KVR Audio

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 12:41 am

I have been taking some much needed time off for a couple of days, and locked myself in the studio to play about with my modular. As some of you know, I recently added two more rows of modules, primarily from Synthesizers.com, with a few Blacet kits, and it seemed a good time to give the whole system a shakedown. My efforts were rewarded with this surprisingly spirited tune (for me...my music is usually quite gloomy and psychedelic). Fans of Ian Boddy, Patrick O'Hearn and Andy Pickford might dig it.

It is one hundred percent modular. Every track. Ah, but what about those guitars? Well, that's my brand spanking new Gretsch hollow body, through a Vox Brian May Special amp, then processed through the modular. I did the synth chords the old fashioned way: by tracking each note of each chord separately...

Tracked in Cubase SX3, with a little sweetening from the Cubase delays, and Powercore reverb and MasterX3.

Oh, it's called "The Singular Satisfaction of Subspace Sam".

www.olscratchrecordings.com/Sounds/Subspace_Sam.mp3

"The blackness of deep space embraced Sam's capsule like a lover's arms. Not that he'd ever experienced a lover's affection of any kind, yet he imagined that it must feel very much like this...the soft and dependable blackness of the void, the comforting wink of distant stars and the familiar hum of the air exchangers were as constant and forgiving as a willing bride.

"Sam was probably alone in his affinity for outspace duties, and it wasn't hard to persuade some reluctant grav-baby to give up the assignment and to make him feel like he was done a favor in the bargain. New recruits were always sent to The Rim, or worse yet, to The Cluster. However, The Cluster was Sam's favorite stint. Out here, away from every human, he could revel in his solitude, while in the near distance, stars were being born..."

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 12:52 am

aside from the fact its far too short that s lovely

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:01 am

Why, thankee, vurt!

JerGoertz · Post by **JerGoertz** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:11 am

Nice, Scot. It's been a long time since I've listened to the kind of music that was played late on warm Kansas summer nights on the "Hearts of Space" radio program. And a long time since I heard Patrick O'Hearn, which your reminder prompted a flash of nostalgia.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Sun Jul 24, 2005 1:16 am

JerGoertz wrote:Nice, Scot. It's been a long time since I've listened to the kind of music that was played late on warm Kansas summer nights on the "Hearts of Space" radio program. And a long time since I heard Patrick O'Hearn, which your reminder prompted a flash of nostalgia.

Thanks! Kansas? I actually grew up in Kansas, and I mean to return to my hometown next year (it's a very safe community to bring up a kid...and it has the Cosmosphere Space Museum...

).

I recently have been back to Hutchinson on a couple of short vacations to visit the Cosmosphere. Very inspirational, that place. Not the least reason being the beautiful electronic music that is piped in.

mystahr · Post by **mystahr** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:22 pm

beautifully well placed spacious sounds and oh so pure. Personally I wasn't to keen on the lead that started at 2.11 within the song, but that could more be a matter of taste rather then anything else.

Do treat us more on such delicatesse; although on the other hand not too often. I get all itchy and bouncy just thinking of the growing monstah your fingers are touching. One day though

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 1:30 pm

mystahr wrote:beautifully well placed spacious sounds and oh so pure. Personally I wasn't to keen on the lead that started at 2.11 within the song, but that could more be a matter of taste rather then anything else.

Do treat us more on such delicatesse; although on the other hand not too often. I get all itchy and bouncy just thinking of the growing monstah your fingers are touching. One day though

Thanks Mystahr! Although I am not too sure you should know about the growing thingy my fingers are touching...OH! You mean the synth!

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:16 pm

"gone gone gone on the red eye express" nice march? i like the lead and 303ish arp. nice melody. it takes me back

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:21 pm

androidlove wrote:"gone gone gone on the red eye express" nice march? i like the lead and 303ish arp. nice melody. it takes me back

Thanks, and thanks for listening! I am going to have our buddy and KVR regular Har ad some of his guitar to it sometime in the future. For now, it was a fun experiment in working the "old fashioned" way: make a patch, track it, re-patch, track another line.

JerGoertz · Post by **JerGoertz** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 4:57 pm

Scot Solida wrote:Thanks! Kansas? I actually grew up in Kansas, and I mean to return to my hometown next year (it's a very safe community to bring up a kid...and it has the Cosmosphere Space Museum... ).

I recently have been back to Hutchinson on a couple of short vacations to visit the Cosmosphere. Very inspirational, that place. Not the least reason being the beautiful electronic music that is piped in.

