Elektron-Users

Hi Folks,

I know I'm not the only person here interested in using the OT to produce drones and massive pads from interesting source materials (field recordings, music, etc). I would love to hear how others have been setting it up to achieve these effects, and audio samples would be appreciated.

My original plan was to try and get the OT to behave like a granular synthesizer in software (since it sure sounds like it's a granular processor when you set rate to timestrech mode and I have always dreamed of a hardware granular synth). My approach has been to slow down audio to zero or near-zero, add LFOs to start, length and rate, run it through echo and/or reverb. But because there's no window length or density parameter for the frozen audio, you can't add jitter to those parameters and so can't get the same effects that are so useful for producing massive soundscapes in granular synths.

But it occurs to me that rather than trying to fit the OT into my preconceived concept of granular synthesis, there may be other ways to achieve huge drones, pads and soundscapes from source material that I haven't considered, so I'd love to hear what others are doing .

Thanks. I could, of course, do all this in software and then mangle the pads in the OT, but if there are OT-native options, so that you can do it in real time, all the better.

And yes, i've enjoyed the Sweet Caroline video.

--JES

BTW, in software I like audio ease riverrun, densitygs, reaktor, and occasionally I use granite.

I'm also interested in techniques to do this.
I guess the lfo randomly changing start points through masses of delay, perhaps on neighbouring tracks is the way to go.

This thread has some great potential.

I think sampling in something pad-like and then using LFO to adjust the various params that have been mentioned (start time, length, etc.) is a good start.

I also like to slice a sample up into as many slices as possible and modulate the slice param for each step or use the random slice trigs. If it's too clicky I'll apply a little low-pass filter to smooth it out. A high delay with a lot of feedback and/or reverb will also help.

Also adjust the attack and release to smooth things out a bit as well. Using a similar technique on separate tracks but using trigs that are opposite each other can also help to keep release times longer and also for some nice interplay between similar material to allow for chorusing, etc.

It would be great if a future update were to include a more 'spacious' reverb. Something to produce a shimmer effect would be a great addition to generate pads.

I'm getting mileage out of static several tracks of single-cycle waves with slow detune LFOs and lots of reverb. The comb filter adds great harmonic elements to the overall sound, and you can carve out where you want each voice to sit in the mix with filter and eq. Subtle panning LFO makes the pad a little more trippy.

Let´s talk about source material...i noticed on other sampler (V-Synth e.g.) a simple piano sound with long decay is a great source for drone stuff. Also i used my field recorder to catch the droning atmosphere inside a running fast train. Slow that sound down...instant drone! Same with a car passing by...the sound of a dishwasher. Refridgerator....and so on. Combine that with what was said above.

^ starting with long sustaining sounds with lots of harmonics makes sense.

Yeah, the other thing about field recordings for granulation is that I break a lot of "rules" of recording. I don't worry about traditional sound quality concerns with source material. I mostly just listen for textures and collect a lot of stuff.

One of my favorite drones came out of a scraping broken escalator in the Montreal metro with a humming heater in the background. It sounded terrible. I only had my iPhone and was on my way to work, so I recorded it walking by, without worrying about mic position, levels or sticking around to get a good take.
Slowed down and tuned down and run through a delay, it sounded amazing. I still believe that the fact that there's no fixed position on the sound adds a whole other level of movement and interest, but with all the delay I put on nobody could probably tell except me.

It's the first thing you head in this track: http://unlikelyevent.net/track/eponymous

Just to be clear, I didn't make that with the OT, though.

Nice track! I often think I should have a recorder of some sort, running around the metro you hear all sorts of interesting sounds.

When the purpose is to slow down a sample, is it beter to record in the highest sample rate available? For example 96khz?

When we slow down a 96khz sample for about one octave (or 1/2 its speed), does it become a 48khz sample?

Bye