Echolocator delay: Tape vs BBD plus weirdness (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"This video was the result of a comment by @lextron-audio noting that there was no clear comparison of Tape vs BBD mode for the Echolocator. Yes, fair enough I thought, I can fix that. I imagined a snappy three minute video switching between modes as a dry technical comparison. Not exciting, but useful in a nuanced nerdy sort of way, and that's how things started. Yet here we are, 20 minutes of twiddlings co-starring the LXR-02, DB-01 and Acidbox III that gets weirder as it goes along. And everything is unsynced. I wouldn't call it music, I just enjoy the textures and frequencies. That's what comes of spending too many hours playing with shortwave noise as a kid.

'Dirty On' is BBD mode; and 'Dirty Off' is the default Tape mode. I randomly flip between them trying to show the differences in various situations. Sometimes there's not much between them, othertimes especially with pitch shifting on, the differences are huge. In the end though the result is more an experiment in real-time Echolocator playing than a straight mode comparison. Even so I never touched the compressor setting which was at a constant 50. That variable also make a big difference so that's for another day.

Come for the technical comparison stay for the industrio-ambient grit :D

0:00 Basic drums
3:38 Noise drums
5:08 Acidbox weirdness
13:17 Pitchy synth keys
17:33 Sweep effects

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Echolocator delay on synth, drums, voice and shortwave (no talking)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"First up Erica Synths sent me the Echolocator. That's particularly good of them because I know and I'm sure they know that I would have bought it anyway. After all, I'm the man who bought the Zen delay three times. For delay pedals in general I'm up to about 25 delays bought in the past few years and about 22 sold :D

Here I use the Echolocator with the DB-01, Acidbox III, LXR-02, Tecsun PL-660 radio and the US War Department training film number 471 on triodes and tubes.

No presets are used on any of the examples, it's all live twiddling. The idea throughout is to show the range of real time 'playing' with the delay. Just like the Nightverb I haven't used the presets or programmed any myself, it's so fast to dial in the sound you want it seems better to match things exactly to whatever you happen to be playing. The only thing I think is missing (at least I can't see it) is a WYSIWYG mode where the machine instantly reverts to the current knob positions. The only 'second layer' functions you need to remember are BACK+FREEZE to mute the delay, and BACK+TAP TEMPO to sync to an incoming clock.

Despite the length of this video I've only touched on some of the interesting effects. For example adjusting the compressor makes a huge difference to the feedback; whether the filter is in series or in the feedback loop; playing with the freeze function, and modulation with pitch shifting. So more on all that in later videos. If there's anything in particular you think I should cover please let me know.

Finally, if you notice a slight difference in the video color and position between takes it's because I had to change cameras halfway through.

0:00 Basic synth
3:09 Sparse drums
5:28 Beam me up
6:07 Filter options
8:39 Blippy drums
12:38 Freezy drums
13:34 Long feedback synth
15:11 Drum jam
16:34 Shortwave
18:36 Human voice

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Using the DB-01 arp to write sequences

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Jamming with the DB-01s arp is loads of fun; commiting that to a sequence is not quite as amusing. Here I go through a simple method to capture the moment. Better yet, have your arp permanently recording in loop mode and grab those otherwise unrepeatable riffs that can suddenly materialize from nothing. Guest stars: the Boss GEB-7 EQ and Darkglass B3K.

And at the end, some more fun with the arp as it pushes around a Korg Multi/Poly.

0:00 Fake metronome
1:08 Use tracking
1:55 Pattern setup
2:20 It's a trap!
3:25 No start point
4:28 Choose the start
5:05 Cut to taste
5:40 Mod and gate tweak
6:56 Second example
9:40 Add some sprinkles
11:20 Bully the Multi/Poly

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Five DB-01 sequences from scratch (detailed editing, no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Ah, my beloved DB-01. Of the many dozen videos I've made about this little beast I've never just done a simple patch-from-scratch walkthrough. So here's here's five very lightly edited examples. Certainly half an hour of button pressing and knob twiddling trying to find a decent sequence on a DB-01 is rather niche entertainment, but there's room for every taste on this fine planet.

