OP-1 Battle 072 - 1972

OP-1 Battles
1

Hi all, i’m very happy to be hosting this battle!

1972 was a psychedelic year - let’s get crazy and out there!

Rule #0 (the standard one) - all production, mixing, etc. must take place inside our venerable friend, the OP-1. That said, “Normalizing” the song and 1 trim/cut on each end of your song is allowed (example: to get rid of a click count in or the random noise burst that happens at the end when recording with the Album)

Rule #1 - use the “hidden” filter effect - this was removed from the Effects list at some point with a TE firmware update; i feel like it’s more flexible / musical. You can download a patch that has both the “hidden” synth engine (Iter) and the filter. Filter has Low, High, Allpass modes as well as Notch. Cutoff, Resonance, and Drive controls round out the picture. A note about Iter, feel free to use it if you want; you can always change to a different synth engine while retaining the Filter Effect, Envelope, LFO settings by pressing Shift-(1) under the screen and selecting a new synth engine…

Link:
Op1 hidden fx? (LyingDalai links to an op1.fun patch in his response)

Rule #2 - since 1972 is pretty psychedelic and still had a lot of prog rock going on, experiment with at least a bar or two in a different time signature (After all if we’re thinking Pink Floyd, “Money” even has parts written in 7/8…)

Rule #3 - Engines - Sampler (and Drum Sampler) of course; on the other synth engines, limit yourself to Pulse and Cluster (and yes, optionally Iter as per Rule #1)

Rule #4 - Drums - try to use dBox in at least 1/4 of your piece (i’ve never been really successful here)

Rule #5 - External stuff - since you can use the sampler, of course you can sample anything you like; limit yourself to 3 external items: one electronic, one acoustic, and one human voice (yours if you’re daring enough) maximum.

Rule #6 - don’t take yourself too damn seriously - a quote i took to heart while prepping/playing my entry for Battle #071 in direct contrast to my usual way of working is “the ‘perfect’ is the enemy of the ‘good’” - get off the grid, be atonal, consult your Oracle, try something new, call it “done” before you might usually…

Excited to hear what you all come up with! Would like to wrap this up by the end of the year, so setting deadline as 12/31/2020

Best,
psound74

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Cool brief!

I’ll try to avoid procrastinating too much this time :wink:

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you better. lol

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:smile:

I just have a thing for awkward time signatures. This alone makes this brief very tempting!

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8

Hey you!
This is my first everything.
First entire song made on OpOne.
First post on soundcloud.
First project delivered on time.(in my life)
First Battle!!!
I jumped rules about getting external things and used just op-1. ( except for some voice samples from opz and a kick’nSnare from some pack that I can’t remember now.)

Cluster - check
Pulse - check
Hidden effect - check
Dbox - check and surprisingly best part.
Odd time - Got it!
72 - hummm…maybe nothing but I’ve been listening the greats from my country, Brazil, and chords came after.
Mutantes, Gilberto Gil, Alceu Valença, Milton Nascimento, etc…they’re not there but inside me during the thing.

That’s it.
From Brazil, sorry for my Portuguese’s English.
Enjoy.

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I will need at least a week more to end my track, it’s just not there yet and I haven’t got much time for myself lately… May I ask for a deadline extension already? I do want/need to come up with something.

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10

Hi all,
Hope everybody found some holiday joy…

So far with only one entry, a request for extension, and retrospection that the end of the year may have been an audacious deadline with the busyness of the holiday season, I am extending the deadline until a week from this coming Sunday (that is, Jan 10th) - sound good?

Cheers,
psound74

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Sounds good.
Hadn’t seen my friends and family for months, now meet some every day: totally impossible to take some time off and build this track I have had in the head for weeks!

Thx friend :slight_smile:

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12

Hi all & Happy New Year!
Finally (and both “earlier” and “later” than i would have liked) - here is my entry…

  1. Lots of original hidden Filter! (LP IV)
  2. 6/8 & 5/4
  3. Pulse and Cluster…a little Iter (it’s obvious)
  4. dBox is in there, listen close on the left channel after the break for erratic percussion 10/8…also the thumpy bass drum
  5. Sampled my Pianet sound from Battle 71 as the basic arpeggio…
  6. The reversed tape at the beginning was the happiest of accidents…even if i flubbed it a little near the end, i still got a great beginning and a hold-shift-turn-blue-knob-while-playing-lead-line fade out!

Not a “rule” but i was proud of the lead parts; iter chimes alternating with a single Cluster sound with either manually played vibrato (trilling between notes with Legato mode & decent amount of portamento) or a fast auto LFO for the loud part…slowing down for the slower bit (octaves!)

Let’s have some more folks join in! Deadline is this Sunday 23:59 EST…just in time for my birthday on the 11th…

Best,
psound74

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13

Wow, awesome track!

I am paralyzed with my OP-1, can’t seem to bring my track where I want it to be.
So much to explore, so few moments…
I can feel time passing by like sand through my fingers.
:scream:

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14

Make your email into lyrics for your tune? (Sounded poetic)

It’s only Wednesday, you can do it!

psound74

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15

Bro, go go go. Last rule should be first :raised_hands::rocket::raised_hands:

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16

Rsrs…I got to try it!

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Hello!

Just got myself an OP-1, and someone pointed me here. So I thought I’d get involved with a battle as my first attempt at making something. I’m still figuring out the workflow, but this was fun. Thanks for pointing me to the hidden filter + synth!

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This is great! Very inspiring.

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Here’s my little bastard:

Drum-Sounds entirely done with DBOX (with heavy usage of the RANDOM LFO). The bass sound and the weird pling sound is made with ITER + FILTER. The slow string sound was made with PULSE and played by hand two times, one for each stereo channel.

And I totally forgot about CLUSTER, sorry about that.

All sequences had odd timings like 10/16 or 6/8, and I used ENDLESS in 1/8T timing on the randomized drum part.

I captured the whole session in timelapse and made a little video:

Thanks @psound74 for the inspiring rule set and for the deadline extension. :blush:

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Awesome, nice one! The synth engine “rule” was limiting yourself to Pulse, Cluster, and Iter, but that didn’t mean you had to use all of them!

Keep ‘em coming! Definitely wanting to hear what @LyingDalai comes up with…

Best,
psound74

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Thanks! The participation in this year’s Jamuary helped me a lot, and rule #6 encouraged me to just start and try to get something awful or silly out of DBOX (because DBOX does sound silly by default).

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Amazing harmony! :rocket::rocket::rocket:

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OK, I’m not crazy about this one because I loved the ideas but had trouble to turn them into the real thing I had in mind.
But I bloody made it ffs!
C’est pas fou, mais c’est fait.

Synths: OP-1 (Pulse, Cluster)
Beats: Elektron Analog Rytm mk2
Weird sound FX and secondary beats: dBox (so fun to play with this, thx @psound74)
Recorded/mastered on OP-1

–
Jacques Gourmelen took this photo on April 6, 1972 in Saint-Brieuc (France), the worker, Guy Burmieux, and the riot policeman, Jean-Yvon Antignac, had grown up together.

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