Super Lazy Sci Fi Soundtrack 3 - SmplTrek Liven MEGA Korg Volca Keys NTS1

video upload by ChrisLody

https://chrislody.bandcamp.com
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/SymetriC...

"The Synth Tray 2 saga continues. It's now grown a little to include a battery bank to power the NTS-1 that you can see tucked under the cables behind the SmlpTrek. This has 2 outputs so it's also able to power my handmade midi thru box now I've made a cable for it, you can see it at the top right. I've also added a Little Bear MC5 mixer which is sat behind the ELZ_1 play. This is really just a temporary fix because I plan to replace it with a Bastl Bestie when I can justify dropping £200 on one.

So a bit about how this is all setup. The SmplTrek is controlling all the midi in this setup with multiple midi tracks set to different channels. The midi out goes to the midi thru splitter box which then connects into the Liven MEGA and Korg Volca Keys. The SmplTrek is also playing the deep pad from the beginning which was sampled out of the ELZ_1 play into it, and the drum loop. When I'm using this in a sofa session I mix the external gear on the Little Bear MC5 and monitor all the audio through the SmplTrek and usually add a little of my send effect to the output, but this time when I recorded it for this video I connected all the separate instrument outputs to my audio interface instead to give me a greater level of control over the final mix.

The Korg Volca connects through the NTS1 in this jam and I'm using the Hammond Eggs Music - Haze reverb. It contains a high pass filter so it's great for making top end pad/string type sounds. I checked this list of available plugins for the NTS1 recently and found loads of new stuff I didn't know about. Mine is absolutely full now :)

I'm using the ELZ_1 play to play the Liven MEGA here and using the LFO set to a speed of zero as a upward pitch bend. The current firmware of the ELZ_1 play has no 'local control off' function which makes it hard to use as a controller and sound module while composing in a setup like this as playing external midi channels also triggers the internal sound engine. I've suggested adding 'local control off' as an option, so fingers crossed for that one.

The MiniDisc player isn't really part of the setup I've been using, but it was nice to see it fit neatly with everything else :) I was planning to record the output down a global track on the SmplTrek, but they're mono so the ambience lost something when I did that, so I resorted to just playing it live and looping the track. The ambient recording is of my home town of Boston, Lincolnshire, UK.

The NTS1 is being used as an insert effect here (the Volca Keys is passing straight through) but once I buy a Bastl Bestie there is a way to use that in a send/return configuration which will be very useful from such a smaller mixer."