The interplay of the rythms, is very thought out, surprises often… good job.
Thank you.
They had me compare a preset and based on this comparison, said that there is nothing wrong. But for my use case, often making dense low octave chords, it’s very apparent. And I don’t necessarily mind aliasing per se. I use FM synths often, including the MegaFM and Blast Beats which is aliasing heavy. But this kind of aliasing is different and not something I want with analog synths. And I’m definitely not the only one that hears the noise and scratchy envelopes.
Dub Techno with Analog Four and Digitone for chords, Syntakt bass and Digitakt beat.
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Very nice! I found your YT too. Hope you continue to post there as well. Would love to see some more behind the scenes on tracks.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m thinking of doing a track from scratch kind of video.
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Very good.
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I was really enjoying using my Typhon as an fx-box for the Digitone.
Was especially nice for dub-stuff.
But since I accidentally ran over the Typhon (on my way to a gig where it was part of the setup…) this summer, I’ve been using the Strymon Deco instead.
It’s a different vibe, more dusty, than the Typhon.
But really nice for a bit more groovy dub.
Here’s a livetake I recorded this morning.
Digitone via Strymon Deco for chords.
Deluge for everything else.
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Lovely chords.
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Thanks, man. Glad you like it.
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This is good dub. Nice work!
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Thank you!
Impressive!
Thank you! If anyone want a band camp code let me know.
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Love it. I really really like the sound of your track Plush Point. Can you talk a little about its sounds? It’s not all Korg Opsix is it? Cheers!
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Thank you. Means a lot to me.
Everything but the drums and two delay effects.
I am away from the project and made those tracks a while ago, but all the tracks on this EP used random events triggered on notes. Since this is FM, there was a lot of subtle changes going on just with the different operators, but I also used those note on random triggers to change different depths of effect sends. Bitwig was the sequencer, and so I could also route note events to send effects and send levels. The synth side is usually 4 or 6 op setup like a subtractive, so three OSC with ine modulator for each. I may have used some operator modes, but usually I just use sines. On one of the delays I modulated the delay time to create pitch shifts which were filtered with a bandpass, where I tried to tune the cutoff to grab the frequencies I liked. Those echos were sent to a reverb and different degrees of those effects were sent to another delay. There probably were some LFOs on the sends as well to add some more variations. Instead of using the built in feedback, I set feedback to 0 and used the track to return the effect back to itself.
Each aux/send/fx track was routed back to a mixer channel, and I “mixed” it down there since I can’t do much on the actual fx track because of the feedback routing.
I then just jam on mutes and adjust levels recording it live.
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I am currently drowning myself in your music, the earlier EP’s. Funny how this goes, some seemingly random Elektronaut, and here I am, listening to all of it. Something in your music is exactly it for me. Hard to describe. But yo!
When you talk about FM you mean the Opsix, right? I gotta ask, what is your go to delay (pedal)? And are you using a vocoder to get those glassy chords? Or is it the Opsix fx also?
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Oh wow, that is really something. I’ve listened to a lot of your YT videos thinking the same things! Big thanks.
Opsix is only on the latest EP. Early EPs were ITB with the PortaFM and only hybrid track was Long Tail with the MegaFM. Decepticon track is only track not using FM. Using bog standard single OSC subtractive but lots of pitch shifting.
So, basically it all FM, with similar approach to using lots of note triggered randomizations on various parameters. You could say the Blue Cliffs EP represents the culmination of those experiments. But maybe Midway did it best.
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I love the MegaFM sound but found it really hard to operate. It was probably me not being fundamental and patient enough with FM synthesis sound design. I am currently “back” with the Digitone and the A4, routed through the analog FX block of the Syntakt. That’s a stage where you can add nice bandpass filtered delays and drive it.
Is the Opsix able to do what the MegaFM can, soundwise? And more specific, dub chord wise?
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Well, no the Opsix cannot do what the MegaFM does. Those old Yamaha FM chips, they employed methods to get around lack of processing power, such as low bit envelopes. Envelope parameters will interact in unexpected ways, causing truncation errors and distortions that are impossible to generate otherwise. All of the percussion in Midway is caused by these artifacts that I generated using modulation on the Plogue PortaFM’s carrier envelopes. I recommend the PortaFM for an inexpensive way to explore those kind of sounds because the hardware Yamaha porta studio doesn’t expose those envelope parameters to modulation. And the Plogue FM synths are bit accurate reproductions, not emulations, so they have the character.
I absolutely think though that the MegaFM can be a tough beast to tame. I lost the preset I made for Long Tail and can’t seem to reproduce it which is a bummer.
And absolutely I think the Opsix is good for dub chords. You could use it as a 6 osc subtractive synth if you want. Lots of interesting parameters to modulate. Each operator can have its own effects, which can be very powerful. It’s a very powerful synthesizer. I love it. MegaFM cannot do what the Opsix does.
But I started with 2op FM. I literally spent years just making chords with 2op FM. As someone mentioned, with FM it’s the subtle modulations, low levels of feedback, things like that. Because basically you can take a sound from sine wave to noise. And explore harmonics, in harmonics, lots of textures and tones along the way.
As far as hardware pedals, I currently use an Asheville Music Tools ADG-1 SE bucket brigade delay and an Erica Synths zen delay. The ADG-1 can generate those echoes that disintegrate into noise that I love. The Zen I’m very mixed about. I absolutely cannot recommend it. It’s got such a narrow sweet spot, hard to dial in, hard to gain stage, weird defects in the filter. But when it’s on it’s very on. So I keep it.
I think I’m going to sell some gear and find a space echo and be done with it. It’s my favorite delay.
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