Tutorial · Intermediate · 12 min
Spacey arpeggios and echoes
The sound of science-fiction scores and 1970s space rock: arpeggiated chords bouncing through tempo-synced delays, huge detuned pads, gliding leads and sequencer runs through a sweeping filter.
An arpeggiator
In Modular mode, patch Keyboard → Arpeggiator → Oscillator (Note) and Envelope (Gate). Hold a chord: the arpeggiator plays its notes one by one at Rate. Try up-down over 2 octaves at 1/16, and switch on Latch so it keeps going after you let go.
Open the "Space arpeggio" instrument ↗Echoes in time
Add a Ping-pong delay after the amplifier with Sync at 1/8d (a dotted eighth). Each echo lands between the arpeggio's notes, so the pattern seems to multiply into a cascade. Feedback around 0.5 keeps it going without running away.
A huge pad
Set an oscillator's Unison to 7 and Spread to 25 cents: seven slightly detuned saws spread across the stereo field. Give the envelope a slow attack and a long release, let an LFO at 0.07 Hz move the filter, and end with a Shimmer.
Open the "Galaxy pad" instrument ↗A gliding lead
For a singing lead, use Voices 1 and turn up the oscillator's Glide to about 0.1 s: overlapping notes slide into each other. An LFO at 5.5 Hz into Pitch (Pitch amt 30–50 cents) adds vibrato; a Tape delay with some Wow makes it drift.
Open the "Cosmic lead" instrument ↗The running sequence
A Step sequencer into a saw with a resonant filter, whose cutoff a slow LFO (or an automation lane) sweeps up and down. Add a Flanger and an Auto-pan for the swirling, rushing quality.
Open the "Running sequence" instrument ↗Put it together
The demo "Starship bridge" layers all of this: pad, arpeggios, a sub drone, timpani-like toms and a slow melody, with a shimmer and an echo bus. "Running sequence" and "Kosmische" show the sequencer side.
Open "Starship bridge" ↗