The Saturnine Suite

Metamere

I might have gotten a bit carried away with the Deluge challenge this month, to make a song using only ring mod synth sounds. I just really needed an escape from troubled thoughts, and this is partially a reflection of inner turmoil and trying to deal with that. It’s also inspired by the Akira Symphonic Suite by Geinoh Yamashirogumi. I didn’t think I’d be able to do much with ring mod synthesis, but it worked a lot better than I expected. It definitely opens up new possibilities. I made three patches: one poly, one lead, and one arp. I recorded a song for each, then merged them into one large suite with five movements. With the poly patch, it sounds like some kind of hammered dulcimer or string instrument depending on the attack set with mod wheel, and I added the new grain fx and a delay so when they are turned up a bunch it becomes more of an ambient experience. I cut that 13 minute improvisational jam into three parts, and trimmed a bit in some of the transitions, where I played around with the oscillator pitches to find interesting combinations for new timbres due to the ring modulation. The only problem with that technique is it also shifts the pitch, so when I tried to add accompaniment I found it extremely difficult. So I kept things to one synth patch at a time. For the other two patches I recorded sequences into the Deluge, edited and refined them, and then created percussion accompaniment. Those became movements two and four. The lead patch is a lot of fun to jam with, as much as any on my two beloved analog synths. For the arp track I recorded in a ton of automation; eleven parameters in all. These are definitely the most complex patches I’ve made, and I had a lot of fun with them.