Fun with drum tweaking

My recent string of houseguests has made it difficult for me to find much quality time to experiment with the 307...and I am still very much in the experimental stage.

When time is limited, I give myself a goal to focus on for those moments I have to spare. Still, many recent opportunities got squandered on digging into amp envelope settings and other less-than-useful minutiae, accomplishing nothing other than dragging me far into the synthesis weeds. (They're both tall and deep, folks.) But as the frustration grew, I finally had an epiphany, which was:

If I've only got 45 minutes, avoid scrolling through menus as much as possible, and see what can be done with the "surface" of the 307.

...This, it turns out, was wisdom. And it led me to a fun session of drum tweaking.

Some of the below ideas you may recognize from previous posts, but it was satisfying to put them all together.

Setup:

1. Choose a favorite pattern, and mute all the parts except the drum part. Save this "new" pattern to the adjacent slot (i.e. original at U.025 and drums-only at U.026, or whatever).
2. Using Knob Assign, set one user knob (F1-4) to adjust Key Shift.
3. On the drums-only pattern, using Part Select, choose the R part. Then hit Rhythm Mute so you are ready to bring the different drum parts in and out easily.
4. If you've got a Multi-FX setting you like to use on drums (Lo-Fi, Flanger, etc.), choose it via the Setup -> Part Mixer menu. Make sure that the R part is channeled through M-FX, and that the Grab switch is also enabled to affect M-FX.

What's cool about setting up this way: You now have lots of controls set to change the drum tones, and all you have to do to get at them is mess with the Red Arrow button occasionally. Tweak for drama:

-Cutoff and Resonance provide those "classic" filter sweep sounds
-F1/2 Reverb adds/cuts depth, F4 Delay adjusts echo feedback
-F1/2/3 M-FX adjusts that effect's sound
-The Grab switch is available to bring the M-FX in/out
-Whatever Knob Assignment you've set for Key Shift lets you create breaks (see previous post, "Easy breaks with Key Shift") and/or change the drum tones across the board
-The Rhythm Mute buttons are ready to cut/cue drum parts
-If you want to go back to the original drum sounds, hit DEC then INC in quick succession while the pattern is playing. When it loops back to measure 1, all your tweaked changes will vanish. Start tweaking again and head off in a different direction...repeat as desired.
-If you want to go back to your original pattern, all you have to do is hit DEC, and the synths come back in when the pattern changes.

With a bit of thought, a lot of these ideas can probably be applied pretty easily to synth soloing too. Enjoy...I did.

P.S.: If you really want to make things easier on yourself, select your four favorite parameters using Knob Assign, making sure to include Key Shift and a couple of Reverb/Delay/M-FX parameters. Then you won't even have to touch the Red Arrow Button.

Contacting the blog author

If you want to contact me, please read this...

Several readers have sent messages regarding previous posts. Thanks for your comments everyone! I started this blog hoping it would be a resource for everyone who creates with the 307, and I'm glad to see it helping.

As the readership grows, some entries will need to be updated... especially whenever I discover I am wrong about something. If you see something that needs to be changed or expanded, it's OK to comment below the entry. I'll test your idea and if it works, I'll correct the original entry as soon as possible.

A few notes:

1. I'd rather not force readers to go through every comment to find the information they need. For this reason, if you comment directly, especially about my errors, I will change the blog entry text, but I may not post your actual response...I don't want to seem rude, so please be aware of this.

2. Blogger does not allow me to reply privately to comment authors. So if you need to talk offline, please email me instead. You can reach me at NOSPAMdubathonic (at) gmail (dot) com

3. I'm very interested in tips/tricks from readers. If you send any, I'll blog about them and will credit you as the discoverer.

4. If you have created any music with the 307, please post it on another site (MySpace, Virb, etc.) so I can link to it. Blogger does not allow me to post mp3s directly.

I'm always happy to hear from you -- thanks again for your input!