Jump Error

By Disasterpeace | Published: March 2, 2010

In preparation for my next release “Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar”, I’ve revamped one of my old tracks.

MP3: Jump Error

A few of you have asked for some insight into my creative process, so I'll share some of what went on while I was working on this. The original version that I released back in 2007 was made in Reason, as was this new version. I stripped out all the old synths and replaced them with new patches. All of the pulse-wavey goodness is brought to you by THOR, the wonderful hybrid/modular synth in Reason 4.

THOR Synth in Reason 4, totally awesome.

It can be a daunting task to take a song and redo it from the beginning. My initial idea for updating the sounds was to try and get some of the patches to sound almost guitar-like. In order to do this I used a pitch envelope on the main riff (and the power chords) that very quickly goes from a high pitch back to the normal, intended one. This produces something like a very quick “click” or transient sound which I think gives it a little more character.

Here the filter envelope is routed to control the pitch of the oscillator.

It was also greatly helpful to me to use audio markers to take notes about specific parts of the song as I was working on it. This way, all my ideas were jotted down and I could address them all one at a time.

Use markers to keep track of things you want to change!

Once I finished designing the piece and updating everything, including some more drastic changes (if you listen to both you’ll notice a couple of really big changes to the song), I rewired all the tracks into Logic to mix. In the past I’ve gone seriously overboard trying to mix chipmusic. I think I’ve learned from some of those mistakes and this time focused almost entirely on panning, volume, and dynamics.

One of the biggest challenges with this kind of music (especially chipmusic that utilizes a lot of voices like mine) is that so many of the sounds share the same frequency range. In order to address this I tried to be creative with panning; I approached each distinctive section of the song like it was its own miniature mix (which I think can be a pretty useful approach) and as a result made good use of automation. I also did some sidechain compression which helps the rhythm section fit like a glove with the drums, and can also be used as a really cool “suck” type effect, popularl with artists like Danger and Justice and the like.

Instead of using reverb, most of the tracks that I wanted to have a wet sound simply have a bit of delay on them. I also like to use delay as a rhythmic device, which you can hear at the very end.

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7 Comments

  1. Kristoffer Truitt
    Posted March 3, 2010 at 12:28 am | Permalink

    The track is sick. Cool to see the process, even from the listener side of things. Keep it up!

  2. N
    Posted March 3, 2010 at 1:01 am | Permalink

    Serious improvements on an already impressive tune. Heard this on the gamewave podcast few years back in its original incarnation. THOR is the greatest. And agreed on all counts with respect to delay…it’s so easy for me to get carried away with it if I’m not careful. Just adds a special something to certain waveforms.

    Just curious, but if you’re using sidechain comp to make the drums cut through a little more, (and if you don’t mind me asking), are you using an almost (or completely) instantaneous attack and release on it? I would imagine, though my ears are uber tired and susceptible to deception this evening, it would aid the drums in cutting through while keeping the relative 8-bit “rough edge” if that makes sense.

    Another thing I got into the habit of doing (given that my attention span has trouble staying in one particular time signature for too long) was sequencing the drums using the advanced sampler as opposed to Redrum…without prying, I’d be interested to know whether or not you did this….and I’d be muchos impressed if you kept it all in Redrum…

  3. Rich
    Posted March 3, 2010 at 4:33 am | Permalink

    Thanks Guys!

    N, the sidechain compression on the bass and chords (and also that C64 sounding fast line) is an instantaneous attack, and a very quick release as well I believe.

    I’ve been using Redrum when doing chip stuff in Reason, but I very well may switch over to the NN-XT so that I can do exclusive pairing on the “hi-hat” and stuff like that. I’m also considering introducing more cymbal sounds into this kit. I’ve made other kits but I like the character of this one and I’ll probably use it for the rest of this collection of songs, give or take.

  4. Ionustron
    Posted March 3, 2010 at 1:59 pm | Permalink

    I think I like the original better to be honest… That new middle part and key change was nice though!

  5. Disasterpeace
    Posted March 3, 2010 at 5:43 pm | Permalink

    To each his own! Thanks for commenting. I’m curious if there are any particulars about the original track that you enjoy that this one lacks?

  6. Ionustron
    Posted March 12, 2010 at 2:35 pm | Permalink

    I keep forgetting to respond back, sorry!

    Well, it’s not so much that this lacks, it just has too much, little too much panning lead, portamento, and noise channel. Many folks absolutely love that kinda sound, but I kinda prefer the raw sound that the last one had. (granted when I write I go mad with patch swapping on the N106, but it’s usually with doubled channels to make weird lead sound, so perhaps I could just be getting tired of Konami VRC6 sound these days…)

    What I do like are the small rhythm and tempo changes towards the end.

    Actually the noise doesn’t bother me really, I guess just the wavy stuff towards the beginning.

    But again, to each his own =D Don’t take this as saying that the revision is horrendous, light years from it! The thing I found over the last couple of years is that the direction the chipmusic community has gone is much different from my direction and what I enjoy listening to.

  7. Disasterpeace
    Posted March 13, 2010 at 4:23 am | Permalink

    Ah, no problem!

    I definitely understand where you are coming from. I think one of the reasons I’ve chosen to move more into this richer, less raw territory is because I feel that tools like Reason do more complicated sounds better than they do raw sounds. There is something about unadulterated pulse waves that I think is better captured by analog hardware.

    On another hand though, your bring up a good point about potentially overkill when it comes to ornamentations and effects. If there is too much of it it can lose its unique quality and the payoff is lessened. There’s something about those moments in songs where things are going along in one mode for a very long time, and then there is a singular change that makes that change that much more effective. If I do change anything I may tone down the panning on the lead and save it for key moments in the music.

    EIther way, thanks for sharing your opinion!

One Trackback

  1. By Pause » Blog Archive » Jump Error by Disasterpeace on March 3, 2010 at 7:18 pm

    [...] a slightly longer and far more interesting explaination, check out Disasterpeace’s website where he has documented the writing process for the new version of Jump [...]

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