Generally the progress toward an acceptable sequence is shown in all its false starts, deleted notes and 'slightly off' glory. The only parts I chopped out were a couple of times when I got obsessively stuck on a single note or two and went round-and-round for far too long.

Of course there are many ways to make sequences: programming single steps at a time; playing and recording a riff in real time; recording the arp or using the randomizer. (I covered all these methods in another video). My current favorite is little chunks of randomizer. I'll select a short range of steps then randomize some or all parameters then edit and copy that. Or, another favorite, randomize the entire pattern but only for gate length or filter modulation.

I do wonder whether it would have been more useful for me to be talking through everything as I went along but so many people seem to prefer 'no talk' videos. In fact the start of the video is a bit slow because I was originally explaining things but decided just to mute it all out. Who knows?

So for those who not only watch this but also take the time to read the description - my thanks.

0:00 One - creating gated hits
1:50 One - adding some bleeps
5:06 One - tweaking steps
5:50 One - adding the LFO
6:30 One - tweak pitchmod
7:00 One - knobs twiddling
8:20 One - LFO again
9:20 One - back to knobs
10:44 Two - 4x4
11:15 Two - randomizer
13:40 Two - save me LFO!
14:30 Two - knob twiddling
15:13 Two - simple solution
16:38 Three - randomizer
17:52 Three - scale issues
19:40 Three - which note syndrome
20:39 Three - knob twiddling
21:04 Four - set scale
21:36 Four - randomizer
23:00 Four - step adjust
23:50 Four - riff hunting
24:12 Four - note cycles
25:12 Four - filling the gaps
26:15 Four - knob twiddling
27:50 Four - FM time
28:50 Five - gates and steps
30:40 Five - note cycles
31:22 Five - LFO power!
33:00 Five - knob twiddling
35:20 Five - arp jam

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Boss SDE-3 delay fully cranked on synth and drum machine

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Yet another delay pedal bought in hope of finding the perfect balance between size, sound and features. I'm still feeling good about this one: It's black, it's small, it has enough features to make it interesting, it takes line level easily, and it can bite hard.

So here's more audio noddlings than anyone might reasonably want. There's a short bit of blather at the start and then it's all audio with the DB-01 and LXR-02. The levels get maxed out a few times but I've kepy everything as is rather than using a limiter. Panning mode begins at 13:10 and continues for the rest of the video. In the drum machine examples the SDE-3 takes the right output and gives it a stereo output. The left side is centred in the mixer as a "dry" out. At times various drum sounds are panned left and right to varying degrees which means there's usually not an entire output going through the delay.

0:00 Blah blah about features
2:35 No more talk, basic sounds
3:30 Deep modulation, stereo
5:00 Heavy feedback, stereo
10:20 Offset knob, stereo
12:15 Wet-dry output
13:10 Panning mode
15:16 Terminator
17:26 Drone fun
20:48 Drums 1
21:59 Drums 2
22:58 Drums 3
23:28 Drums 4
24:35 Drums 5

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DB-01 sonic noodlings with Midicake Arp spice (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"The Midicake 'spice' here is using its new MIDI CC parameter controls to modulate parameters on the Strymon Timeline in real time. The delay parameters getting the four-channel CC treatment are mix, repeats, highpass and smear.

It's a just shame that all the Timeline delay parameters aren't available under each 'engine'. So, for example, the bit rate and sample rate parameters are only available on the lofi engine. Delays that could do this much better would be the Source Audio Nemesis or the Free the Tone Future factory - both of which I sold. Somewhat ironic since the reason I sold both of them were that their best parameters were too hard to access. Either would be brilliant with the MIDI CC power of Arp.

So if you have any gear which hides its best stuff in tortured menus or multi-button secondary layers then the Midicake Arp may be the answer. Suddenly anything with MIDI CC control is instantly available for clocked modulation. It's beautiful.

