OP-1 Ambient Flute – Patch Notes for Bügelwäsche

I found my daughters flute on the shelf and tried to get one clean sound out of it. After a few minutes of struggling I succeeded and recorded a ten second long C to my Uher 4000 Report-L reel to reel recorder.

How I processed the flute

  • For the recording I used the Uher microphone a friend of mine gave me. I placed it about 20cm away from the flute to give it a little space.
  • I used some old tape I bought with the Report-L. New tape would be too clean 😉
  • After recording I played the flute sound back at half speed. That gave the sound some more depth and some grit.
  • For sampling I held the OP-1 next to the Uher’s speaker. The speaker was wonderful noisy and I think that the microphone in the OP-1 also contributed to the lofi sound.
  • After noodling around with the sample I added some delay and the marvelous CWO filter.
  • I sat up a sequence with the endless sequencer. (I think it is F min pentatonic – but I am not sure anymore).

Here is the sample as recorded with the OP-1: Flute from Reel Tape.aif (Right click to download).

This is what I did in the DAW

  • Added compression.
  • Added Valhalla Shimmer as a send effect (not too much to preserve the character of my flute).
  • Pancake 2 by Cableguys does some nice panning.

Let me know what you think about that track. Thanks for listening 🙂

Why did I call it Bügelwäsche?

  • “Bügelwäsche” means Ironing.
  • I posted a photo of my setup to Linkedin and asked around what other people do in their leisure time. One contact answered that she was currently doing her “Bügelwäsche”.

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