check this out
By wangus on October 16, 2022 11:58 pm
TENTH* AND FINAL LSDJ TRACK FOR THIS YEAR closing out vol. 4. really happy with this one, very satisfying to go out with a bang (even though it again was a day-of last minute track). And it did feel like a culmination of everything I've learned on LSDJ this year.
*i did one LSDJ tune in vol 3. but these were 10 consecutive.
First steps to the track:
* pick a tempo+key based on gaps in the lineup from the previous 9 weeks. I decided on ~98BPM, Eb minor.
* toy around with the RESYNC wav channel mode. ("new" option in v9.2, really just emulating legacy behavior). I'd never tried it, but happened on defensemech's notes/videos: https://defensemech.com/intense-tech/en/21-lsdj92.md.html
It wasn't exactly giving me any tones I wanted, so I bit the bullet and "overclocked" again to 2X mode (tick rate 2x the screen refresh rate, so 120Hz i think). The buildup section at ~40s in is basically the test pattern I was using to fiddle around with synth settings. Just quarter notes at 03 waveform loop speed, and every fourth at 02 speed instead. 02 speed = 120 / 2 = 60Hz = Bb plus about 50 cents. 03 = Eb + 50cents, so perfect for the key I happened to pick beforehand.
It sounded cool just with different waveforms and detuning (for this sub-harmonic effect you want the wave channel slightly out-of-tune with the tick-rate oscillation, because if you're perfectly in-tune, the RESYNC wave switching lines up with the oscillation and it sounds smooth). But then it went bonkers when I threw in OLx/OxR table action. (ty @laamaa for the overclock mode Gxx table tip; it had never occurred to me that you could change the groove of the tables, and without that, i probably would have run into CPU lag)
The outro was originally going to be the intro. Went for totally-contrasting ambience, long attack bass and fluttery arps. This was the most I've ever used the Mxx command, with the outro fade in/out (fade-out is a bit too fast, but oh well). (I even went back and tossed some more Mxx earlier in the track to balance out the levels of the intro and main section).
I realized I wasn't going to get a satisfying transition from that ambience to the main part of the track (not in the time I had today, at least), so I transplanted it to the outro, and scraped together an intro, deconstructing the main section into a solo wav-channel sample-driven beat. I rarely use the samples kits in LSDJ, so that was some extra motivation to lean on them in this final LSDJ track for the year. The same beat really tied together the outro vamp.
overall, super happy with this, like i said. really wish I had given myself more time for it though; it could easily be double the length, with even more wacko sound design exploration.
------- edit 2022-10-27 ----------
vibeo
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