What is the musical term to describe an evolving synth sequence?

[trancedigital]

Consider the synthesizer sequence in Pink Floyd's "On the Run". Here we have a sequence of eight notes which are sped up to 170 bpm and beyond.

This sped up sequence twists and turns into a melody which is hypnotic, and many trance tunes employ such a manipulation of sound.

I would like to know if, in music theory, there is a particular single word or term to describe a long twisting synth sequence.

 

For example, the term arpeggio means the sounding of the notes of a chord in rapid succession. So is there any term for a long twisting synth sequence?

[johnb820]

That's a really good question. Such a manipulation of sound was not really possible until the creation of synthesizers so there really isn't a term for it. I suppose I would use the phrase modulation.

[trancedigital]

Thanks John. Yeah modulation is employed to come up with such a synth sequence. May be you are right about there not being a specific term for it.

[Veracohr]

I don't think there's any particular term for it. The "On the Run" synth is just a simple looping sequence, the 'evolving' character of it was created by just playing with the filter cutoff.

 

Often the "twisting, evolving" character in trance loops is due to effects, especially heavy echo. It sounds more complicated and swirly than it actually is when a filter sweep is echoed.

[CoLoUr DoTZ]

yep, I would say it is a filtered Arppegio with Lfo speed and amount modulation at some points........ (being Lfo destination the filter)

[Veracohr]

^

There's no LFO use in "On the Run", the filter is manually played. There's a documentary called "Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon" in which the keyboardist explains creating that part. Pretty cool video actually.

[johnb820]

Yea I mean you will probably be physically turning knobs, adjusting levels, etc so there is a fair amount of human control over these elements. I think it's just as valuable as any human playing a real instrument and using all the playing styles available to them to get a unique sound. It's not really just "an effect".

[CoLoUr DoTZ]

^

There's no LFO use in "On the Run", the filter is manually played. There's a documentary called "Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon" in which the keyboardist explains creating that part. Pretty cool video actually.

 

So also this wah wah effect that happens sometimes on the sequence is made manually...... wow......

 

Yea I mean you will probably be physically turning knobs, adjusting levels, etc so there is a fair amount of human control over these elements. I think it's just as valuable as any human playing a real instrument and using all the playing styles available to them to get a unique sound. It's not really just "an effect".

 

and also much more fun. Better tu push record button and print to audio what you came out to by turnning knobs als being editing midi for hours.........