Not to forget the DB-01. Two years in and the machine still fascinates. Here I start with the unloved parameter combo of the triangle wave and bandpass filter. Together they can be rather anaemic lacking both harmonics and bottom end. Yet with a little drive or sub and careful filtering they can still put in a respectable showing. usually I like a clocked LFO, or at least some note-reset phase LFO, but here it's all unclocked audio-rate goodness. I don't vary the LFO rate because it's roughly "tuned" to fit the full application of FM.

And if you can withstand a full 3+ minutes of solo DB-01 then you have definitely levelled up in the DB-01 club :D

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Syntrx II: Say hello to my little friends

video upload by Richard DeHove

"The Syntrx II is typically marketed as a type of modular synth and with many modular performances there's no keyboard. My Syntrx skills aren't at the "no keyboard" level yet so as a variation I thought why not use that versatile star of many situations, the trusty DB-01? It has a keyboard mode and while I'm at it I can feed the signal into the Syntrx.

So a few quick pokes of the matrix and the DB-01 was alive as a source. Even better the DB-01 controls were affecting the Syntrx tones in some FM-ish way. In fact all the DB-01 parameters were doing something to the main pitch!

So that was very interesting and over the course of a couple of hours I tried to isolate and refine the effect. I failed utterly. The more I fiddled the muddier it got. So I went back to the original and this is the result. Truly I don't know what's going on here but it worked. And instead of tweaking the knobs on the Syntrx all the tweaking happens on the DB-01. The sound has definite DB-01 flavors yet is clearly beyond what the DB-01 could do alone.

The routing I attempted was for the processed DB-01 signal to go out of the Syntrx and into the Zen. The core Syntrx sound went through the internal reverb of the Syntrx then to the DAW. So there's two stereo pairs. The sound is exactly as you see it - there has been absolutely no EQ, compression or effects added.

The video is my mashup of two US civil defense videos from the 1950s.

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Never mind the polysynths here's the wet reverb (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"It feels like the good old days of punk to replace a poly synth with a mono. Sure it's never going to do everything a real poly can do, and yes of course it's going to be drenched in reverb because that's the trick, but nuts to those expensive polys, we're improvising.

Star of the show is the Erica Synths Nightverb. It's ideally suited to the job because it has excellent tone-shaping controls. But any reverb that can go 100% wet will do. Synths are the DB-01 and LXR-02 drum machine. Using a drum machine and a reverb to replace a poly synth is especially satisfying. In fact the LXR has some useful features for this: you can cue up separate tones on each voice and then use the faders as a tone mixer, and you can assign velocity sensitivity to some or all parts.

It's a bit rough and digital at times, but bollocks to that.

0:00 DB-01 pad
0:52 Sweet LXR-02
1:47 Testing tones
3:52 Runs
4:27 Dirty digital

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Nightverb: Drone and freeze demo (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Here's the Erica Synths Nightverb paired with a DB-01 and Gamechanger Audio Light pedal; then with a DB-01 and Zen delay. In both cases I'm testing drone and freeze settings. The knob position of the Nightverb reflect the actual values. I'm still getting used to the freeze and in hindsight would probably have been better used with some more pad-like chord, but live 'n learn guvna. Routing-wise the Nightverb is always at the end of the chain. When using the freeze function its useful to have a second effect in series so the contrast between the frozen reverb and the dry sound isn't too jarring.

Headphones will help hear some of the beautiful grit and superlow bass.

