Making The Relic’s Reeses using Ableton Live

Travis makes a resampled Reese in its own dedicated project, before importing it into the track proper

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The sound starts with an Operator patch featuring a modulating oscillator with a Coarse setting of 4. The Level of the modulating oscillator is modulated by a Max for Live LFO set to a sine shape. This is run through Live’s Saturator in Waveshaper mode and an Amp effect set to Bass mode to add further harmonic interest.

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The signal is then filtered with an Auto Filter set to bandpass mode with an automated filter cutoff frequency. This is then filtered again with another Auto Filter this time set to notch mode, and this time both the Frequency and Resonance are automated.

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This is followed with Live’s Overdrive to add yet more harmonic richness, a Reverb, a Chorus, and another Saturator set to Sinoid Fold. This is followed by a Limiter to control the signal’s amplitude level. “It’s really up to you how you want to do this, the goal is to make a chain that’s constantly warping the sound,” reveals Travis.

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Travis bounces a long note with plenty of filter modulation to a sample, which is loaded into an instance of Simpler in the main project. Max for Live’s Envelope Follower is set to control the frequency cutoff of Simpler’s filter, and the LFO modulates the start point of the sample.

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The LFO’s offset is automated to change the character of the Reese, and the audio is run through Multiband Dynamics’ OTT preset, two Max for Live Convolution Reverb Pros. This signal is then limited with Limiter, its stereo width is reduced by Utility, and EQ Eight rolls off the bass frequencies.

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The filtered bass frequencies are replaced with two instances of Operator playing sub-style patches. “Unnecessary, but this kind of thing happens in creative mode!” Travis notes. There’s an additional top layer with another instance of Operator playing a ‘donk’ patch, and all four bass tracks are processed further together on their group.