a stop on the way
By wangus on March 20, 2022 11:40 pm
taking a hi8us from the m8us to see what I can do with the OP-1. It's been a while...
All internal samples/synths; recorded single take to OP-1 internal album, and given some minor touch-up in post (i'm out of practice mixing well on the OP-1).
Hope you like OP-1 PHONE as much as I do...
This was a tooth-brushing idea (the "chorus" chords and groove), that made me delay my morning commute a bit on Friday to record on the piano. Friday/saturday evening, I notated it, fleshed out the idea, and started thinking about a B section. Goofy bass+3voice harmony movement. Sunday morning I started proper work on the track in the OP-1 (a few sketches earlier, but I don't think any of that content exactly made it into the final track). I finished planning out the song structure about 6hours before the WB deadline, went out for another coffee, and came back to sprint record the track.
It's messy, I didn't hit the exact vibe I was imagining in plenty sections, and I didn't get to develop a bunch of parts as far as I'd like, but maybe that's a misplaced expectation of me and the OP-1.
Planning out the song before composing much was a new OP-1 workflow for me (even after 8 years!). I had only sketched as much as I needed to help imagine the sections for arrangement. I see it as a little analogous to my project organization on the M8, where I plot out "chunks" of chains/phrases for different sections of the song. With the whole skeleton of the track laid out continuously on the tape, I could blast through recording. It got kinda clunky; I think ideally the song structure wants to grow a bit more in parallel with composition and sound design, but I wouldn't have finished the track today that way.
There's nothing too special happening technically. Pretty standard OP-1 patches (VOLTAGE, DSYNTH bass; CLUSTER, DRWAVE, VOLTAGE chord voices and leads; PULSE punchy chords).
I used my typical track setup of:
* 1: center pan, normally main percussion
* 2: center pan, normally bass and/or lead
* 3: half left pan
* 4: half right pan
A few "tricks" that might not be obvious, but I'd consider standard advanced OP-1 far
* Double-record something on L/R panned channels (like 3/4 above), with global detune on one, for a targeted chorus-y effect. Or put a Nitro/Punch filter on one for some weird frequency spread
* "Timestretch" with a Value LFO-modulated sampler direction (secondary Blue). Crunches up the retro toms in the middle section, and turns a retro clap into a bone-breaking slap. Pro-pro-tip: the direction control is _not_ binary; you can dial it up partially to influence how deep the "timestretch" effect is, per key.
* Element "G" LFO for manual vibrato/pitchbend. Put the OP-1 on a level cushion (or your lap) so you can play it in-tune, but you can wiggle the whole thing for expression.
One last note: astoundingly I learned something _new_ on the OP-1 while making this. CWO's green delay parameter has resolution finer than the displayed number (i.e. more than 100 distinct setpoints). You can easily notice this with small (0-20 or so) green values, and high white feedback, so CWO makes a distinct pitch. You can shift+green dial in the pitch finer than the number displayed.
side shameless plug!: weeks 1-10 are on bandcamp !
[oh nooooooo i just noticed a missing melody in the bridge that i must have accidentally dropped over... it was so nice against the other layers there...]
Audio works licensed by author under:
Copyright All rights reserved