Congrats peeps! We have a new machine in the family. It’s obvious we need a SP Twinshot science lab to explore the new wonder, to learn how to harness and get the most out of it.
Share your findings, trickery and newly discovered techniques here. Let’s share the knowledge so that we can get up to scratch with our new family member.
You choose the samples you like for this lab. I guess most have started out with the stock samples, but I see some have already loaded their own.
As usual, only the machine in question is allowed. That means max eight tracks of Twinshots.
Please describe what we are hearing, and what you’ve tried to achieve.
Gonna have to make a more toughtful sample selection. Just added some Roland drumclassics for now, but 64 samples isn’t that much.
So drums only on this first one.
6 tracks. 1 & 2 triggering the fx-track (with zero drive) for a little pumping effect.
Otherwise nothing fancy…just some cntrl-all noodling. Fading samples in and out is something I think I’ll be using quite a lot.
Alright. I recorded a bunch of Volca Drum one shots today and I think that’s just going to be my 64 samples for a good while. I really like layering 2 samples an octave apart with a bit of detune and having one of the samples loop at different speeds at different pitches. Modulating the crossfader is cool as well for some faux-wavetable kind of bass sounds.
Also just treating the samples as starting point like you would with a regular synth machine and going to town with pitch envelopes and whatnot. That’s how I made the drums basically.
Still exploring but there’s a lot to love here. 5 tracks of Twinshot. Drums are trigging the FX track as well for some fake sidechain just to try it out.
the crossfader-as-wavetable idea is really good. what you’re essentially doing is using the MIX parameter as a manual morph between two snapshots of a sound at different stages of its pitch/timbre arc. if you p-lock that MIX parameter across steps you can get something that feels almost like proper wavetable scanning in a way the ST never had before.
the thing i’m most curious to dig into is whether running both samples backward at slightly different detune amounts gives you useful textures. the reversal + detune combo on sample players always produces this odd, not-quite-pitched quality that can work really well for pads and atmospheres. the 64-sample global pool is the constraint to work around but it also forces you to be clever about it.
Finally had a couple of hours with SP Twinshot. Not so much science here I guess, just feeling my way around so far. There’s a lot to like, and so far the combo of samples and FX track is what makes this a unique experience imo. The Twinshot engine itself is thoughtfully implemented. I guess I’m hoping for another engine with start point and retrig parameters to appear in the future, but Twinshot has its own strengths that will take some time to explore in full.
These are all made with the default Elektron sample set. I have no clue what strategy to choose with samples in the long run, guess I’ll just try different things to start with to see what works.
Running everything through the FX track for some techno. Random LFO to sample selection one track, which is fun
A sillier version of the above. Random LFO to sample selection is
Some cinematic chords. Trying every trick in the book including the new filter pan to make this come alive.
LFOs to amp on the chords to make it come more alive.
Exploring the lofi sound of samples pitched to the bottom. Most of the random sounds coming in here are C0 notes, (except the chords). Frankly it doesn’t get too grungy, so I used some audio rate FM to volume on a ocuple of sounds to increase the grit. Also, all drive parameters set to max
I definitely has. I think the real magic will be found in the combination of samples and the other machines though. Otherwise it’s ‘just another sample player’.
8 tracks of TS. Imo, using only TS is not the point, although fun, I felt that I’d rather use other machines for the different parts and use TS as a layering element and adding before unknown for the ST flavor.
Kick is synthesized by one of the additive wave samples I put on the machine and the kick track triggers the FX track, opening filter and amp. Fx track itself has random lfo on filter, and p locked the trigs I want to open for sure, giving accent to the kick. The kick track itself is choking the hats and has some probability on some of the trigs so that works really nicely together. I feel the update of track relations is making the machine much more… …relative and it feels like an organic thing, those features are for sure something we need for the other digis.
Only for the sake of science But I won’t complain if people want to introduce other elements as well, the interaction between elements is perhaps equally worthy of scientific experiments.
Had to try random sample & hold on both samples at least once. Two tracks of Twinshot. One for the drums and one for the Looney Tunes random bonanza Some control all and fx track p-locks as well involved as well.
I’m finding that reverb’ed audio introduces too much distracting artifacts through the degredation tho. I’d be curious to hear what dry vocals sound like if processed in the same manner.
Yeah, tried reverbed stereo samples on synth chords but that the mixdown from stereo to mono takes the shine out of the sample.
The artifacts could also be dependent on the pitch algorithm used when pitching up the sample in software. The sample also is also pitched twice at 200% to reach 400% since that is the max in the app.
But I won’t complain if people want to introduce other elements as well, the interaction between elements is perhaps equally worthy of scientific experiments.
