RAW: roboctopus, "LSDJ & You" (tumblr mirror of the noisechannel.org series) | https://roboctopus-8bit.tumblr.com/post/85728173853 | fetched 2026-08-31 via the tumblr API (/api/read), body converted to text | inline images kept as [image: url] markers; the SoundCloud examples are links only

TITLE: LSDJ & You - Echo Chamber
URL: https://roboctopus-8bit.tumblr.com/post/85728173853
DATE: Wed, 14 May 2014 11:52:43

These columns are not necessarily for beginners; I’m going to assume you know how to compose a song in LSDJ.  My goal is to help intermediate users learn techniques to really fill out their songs and take their sound design to a higher level.  (Er, hopefully, anyway.)

So, to begin with, I’m going to talk about echoes.  Echoes can help fill an arrangement out and give it a greater sense of depth and, if you want, space.  In the final stages of working on a track, I often look for every bit of free space in the patterns and see if I can add an echo here and there.  Echoes don’t have to be constant, and even intermittent echoes can add interest and complexity to that banging tune you’re writing.

I’m going to start with the ever-nifty Single Channel Echo.  The idea is to add echoes in the middle of a run of notes using an instrument with a short envelope all on one channel, giving you an echo effect without having to use two channels to do it.

In the image below you’ll see two patterns and the corresponding instrument screen.  Just simple arpeggiated Cmaj7 and Amin7 chords.  Nice, but it could certainly be more interesting.

[image: https://64.media.tumblr.com/ab34a8c190f0bd4bb3b0bf85b8460e20/tumblr_inline_n5km1reFA01sn56w5.jpg]

In the next image you’ll see I have added a second instrument, which is at a lower volume than the first. I have also added  echo notes.  Notice that the echoed note corresponds to not the note it immediately follows but the one before that.  That is, in the C – B – G – E progression, the echo for the C really follow the B, the echo for the B follows the G, etc.  (There is a C echo after the first C, but that’s because it is an echo of the last C in Phrase 4, so there will be continuity when the two phrases loop, natch.)  (Note: while I’m using a simple arpeggiated pattern, this method works great for melody lines as well.)

[image: https://64.media.tumblr.com/8dc9cc22358306542750509c2fb0857e/tumblr_inline_n5km2opk0j1sn56w5.jpg]

Now that we’ve established the basic technique, we can dig a little futher.  If you want to create stereo space with your echoes (and stereo space is often an area LSDJ composers neglect…) you can set your echo instrument to pan to one side.  Panned echoes are often used in professionally produced tracks, and the trick works well in LSDJ.

You can also set up an automated table to pan your echoes from left to right every other note to create a spacier feel.

The last echo I’ll mention today requires a second channel.  In the image below you’ll see two more phrases.  These new phrases are in Pulse channel two, and are copy/pastes of the first two phrases, except shifted down one tick.  Notice the instrument is again a lower volume.  The PU Fine tuning value is set at 2, which will create a sort of Chorus effect when the notes play in unison with Pulse channel one.  While it’s not always ideal to take up both channels for echoes, this is great for creating spacey interludes or for really rich-sounding lead instruments.  You can sometimes squeeze in quick chorus-y echoes to beef up your lead.

[image: https://64.media.tumblr.com/20abfdc9dcbae2695950c4dd2a20b353/tumblr_inline_n5km3g2UWT1sn56w5.jpg]

Below is a link to a recording of each pattern and echo, in the order they were mentioned.  The PU2 channel chorus-y echoes are repeated with each single channel pattern at the end.

https://soundcloud.com/lsdjandyou/echo-chamber