Cold Snap
By mattnida on January 6, 2016 10:39 am
Happy New Year! Having written 52 tunes in 2014, and none in 2015, I concluded that Weeklybeats is good for my productivity. So I'm back for another year.
The two previous times I've done WB it's been a really good way to learn how to do things. 2012 was all about Renoise, and 2014 about Ableton. This year I'm going to try and get to grips with a whole bunch of synths, iOS apps and VSTs I acquired over the last year, but haven't really put to any good use.
To that end, this track is a straight one-take no-edits jam with the three Korg Volca units I bought last year. Here I'm using the Keys, the Bass and the Sample, with a little reverb and EQ in Ableton just to balance everything out. Everything's synced using the Volca analog sync, no MIDI.
The Sample is by far my favourite of three units - the speed with which you can cut up and mangle samples is incredible, and I have a feeling I'll be using it far more to sequence melodic elements than just drums. The other two are utilitarian but characterful, and to be honest I they don't sound much less versatile than the other new budget analog monosynths that are going for three times the price. For basslines and sequences they do the job in a fun tactile way, and I really like using them.
I imagine in the future I'll be using these alongside more expansive, programmable VST synths (I think the Wavestation or Arturia's Matrix 12V would sit great alongside these sounds). My biggest bugbear is the 16-step limit; I think the way forward is to use these alongside an external sequencer to get some more verstaile 4/8 bar patterns to keep things interesting (but tweaking the synths in realtime to let the sounds breathe a bit).
But as a decent start, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out all told! Looking forward to hearing what everyone else has cooked up.
Audio works licensed by author under:
CC Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
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