"Salt Shaka" (OP-1 & Ableton Jam, July 1, 2011) by Brian Funk

I made this track using Teenage Engineering's OP-1 for many of the synth sounds, as well as its built in FM radio (with which I sampled happened upon Salt n Pepa's "What a Man" ... destiny I suppose). I recorded the sounds straight into Ableton Live, where I further manipulated them. Another sample came from The Hues Corporation vinyl I had around the house.

Using the OP-1 was a blast! It encouraged me to come up with some new ways of twisting sounds. My personal favorite is one of the high pitched synth parts, which I labeled with a comment. This sound was made by looping super tiny portions of the Salt n Pepa sample, and changing the length of the loop on the fly. Changing the length changes the pitch of that note, and coming up with a melody is a matter of turning the knob just right (really fun and awfully random).

Thanks to Anthony Ricciardi for the photo from Lit Lounge 6/30/11