With the wider world on lockdown, we here at Reverb have been putting together as many resources as we can for folks stuck at home trying to make music. From a digest of tools for online music collaboration to our robust series on home recording and even tips for how to improve the sound of your livestreams, we've tried to hit it all. But what we hadn't yet done was add puppets.
In the video above, Reverb synth host Tone teams up with his quarantine pal Patches to make some "house" music—that is to say, music made from samples of a house's various noises. With today's desktop drum machines, Eurorack samplers, and other electronic music gear, it's easier than ever to create your own sounds, from book-drop kick drums to spray bottle accents to Patches' favorite sample source: sauces.
Patches and Tone start by using a Zoom H6 Handy Recorder and a trusty Shure SM57 to capture the noises of everyday objects. From there, they edit their house sounds into one-shot samples and load them onto various machines, like Tone's Elektron Digitakt and Patches' Instruo Lúbadh and other assorted Eurorack modules.
Despite Patches' impressive array, there are endless ways to use self-recorded samples: via hardware equipment you already have or inside your favorite DAW. What sounds can your house make?
Interested in learning more about sampling, drum machines, Eurorack, or home recording? Check out our related articles below.
- Recording: Zoom H6 Handy Recorder, Shure SM57
- Tone's Rig: Elektron Digitakt, Arturia Keystep Black Edition
- Patches' Rig: Instruo Lúbadh, Make Noise QPAS, Make Noise Morphagene, Mutable Instruments Stages, Make Noise Mimeophon, Make Noise Tempi