Credits: wikipedia
Bonobo talks us through the Ableton session of ‘Expander’
Bonobo unpacked his Ableton Live session for his highly acclaimed track ‘Expander,’ focusing on the beat creation process.
This British musician is well known for his captivating records and live performances. Simon Green, also known as Bonobo, debuted with a trip-hop aesthetic and began redefining his music through jazz and worldly musical influences. His electronic vision combines digital synthesis with organic instrumentation, and it has been widely showcased at events such as Boiler Room, Tiny Desk, the Royal Albert Hall, and DGTL Amsterdam. Simon sat down with the Tape Notes Podcast to walk us through the creation of his track ‘Expander’.
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A specific, swingy idea was the main focus while creating this record. A percussive foundation needed to be the core element driving the track. All the synths, such as basses and stabs, are processed to feel and sound like percussive elements. His archive includes a range of basic sounds, along with foley elements and layered instruments. “I’ll just record coffee cups that sound particularly percussive, or the central console sound of my car, save that, and sample it.” The main percussion part of the track consists of a 4/4 kick pattern stacked with an additional kick groove and multiple accents working against the kick—a proper way to create swing. Modular elements like sequences and acoustic hits function as hi-hats and percussive rhythms.
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Simon also mentioned using the Intellijel Plonk percussion synthesizer for some elements. Beyond his creative use of foley and everyday sounds, he highlights that he likes to add swing to the project manually. “I try not to loop things in 4s. For instance, I’ll have the hi-hats be a sequence of 5 notes or a bar and a half, while the snares repeat in 3s. Every hit is slightly different, so you’ll get a full sequence of 16 bars before anything repeats exactly.”
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The breakdown of this track is a great creative boost for many producers out there. Bonobo, alongside the track “Expander”, also breaks down his track from the album “Black Sands” which you can listen to in detail on the podcast on Spotify.
Have a look at the video down below:
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Tags: Bonobo, Vst Plugins, Podcasts
