Innovation Development Log by Theo Brooks

Week 1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:23:41 UTC

Week 2

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:23:47 UTC

Week 3

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:14 UTC

Week 4

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:18 UTC

Week 5

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:24 UTC

Week 6

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:32 UTC

Week 7

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:38 UTC

Week 8

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:46 UTC

Week 9

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:52 UTC

Week 10

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:52:58 UTC

Intial ideas and innovation concepts

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:53:20 UTC

For this module, I want to explore innovation by incorporating resampled tones in wavetable synthesis, as well as resampling using granular synthesis. I believe that these techniques will allow me to create incredibly unique sounds and timbre within my music, as well as creating synths that sound nothing like anyone else has. Instead of just creating synths in a wavetable using oscillators, fx and modulation to create new sounds, I want to use my own tones to create unique textures and granular synthesis to manipulate these even further and create new timbre in the 10k+ frequency range using grain manipulations available in digital synths such as Quanta and Alchemy. In order to do this, I will be experimenting in granular synths, as well as using recording studios such as small pond to record and resample my own tones to use.

Small pond session

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 09:59:58 UTC

The first exploration I am doing into this concept was at my small pond innovation session. I started with an prepared piano in which i took an upright piano and weaved a snare string, screw and a thick belt to create an eerie drone type sound. I then reamped the piano, running it through all sorts of pedals and hardware effects to distort and change the sound, ending up with lots of tones, risers and general cool background fx and foley. This was a real eye-opener to the endless possiblities their are with recording your own samples, as there were so many tiny things I could do wether it came to how the piano was miced up, how I prepared the piano, and the different pedals and fx I added to further manipulate the sound. And all this is for a tone to then further manipulate inside Wavetable and Granular synths, really expanding the endless possiblities and synths I can create from these sounds.

Colour coding

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:00:50 UTC

Red- Ideas and concepts

Green- Practical techniques

Blue- Research into innovation

Purple- Photos, recordings and general evidence

Granular synthesis research

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:03:11 UTC

This week I started looking into Granular synthesis, as I am still relatively new to the concept. I looked up a few videos on the many different techniques to making cool sounds using Quanta. One of these that I really liked was the method of stacking lots of synths to make a big chord hit and then re sampling that hit into Quanta to make a massive synth that fills pretty much the entire frequency spectrum. Another is using modulation on the position that Quanta is sampling from to make the synth move as it's being played and create a lot more depth and variation to the sound. After watching a few videos on this and experimenting with it a little bit more, I felt confident I could use these tools to create some really cool sounds.

Revisiting my indonesia remix

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:03:51 UTC

This week I struck inspiration during my Monday innovation session, when we were discussing sampling and remixes. I pulled up an old remix I had attempted around a year ago but was unhappy with how it was sounding, I then took my spliced sample of the original track and ran it through alchemy’s granular synthesizer and got some really cool sounding instruments when I also messed with automation and lfo modulation on the position of the sample within alchemy. The reason I switched to alchemy from Quanta, is that I only had a free version of Quanta 2, which didn't allow me to modulate a lot of the things I wanted to, such as the position of the sample. I then redeveloped these samples into some big drop pads, and then designed a bass patch, and I had a very cool spacey drop section I was happy with. I then also took the basic 8 bar instrumental from the intro of the song, I used an A.I. stem splitter to extract the vocals so I could mix them into the drop part of my remix. I’m very happy with how the innovation has turned out on this song so far, but think I can push this idea further using remixing with granular synthesis.

Finishing Indonesia Remix

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:04:20 UTC

To explain the rest of the things I did with the Indonesia remix, I found it a lot easier to walk you through with a video.

Compiling tones and experimenting with them

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:04:56 UTC

This week, I sorted out and took what I could use from the plethora of sounds I got from my small pond session, and ended up with a few different unique risers and 4 cool tones I could use in creating my synth patches. Using this method, I developed a few drum and bass demos with the bass and melodic elements all being made from these tones recorded during the small pond sessions, minus a simple sine wave just to give the basses a clean low end.

Starting don't stop demo

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:05:28 UTC

This week I had major inspiration with a song I've started working on. Over the past few months, I feel like I've been further developing my unique sound, especially with the use of arps and 64 bit type sounds combined with heavy bass patches and modern production, as I love the juxtaposition and contrast of the two sounds. I started working on a future bass type song using these arps and a big bassline, but also decided instead of doing a basic future bass drum track, I'd incorporate a lot more J-Dilla type swing to it, which I learnt from my last module researching into producer Jon Bellion. This blending of genres really made the drop have so much more energy, as the lazy kick hits built the tension combined with the Future Bass method of leaving a lot of gaps of silence, these two methods really blended well together.

Turning point

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:06:01 UTC

This week I'm continuing to try and experiment with the tones I have gotten from my small pond session, but I'm not very happy with how they're turning out, especially compared to the Indonesia remix I made a few weeks ago. I feel like maybe this idea is a little too ambicious, and to create something I'm happy with i'd want to spend a lot more time in the studio gathering sounds and making sure they're all very high quality. I think I should use this week as a turning point to consider maybe switching my second area of innovation away from using my own tones in wavetable synthesis.

Finishing touches on Don't Stop and Indonesia remix

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:06:24 UTC

In order to further show innovation and genre blending in this track, after the first drop in the song, I added a section that switches to drum and bass, and uses choppy eerie pad arps, to create a whole new vibe to the song. I feel this track shows innovation not only in the genre blending of Future Bass and HipHop swing on the drums, but Drum and Bass as well as it switches into this section.

Press release video

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:06:42 UTC

This week i began working on a press release video and concept for a three track E.P, consisting of my two tracks and another Drum and Bass track I've been meaning to release for a while. I first thought of the concept while designing my branding under my new producer name. I want 3 tracks, each consisting of a different environment. So far, I think the Indonesia remix is the Jungle vibe, the track I have already called In My Mind is for the ocean, but I'm not sure which environment the Don't stop demo will fit into, as it is quite futuristic sounding. At the moment, I'm leaning towards space, but I'm not sure if that's too different compared to Ocean and Jungle. I started work on a basic press release video.

Small pond photos

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:13:41 UTC

Small pond photos

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:15:44 UTC

Small pond photos

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:15:54 UTC

Small pond photos

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:15:59 UTC

Granular synths v1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:56:17 UTC

Original Instrumental (Split with AI)

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:56:53 UTC

Alchemy Granular synth patch

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 10:58:35 UTC

Bass patch

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:05:34 UTC

Bass patch FX

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:05:51 UTC

Bass patch matrix

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:06:08 UTC

Intro and first 8 bars

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:07:45 UTC

Tones demo

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:45:51 UTC

Indonesia Remix Demov1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 11:52:48 UTC

Don't stop Demo Video

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 12:06:42 UTC

Don't Stop Demo V1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 12:14:31 UTC

VideoConceptV1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 12:25:05 UTC

Don't Stop Drum and Bass section

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 12:32:45 UTC

Don't stop Full Demo v1

theobrooks2 — 2024-04-15 12:39:45 UTC