Recreating Ageispolis

[pancake_lizard]

Hi I’m attempting to recreate some of ageispolis by Aphex twin, I actually have the drum parts pretty accurate so far on my tr 08, the next step is the first synth that slowly comes in over the drums that pluck sound “not the pad” does anyone have any idea how I can attempt to recreate that part? I have a korg minilogue but not too familiar with the sequencer yet since I just bought it. Any ideas are appreciated, thanks.

[Eddy Deegan]

The 'pluck' sound should be very doable on the Korg Minilogue.

I own a Minilogue but it's in bits as a while ago I started a project to put it into a steampunk case and I shelved it for a while as other things came up

The first thing to try is run through the presets to see if anything has the right kind of timbre. Even if there is a preset with a slower attack or a longer release, you can adjust these using the amplitude envelope controls to make it more 'plucky' (the word is 'stocatto').

One tip is to set the AMP EG so that the Attack and Sustain are both at zero, and the Decay is at a low value. This will result in a stocatto sound regardless of how long you hold the keys down for and will probably get you half way there.

To my ears the sound is reminiscent of a square wave so select that as the waveform for VCO 1 and reduce the volume of VCO 2 to zero in the mixer section.

Null out the filter envelope by setting it to Attack 0, Decay 0, Sustain full-up and Release 0.

With a square wave on VCO 1 and an AMP EG set as per my description above you should be very close with a bit of tweaking.

You can adjust the AMP EG decay setting to vary the time over which each keystroke sounds.

You may find a triangle wave sounds closer, but that's a simple experiment. Once you have a sound pretty close with these settings you can experiment with setting VCO 2 to a square or triangle wave and fading it up in the mixer to add a little 'fatness' although I suspect one oscillator should be enough if you get it right.

Once you have the sound about right, you can then play with the filter envelope and or cutoff to see if any tweaks make it better.

[pancake_lizard]

Thanks for the advice,

Now once I get the sound right is it possible to program the entire part on the minilogues internal sequencer?

[Eddy Deegan]

No, it isn't. You'll need to create the sequence in a DAW or some other external source.

[pancake_lizard]

I see, I’m new to this but you mentioned I could use some other external source, can you elaborate on that? I would prefer a hardware solution where I wouldn’t have to resort to using a computer or daw for now. Thank you for the advice.

[Eddy Deegan]

I would prefer a way where I wouldn’t have to resort to using a computer or daw for now. Thank you for the advice.

The Minilogue sequencer is very basic and only supports 16 steps. There are more than 16 steps in the part and the syncopated timing is almost certainly not supported by the Minilogue ergo you simply cannot do it in the Minilogue sequencer.

A DAW is by far the easiest and cheapest way. A more difficult and expensive way is to use a hardware sequencer. Sadly, those are the only choices you have unless you are able to play the part yourself by hand and record it as audio into a multitrack recorder (of which the easiest and cheapest is a DAW).

If you are expecting to be able to play it purely over MIDI then how are you expecting to be able to do the rest of the track? The Minilogue can only play one sound at a time, and to do the whole track you'd need a number of different synths.

[pancake_lizard]

I understand however I would rather use a hardware sequencer at the moment then to purchase a DAW. Maybe eventually I’ll use a daw but currently I want to utilize hardware sources only.

[Eddy Deegan]

How many synths do you have?

I ask because unless you have half a dozen or more, or at least one workstation that can handle from 8 to 16 parts multitimbrally, then if you use a hardware sequencer you're in for a lot of disappointment, and nobody enjoys that experience!

[pancake_lizard]

4 synths and a basic mixer

- Korg minilogue
- Korg volca fm
- Roland boutique tb 03
- Roland boutique tr 08
- Behringer mix 8

[pancake_lizard]

How many synths do you have?

I ask because unless you have half a dozen or more, or at least one workstation that can handle from 8 to 16 parts multitimbrally, then if you use a hardware sequencer you're in for a lot of disappointment, and nobody enjoys that experience!

Alright well I might be open to using a DAW but my laptop is very underpowered and I don’t presently own an audio interface or daw software.

[Moroccomoose]

Even a modest laptop should be able to cope with the MIDI no problem. Even if you are recording each audio part from the synths as individual tracks the audio shouldn't be a problem.

The problem will arise if you start adding lots of processing to you recording or if you start to use lots of virtual instruments.

The Reaper DAW is a favourite around these forums and is particularly good for being efficient on CPU usage.

[Sam Spoons]

Another Reaper fan here, a licence will cost you $60 (plus VAT if in the UK). It will run happily on my 2012 MBP and my older 2008 Mac Pro for recording and midi. I don't use many plug in's only the built in ones that are not too CPU hungry.

[pancake_lizard]

Thanks for all the feedback,

If I do decide to go the daw route can anyone recommend a good audio interface, the daw’s I’m most familiar with are Ableton live and fruity loops, I never used them with synths though because I was younger and didn’t understand the process of connecting midi devices to a computer

[Sam Spoons]

Much relevant info in this thread https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=72741&view=unread#unread

https://www.behringer.com/product.html;jsessionid=B341E55B481F3278AF7D0E4FA701E46E?modelCode=P0BK0