presenting...LimpyLoo's TIP DU JOUR!

presenting: LimpyLoo's

TIP DE JOUR #4: Metric Modulation!

Metric modulation is when the tempo appears to change, but doesn't actually.

here's a very bad, very hurredly-done demonstration of metric modulation:

http://soundcloud.com/limpyloo/mega-shitty-metric-modulation

The high stabby (and very shitty) synth is plalying constant quarter notes. The apparent tempo is being modulated at rates of basic fractions (e.g. 1/2, 2/1, 2/3, 3/2, and 3/4). Don't let that math scare you, the application is pretty easy.

All of this gobbledygook is acheived by treating different rates as quarter notes. So for instance, if you wanted the alter the percieved tempo by 3/2, you would treat quarter-note triplets as the "new" quarter note. So for every two bars of quarter-note triplets, it will sound like three bars in the new tempo. Also, for now we are gonna try to keep everything in 4/4; that will limit us slightly, but it will help us better understand the relationship between all the various rates.

The new tempos are all achieved using triplets and dotted figures: for instance, 3/4 is simply dotted-quarter notes. And within that rate, dotted-eigth notes would be your new eighth notes, and dotted-sixteenth notes would be your new sixteenth notes, etc. And simple eigth-notes will become your new triplets. And of course acheiving 1/2 and 2/1 should be obvious enough.

Metric modulation can be used in varying levels of drastic-ness. Maybe you simply have a melody or a bassline where the you group triplets or dotted-eigth notes in sets of four, simply hinting at a different tempo.

Anyway, hope this was useful.

Peace,

LimpyLoo

  On 10/10/2012 at 11:45 PM, Salvatorin said:

yeah. btw. this thread was the first time I ever listened to king crimson. musical orgasm.

Glad I could help!

I never knew metric modulation had a name, but it's very easy and fun to do with any xox style drum machine with a scale function.

Oh cool.

I don't know much about TR-xox's beyond the sounds. I'm currently eye-balling a cheap 606. I like the 606's spitty snare the most out of all of them, I think. But then I saw a DR-110 and I think I like that slightly more, all things considered.

As far as programming, the 606 is my favorite drum machine ever. It's really fun.

The dr-110 has the handclap that the 606 should've had.

  On 10/12/2012 at 7:34 AM, scones to die for said:

As far as programming, the 606 is my favorite drum machine ever. It's really fun.

 

The dr-110 has the handclap that the 606 should've had.

I'm tempted to get the 110 and then get it modded like this: http://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/newsarchive/dr110.html

Is there enough interest in this thread for me to keep truckin'?

YES

Keep on keepin' on!

  On 10/13/2012 at 1:36 AM, modey said:

YES

  On 10/13/2012 at 2:01 AM, psn said:

Keep on keepin' on!

Will do. Thanks, ch'all!

Keep going.

  On 10/12/2012 at 6:52 AM, LimpyLoo said:

Oh cool.

 

I don't know much about TR-xox's beyond the sounds. I'm currently eye-balling a cheap 606. I like the 606's spitty snare the most out of all of them, I think. But then I saw a DR-110 and I think I like that slightly more, all things considered.

I got a DR-110 for $100 mint condition w/ case. Planning on adding midi control to control drum sounds and hits. I feel like this will result in something a lot more powerful than a 606. I like the sound better too. Just thought I'd let you know yo.

I friggin’ love the sound of the 110. I had a half-broken one that I could not figure out how to fix, but now that you’re mentioning it I should totally get another.

  On 10/12/2012 at 11:11 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Is there enough interest in this thread for me to keep truckin'?

YES!!! and one day i will do that counterpoint write up i swear

presenting: LimpyLoo's

TIP DE JOUR #5: Fun With Chord Voicings! (pt. 1: using minor-9th's)

The minor-9ths inverval is some badass shit. It's not commonly found in chords, though folks like Squarepusher, Tortoise and Radiohead have all found ways to use it.

When I do hear it, it's often in the form of a major7 chord with a 7th voiced lower below the tonic :

C

G

E

B

Sometimes this is voiced in a single instrument, though Tortoise and Brian Wilson (among many others, of course) have actually put the 7th in the bass (written C(maj)/B).

