OPx-4 Generative Patching!

In this video I demonstrate creating a generative, or self-playing patch on the OPx-4 synth. OPx-4 an FM matrix synthesizer that runs on the Akai Force and MPC standalone standalone music production systems. While generative patches are more typically associated with modular synths, OPx-4's modulation matrix and looping envelopes provide the tools to make a patch like this on the Force and MPC.
We begin with a fully initialized patch and build it into a patch that generates interesting sounds without anyone playing the synth.
This video is part of a playlist about OPx-4 Sound Design.
• OPx-4 Sound Design
If you're interested in supporting my channel, please consider joining my Patreon account:
/ joefilbrun
My Patrons get access to my asset library, which contains bonus materials. For this video, I've included this patch and project file, plus another generative patch for OPx-4. There's also a high quality sound sample from this patch.
Thanks as always for watching!

[@carvingCode]

We need more Force videos like this. Thanks, Joe.

[@joefilbrun]

Glad you got something from it! More to come.

[@tomassimko7910]

This was very educational for me, hope you will continue to post content with MPC plugins programming. As a beginner sound designer I cant be more happy. Thank you

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks for watching, Tomas, and I’m glad you’re getting something from it!

[@philippebackprotips]

Had no idea we could modulate the fx on those ringed parameters. Opens a lot of options!

[@th-wf3sz]

Man! More on this! Awesome work sir! Fellow FORCE owner here...

[@joefilbrun]

Hey fellow FORCE owner! Thanks! I definitely have more to say about OPx-4 - stay tuned.

[@Noise-Conductor]

Thanks for the advance class lesson🤓 I'll spread these demo's on the forums which is most likely filled with people that coped the OP-4 for Black Friday & don't know what they got themself into.😥

[@ikarugamoo]

Hope you're well Joe, as it's been a while and was hoping to see more like this! If you are reading this, would love to see more along these lines. Your work is massively appreciated.

[@joefilbrun]

It has definitely been a while. I've had a lot of other things taking my time, but have been thinking about getting this channel going again. Thanks for the encouragement!

[@ikarugamoo]

@@joefilbrungreat stuff. I’m sure there’s a lot of us who would love to see you back. Force is under loved in KZbin in terms of content, so would always welcome more.

[@spindlenine]

Nice. Very smart use of the sample pitch transpose since that randomizes both the length of the sample’s repeat cycle as well as its pitch.

[@joefilbrun]

I just wish there was some kind of scale quantizer in this thing. A guy can dream.

[@spindlenine]

@@joefilbrun it’s funny, I was thinking that as I was watching the video. Would be great to turn some of that randomization into scaled pitch, for sure.

[@StereographicTV]

Brilliant tutorial. I think you style and clarity of presentation is really good for teaching so I hope you continue to do more like this. Great work.

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks George! I have been making a focused effort to make my videos more clear and easy to follow, so I appreciate you noticing, and the feedback.

[@carlcook9094]

The video is very helpful. I absolutely love watching a well organized educational brain in action.

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Carl - many thanks for the compliment! :). Glad it was helpful!

[@RobbieHogg1]

This is brilliant. 👍👍👍 Psychill and Psybient/Ambient are the geners I work with most. Am going to have to use this technique. Thank you! Subbed. 👍

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks for the sub, and the compliment! I love using synths this way. You can end up with something totally inspiring, fresh, and original.

[@falazarte]

Omg, this is so amazing!! I am falling in love with my Force

[@joefilbrun]

Force is really becoming a creative playground, isn’t it?

[@mr.DorianJames]

Thanks for the great ideas

[@suitandtieguy]

This is great patching. I'm looking forward to you discovering the envelope followers. Using envelope followers with different pattern lengths and probability on the control tracks, you can probably do even more complicated stuff than this. I'm currently using 2 envelope followers in a cover of E2-E4 to modulate the pad sound in the same way Göttsching used the ARP Sequencer to modulate his Prophet-10 on the original.

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks. That sounds like a really interesting patch you’ve got going there! I’m planning a video about the envelope followers soon. It’s a really powerful feature.

[@garaughty]

A seriously awesome tutorial Joe !

[@edgarcortes]

What a great tutorial! Carefully presented, concisely explained and at a perfect moment for a project I have going Joe thank you! Right now MPC One is my main inspiration machine and I live by this kind of experimentation and sound. Much of KZbin content on MPC platform is focused on beatmaking or basic use cases, which are helpful at times but this tutorial is tailor made for me. OPx4 is very original in its simplicity and depth of modulation I can’t stop using it on everything, however one thing that has got me a bit stumped is using modulation of destinations with envelopes. I would like to create more softly evolving pads with the use of envelopes to modulate LFO speed for example, however I’m not really achieving that result as I want. I’ve yet to master the modes (Loop, DADSR, One Shot) the time scale etc. Hopefully you can make more content like this you’ve got a sub for sure✌️

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks for the sub! I’m glad this hit the spot for you. I do have some more OPx-4 videos planned. Coming soon!

[@mikg2618]

Almost near the Richard Bandler pronunciation, nice to listen to a hypnotic accent here.

