"Evolve" Patterns With One Knob

Tips & Tricks
1

After a little messing around with Hydra I came up with an idea that kind of allows you to make a drum pattern/bassline/riff/etc “evolve” only by turning a knob. I hope I can explain in decently, here’s a pic:

The heart of the concept lies in the “scale” parameter of Hydra. The drum track has 3 parts: hats, kick, and snare. I set one knob to control the volume of all three of these. I set the scale on Hydra, though, so they would all move at different rates. The hats get loudest first, then the kick, then the snare. As I turn the knob, they fade into the mix at different rates. I then applied a gate to stop the kick coming in before the hats got decently loud, and same with the snare. Finally a send track with source muted.

edit: forgot to mention that the knob is set to hydra input, may have been obvious though

Next I applied to the same idea to a bassline, but instead of different drum hits on each track, I did more notes. When I have the knob turned 1/3 of the way, a simple bassline is playing. 2/3, and the bassline gets more complex, as more notes are added. 3/3, and even more notes come in.

double edit: Just realized I sent all the bass tracks to the drum send instead of bass send. Not sure how I missed that, it was pretty late when I did this though.

I just wanted to share that, personally I think it sounds pretty cool. If I was not clear just ask for clarification.

2

Thx for sharing, will have to check this out!!! :yeah:

3

Nice Concept! I must do this. I’ve been trying to figure out different ways of using meta-devices to change dynamics and mix for me, so I could basically have just a few patterns and the metadevices would basically do the rest. I like to use multiple drums, and this is totally perfect. :)

4

post an example .xrns please, too stoned to set this up now :(

5

I’ll try to make a .xrns. I’ve never made an example before, I assume i’m gonna have to use samples, not VSTs.

6

http://www.mediafire.com/?evyznmygimm

There ya go, functional as far as I could tell

7

That is a cool technique! From your description I thought I’d see some tracks go down as others came up. You can reverse the Min/Max values and the slider will move down instead of up, if for example you wanted to fade out a weak snare and fade in a strong, snappy snare. (or something.)

Now I wonder if you could set up a Hydra to scale multiple Hydras and so some really complex stuff. :)

8

Awesome. I’m gonna try this when I get home.