And thanks all for the amazing advices around here. This forum is almost as useful as the OP1 Field manual. Sometimes even better.
I’m still going through all the features and workflows on my brand new OP1 Field. Love it.
But if there’s one feature that just keeps eluding me, that would be the A/B stacking one.
I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out a way to do it.
It’s 100% my fault, here. I know I’m missing some critical steps at some point to enable what seems like a crazy creative tool.
I search this very forum, the Elektronauts, YouTube…but I get sparse info. And the following article from Music Radar didn’t do anything but taunt me in the right way :
Anyways.
If anyone could explain the how-tos, the quirks, the tips and tricks (the LFO tool seems to be a power trick with the A/B stacking method, apparently), it would be terrific.
I tried to fiddle with drumkits and tapping the Ochre rotary, but so far, not so good. At all.
Can wait to have a field day with this one…but I need help. Definitely.
Thanks for your inputs.
(i’ll update the thread if I come across some useful infos)
Ok.
So, since my original post, I’ve been exploring the A/B workflow. Ended up with fixes, new considerations and new workflows.
So here’s a list for anyone interested in :
the feature only works with 16bits audio files. Since the very beginning, I’ve been using 24bits without any issue. Takes more space, but even tho it was specified basically everywhere, I didn’t change the export setting until today. Quality wise, it is about the same (repitch is somewhat less precise, but it still holds its part well at 16bits).
I prepare my kits in Logic Pro. Here’s the workflow.
I choose two different plugins (so far, I used Battery 4, Superior Drummer 3, Ujam’s Beatmakers, Logic Pro’s Sampler Kits, Nexus 4 and XLN XO with both core and imported content) and choose the samples I want/need. I extract the samples from there (kicks, snares, etc) as two separate mono files. In doing so, I keep the resulting audio file in under 20 seconds.
Once I get my two mono tracks, I hard pan them, slice the samples, apply fade in/outs, and process them each a bit (at the moment, I process with the HG2 for harmonic saturation, a bit of EQ and some glue compressor).
I try to stay light on the processing, but I’m trying to apply some FXs to the next batch (ie. reverb on the left file, flanger on the right one) to add some flavour.
Then, I apply some region gain when needed and bounce them as a stereo, 16bits, no normalization file.
Name it, import it to the OP1f to a separate folder, open it up, tweak it up in the drum sampler, save it and rename it as a snapshot.
The tweaking part is a bit redundant. You’ll need to go to each sample, fine tune the sample start and end points, apply the A/B process (shift+press ochre) and eventually tweak the gain parameter if needed. A bit tedious, but perfect.
Last but not least, the LFO part. You’ll need to tweak it by ear to get that A/B powerful trick to the optimum level. But once set up, it is crazy lively. Add this with some FXs and tape tricks, some carefully crafted sequences and some live overdubs and you get a live drum take with a humanized feel and real depth of its own.
Best part is, for me, reusing the same kit with different pitch and LFO settings. At times, sounds like two different kits.
Love it.
This does help. I write questions down as I explore the machine and this was among the questions I wrote tonight- what is meant by A/B drums and stacking?