The below appeared originally on ModWiggler, but I’m including it here for reasons unknown.
I started Rif after moving into a temporary workspace. Whenever I sit down in a fresh environment (or with a new piece of gear) usually something cool happens. I often try to force this effect by working in a different part of the room when my brain has gotten stale.
Rif came up entirely from ascending notes you can hear right from the start (A – B – C#…E – F#…A – B), those are the root notes played by the Serge New Timbral Oscillator, and there’s also a (quieter) 5th above played by an Injellijel Dixie. That’s all filtered through the Mutable Instruments Ripples. Under all that I quickly wrote the subbier bassline which uses Bastl’s Timber module. I don’t use the Timber to great effect on this song, but it ends up on everything I make. Bastl rules.
Anyway, after those two low end elements, the song had a skeleton and then I spent months refining and adding/subtracting other parts and textures.
The main hardware ideas I wanted to try were running 808 toms through a pair of Serge Wave Multipliers. I bought 2 of them just for this purpose; to run analog drums through in stereo. You can only hear this at 0:17. It’s probably not a great use of funds to buy a pair of Wave Multipliers for a 3 second effect but if I were smarter I’d probably be surrounded by first edition books and mahogany scrollwork and infinity pools right now instead of synthesizers.
The other idea I wanted to try was running a synth through a Valley People Kepex and triggering it via the key input. I sent a Studio Electronics MidiMini that I bought from the great Lloyd Cole through, then triggered the Kepex’s key input with a sine wave for the brash staccato effect that can best be heard at 2:11.
Rif was recorded entirely down to stereo in one performance so I had to make recall sheets just in case I needed to resurrect the session later. Making the recall sheets takes forever and makes me want to throw myself off a cliff, though the mixer sheets can be downloaded from the internet, it’s eurorack ones that really give you an aneurysm.
Because I recorded it in one shot, I got very nervous about screwing up the performance. Thus the only real performance element is modulating the decay pot on a modded 606’s snare. I get more courage on later songs.
Also my notes say I use my Casio FZ-1 for a “long tail” sound, and I remember buying it on Reverb very late in the recording of this song. I think I spent a weekend learning the Casio and made a bank of sounds via the internal waves, then added literally one note to Rif somewhere in the middle. Though I can’t hear where it is now. (After like 9 listens, I think it’s at 1:45.)
Here’s the video:
