> Sometimes it isn’t all about individual note choice, or plotting things out step by step. It can often be inspiring to give your gear the opportunity to shine and possibly spark some unplanned magic. While sequencing step by step can be a very fulfilling passtime, why not let go of the reins a little now and then and see what your hardware spits out. Many synths have a sample-and-hold function that can be used for various things but here we suggest it as a pitch modulation. You can still sync it to the clock, so you remain rhythmic; just relinquish note-choice control and see what happens. Often you’ll get something retrosounding in a good way, that may spark an idea. There are as many methods for doing this as there are synths that support it, so we won’t spend too much time going over it. You could start simply, by making an LFO modulate the pitch of an oscillator, then set that LFO’s waveshape to sample and hold. In some cases that might be done with noise, or a separate sample-and-hold function but the premise is the same and the results will be very similar. If you have a quantiser you can gain a further level of control and make it stay within musical scales.
“LET GO A LITTLE AND SEE WHAT YOUR HARDWARE SPITS OUT”