For a while, I've wanted to use Ableton's Analog synth instrument to do percussion lines--I've enjoyed using the tweakable synth voices of Bleep!BOX in the past to get exactly the right amount of click (pitch shift) on the attack, the right filtering, blend of waveforms, etc. The downside is, of course, one has to use one channel per drum type instead of having a convenient one-drum-machine/one-channel setup.

Aesthetically it started a bit üntzier, but I mid-week shifted to wanting to hear something more dubby, and that shifted to something a bit more melodic as the week went on. Does it get too busy in the middle?  Maybe, but first thought, best thought.  (Though that didn't stop me from going back and editing the release time of the snare on every fourth whenever there's a single hit in that range. So after upload I pulled it and resubmitted.)

I doubled the kicks (one all sines, one with one sawtooth and one sine), one snare, one high-hat, one wood block, with a bass, a pad, and three different lead voices at various times (sometimes simultaneously).  All in the Analog instrument, all with differently-spec'd auto-pans for variety.  Return channels: two different reverbs with longish tails (under 10 seconds), one filter delay and one simple delay.  I tried some 2-bus compression, but it sounded better without.  For a while I also tried EQing down 3dB at 440, but it sounded better flat.

The title was suggested by my kids, who are fascinated by tardigrades--the only known Earth animal that can survive indefinitely in the vacuum of space, among other interesting properties.  I've just realized that this keeps up a theme of naming tracks after things that are very small: microbes, solitons, a molecule of vanadium, and then there's my whole yoctonaut project...

Tags: ableton, analog, tardigrades, week 32 2014, View by:onezero