This week’s Disquiet Junto project had us downloading four sound sources from freesound.org, one for each of the classical elements (earth, air, fire and water).

I used Audiomulch for this one, along with a couple of the Korg Legacy Collection VST plugins (specifically, the filter bank section of an emulated Korg M-20 –which I find myself using more than I’ve ever used the emulated synth– and the Korg MDE-X effects plugin, which IMO has a nice soft/clean reverb). Each sound was given a specific ‘character’ through the use of effects, and I set up the MIDI Controller to manipulate the mix and effects in real time. The final patch ended up looking like this:

As before, the size of the patch is limited by my ability to control the beast in real-time. The new controller (a Novation zero mkII) does seem to make it easier to control larger patches. And while it can be a confusing and finicky thing to use with Ableton (sometimes I have to reboot to get the two talking through Novation’s Automap S/W), with Audiomulch it’s just another MIDI controller, and the learn function works just fine.

I do wish I knew how to manipulate the Zero’s little LCD screen (through MIDI, presumably) to put my own customize info there. It must be possible in theory, because apps like Logic, Ableton, Cubase etc can all do it. But (as far as I have been able to tell), Novation doesn’t publish any info on how to do this for ourselves.