presenting an album I just released - Echoes of a Dream
If you hang around in the SP404 thread, you may have heard whispers of these tracks in there. I recorded this music back in the winter time and just revived the project to bring it to fruition.
There is an inspiration throughout the music of finding peace, particularly as night falls and the grace of slipping into sleep presents itself elusive. I hope that comes through ~ may it be medicine
the process:
Every track is a live take recorded into the SP404… guitar and piano improvisations while triggering field recordings / foley percussion. As such, these tracks were meditations to make, finding the organic rhythms that were brought out on the spot.
The core of this workflow, frippertronics style, is the KoDaMa delay on the 404. This delay is notable as the only 404 delay with a send control. It has possibility for endless feedback and hi/lo-pass filters for degrading repeats. I manipulated the send control to create tonal, ambient backdrops for (and from) the lead lines.
To finish the project, I dropped everything into Logic ~ adding EQ & compression, finding crossfades, and doing occasional automation.
How did you use the 404? Just the KoDaMa delay and some atmospheric oneshots? You described the process already, I’m just interested if there’s more about it
Sometimes it doesn’t need much. It’s easy to play too many notes. I think you did it just right!
You’re absolutely right - just using it as a recorder, sample playback, and for the delay
For reference, here's a nice, detailed breakdown
Only samples loaded on the 404 are field recordings (birds, bugs, creek, ocean, rain, etc) and percussion one shots.
I’m running the guitar (and sometimes the piano, but let’s just say guitar) into the 404. fx e.g. Amp Sim > Reverb (Bus1) > KoDaMa (Bus2). Field recordings and percussion are routed to Bus2 as well.
KoDoMa is generally set for max feedback, longest time, and subtle filtering. I will play a guitar line and only turn the send up afterwards but while I’m still sustaining the note. Here’s a quick example of what that sounds like. You can imagine how that can evolve into an interesting background
That’s the gist! With send, you can choose what loops and what just lays on top. Some notes
I mostly wouldn’t hit record until I’ve already generated some background ambience
Sometimes I’d accidentally loop something I didn’t mean to and just run with it / try to cover it up
There’s a cool effect with the field recordings that would happen. I’m triggering them as loops but they also get caught in the delay loop so when I stop the sample (e.g. ~1:20 into the first song, with the bugs) there’s still some left over in the delay buffer
With the piano, I used the R8 pictured as a input selector and guitar preamp
The beauty of the approach is that I’m creating the background while I’m playing with it ~ something that really appeals to me as musician
Interestingly, there’s nothing too special about the 404 here. It pushed me towards exploring this technique, through its limitations & capabilities - I discovered this searching for ways to loop
I could (and since have) set up something similar in Logic … but would I, had I not done it first on the 404?
this is beautiful! this is great timing too, back in jamuary i was considering recording a bunch of your tracks to tape so i can pop some calm chill tunes on the tape deck when im doing other things around the house, but i never ended up doing it. now that these are collected together and i have a legit download, i think i will. thanks for the calmness friend
The 404 invites simplicity. I often use the OT buffers in a similar way (recording themselves). Using just a long delay instead seems obvious but I haven‘t tried it before.
Edit: gave it a quick try, definitely needs some practice to get the send timing right, as with a piano sustain pedal.
Wow. This is so beautiful! The transitions between each song feel so seamless, as is the incorporation of the field recordings/foley. Truly some exceptional work on display here! This is the kind of music that deserves to fill up whatever space it’s played in
aw, thank you for that friend ~ love to hear that the music has provided you with some peace
I looked it up, these tracks were recorded in dec 23. All my jamuary submissions actually live here (bandcamp album)… it’s a big mix, as jamuary goes but I like having them up for reference for myself.
and, if you ever want a WAV version of something I throw up, don’t hesitate to ask
@MK7 Ah, love to hear that it’s inspiring!! It’s a fun & rewarding technique, would be happy to hear anything you come up with it. I’m using it in quite an ambient way here but I’ve synced the delay too to match with some sequences
ty!! The transitions were what I was working on this week to release it ~ it was a pleasure to find a flow between each song. Appreciate you seeing that and the field recording were all personal captures
Do you mind expanding a bit upon how you got the transitions so seamless? It sounds like everything was just done in one take, but if you were using the SP for recording, then how did you get passed the 16min recording limit?
I just listened to the nice album again after some trials based on your techniques.
Interestingly, my stuff became quite different, more like a longer slapback delay kind of thing. I also used chord progressions, so I couldn’t set the feedback to max and/or had to quickly set it low and high again to reset the buffer. So I drifted away from what‘s the point of the technique you described.
In your recordings, the background stuff keeps looping for quite a long time. Very loopy character, with non-looped melodies on top.
Probably this technique could also be used for techno drumming, which is also very loopy by nature.
Question: you said you send only the sustains of the notes to the delay. I get this for single sustains, but your your backgrounds are full of „sustain melodies“. How do you create those? Do you quickly close-open the send on each original note, or just sometimes open the send for a single sustain, which accumulates to those background melodies over time?
your username is right in theme too 
You’re absolutely right - just using it as a recorder, sample playback, and for the delay
