Spring Synth Project: An update

[Ben Asaro]

(Apologies in advance, this may end up being longer than intended).

So -- I mentioned a little while back (probably early Spring) that I'm starting a new project specifically because I wanted to use bits of gear that have hitherto gone unused; namely, my Boutique JP-08 and KeyStep Pro.

My original plan was to use two drum machines: the DR-550 and SR-16. The plan in my head was that one drum machine would play a suite of percussion sounds and the other machine would play just a handful of sounds but at preset velocities to make sequencing easier.

Well, this turned out to be a bit of a disaster because that only works if you are triggering the drums directly from the drum machine's pads.

Okay, I thought; such is life. My next hurdle was to then see if I could get a suite of sounds on the DR-550 to play from the KSP; the idea was simple: use the KSP's extended range to play more sounds than are available on the unit itself. AND THIS WORKS -- kinda, sorta. The issue is that you can still only assign the 12 pads to specific MIDI notes ... so the rest is just a random soup of sounds, which was very difficult to recall which notes, on which octave, triggered which sounds.

FINALLY, I had a bit of a breakthrough, but using the BeatStep Pro. Setting the BSP to Custom mode for the Drum sequencer, I was able to customise each pad so that it triggered the exact drum sounds I wanted without having to resort to using traditional keys and without having to remap the drum machine itself, which would ultimately leave me with 4 unused pads.

SOOOOO .... that's Step One accomplished!

[Ben Asaro]

I've had a few jams with the BSP and DR-550, getting used to adjusting the velocity of the drum sounds and trying to figure out what ranges work for each sound. It's actually been a lot of fun hanging out at the dining room table with the BSP, DR-550 and cup of tea.

After that was out of the way, I sat down with the Big Kahouna: the KSP and JP-08. I really had no idea if this idea would even work which made the process very liberating: low stakes!

I assigned Tracks 1-3 to the same MIDI channel and dove straight in using a pluck sound I had made seemingly ages ago on the JP-08. After a few passes with the KSP cheat sheet, something resembling actual music started to emerge.

It was a tonne of fun sculpting the piece in real time and using the KSP in the simplest form possible: 3 interlocking loops that wove in and out of each other using muting. Having just one filter to sculpt the dynamics of all 3 voices was a neat experience and not nearly as limiting as I thought it was going to be.

I immediately began to wonder how much bigger the sound might get if I introduced the RC-5 into the fray and looped sequences panned across the stereo field -- that will probably be my next experiment!

I recorded the first JP-08 jam because it accidentally came out rather cool and is an interesting proof of concept and then added reverb and delay in post, but am also interested in trying this with the the Blackhole/RV-500 combo.

[Ben Asaro]

Almost forgot to post a link to the experiment in case anyone is interested.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E6RZIe ... sp=sharing

[Drew Stephenson]

Listening now

[Eddy Deegan]

I like the percussive nature of the groove you've got going on in there Ben. As it evolves it's a really nice texture!

[Folderol]

That's really impressive

[Ben Asaro]

Yeah, not a bad doodle! I was able to use it in a commission as well!

[Martin Walker]

Woo - impressive Ben!

Your compositions really do flow well from their theoretical origins. A seriously good real-time knob-twiddling session with most excellent atmosphere!

Martin

[MarkOne]

I really liked that.

Though I have to say when I read the title I thought you meant that you were designing a synth that somehow involved springs!

[Ben Asaro]

I really liked that.

Though I have to say when I read the title I thought you meant that you were designing a synth that somehow involved springs!

HA! I can see that!
"Move over, motor synth! Here comes .... SPRING SYNTH!"

[Arpangel]

This is annoying, I can’t listen to it on my iPad, can’t play the file.

[Ben Asaro]

After doing a bit of research, it looks like I can hire a translation team and Japanese singer for this project.

