AbsoluteEnter
the Wonderland
The electrifying, uplifting beats of ABSOLUTE’s music serve as epic reminders of our need to gather, be free, and feel a daring sense of joy. His latest single ‘Fauna’ heavily featuring Pigments 3 is a true homage to rave culture, looking towards a future of remembering and creating freedom.
_ABSOLUTE magic
When the stars align, inspiration is part of the flow. For ABSOLUTE, serendipity came into place quite literally when he realized that historic rave landmarks were closer than he’d thought:
30 years ago, there was a club called Wonderland Arena, where Carl Cox, Frankie Knuckles, The Prodigy, and Louie Vega would all come and play. It was kind of at the heyday of hardcore and rave. This was all happening in the exact location where I actually now live and work.
With his forthcoming album Wonderland around the corner, he talks about the way he embodied this legacy:
I was writing an album heavily influenced by the rave scene - it was almost like the energy from the place creeped through the walls. It was something that I was absorbing and reinterpreting for a new generation of people that didn’t get to experience it back then.
_Every shade of synthesis, every color of the rainbow
Following an artistic urge and entering the creative flow smoothly is the gateway to creating great music. With Pigments 3, this becomes easy:
I love a synth that I can go into with an array of sounds I can just dive straight into. That’s one of the things that I really liked about Pigments, that I can just go in and get a starting point if I’ve got a certain idea, or if I want to go in with a certain vibe or sound.
Playing around with presets in the studio with ABSOLUTE, we transcended from a ‘nice ravey sound’ of The Forgotten Valley to Mentole that’s ‘not messing around’, with each sound feeling like a potent beginning for a new track. Pigmandibule especially resonated with the artist: ‘As soon as I played it, I thought - I want to manipulate this, I want to take it somewhere, I want to make it move. It would be nice to take the attack of it and let it creep in.’ That’s where the harmonic oscillator can show its power. The expressive movement and stunning synthesis guarantees everyone finding their sweet spot.
Some presets lay out the initial sequence so you can start weaving your magic and even create a ‘symphony with one note’, as ABSOLUTE laughs. With the advanced sequencing layout-section, dive into powerful arpeggiation, scale quantization, and smart randomization. Watch the sequence being played in front of your eyes on the Seq page, and edit notes, octaves, velocity, and more. See the magic, edit the magic, feel the magic. It’s up to you to dive in:
There are so many of these layout-sections that you can dig in to develop these sounds. But initially, just having so much choice from all of these categories, from strings to sequences, keys, pianos, even drums and bass, it’s amazing just to have so much there.
_An inviting tool is a blessing for any creative.
Everything is so visual. When you open it up, that you’re drawn to these LFOs, there’s things moving that kind of draw your eyes in. You instinctively want to click on it and start exploring those.
Intuition is another key component to build something new and beautiful. Here’s how ABSOLUTE gets his energy flash:
I feel like I’m writing so much music that sometimes, I’m simply inspired by a chord progression, and then I’ll just feel my way around each chord until it fits the mood that I want to create, or until it makes me feel something.
Taking that feeling further to craft unique soundscapes is where Pigments 3 shines. With instant patch modulation, studio-grade FX, and the best classic and modern filters, your sounds will go feral. To keep your composition fired up all the way, you can rely on the Harmonic, Wavetable, Virtual Analog, and Sample and Granular engines. Combine any two engines to mix an endless palette of texture, timbre, and color.
Roaming free in the sonic playground
A well-rounded setup is what gets the musical talent rollin’ and scratchin’.
The KeyLab Essential 61 was linked in straight away, so I could just start manipulating and modulating the Mod Wheel. That makes it really useful because I like being hands-on with stuff, especially when it’s a sound that I like, I want to be able to manipulate it.
I can’t wait to keep experimenting. I know there’s going to be so many sounds or little sparks of ideas that will generate from it, which is the main thing really.