Radiohead fuckin' loves to do it with minor chords, though. A common Radiohead chord is:

(A)

F

C

A

E

A

But they also use it between the 2nd and 10th inverval in a minor chord:

C

E

B

(A)

It must be noted that some voicings simply sound like shit, though. But if one is bold enough, the minor-9th could be slipped into things like dorian chords (e.g. Dmin with B-C) or lydian chords (e.g. Fmajor with B-C).

Anyway, happy braindancing to y'all.

Cheers,

LimpyLoo

  On 10/10/2012 at 11:49 PM, LimpyLoo said:

  On 10/10/2012 at 11:45 PM, Salvatorin said:

king crimson musical orgasm

i've had this

Thanks Limpy, this is good stuff.

  On 10/11/2012 at 1:31 AM, Adjective said:

re:high pass

 

 

high passing delays and reverb is probably a good idea too

Holy effing shit. I have never even thought of doing this. Oh wow. Considering how many different delays I use in my songs, this will clear up my low-end so much.

THANKS GUYS. MY MUZIK SOUNDS BETTER ALREADY

  On 10/18/2012 at 3:06 AM, Audioblysk said:

THANKS GUYS. MY MUZIK SOUNDS BETTER ALREADY

I never thought that this would have so much impact on the sound. Maybe I really should watch some tutorials after noddling around with electronics for five years without watching a single one

  On 10/18/2012 at 1:38 PM, tokn said:

  On 10/18/2012 at 3:06 AM, Audioblysk said:

THANKS GUYS. MY MUZIK SOUNDS BETTER ALREADY

 

I never thought that this would have so much impact on the sound. Maybe I really should watch some tutorials after noddling around with electronics for five years without watching a single one

I think knowing signal and mixing theory is more important than watching tutorials. Theory will give you a general approach where tutorials will most of the time give you precise (thus limited) tips. Which can of course be very useful and insightful, but the danger of tutorials is that they sometimes show themselves as rules of the thumb or something like that.

I dampen the high end of my reverbs quite considerably as well. Works really well on guitar or percussion because without lowpass, the high end can get a bit irritating, imo. At least when using the decay lengths I like to use (ie. at least 4 seconds usually).

presenting: LimpyLoo's

TIP DE JOUR #5: Triad Voicings and Color Tones

Sup ch'all.

It is legend that everytime a root-position triad sounds, Ennio Morricone drops a slice of Digiorno's on his Goodfellas t-shirt.

(Plus it gives my soul face herpes)

So here are some alternates...

The first way to approach it is to displace notes:

we can drop or raise each of the notes an octave.

Let's take a C-major triad and drop the 5 and raise the 1:

from bottom-to-top we'll get GEC, a very "open"-sounding inversion

We can then move it upwards diatonically and get a repertoire of exotic new voicings:

GEC (C-major)

AFD (D-minor)

BGE (E-minor)

CAF (F-major)

DBG (G-major)

ECA (A-minor)

FDB (B-diminished)

Another approach is to use "color tones." (Color tones is the shit; ch'all better recanize)

In my not-so-humble opinion, the most innocuous color tone is the 9 (aka '2'). Drop that shit in a root-inversion triad and you get 1-2-3-5. That's a dense voicing, major or minor. One might consider removing the '1' and let the bass handle that shit (admit it, your bassline is probably a root-note drone), leaving us with a 2-3-5 voicing.

An alternative would be to raise the '1' and the '2' an octave and get a E-G-C-D voicing. Then move that shit up diatonically and voile you know more shit:

EGCD (C-major)

FADE (D-minor)

GBEF (E-minor) note: the minor-9th interval makes this voicing a bit dissonant, but it's definitely still useful

ACFG (F-major)

BDGA (G-major)

CEAB (A-minor)

DFBC (B-diminished) note: good luck using this piece-of-shit chord....actually, put a G in the bass and win a Grammy

We've probably talked about 7th chords so fuck that shit. If you wanna take your compositional palette way-fucking-outre then try:

b9 over a major triad (e.g. CDbEG or DbEGC)

#11 over a major triad (e.g. CEF#G)

#11 over a minor chord (e.g. ACD#E)

#9 over a major triad (e.g. CD#EG or EGCD#)

(To be continued...)

Does anybody on this forum care about this stuff?

I'm starting to think 'no'.

I like your theory tips. (the profanity is a little forced (are you ben folds?)... the actual content is good though, thanks for taking the time to write them up!)

I like this thread. Particularly the production-related posts.