“Inside the Grid on Altair IV” by Mark Mosher. A One-Note One-Patch Soundscape in Absynth 5 from Mark Mosher on Vimeo.
Update: I’ve also made this available as an MP3-320 audio download on soundcloud.
“Inside the Grid on Altair IV” is a soundscape created with one patch from scratch using the Absynth 5. It is performed be pressing and holding a single note for the entirety of the song. While I have used Absynth as the sole instrument for songs in the past (Tracks 3 & 4 on my last album markmosher.bandcamp.com/album/no-ghosts-just-fear), I’ve never created a patch where one held note triggers the entire composition. Recent works by Absynth creator Brian Clevinger and artist Anthony Distefano have inspired me to do start working on some pieces of this nature and this is my first of many to come.
The audio is CD quality, and the video shows a behind-the-scenes look at Absynth’s wonderful 68-stage modulatable envelopes in action. So all the movement and changes in dynamics, pitch, timber are meticulously drawn and programmed as part of the patch. The envelopes also support LFOs on segments. The envelopes can be extremely long and also loop independently which making Absynth fantastic for evolving soundscapes.
Note, I am also using an envelope to change the “effect time” of the Pipe Effect which is a unique audio effect within Absynth. P. 88 of the manual describes it best “Let’s take the image of a string. A loudspeaker (a contact loudspeaker) is connected to a string, which begins to vibrate as a result. You can determine the position of this virtual loudspeaker on the string via the parameter Input Position. Above the string are two pickups, similar to an E-Guitar. The pickups’ positions can be determined through the parameter Output Positions. Changing those two parameters can be compared with changing two microphones. You can modulate the string’s length and the pickups’ position through the LFOs or a MIDI Controller. This way, various flanging, pitch-shifting and rotary speaker effects can be achieved. These effects are particularly apparent when the modulation of the pickups are modulated in op¬posite directions.”
Synthesist, Composer, Performer from Boulder, CO
Wow!! I just got Absynth 5 a month ago. The sounds are incredible right out of the box… I haven’t decided whether to create patches that do everything, or just play the music & twirl the knobs in realtime.
In the last year I’ve been on a synth walk-about of sorts. Focusing on a different synth each month for programming from INIT. My goal was to narrow the synths I’ll be using in 2013 plus pick one synth as a primary. Absynth is the oldest synth in my virtual rig and I’ve been using it since V1 starting in 2002. Absynth is the clear winner for me and this exercise has forced me to learn the intricacies of the amazing envelopes. Plus it can do modeled synthesis, granluar, FM… It’s just brilliant – but not necessarily obvious in usage. It reminds me of learning a physical instrument in a way – you know like when learning guitar – each new level you learn makes you understand there is another level yet to go. Very fun.
These two tracks on my last album are single instances of Absynth:
http://markmosher.bandcamp.com/track/fight-or-flight
http://markmosher.bandcamp.com/track/under-the-spiders-web