used it on every album since There is a Cloud , and I wanted to let it have its moment to say , “ Hi , I ' m Aaron ' s Juno and I ' ve been around a while . I ' d love for you to play me .” The bundles are my own take on what it has to offer - not just a standard recreation . I took a sound , tried something to affect it , then as I realized it was going somewhere , I rode that inspiration and took it all the way to the end . So , if something started dirty , I would make it as dirty as I can get it . I ran everything through the Fuzz Factory pedal , a Kaoss Pad , stereo delays and reverbs and then manipulated it in software . A lot of the sounds are ambient , but some of them are aggressive and dirty short sounds like you might find in action sequences or intense moments . I feel like a lot of the sounds are very cinematic , and I just love how the sounds turned out . I also just like the thought of using a piece of synth gear that ' s over 30 years old and still holds its own so well . Really excited for people to play those sounds .
[ WM ] What advice would you give to live keyboard players who are interested in adding synth sounds into their rig ?
[ Aaron ] Being dynamic and catering to moments is the fun stuff for a keyboard player . Just because the guitar player is swelling and being beautiful , doesn ' t mean you can ' t do the same ! I find myself building momentum and helping each section in my own way , with whatever sounds that I can allow in the moment . You don ' t always have to just hold down a pad . There could be something to play on top that will elevate the whole sound .
If you ' re playing with tracks , you can get creative , and if tracks are already holding things down , all you might need to do is play or accent the hook . Find a sound that helps support it and make it even bigger than it could be . Or for chords , instead of holding some simple pads , you could use a distorted , reverbed piano that you just hit on downbeats to bring space and life to the verse .
Accentuating a lyric is powerful . In the bridge , you may have a lyric like " the ground began to shake ," so sometimes I ' ll literally have a pad or spacey sound and I ' ll mash down a bunch of low notes and create a rumble . There are just so many fun ways to build tension , bring life and be creative . You could use rounded , washy white noise to sound like wind , or reverb to make something sound flowy and wet . It ' s a real sound design type approach . I always like to make sure what I ' m contributing is actually doing something . It ' s not about filling up every moment with craziness - you have to be tasteful about it . You are doing it to help the song , not to help yourself be heard .
One more note : this is kind of a funny reminder