Norton Gardner - Hardware Production - Djpd51

I had now already arranged most of my 140 dubstep track and wanted to dub it more with reverb and add some more drum hits to fill out space. I used my laptop so I can send and return audio directly from the project I was working on, I started by setting up an aux send on Ableton which would go out on channels 3 and 4 which was patched into both Lexicon MX300’s inputs. I used the aux send because I wanted to send multiple tracks through the reverb unit so I could dub different parts of the track without having to set up the outputs for each individual track and I could hear the effect in parallel. The lexicon’s left and right outputs then went into the Mackie 802VLZ4 line inputs 1 and 2 which had their levels turned all the way down.

I connected the aux send into the channel 3 input and turned up the aux send until just before no input feedback occurred so that when I sent the reverb on the aux it would then trigger the feedback effect. I made sure that the Mackie mixer had a high volume before the point of clipping which could act as a limiter if the feedback went a bit crazy, I also had the interface inputs turned all the way down and the monitors were tuned down a lot. I adjusted the reverb size and decay times to suit the sound and made sure the wet was at 100%, the EQ on the Mackie’s channel 3 would drastically change the frequency content of the feedback, taking out the lows would make the pitch go high and piercingly bright, whereas taking out the highs would make the feedback rumble and distort. A good balance was needed to get the desired sound and I would change the EQ to get different variations, I also made sure that there was enough space in between the hits to let the feedback decay. Since the feedback loop was on a separate channel to the reverb I could choose if I wanted the effect to be in parallel or have some clean reverb mixed in.

A DRM MK111 and an Ableton Push were connected to my laptop, a MIDI channel was made to send the Push MIDI controls to the drum machine and I changed each hit to suit the track. I recorded everything individually and made lots of variations to the hats to have some open and have a slightly different pitch. I used its master stereo outputs instead of individual outputs because that's all that was needed for individual recorded hits and it saved time and wires.

I had already arranged the foundation of my DNB track and wanted to layer some mid bass with the sub and add some percussive elements and FX. I used the novation peak and initialized the patch to start fresh, then proceeded to use 3 saw waves in an additive process and detuning 2 of them for a basic reese. Slight distortion was added on the synth but I also ran it through the Analog Heat for extra distortion and notch filter modulation, the filter was left open for more equalising options in the DAW. I had a Novation Launchkey connect via USB to the laptop that was then sending out MIDI on the 5 pin to the Peak. I used the Launchkey to also solo the MIDI send and audio return tracks to save time and made the patches in context with the track. I synced the Peak to Ableton's clock so I could make percussive modulation with the LFO that was synced to my track, changing the sync delay to match it perfectly. I made a simple patch with sine waves and modulated the pitch and filter cutoff with a down saw LFO. I decided to change the modulation to an envelope and use the arpeggiator to make the sound percussive because it had more shaping possibilities. The arpeggiator wobbled in time during the first bar when played as if it were attempting to lock onto Lives clock, I chopped this out of the recording and used it as drum rolls during the percussion sequence to add variation.

I decided to try out the System Cartesian for its Subtractive Synthesis, Additive Synthesis, FM Synthesis, Phase Modulation Synthesis, Ring Modulation, and Amplitude Modulation as Make Noise mentions on their website. I started by sending CV clock from the Wobblebug module to the X clock input on the Rene, I then tuned Rene in its pitch quantize settings to be F minor, set the loop length in access, and sequenced a pattern in gate settings. I sent the X CV to the 1 V/Oct input on the STO so that I could tune the oscillators, even though I set Rene to be in F the oscillators initial pitch is set by the frequency control which is common in modular VCO’s. The sample will be recorded out of key but can be tuned after, and because each key in the minor scale has the same interval spacing I can just tune the fundamental to fit my track which is important if I make a nice melody. The next step was to set up gate control because the oscillator is constantly running from the moment it’s powered, this was done by sending the X gate to LXD’s strike input and routing the oscillator to the 12db input which is then routed to the output mixer. The LXD is a voltage controlled filter amplifier and is controlled by a vactrol, this means that gate envelope is smooth and natural whilst the optoelectronic device gives it a unique attack and release controlled by isolated light. I also layered up the STO with the Soundhack Telharmonic module and applied FM with the STO sine output as well as applying FM from the wobble bug. I experimented with the different noise, harmonic, and phase algorithms and sent the output through the LXD’s 6dB input which was struck by Rene's C gate output. The 2 outputs from LXD went to Rosie’s 2 inputs, I could then blend the 2 as I wanted and could mix one out if I only wanted one to be recorded. The Make Noise website has lots of useful information and videos about their modules which was great to understand the modular workflow of the System Cartesian.

