Starting Effects | Random Music Production Table No. 6
Roll a d6 and put fate in charge of choosing the starting effect for your instrument.
Don’t just sit there wishing your song was done and you were listening to it alone in a moonlit forest for one last time before it releases. Let’s get it started, and get it done.
What’s your favorite instrument? Your favorite synth preset, or patch? It’s likely something that resonates with you deeply and it’s possibly become something of your own voice, or a comfort zone you feel creative in.
I have them too, and sometimes I feel like I should create 50 more presets, or sample a new instrument in order to sound fresh, all to keep from going stale. Oof, my writing style almost sounded like it was heading into AI territory, please excuse me, I must be reading too many slop posts deep in Reddit’s dungeons… ewww.
Ahem. Okay. Let’s get your favorite instrument or sound ready in your DAW. Get a really good d6 that treats you well out too. We’re going to roll on an audio effect to add to your favorite sound so it sounds fresh, and you don’t have to shoot for the moon or scroll for an hour through presets you’ll never use.
Distortion - Use any type you want. It could be a nice and tame overdrive, a phase distortion, or squelching ray of disintegration. Your call, just mind your eardrums with this newfound power.
Chorus - How deep does your modulation go? Chart a course through the stargates that dreams are made of or venture down into the cold depths of a dreary abyss.
Delay - You harness Time Magic. Do you want it in sync with your song’s tempo? Maybe you cast something of a 1/8 Dotted Pan on your instrument. Or something that moves ahead or behind the beat, out of time? How about a delay that creates a dripping effect and pitch shifts your beloved instrument into new dimensions?
Flanger - You’ve duplicated your instrument and sent it to a slightly different point in time from where it is now. You’ve also learned how to manipulate low frequency oscillations, and have other scrolls of time manipulation in your inventory. Create the whoosing sound of an airship flying by, or subtly shift the sound to give it an ever-changing motion that will keep the attention of your listeners a while longer. You do you.
Tremelo - Your sound might slightly wobble out of the tavern. It could also come fleeing out of a dungeon shuddering in waves of incomprehensible strengths. Do try to keep from getting sick when using this effect.
Reverb - The shape of spaces, reverb puts you inside of a place at a point in time. One of my favorite effects, and the one that I (over)use the most. You could reach for the sound of a hall of kings, the dripping convolution reverb of a wet cave, capture the freezing cold of a forgotten cathedral, or head to the stars and pull down the reverbrations of a quasar. Be careful not to muddy up your frequencies when casting this powerful spell.
Remember you don’t have to stick to the sound you roll, because let’s face it, effects aren’t a cure all. They don’t work everywhere for everything. They can definitely make things more interesting though, like an environmental change in a dungeon that your party wasn’t dressed for. Or something like that.
There are six choices for you on this table to start a new song with. There are more options crawling around the dungeon, but use those some on another song. For now, you should roll that d6 we talked about earlier and let fate take the wheel. (You can also use the d6 roller below.)
Random Music Production Table No. 6 | Starting Settings:
| Dice Roll | Starting Effect |
|---|---|
| 1 | Distortion |
| 2 | Chorus |
| 3 | Delay |
| 4 | Flanger |
| 5 | Tremelo |
| 6 | Reverb |
Result: -
My Roll On The Random Table Of Effects
I rolled a five, and tremelo was my result. I thought I might start with a long, ethereal pad and put the tremelo on there to begin with. It’s not the way I’d normally start a new song, so the table has worked as intended in this case.
I utilized the Logic Pro’s stock tremelo during bars 9 through 17, starting roughly the 22 second mark and automating more of it into the mix until I drop it out at around the 45 second mark. The automation is shown in the photo below.
The tremelo effect gets stronger in the mix of this song via automation, helping to provide additional movement and texture to the pad.
The demo for this song is called “Viewing A Dying Star From The Subterranean Scrying Pool“. It’s a demo, done quickly for this post, so please don’t complain about it unless you’re on floor 12 and the ghosts of the Departed Complainers Society are active and willing to listen in between their moaning and groaning.
As always, thank you for reading, and thanks for listening to the song.
I hope you roll something on this table that pulls a song out of you that makes you incredible proud and stoked to make music. It’s all about the journey you embark on.
If you roll on this or another one of the random music production tables please send a link, Instagram is the easiest for me but you can also use the contact form on this site to send a link. I may not respond but I’ll get around to listening to them all.
If you enjoyed that post please check out some of the other blog posts. You know, stay a while, and listen. Or something like that.