Happy Accidents & Feedback

Since we just launched our second library Feedback Drones I thought I would talk a bit about my process and how Feedback Drones became a reality.

I am a firm believer in happy accidents and using chance in music.  If you think about it, composers, producers and musicians make thousands of tiny decisions every day as they create, produce and play.  These tiny decisions become a whole product and this whole product is what we are judged on.  The whole product doesn’t just appear with a click of a button. No, it’s created one step at a time.  Those steps are crucial and can be paralyzing to the creator to make.  Writers block comes to mind.  One of the big questions I am asked in interviews is how do you deal with writers block.  One way is to not expect every idea to be your best and to plow through and make those tiny decisions.  Keep taking steps forward.

Another way to deal with writers block leads me back to my thoughts on happy accidents.  One reason I embrace happy accidents and chance is that we as artists are making so many other decisions that aren’t accidental or chance based so when some of those come along I think it just makes life a little bit more fun.  Ever load the wrong patch?  Play the wrong keys on the piano?  Render something wrong and it turns out weird but cool?  Ever leave the studio monitors on as you're preparing to record a live musician?  Exactly.  If we can live in those moments and embrace the mistakes we can find little nuggets of art and chance that can be incorporated into our music.  That’s exactly what happened with feedback drones and how the entire library came into existence.

As I was recording one day I did leave the studio monitors on and as I was listening to that feedback I decided to turn up and down my control room volume and see if I could control the sound.  I was able to get it to ebb and flow a bit and it was amazing how the feedback truly sounded like a little musical being.  A little beast that needed to be tamed and reined in a bit.  This feedback was pure and raw but also had some gritty vibes.  Because it wasn’t coming from guitar amps or a noisy room I was able to capture it purely.

I then decided to try capturing this feedback while actually playing various instruments.  I go into detail about this in our product description on our Feedback Drones page so check that out.  The feedback ebbed and flowed and altered slightly as I played various instruments - so it was like a dance with the feedback.  One of the more fun instruments was playing my 60’s Baldwin organ along with the feedback.  Again, embracing the mistakes, the chance and the unexpected.

Once the feedback was captured I then got busy with more elements of chance and happy accidents which is the art of processing and manipulating the raw tones.  Some of the coolest vibes I got was pitching down some of the trumpet and trombone captures to create otherworldly low menacing drones.  You have to embrace the unknown and be open to what could become when doing this kind of work.  When you are going into areas you haven’t gone before being open to the results is so important.  One person’s mistake may be another’s breakthrough or genius.

The biggest happy accidents on Feedback Drones came just a few short weeks ago when the team and I were programming and finishing up the library.  We truly thought Feedback Drones was gonna be that - just some really cool long drones programmed for Kontakt and a Wav Pack.  But as I was programming I discovered via some really fortuitous happy accidents that as I moved starting points of the wav files to different sections of the file that I was coming up with really cool sounding pads.  These pads then got me to discover leads and basses.  Once those were all set we starting creating some amazing rhythmic textures and boom there was the library. 
Feedback Drones is truly a sample library brought about from happy accidents.  But more than that, it came about from being intentional ABOUT the happy accidents.  Being open to the paths in front of you and embracing the unknown and unexpected.

Thanks for reading and go check out our happy accident: FEEDBACK DRONES!

Kevin Manthei
Founder Triumph Audio