I wanted to capture a range of sounds in the session, the Slim Phatty was great for bass and leads but was limited due to being monophonic, however, the Make Noise Eurorack had many sound design possibilities. We decided to get a Push because I thought it’s scale modes would be useful for coming up with melodies and drum patterns. I used a USB A to B cable to connect the Push to the computer and sent MIDI messages out to the Slim Phatty on a 5 pin DIN connection via the Motu interface. A USB connection was also made with the Arturia Beatstep Pro but was used to send MIDI clock information rather than notes. I synced it more precisely by triggering a drum with a quick delay on the drum sampler module and then matching the hit to Live’s metronome by adjusting the sync delay. Because I was triggering the drum module straight from the sequencer I found that the clock was out of sync when using the CV clock out to the Varigate module that was now triggering the drums, I think this may be caused by differing latencies from the sequencer and clock outputs. I decided to just send a four to the floor sequenced CV trigger to the Varigate clock in which seemed to work like a regular clock. I also sequenced a trigger message on the first of 8 steps to reset the clock but however the sequence wasn’t long enough and would reset the Varigate when it was halfway through its sequence, but I was able to program usable patterns perfectly synced to Ableton's clock. I found that the Beatstep was very useful with modular gear by being able to convert MIDI to CV clock, and after I sent the clock out the Varigate to the Rene, I had enough trigger and gate messages to sequence more than enough modules.

Once all the clocks were synced, I sequenced drum patterns on the Varigate to trigger a kick, snare and hat on the drums module which were sent to the mixer module and then to the Audient’s patchbay inputs. We recorded the pattern and then would solo each drum individually for more control when making a track. I also experimented by sending gate CV to the Slim Phatty’s filter CV input which was sequenced by Rene, this created a pulsing effect where the filter would open on the off beat. We got risers and FX by making pitch envelopes on the Slim Phatty but also got a similar effect by using Push’s pitchbend touch strip. We recorded everything in C # Minor so that it would be easier to pitch it later on to place in our tracks. Once I returned home I went through all the recordings and made loops and one shots out of the best parts, I would then export at a normalised value of -1.75dBFS and make a hardware production sample pack which I wanted to do for all session recordings.

The equipment used in this session was kids toys that had been circuit bent as well as a modded Megadrive console that could have its sound chip programmed. I brought my laptop to the studio so I could send existing audio loops from the project through the toy and capture bitty layers and effects. A 3.5mm aux was used to connect my laptop to the megaphone so I could record on the main computer and both toys had a line connection to inputs 1 and 2. The toys had different parameters modified to effect the sounds but I found I was quite limited with the kind of sounds I could produce but they have the potential to be FX. I could use the Megadrive by sending MIDI CC through a programmable MIDI interface chip called genMDM that could send the control signals where they needed to go. MIDI channels would determine where the MIDI control message would go, the FM sound chip is mapped to channels 1 to 6, the PSG sound chip is mapped to channels 7 to 10, and the FM voice 3 special mode is mapped to channels 11 to 13. Each control in the Megadrive has its own designated midi CC number and set data range out of 128, a Max for Live device was made to send out MIDI on the correct channel and CC and it’s UI makes it quick and easy to use the consoles built-in frequency modulation synthesiser.

The aim of this session was to use 2 mono analog synthesisers to layer up and make a big bass patch that could be used in drum and bass and 140 dubstep tunes. The original plan was to send one MIDI pattern to the Korg Minilouge and have the MIDI passed through but however there was no MIDI through connection on the back, USB’s to both synths was used instead. The synths were connected to inputs 1 and 2 so I could add slight saturation on the Audient interface and have them recorded separately with the filters open on both synths for more processing control in the box. I used the Minilouge for more of the sub sound because you can add sub in mono mode and then the Minitaur was used to make a detuned reece. A multi-sample recording was done for all the notes needed, then both recordings were processed to keep a constant power whilst the bass chromatically increased in key and to control dynamics, then finally splitting the frequencies to sample as one sound.