STUDIO BLOG: working on CUBE Neon
Lunacy Audio has just released their latest expansion to their Cube sampler: Neon. I got the pleasure to make a few of the sound sources for Neon as well as many presets. The goal was to create a modern sound set using analog synthesizers, luckily I have a few analog synths in my collection, and I have friends with analog synths as well. For this project I gathered up my options, and did several sessions. My first session was with Elektron Syntakt, my goal with the Syntakt was to create some powerful Kick drums using the analog voices. Syntakt has a wide variety of analog kick machines to choose from, as well as filtering and an extra filter/ distortion stage. Next I wired up my modular synthesizer, a Pittsburgh Foundation with the top half empty. I connected this with an Arturia Minibrute 2s. I started making some sounds with this combination, but when disconnecting a large patch, a cable slipped into the opening and shorted the system. This was a major mistake on my part, and a good excuse for anyone looking to fill the last gaps in their eurorack system. Luckily I had a Happy Endings Kit on hand and none of the modules were harmed, just the power supply. As well, this rack with the Minibrute fit snuggly into my desktop making for a nice layout. From here I got to playing with various Osc sync, FM, AM, and filter combinations. Having a variety of envelopes to work with allowed me to tailor pleasing plucks and modulation that decayed in interesting ways.
you can find Neon and Cube on Lunacy Audio’s website: https://lunacy.audio/
I got together with a friend later in the week to check out his vintage synthesizer collection. The idea of creating modern sounds on vintage synths was a bit daunting, but all these tools have sweet spots and “vintage” is just how you play them. I’ve had a chance to use some of his synths in the past, so I had an idea what to go for. I think the best sounds I got were from the Akai AX-60, Akai’s take on the Juno-60. Its such an odd and rugged synth, a bit more grit and bite compared to the Juno, which makes it perfect for some modern waves. Another one that worked out very well was the Sequential Pro-One, this synth just has so many bells and whistles, you can really get a lot of crazy cross modulation going allowing for some bright and punchy plucks.
By the end of these various sessions I ended up with nearly 70 recordings. Next was the process of going through everything, trimming mistakes and figuring out exactly what to submit over to Lunacy Audio. Luckily I didn’t have to trim too much silence or mistakes, and they took care of lining up the audio and loop points for us sound designers. After I picked around 20 final takes, I went through the process of creating “Ether” layers for each of them, Ether is a control in Cube that allows you to blend a brighter higher energy version of the sample into the patch. Some of these Ether layers I was able to take care of on the spot, making alterations to the preset to get a brighter take, but for many I wanted to inject a bit more modern technology into the mix. I used various distortions, flangers/ensembles, high frequency excitement tools, and a few other modern tricks to liven up the Ether layers. After submission Lunacy picked their favorite 10 sounds, and 4 of the kicks and sent me the whole sound selection from the other designers, and we got to work on making presets. This was one of the first times I focused on some monophonic sounds with cube, making raw basses and leads. It was a fun process and has inspired me to start documenting my future sampling projects, hopefully noting the process as I go will be a fair bit more engaging to read than a recollection of the events.