So after a couple of weeks use what's my opinion of the Nightverb? Well, have you ever used one of the 90s digital synths that has just a single knob or slider to change parameter values? They're a colossal pain to program and feel like they're trying to force you into just jumping between presets. Then compare that to a knob-per-function synth. That's where I am with the Nightverb: Reverb that you play, an instrument that can be tweaked to suit the moment, backed up then cranked. After all, one of the main advantages of hardware over software is that you can do "real time automation" as you play, and it's fun. In fact in all this time I still haven't saved a single Nightverb sound :)

As usual there is no processing in the DAW other than once or twice where I manually adjusted the volume. But there's no effects, compression or limiting etc. Sometimes there's a little high-frequency which is from the Zen. There is no sound source connected to the Acidbox, it's generating it's own sound from high resonance and the LFO. Let me know if there's anything else you want to see and hear.

0:00 Storm (Acidbox & Zen)
1:55 Pinger (Acidbox & Zen)
3:18 Ripper (DB-01 & Light)
6:43 Sleepytime (Acidbox & Zen)

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Nightverb: First day noodlings (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Beware the title: 'First day noodlings'. This isn't a collection of pristine patches or sweetly controlled tone-perfect spaces. It is literally me with the Nightverb on day one twiddling the knobs trying to understand the various interactions and calibrations. But I figure that will be of interest to some. And since my daughter always laughs at how "incredibly niche" my channel is, well, surely it can't hurt.

I'm honored to have Nightverb serial number 0006 sent to me gratis by Erica Synths. Technically that should earn the "paid promotion" tag, and yet, saying that on this random hodge-podge doesn't seem quite right. And since I'm almost qualified as a member of the Erica Synths 10% discount club I think I've earned a pass on this one. Of course the truth is I would have bought this anyway if Erica Synths hadn't sent it to me, so at least this way I didn't have to sell anything - yay!

But about the Nightverb. It's armoured, beautiful and alive with grippy knobs. Reverb has never been so much fun or so fast to program. About halfway through the video I learn that 'late reflections' combined with 'infinite feedback' equals noise - but that's what day one gets you. Give it a few months and I'm sure all this will look painfully awkward. I also had the gain quite high and neglected to touch the low and high damp controls at all, but there's only so many parameters I can deal with fresh at one time. More videos to come of course.

I'm looking forward to pairing the Nightverb with the Zen Delay and Acidbox III though for this first outing I thought it should stay pure. Of course there are absolutely no DAW effects, EQ or limiting. I can certainly see cases in the future where a delay after the reverb could make for some interesting creations. Even so, just with the trusty DB-01 I did enjoy the pseudo poly-synth effect going 100% wet. Likewise the pre-delay with early reflections and feedback gave a good industrial delay. So much more I could say but I'll leave that for a talkie video.

If there's anything specific about the Nightverb I can answer, or a particular sort of audio demo you'd like to hear, let me know and I'll try to cover them in a second video.

0:00 Poly from mono
2:34 Bass riff 1
4:30 Squelchy
6:16 Fairy interlude
6:54 Drummy thing
8:52 Bass riff 2
11:20 Pixie dance
12:43 Bass riff 3
16:04 High arp
18:54 Growler

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Midicake Arp and The One Finger Jam (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Something's wrong if you're making music but not having fun. It should all be fun. But writing good, coherent, interesting and long patterns is difficult (for me) and often liable not to be much fun. The usual path is to make a good 16-step pattern, copy it, add some variations, and bump to 32 steps. Then what about little fills and other bits? Now you're talking about "song mode" and other mathematical duties.

So the idea here was: Let's use the Arp to create long patterns, then hit record on the DB-01 and just feed in the result. I did try that and it worked a treat. But as an alternative you can just manually "play" the entire thing on the Arp - which is what I did here.

It took a bit of practice to get the timing right and I wouldn't want to be playing the entire "song" to a live audience with one finger unless there were a few other things running to cover in case of a mistake. Of course in the studio no one can hear you scream after five errors in a row.

Live-playing the DB-01s like this you lose various programmable goodness like the pitch envelopes, filter mod and accents; but on the flipside you can use portamento on the sequence (although I didn't here) and can use the Arp to set and vary the gate lengths. For example the top DB-01 is playing the high blippy theme on the Arp channel 3 and the longer three-note bass prod on channel 4. It can seemingly produce two sounds almost simultaneously because channel 3 has a short gate and high octave, while channel 4 has a long gate and low octave.

