"Lunar Harmonics" [mp3 removed]
One Korg Electribe (rhythm) filtered through the Mutator filter bank. MIDI note-on commands from another Electribe (synth) cause the bell-like harmonics in the filter. The bass at 1:08 was unexpectedly loud so the whole song was run through the Reaktor Flatblaster compressor/limiter (the "cassette dub" preset). Thus is the output of a cheap digital synth warmed up with mellifluous analog gear only to be ultimately reclaimed for the digital realm.
"Iceworld" [mp3 removed]
Finished most of this a few days ago but was stuck. Listening to that tracker music for 24 hours provided some ideas for how to resolve it. The gritty quality here is not low sample rate but possibly a blown amp on the Mutator filter distorting an already gnarly stretched-out and gated sample. It needed a pretty, "icy" melody floating on top to pull it together--or almost pull it together; the incongruity is important.
"Acid Exercise 2" [mp3 removed]
This is all hardware, live except for mixing two mono channels down to stereo after the recording.
Nerdy backstory: the "synth" is an analog filterbank called the Mutator. It's using the output of one Electribe groovebox, a rhythm-only box, as an "external input" that modulates the bass notes from another box, in real time. The same rhythm is simultaneously playing as pure audio. The external input imprints a rhythmic pattern onto the bubbly bass filtering that is more complex and varied than if it was just the filtering alone (an "auto-wah" envelope filter). The grooveboxes are not synced--three rhythm patterns and three melodic patterns are manually toggled on and off in a staggered, combinatory fashion. It's kind of fun to listen to for all this structural rigor.
"Morality Playdate" [mp3 removed]
Finished this a few days ago and have been working on alternate versions. We're back in DEVO corporate anthem territory, with extensive analog filtering of the Pro-53 (Native Instruments' software version of the Prophet 5). Three or four themes come, go, and overlap in various combinations.
"Go To Work" [mp3 removed]
The "guitar riff" is kind of catchy, although this is still squarely in defaults territory (for the moment--I have some ideas for alternate mixes). The slightly eldritch granularized vocal sample talks about "going to work."
Update: Made a few changes--the hihats aren't quite so robotic now.
