Impossible Acoustic

A few weeks ago, I decided to play around with the idea of “playable loops”.  For this post I thought I would revisit this concept and add envelope controlled effects modulation to the mix.  As it turns out, this simple addition can totally transform a sound.  As an example, the following is me singing and beating on my chest.

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When it comes time to modulate effects, there are lots of options in Kontakt, including drawing in your own envelopes right on the waveform itself.

Here’s the same vocal loop with some delay and the above pictured envelope controlling the cutoff of a high pass filter.

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Now the same loop again but with distortion added.

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Just three basic effects, but would you ever guess it’s me beating on my chest?

Also, here’s the harpsichord played with chopsticks loop from the previous post.  First with no effects and then with an envelope controlled filter and envelope controlled distortion.

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As usual, there are free Kontakt instruments available on the download page including a multi which sounds like this;

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    The song for this post took me for-ev-er!  The power and freedom of choice that comes with digital technology is a double edged sword.  On the one hand anything is possible and on the other hand anything is possible! When writing for an orchestra or a funk band the instrumentation is limited and therefore the composer doesn’t need to make as many decisions concerning timbre.  This gives the composer a framework to work within.  With electronic music there is no framework.  At any moment, it’s possible to use any sound you can conceive of and create.  This can lead to what I call “option overload” – standing at a crossroads of equally viable solutions and not knowing which one to pick.

    One solution is the “composition by exploration” approach; experimenting and letting the sounds you discover shape the composition.  The other approach is to conceive of a song in your head and make the sounds necessary to fulfill that vision.  The real life outcome is usually somewhere between these two approaches.  Generally, I tend towards the “composition by exploration” method.  The problem with this method, is that it’s very tempting to give in to laziness, to warp the composition to fit the sounds rather than shape the sounds to fit the composition.  This time around, I had a pretty clear vision for the song early on and challenged myself to stick to that vision and make the sounds fit.  It wasn’t easy, and I compromised in a few places, but overall I got what I was going for.

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If you’re curious about the two lead instruments and the bass sound, they were all made from an old beat up guitar I have.   I’ll polish them up and release them at a later date.