The Making of: Dropp

Last time on The Making of..., we discussed FLeure and came to the conclusion that we will never know how the track was actually made. In this thread, I've decided to try a much simpler track that's been bothering me a bit.

Dropp is obviously not a terribly complex track. It's based on a two-measure, slightly generative drum loop repeating over a roughly 30-second synth line and a sequence of noise that repeats every 40 seconds or so. It's all pretty straightforward except for that one noise. It may sound very simple and identifiable to some of you, but I'm not as experienced in effects as many other users here, so I'm not sure whether it's a common one. I certainly haven't heard anything quite like it before.

My first thought is that it's some sort of frequency modulation, but I'm very likely wrong here. The modulations could be manual sequencing, but it sounds like it might also be generated by an envelope follower from a different audio track that wasn't routed to the master.

What are your thoughts on it?

You should dress up as James Lipton and introduce each of these tracks on television like he does with actors.

  On 7/6/2015 at 11:33 PM, drillkicker said:

Dropp is obviously not a terribly complex track. It's based on a two-measure, slightly generative drum loop repeating over a roughly 30-second synth line and a sequence of noise that repeats every 40 seconds or so. It's all pretty straightforward

I can't hear the two-measure loop that you speak of (not because I can't distinguish it, but because I think it's incorrect).

Can you tell what the time-signature of the piece is?

  On 7/7/2015 at 3:32 PM, IOS said:

 

  On 7/6/2015 at 11:33 PM, drillkicker said:

Dropp is obviously not a terribly complex track. It's based on a two-measure, slightly generative drum loop repeating over a roughly 30-second synth line and a sequence of noise that repeats every 40 seconds or so. It's all pretty straightforward

 

I can't hear the two-measure loop that you speak of (not because I can't distinguish it, but because I think it's incorrect).

 

Can you tell what the time-signature of the piece is?

It sounds to me like the drum pattern repeats after every two measures. The track is in a 7/4 composite meter with each measure divided into a four-beat and a three-beat section. There might be some subtle variation going on, but if there is, then it's a bit of generative stuff. I really doubt that the entire track was manually sequenced in the way that Draft and Untilted were. Sean and Rob were using generative sequencing in Max quite a lot in the time when EP7 was made.

Anyway, the drum sequence isn't very important. The most prominent part of the track is obviously the noise that starts at the same time as the drums.

  On 7/7/2015 at 2:27 PM, Entorwellian said:

You should dress up as James Lipton and introduce each of these tracks on television like he does with actors.

Not a bad idea. Maybe I'll change the name to Inside the Autechre Studio.

At least when listening to just the kick/snare rhythm I can hear the 4/4+3/4 for sure.

My guess for the noise is modulated delay but that's just because it sounds cool.

  On 7/7/2015 at 6:04 PM, th555 said:

At least when listening to just the kick/snare rhythm I can hear the 4/4+3/4 for sure.

 

My guess for the noise is modulated delay but that's just because it sounds cool.

What would be the source for the delay? Just noise, or the drums, or what? I haven't heard a delay that can make sounds like that, but now I'm interested.

Heh I don't know, was just shitting around.

Anyway I ran the noisy bit thru a spectrometer. You can see wavy bands getting wider and smaller, and what looks/sounds like audio-rate gating (amplitude modulation?) in between:

I'm guessing the wavy bands are interference, similar to what flangers/comb filters do, but I wouldn't know exactly how they get narrower/wider.

  On 7/6/2015 at 11:33 PM, drillkicker said:

Last time on The Making of..., we discussed FLeure and came to the conclusion that we will never know how the track was actually made.

well after you created your thread about Fleure a few posters seemed to provide good info which i never saw you actually followup on. why give up so easily? felt like that thread had more life in it until you made this one tbh

As the thread title is "Making of Dropp", it's a little more logical talking about all of Dropp's elements rather than a single noise.

Rhythm-wise, agreed about the 7/4, as well as the generative aspect. It sounds like one bar, with slight variations as you say.

The melodic idea that starts the piece recycles every 5 bars. That's 5 bars of 7/4, but slightly altered throughout. For me, the skeletal rhythm of the melodic line is the most interesting part - the positions the notes are placed on are almost identical across all 5 bars. What seems random at first actually has a very precise structure.

I tend to relate the noise part to turntable scratching or a mad drum solo. I reckon it's based on wavetable manipulations. If not mistaken, there's some heavy side-chain compression going on as well.

I don't like (over)analysing Autechre though.

  On 7/8/2015 at 12:04 PM, IOS said:

As the thread title is "Making of Dropp", it's a little more logical talking about all of Dropp's elements rather than a single noise.

