Complexification of LXR-02 drums with Echolocator & the Zen

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Complexification is a perfectly cromulent word to describe 'A drum machine with two delays; since this is no mere everyday serial setup. Here we have two stereo delays in alternating parallel mode embiggening a single drum pattern. In fact 'chronocomplexification' would have been more accurate but I thought the Youtubes would punish me for being stupid.

The aim is to take a simple single pattern and create variations and interest while having fun. I think everyone knows the feeling of having a single pattern and trying to expand it into something greater. Depending on what machines you use it can start to feel like you're fighting to advance. Here it's all just knob twiddling fun.

In the video I describe the routing of the stereo outputs: One to the AB pedal which is then manually switched to either the Zen or Echolocator; and one channel direct to the DAW 'dry'. In this demo I didn't use any of this dry signal. If this were a "real" finished track I'd probably mix in some of the dry bass drum just to keep things coherant. For the video I thought it more useful to just have the two delays' sound. For a more nuanced routing setup you could change the left-right balance of various voices and use the 'dry' channel to instead go to a third pedal effect which could also be manually switched on and off. Putting a looper somewhere in the chain could also be interesting.

With all this I'm increasingly feeling that moving up to a higher tier in the drums or synth department is perhaps not as significant as investing time and attention to effects.

The video is all one take with no DAW processing - even though I was extremely tempted to EQ the Zen parts to bring out the crunch and distortion. The couple of cuts in the track are from me trying to find slice points to bring it down from 30 minutes. The samples are from a couple of 1950s sci-fi movies just for a little variation.

0:00 Routing and setup info
1:08 Dry pattern
1:25 All tweaking, no talk

Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free
My website: https://richarddehove.com/"