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Nathan Shubert x Spencer Carson _subsettings





    _subsettings Episode 5

    Nathan Shubert x Spencer Carson "Heavy Lifting"


    Nathan Shubert and Spencer Carson were patched together for the 5th of our immersive audio experiences on location in our very own studio's loading bay in Vancouver.


    It's a modular synth mashup as Nathan and Spencer give us 10 minutes of an improvised musical soundscape set in a concrete loading bay. 2 synced-up modular rigs sent out to multiple amps and speakers created the sort of extra aural dimensions we were after. There's something special when you let the sounds escape into spaces, and that's something we wanted to capture here. Being setup with an ambisonic microphone on our camera rig, were we able to orbit around the space and taste all that the space and speakers had to offer.


    Thanks to Nathan and Spencer for sharing their music and machines with us!


    _subsettings episodes are presented as binaural sound experiences. What's binaural you ask? It's the simplest form of spatial audio, and you can wear any pair of headphones to experience it.


    Stay tuned for more places and cool people in immersive, live music experiences as this series develops.


    P.S. - Now accepting donations for a Steadicam rig for these episodes!


    Connect with Nathan & Spencer


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    _making modular diamonds




      Making modular drum sounds with Spencer was spectacular. Here's a little BTS of Spencer's drum lab - where fake diamonds are born. We captured thousands of samples and ended up with 898, which gave us 13 Ableton Drum racks of pure modular analog bliss.


      An easy to use and vibe soaked modular drum suite for Ableton - no patch cables or 7 oscillators needed.



      Connect with us:

      _fake diamonds SSS073




        _fake diamonds turns 898 modular synth drum samples into 13 Ableton Drum Racks that are ready to drum design and play with.


        Spencer Carson, our friend from Vancouver, sound designer and composer, was a huge part of this carbon-based collaboration, and supplied us with 898 drum and percussion samples, all hand made in his shiny sonic modular laboratory. We took the sweet sonorous gems Spencer cut for us and created a 13 module Ableton Drum system (Lite, Intro, Standard, or Suite) that allows anyone to make authentic feeling modular drum sounds and beats with ease.


        Each module gives you one drum part, such as a kick, snare, hi-hat, or tom, and each module offers the charm and sonic variety that your DAW doesn't. The macro controls for each of the 13 modules are tailored to the samples they hold, and you can get tasteful and effortless changes for each sound quickly and easily. Load up one or a bunch of modules in your sessions, and you’re good to go!

        • Use your MIDI note lengths to drive the samples from short to long like a gate length on an old school sequencer.

        • Use the release controls to tidy up the tails in re-trigger/ratchet mode.

        • Use and automate the easy re-trigger functions to ratchet each hit as you see fit.

        • Many modules include multiple sampled variations of the same sound, so you’ll never get the exact hit or sound every time you hit play.

        • Pitched drum modules contain up to 88 individually sampled pitches for total authenticity.

        Spencer went beyond the usual synth-born drum pieces like kicks, snares and hi-hats, and gave us multiple 88 key pitched drums and percussion sounds as well. All of these drum sounds evoke a vintage vantage, and bring you an aural aura of authenticity. We wanted it to sound like a super-polished modular drum session would, with many of the same sorts of controls made into Ableton macros that spark a different kind of DAW free creativity and approach to composition that's focused on programming as well as performing. We wanted to bring the feeling of modular drums without the fuss, and offer a simple and fast way to get cool sounding drums.


        It was pleasure making this pack with Spencer, aka Mr. Diamond.


        Modular gear highlights included:


        Korg ARP 2600FS

        Roland SYS-512

        Roland SYS-521

        Roland SYS-530

        Roland SYS-540 E

        Roland SYS-572

        Roland SYS-555

        Make Noise Maths

        Make Noise Mimeophone

        Make Noise QPAS

        Doepfer A-124SE VCF5 Wasp Filter

        Intellijel Dual ADSR Envelope


        Go get these gems and get to making something modular.


        • 898 modular synth drum samples. (380MB)

        • 1 Ableton Live 11 session (Intro, Standard or Suite).

        • 13 Ableton 11 Drum Racks with custom effects (Lite, Intro, Standard or Suite).

        • Never get the same exact sound each time you hit play.

        • Meticulously sampled individual pitches.

        * Built-in re-trigger/ratchet with re-trig/ratchet feel for each drum module.

        • Macro controls and macro presets for each instrument.

        • 96k/24bit .wav sources.

        • 100% Royalty-Free.

        • Designed in Vancouver, Canada by Spencer Carson & Subsocial Studios.


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