Com Truise: The Crumar Bit One in “Ultrafiche of You” (Video)

+ This video lesson is presented courtesy of Com Truise’s Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk course. To access this and hundreds more in-depth videos and tutorials, subscribe to Soundfly.

Seth Haley tends to love specific sounds and equipment.

The Crumar Bit One is a perfect example. It’s a polyphonic analog synth with digital control oscillators, with the most recent version released in 1984. Seth refers to it as the “Italian Juno 106” because it’s got some similarities to that synthesis mainstay.

The Com Truise track “Ultrafiche of You” was inspired by this sound. Listen to the main synth chords and bass:

There are also some counter-melodies made with this synth.

And there are some chopped up and reversed samples made with the synth as well that Seth used to add extra interest to the track. We’ll take a closer look at how to do this on the next lesson.

One Sound to Rule Them All

Coming from a design agency background, one of the things Seth loves to do to facilitate his creativity is make himself “design briefs” — or a set of constraints to help guide his work. “Ultrafiche of You” is a great example.

Although he didn’t actually write it down, in essence Com Truise made this song as a response to an imagined design brief: How can you compose a song built on the creative possibilities within one specific sound source you love?

Seth responded by using the Crumar for almost every part of this song, adding effects, tweaking the patch, and even chopping and reversing the sounds to get as much variation as he could from it. It’s a deep exploration and meditation on a single instrument and sound source.

Get the most out of a single sound source.

Find a single sound source that inspires you and make as many different sounds as possible from it. Don’t worry about composing just yet — just see what sort of creative possibilities you can generate from the sound source. Can you make a percussive sound? What happens if you add tons of effects? What about detuning it? Have fun with it!

If you find some sounds that inspire you, feel free to start composing something, but don’t let the writing part get in the way of the exploratory play!

Don’t stop here!

Continue learning with hundreds of lessons on songwriting, mixing, recording and production, composing, beat making, and more on Soundfly, with artist-led courses by Kimbra, JlinKiefer, RJD2, Ryan Lott, and of course, Com Truise: Mid-Fi Synthwave Slow-Motion Funk

Join our Mailing List

We offer creative courses, articles, podcast episodes, and one-on-one mentorship for curious musicians. Stay up to date!

Discover

An Introduction to Sam Amidon — Experimental Folk “Crate Digger”

Some personal notes on the first time I listened to the highly personal, lyrical music of avant-garde folk balladier Sam Amidon.

Discover

Themes and Variation S2E05: “Songs About Science”

In the latest episode of Soundfly’s podcast, Themes and Variation, Jeremy, Martin, and Mahea discuss “Songs About Science.”

Discover

Themes and Variation S2E04: “Cathartic Songs” (with Lana Cenčić)

In the “Cathartic Songs” podcast episode, Mahea, Jeremy, and guest Lana Cenčić discuss tracks by Baby Huey, Michael Jackson, and Simon Dawes.