Building beats with Entity and Gatestorm

With all that Entity offers for drum synthesis and audio processing let’s create some custom sounds

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We’ll start by exploring the wide range of sounds on offer. Patch in a trigger and take the output straight to your mixer or soundcard. Manually move through the controls and switch between linear, logarithmic and exponential envelope shapes to start building your own tones.

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Let’s add some expression by creating an accented sound. Patch modulation (try a gate or an LFO) into the Fall, FM and Sat CV to create slightly longer, more pitch-modulated and more saturated notes which will jump out as accents against your static hits.

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Patch your favourite noise source (white, pink, or metallic 808 cymbal style noise) into the A-Mix to add noise into the audio path. The A-Mix input will add it to the output VCA section, which is good for making snares, mixing noise and tonal sounds.

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You have eight modulation inputs so explore your favourite modulation sources in the inputs to find new tones and drum sounds. Both smooth and stepped modulation works great. Try unsync’d modulation with an insync beat so your tones morph over the bar lines.

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Entity comes with a 1V/oct input which is the standard scaling for pitch control in the Eurorack format. Try patching in the pitch signal from a bassline sequence to keep your kicks in tune and moving alongside the note changes in your tracks.

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When making more chaotic and heavily modulated sounds, having static non-moving sounds helps to pin down the timing and general groove of a patch. We’re using Gatestorm to send more complex moving patterns to Entity while also triggering a clap and hi-hat to keep time.