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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / onezero's music / The Only Prescription

The Only Prescription

By onezero on February 14, 2016 8:51 pm

In the middle of working on week 5's piece, I got a challenge from Minmei Decelis to do a track using nothing but cowbell samples.  This is it.  Starting with a bunch of samples, my thought was to make a lot of different, potentially compatible rhythmic patterns, and see how they combined.  There's a lot of 4/4 here, but some 3/4 and 6/8, as well as a few measures of 5 and 7 just for the sheer hell of it.  My goal was to make it as musical as possible, and maybe even find some hooks in it.

I ended up with three differently configured Drum Rack instruments, stocking them differently with a variety of cowbell samples--many of them were the same sample at different pitches (with re-pitch as the resampling setting on the clip, generally just doing different octaves).  I spread the three instruments across six different tracks for some counterpoint.  While I had a bunch of classic 808, 909, 707, and other drum machine cowbell samples (many of which sound fantastic when re-pitched), I decided to go with samples of actual cowbells for this one.  I also used four tracks of Simpler with different cowbell samples.

Each track got some M4L Humanizer with a slightly different range, as well as two Auto-Pans (one for L-R and one faster but less intense one for volume).  One Drum Rack channel got some Saturator to make it a bit trashier and Auto-Filter to make it less harsh.  Send/return channels: one filter delay, one convolution reverb (with the Real Places: Wood Room Large impulse), and one channel of Beat Repeat (starting with the Fill in the Blanks preset).  I damped the highs a bit on the convolution reverb, and automated the sends in each channel for the reverb and Beat Repeat, just for some variety.  Everything also went through a Full Chain Master audio effects rack.

Do I need to explain the title? (And even more context for anyone who might need it.)

(Cowbell image in the .mp3 file CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63997)

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Thick, rich, resonant, with a touch of ethnicity. Voluptuous syncopation, the auto pans work really nice on this one. I have the LITE version of Abelton, what units are in the Full Chain Master?

cool concept, great execution! these bells have some smooth low end...thanks for the reference too, but unfortunately, i cant watch this saturday night thing in europe.

minaret_kid wrote:

cool concept, great execution! these bells have some smooth low end...thanks for the reference too, but unfortunately, i cant watch this saturday night thing in europe.


Thank you! Ah, frustrating. Does this link work, or are there more dumb restrictions? http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/ … nbc/n41046

BoldFaceType wrote:

Thick, rich, resonant, with a touch of ethnicity. Voluptuous syncopation, the auto pans work really nice on this one. I have the LITE version of Abelton, what units are in the Full Chain Master?


Thank you!  Full chain master, the way I use it: EQ8, Glue Compressor, Overdrive (off, for me), Utility (off), Limiter (-30dB), Spectrum (for visualization).

Awesome percussion on this track!

More cowbell (well, someone was going to say it)! I love having limitations like this; your results are riveting ;-)

this one actually didn't need more cowbell!

Surprisingly full. Relaxing and suspenseful at the same time.

wow! Just wow! amazing that you did all this using only cowbells! Beautiful!

Woooooooohhh!  That deep cowbell is supper phat.  Great polyrhythms and super interesting to listen to.  Perfect amaount of reverb.  The stereo separation is superb and there's a super authentic live feel about it. :-)  Super awesome work dude!!!!

coooooooooooool!!

Good work, doesn't sound gimmicky despite the premise. The bass is really nice!

Very cool. You definitely aced this challenge.

Very nice!

Very well done. The low bells really give off a tribal drum feeling, and the entire piece is very ambient. If I didn't know better I'd think they were all congas and steel drums. Great work this week.

I think this is what I was expecting for last week's piece! I'm imagining the bass sound as a giant cowbell the size of a Chicago bungalow. I'm doing my best not to imagine the cow that would wear it

This is pretty damn great

Finally an all cowbell track! Awesome track, nice work. Love that you took on that challenge - some limitations like that can yield great results.

I've got a fever...you know the rest.

Awesome track!

Great work! Never thought cowbell could sound so sweet.

Holy crap, this percussion. This is so good!

Nimble Cipher wrote:

Awesome percussion on this track!

Jim Wood wrote:

More cowbell (well, someone was going to say it)! I love having limitations like this; your results are riveting ;-)

george bowles wrote:

this one actually didn't need more cowbell!

license wrote:

Surprisingly full. Relaxing and suspenseful at the same time.

dj someguy wrote:

wow! Just wow! amazing that you did all this using only cowbells! Beautiful!

cTrix wrote:

Woooooooohhh!  That deep cowbell is supper phat.  Great polyrhythms and super interesting to listen to.  Perfect amaount of reverb.  The stereo separation is superb and there's a super authentic live feel about it. :-)  Super awesome work dude!!!!

Thank you!  I think the send automation is part of it--the reverb changes a bit on each part over time, so you get some variety.

tetzu wrote:

coooooooooooool!!

Ipaghost wrote:

Harmaa wrote:

Good work, doesn't sound gimmicky despite the premise. The bass is really nice!

Simon Koehn wrote:

Very cool. You definitely aced this challenge.

7506 wrote:

Very nice!

Arcana wrote:

Very well done. The low bells really give off a tribal drum feeling, and the entire piece is very ambient. If I didn't know better I'd think they were all congas and steel drums. Great work this week.

CrazyBob wrote:

I think this is what I was expecting for last week's piece! I'm imagining the bass sound as a giant cowbell the size of a Chicago bungalow. I'm doing my best not to imagine the cow that would wear it

tim koch wrote:

This is pretty damn great

miraclemiles wrote:

Finally an all cowbell track! Awesome track, nice work. Love that you took on that challenge - some limitations like that can yield great results.

Sodabelly wrote:

I've got a fever...you know the rest.

Awesome track!

Rabovenk wrote:

Great work! Never thought cowbell could sound so sweet.

brian botkiller wrote:

Holy crap, this percussion. This is so good!

Thank you all!  Glad you liked it!

wow, that is really amazing. great sounds and great use of polyrhythms. I'VE GOT A FEVER.

Fun idea a good execution.

Whoah, I'm sorry I missed this one last week. THis is really good both as musical exercise and as a track on it's own right. How did you got that "swing" ? The actual groove near the end is delicious, and that's really hard sometimes with instruments like congas, cowbells or toms.

Really really good smile

matheusleston wrote:

wow, that is really amazing. great sounds and great use of polyrhythms. I'VE GOT A FEVER.

r2me2 wrote:

Fun idea a good execution.

laguna wrote:

Whoah, I'm sorry I missed this one last week. THis is really good both as musical exercise and as a track on it's own right. How did you got that "swing" ? The actual groove near the end is delicious, and that's really hard sometimes with instruments like congas, cowbells or toms.

Really really good smile

Thank you!  Most of the swing was the default 50% setting in Live, but that last little bit of it was from using M4L's Humanizer on every midi channel, set to a maximum of...whatever 1/64-ish would be in milliseconds.  It seems to make a subtle difference in feel--you can tell when you've used too much when it starts to sound "out."  Just before that, there's that little touch of randomization all over the place that makes it feel a bit more organic.

Thanks for noticing the end groove--that was my favorite part, too!

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