Studio Feed: Starting from Scratch #2 Pt. 5
Added 2022-02-10 23:01:01 +0000 UTCHey Everyone, back with part 5 on Track #2. This one is a cool one!
I start the session by bouncing the piano part to audio and then throwing it into one of my favorite Kontakt plugins, Slate & Ash CYCLES. It's essentially a granular/loop based synth/sampler with near-unlimited possibilities. My goal was to keep the progression intact but making it more rhythmic, so that it could carry the track along in a more interesting way than just chords alone. It's a unique plugin, so hopefully it's not too hard to follow...feel free to drop any questions about what is going on and I'll do my best to clarify. The main mechanism I'm exploring here was clip-automating the "position" parameter of the entire loop. So basically, where the grains are generating from within the bounced piano loop. So over 8 bars I slowly automate the position to move across the progression in time. If this style of synthesis interests you, you can accomplish something similar with the free Max4Live Granulator. FYI, I end up re-bouncing the piano part without some of the auxiliary noises and FX off so I can get a cleaner take for CYCLES to work with. Something to keep in mind when resampling.
At around 22:00 I work on the mix of the melodic elements, and at 27:00 connect an envelope follower to the CYCLES bit so that the Mellotron can subtly move in tandem with the new rhythm.
For the rest of the session I'm just going through changing, adding, and fine-tuning various things, just kinda working in a stream of consciousness.
