Hmm… Forgive me for being too broad with these rules. I want there to be common elements we all work with to compare in each others’ tracks, but I also want to provide a little more variety for people to stand out and to create a more developed piece.
Battle 26 rules:
-Entries must feature DSynth
-Entries must contain sounds from FlatTop preset drum kit
-Entries may feature ONE synth engine to compliment DSynth (sampler not counted)
-The built-in microphone may be used to capture sounds to be added to the track (think voice, guitar, twigs, coins, tupperware, ambience…). An external mic may be used for operators with a broken internal mic, but still recorded directly to tape/samplers.
-YouTube may be recorded through the line input to either tape or the samplers. This could be used to sample and remix music, but let’s try to think more outside of the box and use things like nature sounds, sound signatures, great speeches, poetry and the like. This is the rule I am most nervous about- let’s see what people think and if there’s a lot of early backlash we can scrap it.
-All tracks must be created entirely in the OP-1 and recorded to album. No external processing allowed.
-Drum and synth samplers are both allowed as well as all effects varieties.
Oh boy. I told you I was working on this crazy track I had to restart 3 times. By coincidence, it follows most of your rules already. I’m so excited for this one.
Oops. I can’t read a calendar. Let’s go with Monday, the 29th. If there is a dearth of submissions we can roll it over. Hopefully these rules are appealing enough to get lots of submissions by the due date!
Yeah, the YouTube samples was an option (“YouTube may be recorded”) and I really considered it, but I wanted something without copyright coattails in the end. I even thought about doing original, imitative recordings of movie lines and such. But in the end, I was thinking about how tracks in the 80s often had these spoken word, philosophical or poetic musings about sound and music. So, without actually copying one of those speeches, I sort of wrote my own in that style, deliberately silly, with a deadpan delivery, I wanted the audience to believe that I believed it. It’s very hard to judge if it’s the effect I was looking for, but aspects of it exceeded my expectations wildly.
I’m totally supportive of generous sampling (Shakespeare never wrote a single original story but is considered one of our greatest writers, you could say he was sampling 500 years ago and nobody cares, then or now), but I prefer to avoid the legal ramifications of sampling as much as possible. So while not sampled from YouTube, I’m going for something nostalgic and evocative, but entirely new at the same time.
Good stuff @Tribrix , I really like.great use of the OP .
I’ve got hundreds of tracks like this from 80s and IMO totally authentic (except for analog noise which isn’t essential). It kicks like an (electric) mule.
I have to make these comments when the tracks are this good and I have the time… Yes @kin that is very good .it reminds me of (what I’d call ) old school UK dubstep. Really good.i’m still getting my head around Dsynth -I’ve been finding noisy modulations or organs ,but I like those sounds you got there and your whole arrangement.
I managed to bend the rules a bit, as I really wasn’t feeling the flat top kit - so I tracked the kit to tape while running it through the telephone thingy and messing with the pitch LFO. I then re-sampled the results into the drum sampler and knocked up a cheesy pattern using the pattern sequencer set to 66% swing.
The “double bass” is D-Synth, as is the plinky sound. As you can probably guess, the “scratching” was achieved through re-sampling and messing with the time domain using tape transport, pitch LFOs and by tweaking delay timings. I’ve been doing a lot of scratch-like jamming lately, so it felt right to continue with the turntablist / cut’n’paste vibe.
I’ll fess up to the one “cheat” I used, which was to sample the very last “Wicked” into Reason. I ran it through Reason’s ‘Echo’ before sampling back into OP-1. I realise it might invalidate my entry, but then it’s quite tongue-in-cheek anyway. Hope it gives someone a giggle
EDIT
Listening back on different speakers, I realise I’ve totally overcooked the EQ. I was going for a small speaker sound but it seems the levels are way off in general. Oh well, seeing as it’s a 30 second skit I think I’ll just have to leave it, but I’ll put in more effort next time I promise
PS thanks for getting me to use D-Synth Lym, I really like the Ukelele patch I squeezed out of it!
Cool radio clip. Fun to listen to and good sound! Let’s just think you load up the wicked to YouTube and then sampled it, you could have done this easily with the onboard delay and resample and nitroed it, so I have no problems with your stretch! @ceefax
