Parallel Processing

Today, I'm writing a bit of technical jargon. Hopefully you don't fall asleep. I've been working on my dance/satire piece, but I've been a bit uninspired by it lately. The beat and the music has been sounding flat and boring, despite the song's ability to make me laugh. Now that's changing, thanks to parallel processing.

I'm amazed that I've been able to release two professional sounding tracks without really knowing about this. But to be fair, I've sort of been doing it already, but not really knowing exactly what I was doing. However, after James Bernard's week 37 tutorial, I now feel enlightened and am putting the knowledge to good use.

Put simply, parallel processing is overlaying a sound with copies of itself and then adjusting the copies so they emphasize different frequencies. This fills out sound with different textures while maintaining the integrity of the original sound. Very powerful. I've even starting using this technique in stereo (i.e. overlaying different sets of copies in the right and left channels) which makes stuff sound huuuuuuge.

Below is a screen shot of the rear of the rack with two sampling devices that carry a drum sample. The Spider Audio thingy copies the signal from the bottom channel to the top one. Then I've put a Stereo Imager on the bottom channel, and a distortion unit on the top channel. It really spices things up.

The beat is now sounding heaps better. I'll tinker with the other sounds too, particularly the bass. I feel like this song is actually coming together, which is awesome, coz I had lost hope there for a bit.

Asleep yet?   :)