You love that machine? A DB-01 synth solo performance

video upload by Richard DeHove

"This piece began as a demo for the Boss SL-2 slicer pedal. After noodling with it I thought it'd be interesting to slice up a distorted sound, so added the trusty Darkglass B3K which just loves chewing the the DB-01's Polivoks filter.
Turns out that the SL-2 is a lot more subtle than just the obvious rhythmic patterns. Here's there's three intertwining elements: The actual programmed pattern of notes on the DB-01; the DB-01's synced LFO with a sawtooth wave giving a separate filter envelope hit every 8 beats; and then the SL-2 which superimposes its own pattern on top. The mix of the DB-01 pattern and SL-2 pattern is set on the pedal, and the relative strength of the LFO filter hit depends on how much you open the filter. So with three synced patterns clocked together there is much fun to be had. Which is why I didn't make it past preset one in bank A.
I was going to layer this up with some other sounds but thought it was more useful to show the degree of complexity that you can get from a mono synth and a couple of pedals looping through one 32-step pattern.
This is all one take with no DAW effects or processing (other than the added movie quotes of course), but I did chop out a few sections to trim it down from its original 7-minute version.
As soon as I can make it past the first few presets I'll do a real walkthrough of the SL-2 - it's an incredibly deep machine. Like so many pedals and synths the satisfaction and beauty comes from subtle tweakerings. The main change I made was to switch it into 'ping-pong' mode which is perhaps a bit too strong if you listen through headphones - well, live and learn. My only immediate advice with the SL-2 is that, unless it's the master, it's absolutely vital for it to run off a common MIDI clock. You also must be able to send a MIDI clock restart.
The short intro video and title of the piece "You Love That Machine?" is one of the quotes about halfway through. They're taken from the low-budget classic "Creation of the Humanoids" - one of my all-time favorite movies. The robot-human images are all originals generated by me using AI. All 79 images (plus a few extras) are on my Patreon page for download and you're free to use them for any purpose.

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