| sample #1 – how I deal with samples |

– Sample #1, Song Vishnu (00:47)
I suppose you’re referring to the pseudo – “breath”. That sound is made using one of the techniques that I use for sound designing. Basically, each sound that I produce is made by re-sampling, you may know that is about using a pre-recorded sound that will be “dressed” or totally transformed into something else. I prefer doing this instead of synthesis ‘cause each sound starts from a natural source, that could be a) my voice/human voice b) external noises, recorded with my cheap phone (I want to buy a Zoom recorder like H4NSP or HN2 sooner or later) c) part of my libraries: got a lot of stuff found on the web (almost 300 gb of samples) and my favourites are from BBC, Sony Pictures, Warner pack and a Sci-Fi generic pack, all in hd indeed (48 Khz and 24bit quality). That’s a choice I made ‘cause it’s an interesting way to combine nature to machines, it gives more life I can say and it’s more interesting anyway. it’s also like tell my story of people, place and events of my life. That sound in particular comes from the wind in my hometown, totally transformed using modulating and ambient FX like reverbs, delays and stuff for filters and space that I’ll list below in the gear section.
All ideas come from guitar jams or mental illness on the road, where I took inspiration :)
For this track, and basically for the most of tracks, I start with the beat. Beats are built with samples also made by a combination of samples, for example I use to mix two or more kicks, two or more snares, taking the attack from one and adding another source of sustain…also mixing with some natural drum samples of a library that I recorded two years ago in a studio: I took 3 different drummers (my bro and some friends) to record some groove by which I can extract single beats from each part of the kit (ex: a snare hit, foor tom hit, cymbals…and so on). So, basically is the same process of combining sounds that could be even purely digital than a hybrid.
Once I have the beat, I add a bass line using some oscillators (Nexus 2, Massive, Sylenth 1 and some libraries od Kontakt are in the first line) and some loops. Loops are relatively easy to build using the clip view of Ableton, cause you can warp a single sample shaping also in tone, and all kind of automation you can make the three boxes below, but with Launch box you can sequence a list of clips on each track, practically deciding the order and the time between each playback…yeah, it’ a mess, but it’s easier doing it than explain. After I build my loop, I resample it in another track and add to my library (or maybe sound designing it a little bit)…that’s how I made, for example, the “clock” and the “bird” loop for that song.
Well, now I’ve got drum, a bass line and some loops to make it more interesting and the next level is the gig. I previously prepare some group tracks of One-Shot samples, like the breath sound you liked and put all in order in some tracks, that I usually group and call FX.
So, with all the sound ready I map my ACP 40, that don’t know if you know it, was expressly built for Ableton live playing and refers to the clip view.
Each sample is mapped to a pad and you can launch it deciding the attack, duration, loop and so on…you can map filters and automation and other stuff for live playing on knobs and faders…it’s no more playback cause you launch the samples but you’re able to shape and stop when you want.
For electronic music and the live set, it’s always starting with a sample, live playing is having control of it. You basically can do what you want, so this song is relatively simple to play live ‘cause I made it live, like the rest of that album.
So, the answer is yes, if a groove is coming I can reproduce these sounds live just mapping in my clip view and lunching it, my midi controller become a sampler.
I recorded it in Paris last year using only my “portable gear” I said to you that consist in ACP 40 (linked with USB directly to the pc, but also can be linked into the audio card), guitar and audio card. I’ll tell you later the details.