads pop out of a mix was to pan the dry signal to one side quietly and bus it to a reverb channel panned to the opposite side and bring them up together to colour the spectrum with the melody. The final element I applied in the mixing was automation, I worked volume, panning, samplers and occasionally filters to make transitions more fluid or add punch and depth to certain sections.

To master the tracks I added some compression to glue all the sections together and make the track feel more cohesive. In retrospect I could also have worked some EQ as I feel some of the tracks did feel slightly boxy and cramped at times. This was my first time creating any hardware driven electronic music and my first time mixing a full track of electronic mixing, as a maiden effort I feel it went as well as it could have, and hope to continue my involvement with, and improve my skills using, modular synthesisers in future.

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East Coast Oakley Composition

This track was the first post I started working on many weeks ago (See posts ‘Getting started on my EP’ and ‘Using the Oakley Musically’) therefore there are few additions for me to make on this piece now it’s finished. To help me direct my track to its finished state I began listening to some modern examples of east coast influenced music, my research brought me on to a duo called ‘Holy Ghost!’ who intrigued me and helped anchor me to an artistic goal with a reference point to work from.

The further sounds created on the Oakley for this composition were my kick drum, hi-hat and bass line for the second section. I reused the pad explained earlier for the second sections harmony and created a melody using the Alchemy modelling synth in Logic Pro X. My Hi-hat and kick drum sounds were created using white noise, ran through an envelope generator and heavily filtered on the Oakley. I filtered them to suit the mix by monitoring the bass line and harmony as I modelled the sound. The bass line was created using a saw and triangle wave, as before the EG and filters were used to open up control and mould the sound, the notable difference to this patch was that I included the discontinuity module to add brightness and bite to the sound and help it cut through the mix, it was an interesting tool to use and one which I hope to experiment more with in future.

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No Coast Piece

The challenge I posed myself with when creating this track was not in the composition, but in the design of the sounds. I used the Buchla modular synthesiser for the majority of the track which is a machine with which I am unfamiliar and hold in some distain, possibly due to my personal bias toward the Oakley. I created the tones for the bass line, 2 of the melodies and the chords using the Buchla but unfortunately due to limited availability of studio time I was not able to totally create the piece using the Buchla so one melody was created using the Oakley and the drums and final motif were created within the DAW. I can’t cite one particular influence for this track, I approached the composition with an interest in counterpoint from Steve Reich using multiple different time signatures simultaneously to create a track that repeats yet evolves minimally, but also an inspiration of hard and biting synth tones came from the works of The Prodigy.  

My work on the Buchla was all performed through MIDI dictated by Logic on my laptop. I used a single oscillator for my melodies with envelope generators controlling the gate on the ‘Quad Dynamics Manager’ globally triggered using bus A of the MIDI interface. I used different parameters of the ‘Phase Shifter’ and ‘Triple Morphing Filter’ to model my sounds and add interesting timbres to the countermelodies. I included extra oscillators for my melodies in the form of Frequency, Amplitude and Bandwidth modulation on the filter. The chords were created using 3 separate MIDI tracks playing each note of the chord simultaneously allowing easily for the polyphony I had to work to emulate for my Oakley composition.  I used 3 sine waves for the chords, the note data bussed to each individual oscillator and then Filtered and Phase Shifted the signal, consolidated in the Quad Dynamics Module, until I was happy with the sound. 

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West Coast Composition: Drone

My west coast composition is slightly unconventional in that it was created using a tool synonymous with the east coast style of composition, the Oakley Modular Synthesiser. This was not a stylistic choice, and it was not planned, I was experimenting with the Oakley attempting to create sounds to be controlled using midi and started to create some interesting soundscapes and decided to follow the style of Pauline Oliveros in my composition. The impression that I felt off of my creation was very industrial, it conjured images of factory work for me when I was listening to it and its evolving nature almost emotes the progress of a production line in my opinion. This was by far the most complex patch I have created using the Oakley and it allowed me to have control of many parameters to subtly and drastically alter the drone over the progress of the track. Though drones are wholly unpredictable by nature and are made with the intent to challenge preconceptions of music composition, I feel my track is of similar pacing, structure and production to professionally released examples of the past. 

My drone engaged with many of the frequency modulation options that the Oakley offers the user. Through the use of ADSR CV data and LFO’s in tandem I was able to create some tones which moved in extremely interesting ways even with the Oakley’s limitations to simple waveforms and monophony. I took the ADSR data of one of the envelope generators and multiplied it so it could be used as a CV for control for an LFO, the superladder filter and the HPF/ LPF. Both oscillators were tuned to C one octave apart when they were simple waves, therefore the FM is made more evident through piece as you here the pitch modulating. White and Pink noise were employed on to both oscillators, as well as my triangle wave being modulated using an LFO with additional CV data being supplied to it from another ADSR to add a layer of movement at the earlier stages of the patch. The filters and LFO’s were pitched using the 1V/OCT inputs and the slide time turned up to the full so that the notes could be changed seamlessly using a midi keyboard to add an extra dimension of control to the drone.

