Lo fi pads: before and after

The harsh pads you heard in the relaxation style were one example of a fault: a held pad that buzzes when four notes sound together in a quiet style. This is the same mend for Lo fi, after Downtempo and ambient. Each of the twelve pads Lo fi can pick was played alone on the same two held chords and read.

What changed

The buzz band is the sound between 1 and 4 kHz in the held part of the chord. The line is 49 dB under full level, the same line as for Downtempo and ambient. Lower is softer. The soft settings are on only while the chord is held or played in half notes or longer. On a rhythm, as stabs, or as keys, every sound is the one it always was. The keys and the bass of Lo fi are not touched.

Whole tracks

Each is the first minute of a track Auto wrote from the same starting point, on the page as it was and with this change. The drums, bass and lead sit in the same band as the pad, so the whole mix figure moves little; listen to the chords under them.

Track one: Velvet, held

The first minute of a Lo fi track. The chords are Velvet, held, for most of the minute, then the pad drops out. Velvet was the buzziest of the twelve.

Track two: Wool, held, then half notes

The pad is Wool both times: held for the intro, then in half notes. Half notes count as held, so the soft settings stay on.

Track three: Tremolo keys, held, then a rhythm

Held for the intro, then a short rhythm. After, the one knob is on while the chord is held and goes back when the rhythm starts.

Track four: stabs, which should sound the same

Here the chords are short stabs on Wool from the first bar. The soft settings are for held chords only, so this track is the same before and after. Two renders are never the same samples twice, which is why the figures can differ by a tenth.

The four pads

Buzziest first. Each clip is two held chords of four notes at 70 bpm.

Velvet

Soft waves, the filter low and still, a slow start. The same settings it has in Downtempo and ambient since this morning.

Sleepy head

Soft waves, the filter low and still, no drive, a slow start. The same settings it has in Downtempo and ambient.

Tremolo keys

One knob only: its second voice sat two octaves up, right in the band. It now sits one octave up. The strike, the filter, the drive and the level are its own.

Wool

Soft waves, the filter low and still, a slow start. The same settings it has in Downtempo and ambient.

Stabs in Downtempo and ambient go back to how they were

Found while measuring Lo fi: since this morning the soft settings in Downtempo and ambient also landed on a pad when the chords were played as short stabs (about 6 bars in 100). The stab was as loud as before but lost its bite. This change puts that right in both styles: a stab is the sound's own again. Held pads in Downtempo and ambient stay as you were given them.

Velvet as stabs

Wool as stabs

Sleepy head as stabs

The eight left as they are

The struck keys start hard because they are pianos and mallets. That is left alone: a slow swell would make them another sound.