Undersong, a walkthrough: turn audio into tuned particles (Max for Live and iPad)

video upload by ijo audio

"In this video I walk through Undersong, my audio effect that acts more like an instrument. It's out now as a Max for Live device and for iPhone and iPad.

Undersong is based on an idea I had for a live performance that ended up taking on a life of its own. Some of my past devices have been pretty immediate. You drop them on a track and they do the thing you're expecting. But this one really feels more like an environment that you have to get to know a little bit, kind of like a modular workstation full of ideas I like. They're often ambient leaning, but I think it's open to other types of music as well.

A lot of the sounds are inspired by modular ideas, and a lot of the Mutable Instruments stuff in particular. I tried to build it like a playground for ambient performances. It's maybe a bit like sitting down at someone else's modular rig. I've set up an environment that I think is inspiring and I hope you can find your way around and enjoy it as well.

I don't think it's for everyone. I think it's for a certain type of musician who wants to perform a little bit, whether that's for people or in the studio.

I go through the basics first, then the materials, patterns and modes, the ADV panel, and some of the little vibes I've found in certain corners of the device.

The short version is that everything Undersong plays comes from the audio coming in. It listens for a pluck, a drum hit or a swell, and plays along with small notes, always in key. There are 12 materials, 10 patterns and 10 modes to shape those notes with, and one mode, Aurora, turns the whole thing into an ambient pad.

There's various ideas and features hidden throughout (in plain sight) that work nicely together or on their own. Gravity, an idea I brought over from my Augur device, pulls the notes toward your root so the melodies sound like they're actually in your key. With Ear on, it listens for the pitch you're playing and answers in unison, so your guitar note turns into a glass note partway through. Grain plays tiny pieces of your own audio back as notes, and Input lets little glimpses of your audio through, so you hear the thwack of your pick or your snare, but ringing at the particle's note.

Step puts everything on a steady rhythm, one note per step, with Density deciding how busy it is, and Step plus the Loop pattern is a fun little corner to jam in. Freeze holds whatever's ringing so you can play over it. There's a Drone dial that builds a bed under everything, 35 scales plus your own custom ones, and Space, a quick one-knob reverb, because I really like reverb and I think almost every one of my devices has received at least a little reverb, just in case you need it quick. In Aurora, turn Voice and Timbre all the way up and the pad starts to fall apart. That's my favorite spot, with imperfections everywhere.

In Live it's fully Push 2/3/Standalone compatible. On iPhone and iPad it runs as an AUv3 in your host, or on its own as a standalone app.

What I'm especially proud of with Undersong is that it feels, to me at least, like an instrument. If you're not sure where to start, send in a drum loop (even just a series of blips or clicks will work...), turn up the Mix to 100% and just experiment for a while. Twist some knobs and see what you find. You can't break it.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:20 What Undersong is
1:44 How it listens
2:26 Materials, patterns and modes
3:36 The materials
7:31 Dust, Space, Drone, Tone and Input
9:02 The patterns
10:20 The Order dial
11:05 The modes
12:57 Aurora
14:18 Quantize, scales and Freeze
14:39 The ADV panel
17:11 Step, LP Gate, Swell and Warble
19:02 Ear
20:24 Wrapping up

I'm happy to be back. I feel like I've been away for a few months, busy being a dad but also working on this, steadily through the spring and summer.

Thanks for watching! If you have any questions, leave a comment or reach out at ian@ijoaudio.com. Cheers!

Undersong for Max for Live: https://snakeshaky.gumroad.com/l/unde...

Undersong for iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/underso..."