Here is a full patch diagram as well as an accompanying picture to show the patch I used to create this piece:

Here is a video of me performing my submission live, unfortunately my phone ran out of storage halfway through the recording so I have had to edit accordingly:

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Using the Oakley musically

I set to work on beginning to add musical layers to my track now that I have a bass drum prepared. I used the bass drum to craft a beat to write to and created a melody and a harmony using software instruments on logic as I am not a confident keys player. I tuned the Oakley using my laptop to ensure the notes I had put into logic were being played back correctly and then chose to use a sine wave and a saw wave to produce the sounds I was hoping to get. I used the VCO-control module into the linear cv of the saw wave to add a touch of tremolo. I ran both waves through separate VCA’s to give them their own envelopes nut summed them using the ‘Superladder’ filter to add cohesion. I rolled off quite a lot of the high end so that the saw wave became more complimentary of the sine wave and then added some white noise to them both using the resonant cv input of the filter. I also took the ADSR CV output and used that to control the envelope of the filter as I liked the tone it helped me achieve on the bass drum. I used the LFO to control the linear CV of the filter to give the feeling of the track ‘breathing’ and add a bit of depth to the filtering. I finished by running the signal through the low pass filter to remove any extra unwanted high end without editing the tone. Once put back into logic I added a ping pong delay and a little reverb to help it sound a little more complete.

The pad used a similar approach of the waves having seperate envelopes and being ran together through the ‘Superladder’ but this time is was a sine and a triangle wave. I ran pink noise into the triangle wave to give it some ambience to underline the tone I was aiming for. One VCA CV data again opened up the possibility of using of using the envelope generators but one was used to control the CV data of the LFO, which was attached to the linear CV of the filter again but allowed the pad to move a lot more freely and added an interesting effect which I enjoyed. I further included noise again to add the final bit of depth through the filter and then used a high pass filter to remove some low frequencies which were make the pad sound a little muddy. Once recorded I took the sample of the one note produced by the pad, put it into EXS24 ten times, removed the pitch data it imparts and instead pitch shifted them myself to replicate the chords I created in logic. I then added a reverse reverb with a short attack for effect.

Below are videos of me working with the lead and pad respectively:

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Getting Started on My EP

A brief spell away from using the modules meant I needed a few sessions to allow myself to get back into the practice of creating patches to achieve specific aims. As I am more confident with the Oakley i felt it made sense to begin by working on that to ease back into the project. I felt the simplest first task for me to tackle would be to attempt to create a bass drum for one of the tracks of my compositional EP. I have decided to use exclusively the Oakley for the hardware sections of one of my tracks and the Buchla for the other. For this patch I took a sine wave and added some noise to it through the linear FM so the sound wasn’t too digital as I was finding that without the noise I could make out a tone too clearly. I ran my VCO to to ADSR generator, through the Transistor Superladder filter to add shape and tone to the wave and then ran it through the HP/LP filter to create a band pass and only keep the frequencies I felt worked well for the kick. I also used the CV output of the ADSR generator to control the envelope CV of the Superladder filter to add an extra dimension of tone control. I found the signal was a little weak after all the filtering so I  took input 1s output and ran it back into the second input of the mixer to help boost the signal, as suggested by Pere. I connected a keyboard to my laptop and to the midi inputs of the modular and created a crotchet loop for a bar at 120 BPM so I could model while recording the output through the desk into another computer. I intend on taking the beats which I feel sounded the best and placing them in a sampler for in the box composition using my analogue tones.

Though I am quite happy with some of the tones I created, I shall experiment and research in an attempt to improve this tone before submission.

Here is a patch diagram for how I created this sound.

Here is a video of me experimenting with the sound.

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Furthering Insight

Since the hand in of the Oakley and Buchla Patches we have moved away from the east and west coast philosophies they embody. No coast philosophy is the current topic and it has taken my interest due to its flexibility and cross compatibility. As it became clear modular synthesisers were too expensive for most, Korg and Yamaha rose from Japan with cheaper alternatives which were met with great success.  A key example is the Yamaha DX7 which became the standard for 80′s synth pop, the dominant genre of the time. A huge shift from modular to digital occurred as musicians attempted to follow the trend. Come 1990 the demand for modular resurfaced and companies attempted to avoid the downfall of the 70′s systems by making the modulars more cost effective. Dieter Doepfer, who was known for making high end midi controllers during the 1980′s digital surge, followed this rise of modular synths through working closely with synth band Kraftwerk. He was the first engineer to make a truly versatile and affordable modular system, the A-100 seriesin 1995. This compact synth set the fundamentals of the modern day Eurorack, the jack diameter, modular height and width measurements are still the standards used. From one compact modular synth undercutting the large companies huge systems, an entirely new breed of synthesiser dominate the modular world. There are hundreds of companies creating Eurorack modulars that allow users to set up their systems exactly as they want them. 

