We got this question from Josh via our contact form the other day, regarding our demos:

Some of those are very aggressive, nicely Tron Legacy-like. However, one thing I haven’t found anywhere on the internet is a demo of the MeeBlip’s softer side, if it has one. Is it capable of producing beautiful, calm tones & pads? Something Mikael Fyrek/Planet Boelex-like. Nu-age-y. Not just harsh bitcrushed drones and noise, but more chilled stuff I can use for relaxing grooves. Ideally with a fresh, modern feel so that it doesn’t sound like something my NES would crank out.

I’d been looking for an excuse to spend some time making music with the MeeBlip, so I took this as an opportunity. Josh, I have no idea if this really answers your question, but I enjoyed it.

Doing thick, layered pads on the MeeBlip is going to be a challenge, as it’s a monophonic, one-voice, two-oscillator instrument. But that shouldn’t discourage you, necessarily. In this musical exercise, I simply took the mono output from the MeeBlip and ran it through reverb and compression in my host – the RV7000 reverb in Propellerhead’s Record (also found in Reason, though that has more limited audio input features).

To make the sound less aggressive, I just added a longer attack on the envelope; to add additional layers to the timbre without having more voices or polyphony, I used tuning and distortion to add harmonics.

I like playing live, so I just recorded four takes and mixed them together. The results came out a bit like low-rent Vangelis; let’s call it an homage.

MeeBlip Landscape by peterkirn

Anyway, for your enjoyment, here’s the “patch,” which you could easily use for your own variations:

Here’s the Record signal chain, though the lesson can very easily be summed up with “don’t be afraid to use reverb.” Seriously: very rarely do you hear vintage synths dry, either. (Ignore the Maximizer for the moment.)

Anyway, hope you enjoy. Be sure to check out the reference guide to synthesis with the MeeBlip I wrote over the weekend; it details the process for working with the instrument.

And – this is very important – we certainly welcome you all coming up with synthesis ideas and music and sharing that, too — not just me!

Next question?