Welcome back to SongBuilder! This is the series where we take a selection of amazing Korg gear and build a track episode by episode.
In Season 5, episode 4, we’re beefing up our SongBuilder track with a couple more layers from Wavestate, including a four-to-the-floor drum pattern and a synthy pad to reinforce some of the harmonies.
It’s episode four, and it’s time to bring back the Wavestate for some extra drum parts and synth textures. The Performance we’ve chosen to use is called Morphing Club Scene, which is going to be perfect to take our track up a notch!
This Performance comprises four layers and there is quite a lot going on. In order for it to work within our SongBuilder track, we need to strip it back a little, so we’ve removed Layer A to leave some nice synth pads on Layers B and C, and a four-to-the-floor drum pattern on Layer D.
The first step is to get the drum part down, with a few tweaks to the wave sequenced samples using the free editor software. We’re now ready to record the drum parts into Logic for the final section of our song, to give it a lift from bar 25 to the end.
Now that we’ve bounced the drums down as audio, it’s time to add some synth lines using Layers B and C of the same Performance. One of these synth sounds is a warm, smooth pad, with the other being a brighter pad with bell-like elements to it. As a blend they work very well together.
This sound is not only perfect for embellishing the Opsix patch’s synth track from episode one, but also for adding extra voicings to the harmony at strategic points in the song, in order to emphasize particular chords and phrases.
Once the part has been recorded in between bars 9 and 25 via USB-MIDI, the MIDI region is quantized to correct any timing issues and there are a couple of tweaks to the notes themselves, using the Piano Roll Editor in Logic.
The track is then bounced as an audio track, which we chopped at bar 13, and then copied and pasted that section into bar 25 to create some extra synth layers throughout the song.
You can find out more about Wavestate here. See you next time for episode five, for the return of the Modwave.