[Ben Asaro]

Update no. 2:

This composition has taken its first major step towards coming to life over the past few days. It actually started with taking one of my guitars down, putting a capo on it, and starting to write for guitar again. Something came together rather quickly and then when I started adding synths, it all just kind of ... fell apart.

Of course, this is a totally normal part of the process. But after some soul searching I realized that I was trying too hard to force spontaneity into a preconceived idea and had a listen to my last few pieces, trying to figure out where I want to go. I was sort of writing this piece as a reaction to the massive, expansive pieces I've been doing of late, and realized -- there's nothing wrong with writing massive, expansive pieces!

So, armed with what I already knew from two original recordings, I started over, this time hewing closer to my typical methodology of writing before playing ... and things have already started taking on a much more solid shape.

The chord progression I've settled on is a kind of bastardized Andalusian Cadence in F#m. I spent a very long time getting the chord progression exactly where I wanted it, and then I spent an even longer time finding the ideal 5 pitches to play over it.

My first dry run in Logic was very encouraging. Next up will be deciding on the actual approach I want to use, arrangement-wise. I doubt I will abandon my original idea, but I think that instead of limiting myself to a single synth voice, I will let more organic voices in as well; mainly, acoustic and electric guitars, acoustic percussion, and orchestral elements.



As you can see, I went with the 'triad +1' arrangement approach, and that this is almost pentatonic, but no leading tone, opting for the octave of the tonic instead. It gives the melody a very ambiguous, unresolved sound over the chords. I still haven't figured out what's going to go over the V chord yet!

[Eddy Deegan]

Nice write-up of your thought processes Ben!

[Ben Asaro]

Update no. 3: Writing is well under way now! The first/main motive is done and I've been putting together the rack for the sounds I want to use.

This might be the most care I've ever put into something like this, I labored over every note so there feels like there's an inevitability to it. Am officially starting to work on the sequences in the KSP now, and it's coming along. This main motive is ostensibly in 7/4 but it actually uses quite a bit of subdivision of the time signature to derive at a 28-note melody.



Looking forward to sharing something when I get to base camp!

[Guest]

That beer looks nice, I like it when it is that colour. Putting that on the shopping list...

Edit: Damn, I saw the can and thought Kent UK not Kent USA. Seems hard to get hold of here, I like a challenge though.

[Ben Asaro]

That beer looks nice, I like it when it is that colour. Putting that on the shopping list...

Edit: Damn, I saw the can and thought Kent UK not Kent USA. Seems hard to get hold of here, I like a challenge though.

lol when I saw the top half of your comment, I thought, "good luck",
I can't even get the stuff in NYC; I can only get it if if Ihappen to be in CT.

[Ben Asaro]

Update no. 3:

Remember when I said how much care I had put into that motive? Yeah, well ... it's dead, at least for the moment.

I love the idea behind that composition, but -- when I was truthful with myself -- how different was it, REALLY, from other things I've done?

That realization led me down an interesting pathway, one where I imagined: what if I wasn't a sole composer, but a synth player in a band; what would I want that to sound like? The immediate response came back, power pop with Berlin School synths.

So, I threw a capo on one of my guitars (capo is essential for the jangle!) and starting writing my first 'power pop electro' song. I'm very happy with where the demo is at this point, but this is just the first section; it's going to drift into more Berlin-ish style waters for the second section.

This is definitely what I would call the 'rough and ready' stage in that I've taught myself how to play the parts but haven't spent any time mastering them yet.

Everything here is temp, but it was critical to get my proof of concept done. And here it is!

https://soundcloud.com/asfollowswriting ... ectro-1-v6

Work starts tomorrow on the second, exploration section of the song, where it will probably delve a bit more into the prog side of things.

[Eddy Deegan]

Great work Ben. Rough though you may call it, that demo has a bouncy vibrant presence to it, is a jolly good listen and I enjoyed it a lot!

[Ben Asaro]

Great work Ben. Rough though you may call it, that demo has a bouncy vibrant presence to it, is a jolly good listen and I enjoyed it a lot!

Thanks, Eddy!