Free Ableton Live AfroDJRack #59: SynthPad Tape Synth
iPhone App, SynthPad, Recorded to Tape and Sampled into a Free Ableton Instrument Rack!
Hello, I hope the Summer is treating you well, and Happy Fourth of July! I am here with a new Free Ableton Live Instrument! This instrument came unexpectedly. I was recording music to my Tascam reel to reel machine with my friend SuperKid, and he performed one of his parts with the SynthPad app from Big Robot Studios. (SynthPad is a cool and cheap iPhone app that lets you sculpt your own synth sounds through a variety of waveforms, a filter, envelopes, effects and an arpeggiator). After bringing the tape tracks into Ableton Live, I sampled a single note he played and created this instrument from it.
My main goal was to create an imperfect instrument, that is still completely usable, but has some character. The sample I chose isn't the cleanest one, but it sounds nice looped. I added some super subtle modulation to the pitch to make it sound a bit more like an analog synth. These days, music is so perfectly in tune that it can take away from the character of the instruments. I think it is worth playing around with the tuning of your soft synths to emulate the subtle intonation imperfections found in real instruments and hardware synths. It gives the music a more "alive" feeling and can add tremendous character and charm. So this particular synth is not perfectly in tune but it won't clash with instruments that are. Also, pulling the sample from the tape machine adds some warmth to the sound as well.
Oh, I almost forgot, this download also comes with an effect rack! I set up a few effects in an Ableton Effect Rack to help bring this sound to life. I could have just integrated it into the Instrument Rack, but I thought it would be nice to have it separate so that you can use it on other things as well! Click below to download!
So there you have it, the 59th Free Ableton Live Pack: SynthPad Tape Synth and a Multi Effect Rack. I hope you enjoy it! If you like the sound of the tape machine, be sure to check out my Super Tape Drums Package of over 450+ drum samples recorded to tape and placed in 30+ Ableton Live Instrument and Effect Racks.