 

Rhythm-wise, agreed about the 7/4, as well as the generative aspect. It sounds like one bar, with slight variations as you say.

 

The melodic idea that starts the piece recycles every 5 bars. That's 5 bars of 7/4, but slightly altered throughout. For me, the skeletal rhythm of the melodic line is the most interesting part - the positions the notes are placed on are almost identical across all 5 bars. What seems random at first actually has a very precise structure.

 

I tend to relate the noise part to turntable scratching or a mad drum solo. I reckon it's based on wavetable manipulations. If not mistaken, there's some heavy side-chain compression going on as well.

 

I don't like (over)analysing Autechre though.

The reason I'm focusing on that one sound is because it's the only part of the track that's difficult to figure out. I assume the synth line was made in the same way as Liccflii, with metros and counters being multiplied and added together to create different melodic intervals, except without the randomization that Liccflii has. There's a second synth that comes in later and plays some chords alongside the first, but that one isn't too mindblowing.

Consider experimenting with Max's 2d.wave~ object dude. Just a suggestion, and most likely an irrelevant one, but should at least be a creative process.

  On 7/8/2015 at 6:29 PM, IOS said:

Consider experimenting with Max's 2d.wave~ object dude. Just a suggestion, and most likely an irrelevant one, but should at least be a creative process.

I have been experimenting with it. That's how I made this delicious sound.

I didn't think you could make something similar to Dropp with it.

I asked them during the AAA:

  On 7/10/2015 at 7:34 PM, nizzleone said:

the swirling stuff is autechre® trade secret

sean pls

I'm not sure if this is how Sean and Rob did it, but I'm actually getting some interesting results out of this setup.

It just needs quite a bit of tweaking before is sounds good enough to put in a track.

Here's what I've accomplished with an expanded version of the above structure (triggered by a Kromestar track, which was muted to emphasize this sound):

It doesn't sound quite like Dropp, but it's still pretty cool in my opinion.

awesome~ you'll have to teach me how to use MAX

  On 7/11/2015 at 2:03 AM, PhylumZunami said:

awesome~ you'll have to teach me how to use MAX

It's a lot simpler than you might think at first. It does take a while to get used to it, but once you get really engaged, you don't notice the learning curve at all. The best way to learn is just to look through other people's patches and read all the help files until you get familiar with each object. The aeTM3_3 patch is a great example (which was also made by two very relevant individuals).

  On 7/8/2015 at 11:25 PM, drillkicker said:

 

  On 7/8/2015 at 6:29 PM, IOS said:

Consider experimenting with Max's 2d.wave~ object dude. Just a suggestion, and most likely an irrelevant one, but should at least be a creative process.

I have been experimenting with it. That's how I made this delicious sound.

 

I didn't think you could make something similar to Dropp with it.

 

Little off topic but any chance you could try explaining the 2d.wave~ object? I've been messing around with it a lot recently as well, but it's one of those things that I still can't fully picture what it's actually doing, mostly in terms of what's happening with the y-axis.

The 2d.wave~ splits a wavefile into n slices.

The y-axis controls which slice is played.

If you had a 4/4 drum loop and split it into 4 sections, then 1 slice = 1 beat:

Setting the y-axis between 0.00 - 0.25 would play the 1st beat (1st slice)

Setting the y-axis between 0.25 - 0.50 would play the 2nd beat (2nd slice) etc

But I can't picture how you would do something like this Dropp noise in that way. It sounds more like sample and holds driving FM synths to me. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I just don't get it. Please do clarify what leads you to the idea that this is produced by 2dwave~, because I'd be interested to know what kinds of ways you use the object to make these kinds of things.

I didn't think it'd be FM synthesis because with FM the resulting timbre is usually distinctively 'metallic'. Whereas this isn't so metallic sounding. Of course one could crank up the c:m ratio and get more noisy timbres..

Notice how every now and then, the swirling and wooshing noise sort of stops abruptly, and the noise becomes much more iterative and percussive, whilst also slowing down; you can hear this at 0:47, 0:59 etc. Once again, that sort of sound and manipulation doesn't make me think of FM.

It might as well be convolution or a phase vocoder.

Just sounds like independently sequenced granular synthesis/delay time sidechained by the drums to me

As for the source sound, well it could be anything but it doesn't seem related to the existing drums. At times it sounds like there's a snare from a breakbeat in there somewhere..

Does kind of hating this thread make me more autistic or less autistic?

  On 7/17/2015 at 5:25 AM, sweepstakes said:

Does kind of hating this thread make me more autistic or less autistic?

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