When you think about it that is pretty amazing work for an arpeggiator! It's like instant program change on a synth with no programs.

In this piece all the music is coming from the two DB-01s, with a drum track added afterwards in the DAW. I chopped it up a little to make a 90-second jam (instead of the 8-minute director's cut) but it is essentially live-played. There are no DAW effects, no extra layers or EQ.

After all this intricate fun it seems to me that calling the Midicake Arp an "arp" is monstrously understated. I see it more like your synths are big dumb blue-ribbon bovines standing around in a field and the Arp is a supercharged border collie begging to chase them through a Marine bootcamp obstacle course. Make those machines sweat! They cost enough.

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The "slot machine" method of random writing with the DB-01

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Slot machines (AKA pokies and speilautomat) supposedly get a lot of their appeal through the fast cycle of anticipation and reward. And if you don't get the reward you wanted then you can instantly run the cycle again. Wins are reinforced by pretty lights and little tunes.

Well, that sounds a lot like small-chunk randomization with the DB-01: Quick randomizations of a few steps and with instant rewards. Except you won't be broke at the end.

I'm always trying to find fun ways to write patterns and this method is, imo, one of the best. Although it's specific to the DB-01 you could just as easily take a MIDI-Out feed and power other machines.

I also think it's very interesting to see the actual process people use to write patterns. If you've got a favorite method please share it in the comments.

0:00 The idea
0:49 Full random?
1:24 The usual way
2:29 Little chunks
4:55 More chunks
7:50 16-steps
8:52 Example 2
15:01 Example 3

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"Let's Take a 20 Megaton Surface Burst" - a DB-01 solo

video upload by Richard DeHove

"How many parts can a mono synth play in one pass? Here I think the DB-01 does a good job simulating three or four tracks and yet this is all just one live take, plus vocal samples on top for color. Music-wise there are no edits, no automation, no DAW EQ or any other effects. Everything is exactly as you see it.

The DB-01 runs into the Darkglass B3K, then to the Zen delay, and is then output in stereo to the Boss SL-2 Slicer. You'll notice the DB-01's resonance is at 100% with 50% drive. The Zen delay's input is being overdriven slightly and there is again about 50% drive there as well. Filter is set to highpass.

It's always tempting to start adding extra layers to these pieces, especially drums, but I like the simplicity and 'purity' of a DB-01 on its own. Hopefully that also makes it more useful as a demo of the DB-01 and effects.

Quotes and video are from the 1982 documentary 'The Atomic Cafe', an excellent movie which is a compilation of old newsreels and military training clips set to music and news commentary of the times.

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MidiCake Arp embiggens the smallest mono synths

video upload by Richard DeHove

"It's a rare day that I'll abandon the superb sequencers of the DB-01 for an external source. Much is lost when you go external - accents, filter modulation and pitch envelopes just for starters. Yet the MidiCake Arp gives in return: Powerful one-finger pattern-play, gate length modulation, 32nd notes and even patterns with portamento.

So here are five example Arp patterns ranging from somewhat cheesy to somewhat dark. Ideally I would have used lots of other effects, but I wanted to keep everything compact so one DB-01 gets the DM-2w delay, the other gets either the Astronaut reverb or Nemesis delay.

For some reason the Arp locks the DB-01s LFO sync to one rate, so the LFOs are always free-running. Other than that it was very smooth. The DB-01s are of course in "key" mode because that's what's needed to trigger them. A useful byproduct of this is that the DB-01 portamento can now be used in sequences!

The MidiCake Arp is an amazing little machine. Complex, but amazing. After many hours I know I'm just scratching around doing pretty obvious things yet that's still very satisfying. I rather like that its possibilities are so vast you can choose your own way into its abilities. In the five examples I mostly have 'play' mode enabled which means the patterns run as a continuously synced whole. In others 'play' mode is off and I manually trigger things (tracks 4 & 5), which is much more unforgiving, but gives a little more flexability. In any case you can see how simple the basic notes are against the complexity of the result.

