I have been exploring my AR MKII for almost a year now, most of the time using the analog machines and some imported drum kits to use as a sample layer.
Now experimenting with sampling from other sources, directly into the AR via the audio in. Getting mixed results, for example my Minilogue xd sounds pretty bland after sampling (and I have to switch off all the stereo fx on the mini because the AR converts to mono).
What are good sound sources for making techno itb on the AR and what are your experiences/tips to yield the best result?
Youtube! Just try taking weird sounds from random sources like old movies, songs or tv shows.
Sometimes just pitching some random background noise way down and adding some lfo creates great textures, or leads to unexpected rhytms or melodic sounds. I’ve made melodies out of weird background sounds from old 50’s commercials for instance. The AR has the warmth in sound to make it sound great.
I just loaded up about 100 fresh samples to my armk2 a couple of days ago. So far my favorites from this batch, when heard/ used in context, are from toys I’ve circuit bent over the years and field recordings.
The circuit bent stuff is wild and nasty. Lots of asymmetrical clipping, weird phase positioning, barely stable sounds, hellish digital clipping and aliasing, etc. Basically all great for the nasty end of the techno spectrum. Also the sounds are so overloaded with boosted harmonics that there’s really a lot for the ar filters to work with.
The field recordings are mostly snippets from work that I recorded on my phone. I work in construction so it’s a nonstop source of both industrial and ambient sounds. I’ve been getting great snare type sounds in particular (pneumatic nail guns, dropping a pile of lumber and steel pipes into a construction dumpster from a three story roof, rainstorm in a fully tiled bathroom with the roof removed, etc).
The other field recordings that I’ve been getting some good mileage from are of egrets and herons fighting over a nesting spot in the park that I happened across while walking my dog.
I’ve long been in the habit of trying to record interesting sounds when I’m out and about. I totally recommend this approach and it’s so easy now with smart phones, I really don’t miss the days of doing it with tapes.
I don’t tend to use longer samples though I’m trying to embrace that a bit more. The samples of birds fighting that I mentioned are about 15 to 20 seconds each (taken from a roughly five minute recording) but so far I’m using the start and end points to select shorter sections. The longest sample I currently have in use in a pattern in my rytm is a 16 step loop from a circuit bent Casio MT40, and that’s because I’m deliberately trying to explore longer samples. It’s more of a mindset thing for me than a practical thing.
In some ways I’m still stuck in the past, coming from samplers that run on floppy disc sized storage capacity and no usb (even though it’s been years since I’ve used one). I still try to make my samples small and few and then reshape them in the machine to fit different tracks. I try to get the maximum mileage from every sample stored.
Of course this is ridiculous these days now that almost every sampler on the market has massive amounts of storage or reads directly from cards that do. I’d never complain about my rytm having a gig of memory but it does seem gratuitous for a drum machine.
As far as muting a long sample is concerned you can handle that with scenes or perfs but you might have to modify your workflow.