Two Erica Synths DB-01s attempt Subharmonicon ambience

video by Richard DeHove

"Can two Erica Synths DB-01 Bassline machines achieve Subharmonicon-style ambience? They are wildly different in design and capabilities but the DB-01s can do a surprisingly good impression of "meandering ambience". Here I run through the entire setup and tweaks with less talking as the video goes on. What I did find is that the wonderful Polivoks filter won't be denied and the machines seemed to naturally gravitate to grit and filth and finally ended up in dark ambient territory. For contrast listen at 4:35 and then jump to 20:20. Both machines are running through the same Fabfilter Pro-R reverb setting at a 25% mix.

PS: The focus becomes steadily softer through the video. Why? Who knows, but it's the last time that camera will fail me. Next time, a new camera.

0:00 Intro blather
0:24 Adding steps and setting the scale
0:39 Step cycling
1:00 Setting the LFO
1:36 Polymeters
2:03 Percentage probabilities
2:39 Second LFO adjusted
3:08 Polymeter and LFO settings overview
3:23 Music finally starts!
3:37 Drone mode added
3:53 Setting the random pitch range
4:35 Subharmoniconicky yet?
6:45 Restricting pitch to one octave
8:15 One high; one low
8:55 LFOs to sample and hold
9:28 A few extra steps
11:06 Slowest possible synced LFO
12:40 Both set to two octave range
13:26 Thinning out the patterns
14:00 Grit appears
14:56 Both to triangle waveform
15:08 Getting dark and dirty
17:40 The Polivoks Revenge
20:20 Outro jam: the DB-01s back in character

My site: https://richarddehove.com/
Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove"

Richard DeHove Erica Synths DB-01 posts