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WeeklyBeats.com / Music / onezero's music / Auxiliary Input

Auxiliary Input

By onezero on January 10, 2016 7:57 pm

Nice to be back. This week started with the goal of synthesizing each percussion voice with Ableton's Analog instrument (eight of them), and the idea of something abstract.  The bassline came together as a sparse thing in the Collision instrument. 

I messed a lot with FM synthesis in Operator, and kept two of those voices, but the piece needed more--the idea of a complex changing pad didn't really work. I reverted to an old trick I'd done this past year: reverse-patching the wah pedal, and manipulating it along with the guitar pickup selector switch and volume and tone controls to give a trumpet-like tonality. That's right: no trumpet on this at all, just the Gilmour reverse-wah trick. (I repitched some of these an octave up, and a few an octave or two down as well.)

To try the changing-pad idea, did a number of passes with Moog guitar, changing the harmonic inflection point, and arranged those in two tracks, and then did another pass with Moog through Reuss Repeater Fuzz and Vox Wah for a more buzzy tonality. 

The arrangement pass was fiddly: parts worked, others didn't, and I ended up editing half of it out.  There was a little space in the middle that needed something, so I did a quick improvisation with my pitch-shifter patch in Pure Data, and slowed that down a couple octaves--that's the Shepard tone in the middle.

Return channels include two reverbs (tweaked "empty club" and "large factory" presets), one Beat Repeat (tweaked "fill in the blanks" preset), and Max for Live Buffer Shuffler 1.0. Every channel got some degree of auto-pan, and the whole 2-bus went through the Full Chain Master effects rack.

Title comes from a suggestion from one of the kids, since I was using the aux input in the car yesterday, and he thought that'd make a good title.  (It does!)

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Tight. Love the morphing swells against the percussive ground...

Very clever use of sounds! That trumpet like effect is crazy.

Started off reminding me a lot of Diablo 1 with that brass synth, and then it sort of turned to whale song. Really cool!

this is really cool man, welcome back!

A very organic sound!

Hi onezero. The way you describe your workflow is very nice. You did a very good
start into 2016.



Really glad to have you back, Maurice! You really pushed the envelope with your own weekly 2015, by the way.

Great organic piece, as always. As you can see in my description for this week, your approach is a true inspiration for me.

I've got to mess more with the built in M4L tools. What I usually do is control the "variation" parameter of the standard Beat Repeat with M4L's LFO and put it in a delay send with high feedback. That way you could get some unexpected rhythm patterns... who needs Eurorack quantizers smile

Hey OneZero good to see you back as well. Great first track, I love the space in this track and the groove. It reminds me a bit of Papua New Guinea, not some much in sound but it in feel and direction. I'd love to hear this in a venue, looking forward to listening to your stuff again in 2016

Cool track.  Really flows nicely and good tones!

Jim Wood wrote:

Tight. Love the morphing swells against the percussive ground...

Diagamblic wrote:

Very clever use of sounds! That trumpet like effect is crazy.

NekoTheory wrote:

Started off reminding me a lot of Diablo 1 with that brass synth, and then it sort of turned to whale song. Really cool!

george bowles wrote:

this is really cool man, welcome back!

Brackleforth wrote:

A very organic sound!

Q-Rosh wrote:

Hi onezero. The way you describe your workflow is very nice. You did a very good
start into 2016.

Thank you all!  Yes, it's good to be back.  The trumpet effect is fun, and all you need is a wah pedal (and a guitar to present a load to the pedal).  With the volume and tone all the way up on the guitar, the pedal all the way forward is silent, and all the way back is a medium-low trumpet tone.  Rolling off the guitar output with volume  and tone can lower the pitch, and you can make it jump a bit with the pickup toggle. It's kind of its own instrument!

laguna wrote:

Really glad to have you back, Maurice! You really pushed the envelope with your own weekly 2015, by the way.

Great organic piece, as always. As you can see in my description for this week, your approach is a true inspiration for me.

I've got to mess more with the built in M4L tools. What I usually do is control the "variation" parameter of the standard Beat Repeat with M4L's LFO and put it in a delay send with high feedback. That way you could get some unexpected rhythm patterns... who needs Eurorack quantizers smile

Thank you, laguna!  I also need to play more with M4L--I've built a few things, but nothing very interesting or good yet.  I've done more in Pd, but the integration of M4L with Live is really compelling.  I'll totally have to try that LFO trick!

Robroy wrote:

Hey OneZero good to see you back as well. Great first track, I love the space in this track and the groove. It reminds me a bit of Papua New Guinea, not some much in sound but it in feel and direction. I'd love to hear this in a venue, looking forward to listening to your stuff again in 2016

Thanks, Robroy!  Ah, I do like the sound of the fake trumpet with some reverb--a friend described it as the 70s-electric-Miles sound.  Funny thing is I actually could play it live...

rdomain wrote:

Cool track.  Really flows nicely and good tones!


Thank you, rdomain!  Good to see you back!

Great blend of more familiar glitchy sounds with the abstract atmosphere and trumpet sound weaving in and out, and also nice dubby bass

Yes!!! Really nice flow throughout and builds really nice. Great sounds

sounds like area51 after a grey escape cool

This is excellent

don't you make my brain melt

Jason Nijjer wrote:

Great blend of more familiar glitchy sounds with the abstract atmosphere and trumpet sound weaving in and out, and also nice dubby bass

GrainBastard wrote:

Yes!!! Really nice flow throughout and builds really nice. Great sounds

Kohlhofer wrote:

This is excellent

Thank you!

slato wrote:

sounds like area51 after a grey escape cool

Ha!  My kids loved this comment.  Thank you!

yan_g wrote:

don't you make my brain melt

Gonna try not to!  (Or maybe I should--you tell me!)

Very cool, reminds me of Aphex Twin and Radiohead smile

This is haunting. The minimal drums and wailing (fake) trumpet made me thing of Blackstar by Bowie (RIP).

Love the collision of sounds and styles smile

I think if Autechre had a jam with Can, it would sound kinda like this.

This is doing a lot for my synesthesia, haha

Woah just read the description about there not being any trumpets.... mind blown x_X also +1 on this sounding autechresque ^^

Damn, I really enjoyed the sound pellet on this one! Great percussive sound choice!

Wonderful sound landscape

Beautiful track, love the way the percussive voices really form the ether through which this song moves... like a spacey net that supports perfectly. Sweet mood

Mercurymonkey wrote:

Very cool, reminds me of Aphex Twin and Radiohead smile

Strayce wrote:

This is haunting. The minimal drums and wailing (fake) trumpet made me thing of Blackstar by Bowie (RIP).

M_itsumidai wrote:

I think if Autechre had a jam with Can, it would sound kinda like this.

XC3N wrote:

Woah just read the description about there not being any trumpets.... mind blown x_X also +1 on this sounding autechresque ^^

Whoa--all of these are mind-glowingly complimentary comparisons.  Thank you!

7506 wrote:

Love the collision of sounds and styles smile

Catthew O. wrote:

This is doing a lot for my synesthesia, haha


Oso Feo wrote:

Damn, I really enjoyed the sound pellet on this one! Great percussive sound choice!

m2K7 wrote:

Wonderful sound landscape

G.Versão wrote:

Beautiful track, love the way the percussive voices really form the ether through which this song moves... like a spacey net that supports perfectly. Sweet mood

Thank you all for listening, and I'm glad you liked it!

XC3N wrote:

Naked Lunch! Awesome! Thank you!

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