This month, Roger James Brown, takes his sequencer up the Alps, for a lesson in advanced echo techniques...

MIDI Processing is the major tool in the sequencist's armoury, and most good sequencers contain tools to manipulate MIDI data in a variety of ways, for any number of musical effects. We have already looked at some of the most complicated of these in Cubase, the Independent Phrase Synthesizer and the Logical Editor, but perhaps the most overlooked is the most straightforward of them all, the MIDI Processor.

Basically, the MIDI Processor is used to generate MIDI echoes. Unlike real echoes, or delays produced by signal processors, MIDI echoes are a fake. Repeat notes are generated, which are a copy of the original note, but their velocity values are increasingly lowered, to simulate the fading effect of the real thing. Kraftwerk were very fond of MIDI echoes, using them to great effect on such seminal works as 'Autobahn', while modern techno and ambient artists have big fun playing with echoes, and all other manner of delays.

Cubase's MIDI processor has some interesting settings, which allow a vast array of interesting echoes to be generated. The great thing about the Processor, is that you can play it in real time, building up layers of sound, using your own natural sense of rhythm to play the echoes. If it is not already active, load the MIDI Processor from the Modules Menu (Figure 1), then start setting up your delays.

Reading from left to right, we first set the number of repeats. It's worth noting here that our original note is counted by Cubase, so in the example here (Figure 2), a setting of eight repeats will generate seven echoes, as well as the original input note. This does lead to a problem with doubled notes, as your original note, or notes played in from the keyboard, are repeated by Cubase. There are two ways you can deal with this. The easiest is to choose 'delete Doubles' from the Functions menu, but by far the smartest is to go to the MIDI Set-up, and turn 'Atari' off, in the inputs section. This means Cubase will only record notes from MROS, and not front your keyboard. Just don't forget to turn the Atari input back on afterwards, or you won't be able to hear yourself play!

Setting the Output to MROS from within the processor, means we are ready to record. There is also a switch for input, and setting this to MROS (and setting the output of a track to MROS), means you can use the processor to do its stuff to tracks already recorded, for further sonic exploration of your riffs. The second parameter to set before we start recording, is the next one from left to right Echo: This is the most confusing part of the processor, mainly because Steinberg have opted to present the values in a system of an eighth of the value, in ticks, of a note. Thus, an eighth note equals 192 ticks, or 24 in the processor's Echo field. What this setting determines is the rhythmic quantisation of our echoes. So the setting outlined above will produce echoes at eighth note intervals. Similarly, a setting of 16 repeats, with an echo value of 12, will produce echoes at sixteenth note intervals.

The next setting is quantisation. This is not very accurate, and I usually leave it set to a whole note or 1, which is effectively off, quantising anything I have recorded in the edit pages later. Velocity Decay is next up, and this setting adds or subtracts each successive echo from the value set. This produces that rising up or fading down effect. Echo Decay is next, and this one lengthens or shortens the quantisation of the notes over time, making your echoes sound more or less often, to produce a speeding up or slowing down effect.

Finally we have Note Decay. This last setting will increase or decrease the pitch of the input notes by the set values, which are in semitones, to produce ascending or descending musical phrases. A setting as in Figure 3, of 'minus 5', produces a series of descending fifths. For this little example, I ignored my own advice, and let Cubase record my input notes. However, I set my master keyboard to transmit on MIDI channel five, going out to a piano patch on the EIV, but to receive on MIDI channel 11, an electric piano patch on the master keyboard, a DX11. This provides echoes of the original note on a different sound source, whilst preserving the original notes. Then, using a track set to 'MIDI channel Any', as shown in Figure 7, on Cubase you can record the two sounds. A little judicious editing to quantise the notes as demonstrated in figures 4, 5 and 6, and using the Remix function (figures 7, 8 and 9), and we can sift them out into separate tracks for further editing.

The example file this month was recorded live, using a combination of all the different methods outlined in this month's article. Then, subjected to some further edit manipulation, before the final arrangement was decided upon. I hope you enjoy it, and that it provides inspiration for you to start making your own echoes without delay!

Listen as you learn, with Roger's demos and tutorial to accompany this month's Dream Sequences

Track 1 Look for the MIDI files and Cubase ARR files of ORBITEKO, Rogers example file this month, in the Mac, Atari and PC sections of Re:Mix.

Track 12 More warblings from Roger as he rabbits his way through this month's tutorial and signs off with a load of delays called ORBITEKO, for some obscure reason.