Using The Ring Modulator to change key

606man · Post by **606man** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:57 am

This is great.

I was messing around with a bassline sequence I made and decided to have a play around with some of the effects I don't usually bother with. I must admit that I've never had much use for Ring Modulation, except for making squealy acid noises :lol:

I stumbled upon something rather nice though. With the Ring Mod set at fairly low settings (about 9 o'clock), you can get some really wierd frequency shifting going on. I even managed to use the effect to change the 'key' of the bassline, from C to B and even right down to A. The bassline was dirty as hell (running through the amp sim) anyway so the really weird way that the Ring Mod shifted it was cool as. Great for house/ electro styles.

Euclid Ov Oåklånd · Post by **Euclid Ov Oåklånd** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:04 am

I was equally impressed when I discovered the same effect with the ring mod, which usually has a terrible sound on effects for my purposes which is to make hip hop but I thought it might have been the particular sample I was using at the time and haven't tried it since. Good lookin' out

Dr. Tad Winslow · Post by **Dr. Tad Winslow** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:49 pm

I have a 202, and I'm not sure if the ring mod is any different on this than the 303 or 606 (I've never used it outside of the 202) but here is what I have used it for (I make hip-hop as well)... It generates that metallic type sound, which changes pitch as you turn the knob, so I recorded about 2 seconds of silence on my internal mic, then put the ring mod on that pad, and played it like a lead "synth" part over a loop. That way it wasn't messing up my samples, but I still had the effect. It ended up sound pretty good after I recorded it then tweaked it a bit.

Also, one time on a beat I looped up some drums from my MPC1000, sampled them into the 202, then played the loop and turned the knob slowly back and forth, and then sampled it back into the MPC as I was tweaking it live and it ended up working as a really dope intro for the beat.

I'm going to try what you guys suggested when I get home tonight. Good looking out.

Euclid Ov Oåklånd · Post by **Euclid Ov Oåklånd** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 9:56 pm

Thanks for the tips, how you liking that 202?

Dr. Tad Winslow · Post by **Dr. Tad Winslow** » Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:03 pm

Oh man, I love it. As I was saying I have an MPC as well, but I really love being able to turn on my 202 and press a pad right away and hear a sound. I turn that thing on if I have a couple minutes to kill before I go to work and what not. I also fire it up with batteries and bring it to that laundromat to bang out on.

It really sucks that it doesn't have a chop feature, or a resample feature, or any type of sequencer, plus only 4 note polyphony, but I'm mainly using it to run sounds through, and just mess around with, so it's all good. I run a lot of my drums through it. I'm planning on upgrading to a 303 or 404 at some point. Probably once that 555 comes out and everyone is trying to sell their 404s...

Oh, and sorry for becoming the second "Dr." of the board, I realized once I posted that it could possibly be slighly confusing.

Euclid Ov Oåklånd · Thu Aug 16, 2007 10:54 pm

Man I would love to use a 202, but my next purchase will be a 404 or a 555, don't even worry about the name thing.