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11. Rave-style sampled chords with Dune CM and TAL-Sampler

1 Common on synthesisers in the late 80s, chord memory let you play back chords with one note, and was a popular trick of the time. Let’s see how we can do it using a synth and sampler. Create a new 120bpm project in your DAW and instantiate Dune CM. Load in Beat.wav, Bass.wav and C major chord.mid. 2 We need an analogue-style patch to sample. Start with Dune CM’s ‘Init’ patch and turn up Osc Mix to 50%. Detune Osc A with the Fine rotary to -5 cents and Osc B to +5 cents. Bring up Osc C’s level to around 30% and increase Colour to taste. Lower the Cutoff and Resonance a little. 3 Our sound is still a little static, so let’s use Dune CM’s Fat dials to add some chorus-like movement – 10-15% for both Oscillators 1 and 2 should do the trick. Don’t worry about shaping the sound’s amp envelope for now, as we’ll be resampling the sound… 4 Export the synth chord to an audio file, then load up a sampler in your DAW. We’re using TAL-Sampler again, but any decent sampler plugin will do the trick. Import Chord memory.mid to trigger it, then drag your exported audio file onto Layer A of the sampler. 5 Shape the chord’s amplitude envelope with the sampler’s controls. Increase Attack to .10, Decay to .30, reduce Sustain to .90, and Release to .50. Experiment with a shorter release time for a more staccato sound. Our chord sample is bright, so reduce Cutoff to 15kHz. Add a touch of reverb for width and flavour. 6 TAL-Sampler is great at emulating old hardware samplers, so have a play with the Resampler section. We like the sound of the S 1000 DAC Type’s Saturation at 50%. Dial in a tiny bit of Hiss for a more authentic, vintage vibe.