Evolution

Evolution on Soundcloud.

My initial understanding of recording to the OP-1's tape player was that you would be limited to four sounds total, one for each of the internal tracks.  My early recordings would try to sidestep this limitation by filling up the tape tracks, then bouncing them to the unit's album mode where a final rendered version of your creation is made.  I would then bounce this mix back to one of the four tape tracks and fill the other three with new material.  This was an ok way of working, but each bounce to the album mode would flatten the stereo image of my mixes.

My latest approach to recording on the OP-1 is to use sections of tape as individual sequences.  An example of this would be to put a bass line on track one for 8 bars, then lift and drop that segment of tape (the equivalent of copy/paste) as many times as I needed it.  If a "verse" is 32 bars long, I would copy my eight bar bass segment four times.  The object of keeping my segments smaller is that I could leave a bass only take alone and layer another instrument over one of my copies of it. A song on my soundcloud called "Some Fun" was the first example of me using this technique, and everything worked pretty well.  "Evolution" is my second stab at building a song in this way, but taken to a different level partly out of poor planning.  In this song I use the same method of copy/pasting pieces of tape together and layering multiple instruments over one another, but as the song develops and the sections no longer resemble their original forms, I began placing the same sound on different tape tracks at different points in the song.  Sounds confusing, and it was, but the result is something interesting.  It essentially produced an "automated mix" wherein a sound heard earlier on tape track 1 panned left might end up on tape track 4 panned right later in the song.  I could have avoided this swapping of tracks for certain instruments with better planning, but at the time I was doing it I actually preferred the end result to the laborious task of rearranging everything to be more neat.

"Evolution" is so named because it reflects my slow adaptation to the linear nature of the OP-1 tape recorder, and the singular direction the song moves in as it builds up to its end.  I have always been a hardware synthesizer, drum machine, and sequencer user, so am used to building songs out of smaller pieces.  Most recently I have used the Elektron Monomachine as my main MIDI sequencer (and hope to switch to the Octatrack now that MIDI has been added).  Anyway, I have no history with DAWs and no history with arranging songs in a linear way.  I make a sequence for a verse, one for a chorus, a bridge, etc... and determine the order they will play and what tracks may be muted at what points.

A great deal of my workflow on the OP-1 thus far has been using copy and paste commands to create a backbone for my track and then work from there.  This is a fine method, but I feel like I could stand to go back to that backbone and further develop it once the other elements are in place.  For example, the drums on "Evolution." Everything sounds good to me, but there is never any variation.  This is an area I need to work on, perhaps by leaving the percussion tape track completely alone for a while so I can return to it and add fills or sections introducing/ removing different percussion sounds.

The drums on "Evolution" are from my Elektron Machinedrum.  Nothing special, just whatever the last thing I messed around with on it was.  Also, I recorded the sequence from the Machinedrum playing into the OP-1 instead of individual sounds.  This caused bleeding between certain sounds like the kick under the snare drum, and various reverb tails being left on some sounds.  The reverb tails are of particular interest to me because I changed the pitch of some sounds once in the OP-1, and in doing so changed the pitch of an accidental reverb trail.  A closer listen will reveal an odd ballet of pitched reverb.

The majority of synthesizer sounds on this track are from the OP-1 itself. There are three exceptions to this.  I recorded a flute with the built-in microphone of the OP-1 for a previous song and changed attack and other settings of it to make it sound more choir-like.  This plays through most of the track.  Much later in the song, a more aggressive bassline comes in followed shortly thereafter by a chord stab.  These sounds were recorded directly to tape tracks from an Alesis Ion and Roland Juno-106 respectively.  Everything else heard is from the synthesis engines of the OP-1.  There is one instance of Digital, one instance of Phase, and two instances each of FM, Cluster, and Dr Wave.  I was especially pleased with the FM engine which created a distorted organ-like sound, and with Cluster which produced a sound very reminiscent of the PWM from the Yamaha CS series monosynths (I've never played with the big boys). 

A lot of people slam the Punch effect on the OP-1, but I find it quite useful.  The Punch effect is essentially a filter with different bands and cutoff slopes.  I dearly wish that it could somehow be controlled with an envelope, but still use it quite a bit. 

I have been experimenting with reverse audio a bit since I got the OP-1, and this track is no different.  Just before the three minute mark in "Evolution" there is a dense, moving, almost out-of-control sound that comes in.  This was an exploit of a combination of features available on the OP-1.  I used the endless sequencer to create something that would fit in the space, then recorded it to tape. After the take was recorded, I switched the endless sequencer to play in reverse, then recorded the sequencer playing backwards while recording the audio in reverse at the same time.  If you were to listen to the reverse-recorded audio by itself, it would have the same melody as the original sequence, but the audio itself would be backwards.  With the two instances of the sequence combined, it gives a very interesting "reverse delay" effect.  The thing I loved the most about doing this was that you are presently unable to trigger both reverse recording and a sequence at the same time (with normal recordings you can simply hold 'record' then hit a key to trigger your sequence and the recording simultaneously).  This forced me to start the reverse recording early and hope I triggered the sequence at the correct time, or (and more pleasingly) press it slightly off time and create even more reverse audio strangeness.  Fun stuff, owners should definitely give this a shot.

Anyway, I'm fairly happy with this song and even happier with where I am heading with the OP-1. Every new track is part of a larger learning experience, to which the curve is exceedingly friendly.  I wish the song was a little faster at the same pitch and thought about putting it through my Elektron Octatrack to get there, but in the end preferred that it was created solely on the OP-1.  I don't know if I will ever integrate the OP-1 into my studio outside of recording other instruments onto it. I am quite happy using it by itself for what it is.

PS- If anyone knows how to embed Soundcloud tracks into Blogger, I would love to know about it.