Creativity | Episode 01 | How to develop your own 'modules' by patching

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"In this kick-off episode about 'creativity' I'll revisit the concept of one of my 'imaginary dream modules', the reverse FX processor. I can't teach you creativity, but I can share my creative process.

I've been thinking about this concept for years, and trying all kinds of combinations to recreate the sounds I am looking for. It's impossible to do in real time, because these FX are created on sounds that didn't happen yet (at least not to the people listening).

It's easy to do in post, but you'll need to go through a recipe. You'd record a sound, reverse it, add FX, re-record the result, and reverse it again. I found another way to cook this recipe with two Morphagenes and I am now able to integrate it in a live patch. I need to start/stop recordings and control sound-on-sound for best results, so it's very hard to automate. Manual tweaking works best.

It's an outcome of a creative process. I have this idea and I am slowly getting closer by not letting it go, trying different things and learn from failures (which aren't failures but babysteps). Dead ends are actually U-turns. I've been thinking about learning to code for the Versio platform so I could make a 'Reversio' firmware myself, but I don't think that's going to happen because I'll need to learn C++ coding. And even then, it will not sound like two Morphagenes with an FX chain in between.

The funny thing is, I finally figured out how to do it while making this video. At the very end. So just before posting I ordered a second Mimeophon. I don't think I've ever seen a video about a dual Mime. To be continued, and happy patching! Let me know in the comments if you ever gave this a try with anything that can loop and reverse. Instruo Lubadh can also do it, but it would be in mono. I also tried reversed impulse response files, but it can never emerge before the original sound. Nothing can :). So don't let that stop you. When you're walking a long and winding road, you can see a distant future."