Heh, well ain't that a coinkidink! I grew up in Dodge City, and in fact attended the space camp one year in Hutch! Yeah, loved the Cosmosphere too... The IMAX was one of the coolest things a hillbilly like myself could witness in that corner of the continent.

I assume you got a taste of public radio out there too? What was the station... 91.1KANZ? Come to think of it, that radio was probably responsible for much of my maturation in musical taste! It had all the good stuff (classical, new-age, jazz, Leo Kottke, Irish, etc.) while krappy K95 was playing pop & soft-rock from the 80's or whatnot. 'Twould have been a wasteland if not for 91.1.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 5:29 pm

JerGoertz wrote: Heh, well ain't that a coinkidink! I grew up in Dodge City, and in fact attended the space camp one year in Hutch! Yeah, loved the Cosmosphere too... The IMAX was one of the coolest things a hillbilly like myself could witness in that corner of the continent.

I assume you got a taste of public radio out there too? What was the station... 91.1KANZ? Come to think of it, that radio was probably responsible for much of my maturation in musical taste! It had all the good stuff (classical, new-age, jazz, Leo Kottke, Irish, etc.) while krappy K95 was playing pop & soft-rock from the 80's or whatnot. 'Twould have been a wasteland if not for 91.1.

91.1 was indeed cool. I dunno, I think so very much of growing up in Hutch had to do with my being a creative person. The Cosmosphere and such certainly gelled well with my science and science fiction jones. My kid is dying to attend their Space Camp. We plan to be moving to Hutchinson next Summer, so he'll get his chance!

Oddly, I know of another Dotcom modular owner who lives about ten minutes out of Hutchinson...

Nuisances Sonores · Post by **Nuisances Sonores** » Mon Jul 25, 2005 8:24 pm

I couldn't figure, one can make some music out of some hardware modulars, thought most of users were kinda Doc Brown of " back to the future " and kind of : " I made one kind of a hell bleep " running naked in the neighborhood, or ... not at all mostly

I saw a Buchla 200 in the " hand that feeds " NIN dull clip but I'am not sure I hear it, what a f**king waste of money !!

Still definitely peeking / considering the Doepfer Modular cheap world when money allows.
Would love to be *really* surprised soundwise / price compared to other hardwares

This track is ... bland & nice and seems to be done by " anyday / anywhere " hardware, sorry Scot !

Soniccat · Post by **Soniccat** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:20 am

Nice tune Scott, very upbeat for a summer eve.
Wonderful sound design you've done also. Alot of work going into designing the patches for this I suspect, and it shows your mastery of the modular. If I ever get the chance to buy one I know who I will be contacting for advice.

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:37 am

Nuisances Sonores wrote: Would love to be *really* surprised soundwise / price compared to other hardwares
This track is ... bland & nice and seems to be done by " anyday / anywhere " hardware, sorry Scot !

No apologies necessary! I actually set out to do a more conventional tune this time around...it's harder to do on a big modular monosynth than the weird stuff (which I like too!). This was an excercise in patching, really. I have done similar tunes with hardware and software, so I don't think it was ever intended to be a demonstration of the modular's unique capabilities. There are actually some very complex patches in the tune, and some very experimental techniques, but I tried very hard for them not to distract from the music itself. It was a whole lot of work to do it this way...and it hightened my respect for the masters of modular multi-tracking like Tomita and Wendy Carlos...

Scot Solida · Post by **Scot Solida** » Tue Jul 26, 2005 2:43 am

Soniccat wrote:Nice tune Scott, very upbeat for a summer eve.
Wonderful sound design you've done also. Alot of work going into designing the patches for this I suspect, and it shows your mastery of the modular. If I ever get the chance to buy one I know who I will be contacting for advice.

Thanks, Soniccat! It was a lot of work, but nothing like some of the modular music in the seventies. Kinda makes me feel like I have always taken the simplicity and ease of my other synths for granted...they are so much easier to use in this kinda music! This was like mixing one's own pigments and stretching one's own canvas to paint a picture. As I have pointed out elsewhere, I tend to be the sort of person who does that sort of thing. I really enjoyed that process here.

The most difficult part of working this way is that there is no "redo". You have to predict where each sound is going to sit in the mix, and hope you are not dissatisfied with that sound later. Once a sound is tracked, the patch is lost forever.

Music From My Modular Synth