Bass Hole 1 alpha (preview)

Recently a user asked me about a particular bass sound.  I know the sound, so do you – it’s that snappy over electrified, and absolutely over compressed with no-dynamics sort of heavy bass.

Being obsessed with the basic tools of Ableton I wrote this CPU heavy effects rack.  I will place it in the repository, but I am not done yet.  That does not mean I can not share…right? So here is an early version, enjoy.

Download Bass Hole-beta1.adg

This demo was done via a 4bit square wave in Operator.

Warning : CPU heavy! Also, makes nasty sounds.

Operation:

This patch can kill bass in some instances. Because of this I encourage using it as both a parallel process as well as an insert level effect in Ableton at your discretion. Don’t mess up your bass!

The Knobs:

• +Dry : Adds original dry signal to the chain
• All Mid Sweeps : Sweeps all the mid controls
• Hi-End Snap : Amount of additional hi frequency electricity
• +Super Snap : Like Hi-End Snap, but more intense via a dedicated channel more over driven and a low cut
• +Chorus : Addition of chorus to the signal (old bass player trick)
• +vocode 5th’s(+/-) : Adds the vocoding element to the mix. I used a + and – 5th (slightly offset) thinking power chord style
• Vocode Sweep : Changes multiple bands on multiple vocoders like a sweep but with a dynamic element (via the vocoder)
• Vocode Bandwidt(h) : Think of this like the bit resolution of the vocoder, but different.

The principle :

This is based on (3 band) multi-band compression. In short, this effect expands the mids and his to a point of distortion. There are several layers of frequency control and a considerable amount of non-linear interaction. This patch can slam and electrify a square wave like no other. Saw and Square waves do really well. This patch manipulates energy change on the osc level, so waves with dramatic shifts will electrify more. Sine waves will not snap out the same.

Hallucinations & Piracy in Deep Space

New Track! While working with some new ideas and sample packs this fell together rather quickly as a base line for live performance (platter) and a great source of self-referencing (re)mix material.

I anticipate more to come form this track as well as a kick as live set (platter).

Hallucinations and Piracy in Deep Space

DJNSM Free UDU Sample Pack

Some free Udu samples form the archive. I am going to guess that this is circa 2005.

Also a best guess from memory – the mics were:

• Rode NT1 overhead
• Rode NT3 (pair) overhead with 90 degree rotation to pick up  the “hole” and the “top”
• Custom modified small condenser mic with custom preamp installed inside Udu to capture sound from the inside of the instrument***

Channels were recorded at 24bit / 48khs and mixed down to current state

djnsm-free-udu-samples zip file

***custom mic and pre was originally developed for live performance use and this Udu/mic combination is unique and provides amazing sound. Contact me for details on the how. This mick up unit works with any phantom powered mixer or input.

DJNSM-udu-sample-pack by DJNSM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at djnsm.com.

Crude Step Sequencer for APC40 released

12May2010 : The Crude Step Sequencer for Apc40 is now live and available for download here. Check out the demo and let me know if you like!

APC40 Step Sequencer Live Pack (no M4L)

DJNSM is proud to release the Crude Step Sequencer! This project uses no Max (for Live) and instead a whole buncha’ MIDI hacks.

History : In the course of setting up a new controller I dived very far into MIDI and the base line possibilities that Ableton has to offer. I am working on porting these ideas back to the APC (when possible) as part of a larger instructional dialog.

The Crude Step Sequencer is a simple 1/8 note step sequencer with 4 tracks running and dual metronomes (explained in the video).

M4L is not required, but this live pack also has strict limitations and is cumbersome by comparison.

Download this Live Pack here:

• Download version 1.0 *.alp (10May2010)
• Download version 1.0 *.zip (10May2010)

Watch a simple demo :

Version Requirements : Created on Ableton Lite 8.0.6 APC-40

Installation : Double clikc and follow dialog or browse it out in the Live browser.

Via http://www.ableton.com/livepacks :

These Live Packs are saved in .zip files and will need to be unzipped before the contained Live Packs can be installed. After downloading and unzipping, double-click the Live Pack icon or select “Install Live Pack…” from Live’s File menu. Then navigate to the desired Live Pack to install it.

Operation : Using your APC40  launch scene 1 with faders 5-8 set to zero (pulled down).

Usage :

• Track 1 : Kick  (1/8 note) Row 1
• Track 2 : Snare (1/8 note) Row 2
• Track 3 : Bass Line (1/8 note) Row 3
• Track 4 : Clap (1/16 note) Row 4-5
• Track 5+ : Metronome (follow actions gone wild to compensate for APC mapping!)

Scene Launch buttons 4 and 5 are used for the 1/2 note metronome.  This references the row of the 1/16 note steps currently being played.  (Stare it down for a minute and you should understand).

• Fader 1-4 :  Control volume for track 1-4
• Fader 5 : Bass loop start
• Fader 6 : Bass loop length
• Fader 7 : Bass loop compression
• Fader 8 : Bass attack+release (allows for extreme rounding of steps)

For normal bass line operation have faders 5-8 set to zero!

Look in the Bass device rack (macros) to get a good understanding of the mapping of the sample controls.

Do not Link File instead use http://apc-step.djnsm.com to get current release or direct traffic to this content.

Enjoy!

This Live pack is released for educational purposes. No not use samples commercially, instead swap your own good stuff into the tracks and GO GO GO!!!

--Marc
DJNSM
(re)Composition  ”the art of the live remix”

Help!

Be sure that the “nome” track has MIDI out going to your APC40

Easy install : Open Ableton, double click the live pack (*.alp) and choose a destination install location.  Once complete (will pause at end of install commonly for live packs) use the Ableton file browser to find that new install and open the *.als file. DONE!