As usual I've kept everything simple (ie without drums etc) so you can get a good idea what's going on. And no DAW post-processing of any sort.

0:00 Flutterings
0:56 Memories
2:16 Pokery
3:25 Sliders
4:42 Regrets

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The DB-01's second (undocumented) config menu

video upload by Richard DeHove

"In the words of Dr Strangelove "Why keep it a secret? Why didn't you tell the world?" Fortunately not jacketed in Cobalt-Thorium-G, yet still unannounced, the secondary config menu contains a few very useful options. I especially like the default starter note and the default gate length options. And as I mention in the video perhaps someone can better explain the calibrate CV In and MIDI Note Offset options. In any case since it's not mentioned anywhere else I thought it may be useful to at least put this basic guide out there.

Sincere thanks to @Phurniture for suggesting this video. I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to comment, it's by far the best part of Youtubing.

0:00 The secondary menu
1:01 SER - Serial number
1:18 CCI - Calibrate CV In
1:44 CCO - Calibrate CV Out
1:57 MIP - MIDI Instant Program Change
2:30 MNO - MIDI Note Offset
2:48 PBR - Pitch Bend Range
3:01 DCV - Default CV
3:24 DGA - Default Gate Length

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The Dream of Allan Gray

video upload by Richard DeHove

"This is a single DB-01 drone track recorded exactly as you see it with no editing. Nor have any effects, compression, EQ or limiting etc been added in the DAW (other than the sci-fi movie talk samples). The DB-01 is running into the Light pedal on feedback mode. (Thanks to @aopaul for suggesting turning down the dry level which has entirely solved the noise issue into the Rat). From there it goes into the Rat, and then into the Shift Line Astronaut for some modulated stereo reverb.

A very slow LFO on the DB-01 opens the filter enough to better activate the feedback on the Light pedal which gives the periods of relative peace and intensity. The DB-01 is also on random playback with a handful of notes on bar 1 and the other three bars empty. The Astronaut pedal has a very slow modulating octave shift in the reverb and the Light pedal has a very slow shift in which optical sensor pair is active. All these slow modulations deliver the needed variation.

The old video is all from 'Vampyr', a 1932 Danish-German horror movie. That's combined, somewhat oddly perhaps, with audio samples from the 1953 sci-fi classic "It Came From Outer Space". It wasn't hard to find the good bits in that since I first sampled it way back in the day on my old EPS. We even had a song in our live set which used one of the quotes from the movie as it's main hook "Our mission was to another world". Good days. Of course I couldn't re-use that same sample here :D

The title of this video comes from the original full title of the Vampyr movie: 'Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray' or in English, 'The Dream of Allan Gray'.

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A Rat, a DB-01 and a Light pedal cranked for filth and feedback

video upload by Richard DeHove

"I've always wanted ferocious feedback on a synth, just like them geetar players get. The obvious choices are a FreqOut or even an old Boss FB-2. But how about a Gamechanger Audio Light reverb pedal and a Rat ? One reason I got the Light pedal was its interesting modes, gate and drive. By itself a lot of the options feel very underpowered when fed by the DB-01. But add a Rat after the reverb and everything comes alive.

Here I first try the Light pedal's Reflect mode which is a dirty delay, then the Feedback mode. The Rat is vital to crank the Light pedal's effect although it does add a huge amount of noise. Ideally I'd add a noise gate after the rat and then a delay. Perhaps even a pitch shifting delay to try to get a little more pitch control over the feedback.

With it's little Rat friend the Light pedal now seems a lot more useful.

As usual there's absolutely no other audio processing than what you see.

