Battle 32 - Pocket Battle!

.....RAW NUX.....

Well I don't have a Pocket Operator, so first on the agenda was downloading some samples. Fortunately TE themselves provided three or four aif files on their soundcloud - sorted!

I initially started by making a remix of Kraftwerk's Calculator song (can't remember the title - but you know... "I am the operator of my pocket calculator") But it just felt a little obvious and (more importantly) I really wasn't feeling the majority of the PO sounds I'd grabbed.
[EDIT: I've since been back through the PO samples and found that I actually like a ton of them!]

To refresh myself I abandoned the battle for a while and just started messing about. I was using the string model engine and also the sampled waveform that I got from pushing cwo and punch into self oscillation (a simple sine, toy organ sound). From there I started getting a Rza vibe and so I chucked on a beat using some drums I'd sampled from an old soul record. It started to sound OK but something was missing...

That's when I stumbled across one of the PO samples that I'd chopped in the drum sampler earlier. I was staggered that I'd not noticed just how amazing the kick and snare was. I mean that's a really punchy kick - solid without being overbearing, and the snare is just neck snappingly crisp!

From there I layered the PO Kick and snare, started to tweak things, added my own cuts (sampled from Wu-Tang's ODB RIP) and then began looking for an acapella to show off the loop in a proper context.

Fortunately I stumbled across this Primo and Bumpy Knuckles joint [B.A.P] and it was only 1 bpm off my track, so very easy to match up.

It's not really a full track (since when do I enter complete tracks?) so more of an extended loop / showcase kind of thing; however I reserve the rights to make some edits and make a proper track if I get time before the battle closes :)

PS I also used Reason's RV7000 to create some of the weirder reverse reverb bits. I wanted to give some of the ODB stuff a sort of ghostly vibe, as if he was spitting rawness from beyond. Hope you enjoy :)

https://soundcloud.com/hellooperator-1/raw-nux

I realise I didn't use much PO, but then again it's a simple track and there's not a hell of a lot there in total. IMO the track only came to life once I'd layered in those PO drums, so I feel that this is a legit POperator composition, or at least OP1 feat. PO-12, lol. Damn, I kind of want a pocket operator.

O O O O
EDIT: Added sample from Felix the Cat [lifted from the same episode that featured in Ghost Dog] Also threw in some sci-fi sounds that I made on the operator. Bass line still needs fixing :(

Yeah, @HelloOperator is in the place with some very nice groove, hands down dear !
Besides, the visual is very well designed !

Thanks for the props LD :slight_smile:

Dude please make a vid lol

@HelloOperator WOW!!! Killer beat! (RIP ODB)

@aeoner thanks man :slight_smile:
@sammyjams You mean like a music vid?

Hey, um… can I… Can I play??

Just got my PO-12 today, gonna be hard to make something for this battle though—

I can’t just submit the hours I’m going to be putting into this thing… :slight_smile:

po-12 in the Rythm and po-14 in the bASS. As extra, some syllables from the teenager guy introducing the machines. I have made a video with the process also.

https://soundcloud.com/servando-barreiro/batterypwned


Damn, love how clean and crisp everything sounds. And those fast arpeggios - they give me a really nostalgic feeling - I think they remind me of Street Fighter II but also something else. The whole track is like having a dusty, nostalgic memory cleaned up and rendered in HD - weird. I love it @Servando !

@servando awesome track man! Looking forward to the video of your process.

Thank you @SammyJams!, more than process is a jam… I always discover new things thanks to this battles :slight_smile: cheerz!
https://youtu.be/katEV3ODLOg?list=UUN9YnkC-wEXLqlDdna-smww

Oh! @servando I just realized the “Teenager guy” is the voice over from the TE demos, haha. Clever! I like your track - would you explain your process a bit more? What FX are your vocal samples going through to give it that glitch?

All drum sounds and vocal samples come from the Gaz Williams PO-12 review on Sonicstate. The rest is all internal synth engine stuff.


https://soundcloud.com/wi_ngo/its-the-rhythm-ok

@wingo O shiet, now that’s raw! Loving that intro man.

@Kites @HelloOperator thanks!, I sampled the initial speech of the teenager and then I chopped each word like batterypowered, po-12, teenageengineering, drums, etc… all with the —> play mode, so I could play just initial syllables if I release the keys early enough. This drum sampler goes through a Delay in which there is a strong feedback and level and the blue parameter it’s being modulated by an LFO.
As a curious extra… the sequencer in the “arpeggio” is the sketch sequencer!. First time I use it in a song… cheers!

Wingo this is very good !


Here is my track, I didn’t even add the PO-14 part, cause I filled all the tracks with the other two.
Feared I would destroy everything.

https://soundcloud.com/lying-dalai/pocketo-operatori

I discovered lot of things with this battle. On the POs, of course.
But I also found that I am really more comfortable on OP-1 than on Elektron machines, so far…

I didn’t sync the PO with the OP-1, I recorded directly one PO in the OP-1 at a time.

@Servando very nice, I think I understand your technique. I’ll have to try it myself.


Maybe we should integrate the Tips and Tricks thread with quick video tips and tricks. Might help us visual learners in here.

Entries are sounding good gentlemen.

Thanks for the props, everyone! @HelloOperator I spent more time than I’d maybe like to admit perfecting that intro - I did like a million takes. :slight_smile: It was like finger gymnastics.

@wingo @hellooperator insane songs guys! Hope u guys win! Lots of work put into those!