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Week 4: Creating a Drone

My attention was turned to a new approach of composition for this task, the West Coast philosophy. This experimental way of thinking was born in the 1960′s as an antithesis to the more methodical and expensive Moog systems of the East Coast. Completely new and original sounds were being created on tape machines, however the benefit of synthesisers were acknowledged by the pioneers of the movement and the came up with an answer to Moog’s systems, The Buchla. Designed by a NASA engineer, this brand new synthesiser allowed for some crazy sounds to be produced by creative individuals. My patch was my first attempt at getting sound out of the machine, it consisted of me taking 2 oscillators producing complex and simple waveforms, being sent to an envelope generator and then being blended together and ran through a triple morphing filter to shape a drone. I also allowed for some indeterminacy by running one oscillators’ modulation data through the source of uncertainty, which sends random CV data. The result of this patch was me having a wave which I could control the fundamentals of, but which also had a level of autonomy to its oscillation. 

Here is an image of the patch:

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Week 3: Recreating an instrument

This week my use of synths introduced me to the techniques of reproduction of acoustic instruments. Digital sounds are very clear and artificial, whereas acoustic sounds are often made up of many characteristics that give them their distinctiveness. The best way to model a synthesiser into an instrument is to first break down these characteristics and try to achieve them one by one. For my instrument I decided to create a tin whistle, therefore I knew I needed to include breath to get as close to the sound as possible. For this I used white noise and filtered out the high end to emulate the act of blowing, I then fed the processed white noise into the frequency modulation of a triangle wave to blend them into one unifying sound. It is better to blend the wave at the oscillator than mix them together separately when creating a brass instrument as the sound of the breath and the tone of the instrument are created simultaneously. I then further filtered the blended sound through a high pass filter and then a superladder filter to model the sound to what I believe resembled the frequencies of a tin whistle most. The act of filtering out unwanted frequencies is the most effective way of removing the digital characteristics of a waveform. The envelope settings on the synthesiser are of vital importance when recreating instruments, a difference in ADSR can mean you create a gong or a bongo; a xylophone or a piano. 

Below are images of my tin whistle patch:

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Week 2: Controlling Parameters with Envelopes

Furthering our knowledge on synthesiser we started to look into how we can use CV data generated from the envelopes to model our sounds. The concept is simple, an ADSR envelope outputs 2 signals, one which carries the audio input into it, and one which is just print of the wave being applied to the audio. Taking this print and inputting into a CV parameter on an oscillator, or mixing it together with pitch data, allows us to use the ADSR envelope to control pitch, modulation and amplitude of a wave without the use of audio. For my patch I used 3 envelope generators and patched the data to control the pulse width modulation (PWM) of my first oscillator and the Linear CV’s on my second Oscillator and on the Superladder filter. It is recommended that CV is controlled linearly as it allows for more predictability and greater user control.  

Here is a short video of my use of ADSR modulation.

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Week 1: Tuning a Synthesiser

To begin our educational journey into the world of synthesis we were shown how to create, control and tune a tone created by an Oakley modular synthesiser, a perfect example of a logically created east coast synthesiser. The Oakley’s oscillators create a pure tone and by connecting a midi keyboard and receiving the pitch and gate of the sound from it we are able to gain control of the sound. The pitch control is processed using voltage, each octave requires 1 volt therefore the oscillator can pinpoint which tone to produce based upon the voltage being sent through it. The gate works by sending a signal to an ADSR envelope telling it to open and close therefore allowing you to control the longevity of the signal. The ADSR envelope is also a Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) which allows the voltage sent to the envelope generator from the oscillator to be shaped using its parameters. I used this voltage from the ADSR VCA to control the exponential control voltage (EXP CV) on the Transistor Superladder Filter, a powerful filter based on the designs of Robert Moog. I also applied a high pass filter to one of my oscillators using the noise filter module with the signal being sent directly from the ADSR VCA output before finally being run into the mixer and output to the mixing desk.

Here are some images of my patch:

I tuned both of my oscillators to F, one octave apart and ran the midi data for the main melody of Paul Simons ‘You Can Call Me Al’ through the 2 different oscillators. Here is a recording of the outcome, I ring both oscillators out to showcase the perfect tune.