quiet party

final production on the op-1 field

my last few releases have been produced, mixed and mastered entirely on the op-1f and op-xy

here are some tricks i use on the op-1f

meta

  • write a good song
  • work until it’s proven, then stop
  • try to live with things that are a little off
    • export to wav
    • listen to it
    • over and over
    • listen to it
      • on your phone speaker,
      • in the bathtub,
      • on your good headphones,
      • on your bad ones
      • in the context of
        • your other music
        • your favourite music
        • something that just came out you’ve never heard before
    • take note of the sharp edges, the unsatisfying parts.
    • try to live with them
    • take a break
    • go back in
    • fix what you need to

arrangement

know you’re gonna be doing this going in. have it in the back of your mind the whole time. consider it while you’re laying down sounds. think about where a sound belongs in the mix at capture time.

doubling amplitude

you can quickly double the amplitude of a chunk of recording by ⬆️ing it and then shift+⬇️ping it back on top of itself

eqing, compressing, enquietening

remember these things: tracks can be muted, and you can select 👂 OUT-IN as a recording source.

so, if you have the space:

  1. solo a track
  2. activate an empty track
  3. shift+🎤 enable 👂 OUT-IN and 📼 🎤 arm
  4. use master fx and master EQ to pick out the frequencies you want
  5. 🔴▶︎ record it onto the new track
  6. ⬆️ and ⬇️ to replace the old recording

you can always lift a chunk and bring it to the end of the tape (or another tape) if you’re out of tracks in the target area.

you can also straight-forwardly make a quieter version of a recording by lowering the 🟠 input volume before starting

you can get a great parallel processing effect by shift+⬇️ merging it with the sound that was there before, but fair warning there will be phasing

🚸 WARNING make sure you shift+🎤 select something other than 👂OUT-IN as soon as you’re done, because it’s really easy to forget you have it engaged and then fuck up your next recording (because it doesn’t show movement in the orange line except when you’re recording)

chunk-by-chunk (sampler processing)

for smaller sections (or if you have a lot of patience) you can ⬆️ 12-second chunks of sound off the tape and drop them straight into SAMPLER, then record them back out.

this will let you adjust volume, use nitro or punch for parametric adjustments, etc

bonus

BONUS: a great way of getting an incredible-sounding chorus fx is:

  1. ⬆️ a chunk of tape
  2. ⬇️ it in SAMPLER,
  3. enable the 4️⃣ TREMOLO mod
  4. set the pitch and amplitude modulation to something wobbly (-20, -10)
  5. overlay the recording

overlaying twice with slightly different values 🟠 panned full L or R makes for an extremely wide sound

combine with NITRO, or MOTHER or SPRING for lush