0:00 Starter sound
1:25 Reflect cranked
2:42 Light pedal options
4:48 Feedback mode
8:28 Sequenced feedback
9:25 Keys feedback

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Behringer Edge with the DB-01

video upload by Richard DeHove

"The Edge-DFAM class of machines is an odd category. Not a very good as a synth due to the constant (and necessary) manipulation of the oscillator frequencies. Not particularly good as a drum machine due to the 8-step limitations and the delicate juggling required to squeeze out multiple sounds. And not so great live since there are no presets and too many parameters to easily morph to a different sound. OTOH if you want a random percussion chaos layer then it's the perfect solution.

Of course they're great fun to twiddle and make unexpected discoveries. They also pair up pretty well with more conventional machines to produce a more complex result than you'd get with 'ordinary' synths.

Having owned both the DFAM and Edge I'm happy but hesitant to admit that in a 1:1 matchup I'd choose the Edge. This is entirely due to the MIDI clock options: The sequence must always start at the start - duh. Some people say the DFAM sounds better (whatever that means) but I'm not feeling anything radically different. My only complaint is that the LPF feels murky and doesn't interact with the resonance control in a pleasing way. The HPF is much superior imo and saves the filter section. Of course it may be that I've now been trained by prolonged Polivoks filter exposure to expect satisfying grit and tortured screaming.

Back on the topic of 'Would I use it live', the more I thought about that the more I thought I'd use the LXR-02 instead. Perhaps a video 'The LXR-02 does the DFAM' would be good?

It may also be of interest to note the use of the DB-01 gate output connected to the noise level in Demo 1. It generates some noise percussion when playing normally because of the gate length but this largely disappears when playing the arpeggiator's much shorter gate length.

As usual there are absolutely no external effects or DAW processing.

0:00 Unboxing
1:25 The setup
1:42 MIDI reset
2:27 Clock divider
3:13 Tuning
4:05 Demo 1: Cheese
4:39 Demo 2: Swinger
5:19 Demo 3: Rubber
6:22 Demo 4: Wired

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DB-01 does the DFAM

video upload by Richard DeHove

"What do you get with a full parameter randomization and an LFO modulating FM? Played in the usual way you're almost certain to get a dog's breakfast. But with some careful step arpeggiation it can start to come together in a very DFAM-like way. If you're particularly lucky you may even be able to get the equivalent of four or five progressive sections from a single pattern.

The setup is a little bit involved so if you're impatient to see whether the DFAM sound is achieved just skip to the demo chunks at the end. My favorite is the DAF demo. These were named after creating them - don't think for a moment you can decide what you want ahead of time :D As usual the Gods will deliver to you what they see fit.

The Zen delay is proving a little "smoothing" and rhythmic coherence but other wise what you see is what you get. There's no further processing. Some of the demo tracks are slightly chopped since it's very easy to wander off the path into techno-Gristle land. Visually there's a few sections where the waveform display is missing, so my apologies, in the excitement of twiddling I forgot to switch it on :(

0:00 A mild example
0:42 LFO setup
1:56 Randomizer
2:40 Arp settings
3:42 Set scale
4:25 Roll the dice!
5:45 FM LFO issue
7:11 Demo 1: Warm Featherette
8:00 Demo 2: Funky Gabber
8:34 Demo 3: Bandpassed
10:10 Demo 4: DAF
10:42 Demo 5: Noisetown

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Essential guide to the DB-01 Bassline (2024 edition)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"This guide is meant for new users and is ordered to present the information you need as you start to explore the machine. So if you've just got your machine, plug it in and follow along, and by the end of the video you'll know 95% of the functions and be happily creating, saving and tweaking patterns. The DB-01 really is an amazingly well-balanced machine that can do much more than mere basslines.

My original guide to the DB-01 was published back in 2020 and although it's one of my most popular videos it was done on a crusty camera and onboard mic. So after dozens of videos about this sturdy little machine, I thought it deserved a redo.

If, at the end, there are areas where you want more detail, there's sure to be a video about it in my DB-01 playlist. Please have a look. If not, ask in the comments, I try to answer every question.

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