[@joefilbrun]

I had to google that name, and then I remembered why I know it...

[@UndauntedDeath]

Great Vid!

[@maschinelab8598]

This is fudging awsome!!! Thanx you are a very good communicator!

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks for that! I really enjoy doing this kind of thing on a modular synth. Never really dreamed I’d be able to do it on an Akai standalone device!

[@mopoco9666]

this is a very informative idea. thank you!

[@aikighost]

Thanks for this series, all very interesting stuff.

[@joefilbrun]

Hey aikighost - you’re welcome! Glad you like them.

[@G8tr1522]

been playing with matrix FM a lot lately. mostly on the Korg Opsix plugin, but also 'emulated' in VCV rack. I had no idea the akai force had this on there. Crazy.

[@joefilbrun]

It is fairly new. Akai released a handful of new plugins for Force a week or so ago.

[@pedrobento2429]

Great tutorial Joe. Thanks!😀

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Pedro - thanks, and thanks for watching!

[@davidcarroll1031]

What a great tutorial! Thank you!

[@joefilbrun]

Hi @davidcarroll1031, thanks for watching. You're welcome - glad you enjoyed!

[@johnnylucid]

Great content. Thanks for the effort and hard work. It's very appreciated.

[@zoolhert3535]

Subbed & getting opx4

[@mortgagejunglist]

this is great

[@joefilbrun]

Thanks!

[@channelz3363]

Thanks for the informative vid - revealing more Akai Force capabilities. I was looking at buying a generative synth for this sort of thing so this is great that the Force can do this itself. Will explore further. Guessing the midi generated could be used to trigger other synths for further layering?

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Channel Z! thanks for watching and glad you got something from it. Actually this patch is not generating any midi at all. On the Force you could use the envelope followers on the audio output of this track to feed a control signal into a synth on a different track though.

[@Noise-Conductor]

I would like to see a video on the envelope followers & I also would love to see what you could do with 8 OPx-4's.

[@joefilbrun]

I’ll have a think on that. Definitely the env followers can be useful and are probably worth a video. 8 OPx-4 instances could get pretty crazy, and in truth I haven’t tried this kind of thing with that many yet. So far I haven’t needed to, since even 1 instance can generate a wall of sound.

[@Noise-Conductor]

@@joefilbrun An envelope vid would be useful & the 8 OPx-4 is I guess u could do if u ever felt the need to be ridiculous & if u combine it with the envelope followers....Madness! Peace Joe

[@augustisraelsson2250]

TY

[@joefilbrun]

Hey @augustisraelsson2250, you're welcome, thanks for watching!

[@SeymourScagnetti]

Hi Joe, working my way through your videos on opx4. From what I can see the modulators can’t function on the low pass filter cut off? Is that right? Edit: looks like you answered this at the 12:00 minute mark!!

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Mr Kirk - they can but looks like you’ve figured it out already!

[@olegcherkez7982]

Very informative! Could you please provide us with more information about opx4 matrix and source/operator technique plus sub mix screen interaction. I find it complex to comprehend

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Oleg, thanks for the ideas. I definitely have more to say about OPx-4, and will try to hit that stuff in a future video.

[@Drozas91]

I keep coming back to this video, do you have any takes on generative percussion on the force?

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Drozas. You know, I have some thoughts on it - possibly enough to put a short video together. I’ll have a think on that!

[@aeon136]

F*CK YEAH!👍💯

[@joefilbrun]

Hey Aeon13, thanks for watching. Glad you liked it!

[@gavinpeters9531]

Jeezus why did I not consider getting an Akai force... So jelly of the 8 encoders with displays from my One

[@joefilbrun]

Yeah, the encoders are really nice and prob my favorite thing about the Force. For me they are key to making the whole thing feel like a piece of hardware vs software running on a purpose built piece of hardware. It’s psychological of course, because really both the Force and MPC are the latter. But I recently picked up an MPC and I struggle with missing those LED encoders when I use it.

[@koraamis5568]

Sounds like granulator could go well with this, I got to try

[@joefilbrun]

Most definitely!

[@SeymourScagnetti]

For some reason my sample layer doesn’t loop. Anyone else had issues with this?

[@sederquest]

Would be good for ambient and sound scapes

[@joefilbrun]

Absolutely! I hope you have some fun using it this way.

[@zoolhert3535]

Please more Force Videos.. 💎 Channel

[@joefilbrun]

More on the way!

[@zoolhert3535]

@@joefilbrun learned so much.. I'm getting opx4 brcause of you're videos.. Respect from Scotland

[@joefilbrun]

@@zoolhert3535 Congrats on getting opx-4. I definitely think it’s worth picking up and having on your machine. It’s really a monster synth!

[@drydessert4198]

10:05

[@LaurentDiscShowMan]

MUY BIEN AVERY GOOD...ANIMO GENTES CON ALEGRIAS...ENTERAROS BIEN DE LAS COSAS MUSICALES DE COMO VAN Y SON HOY EN DIA QUE OS LO ESTOY EXPLICANDO...