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Pedal Tricks: Landscape Stereo Field + Strymon Cloudburst.
Instant Bernard Hermann.
The Landscape Stereo Field is a touch-sensitive atonal synth (aka noise box). The Strymon Cloudburst is a reverb with an Ensemble mode that creates synthetic strings from whatever you put in it. And Bernard Hermann was the composer and conductor of the music for Hitchcock’s Psycho, known for his suspenseful, discordant scores.
The demo below starts with the Stereo Field un-effected and sounding like random noise. Then the Cloudburst is kicked in and the noise takes on a symphonic air.
What the heck is happening?
The Stereo Field has no regard for chromatic music. Your fingers act as patch cables disrupting various parts of the two stereo synth circuits. The Cloudburst’s Ensemble mode is designed to take the signal of a guitar and create accompanying strings based on the dry signal. It splits the dry into 48 bands and then synthesizes harmonic partials based on those. Together these bands encompass the spectrum of sound that a guitar can create. So the atonal noise created by the Stereo Field gets converted into tones. The noise that falls above and below the audio spectrum that a guitar creates just gets ignored. So the Ensemble mode is basically organizing the noise into musical tones. The result is what sounds like Bernard Hermann’s chaotic strings.
Settings.
- Path: Stereo Field > Cloudburst.
- The Stereo Field has no additional patches or input, just various finger touches on the surface. The stereo signal has been mixed to mono.
- The Cloudburst Mix knob is set full wet, with the Decay knob at 12n and the Ensemble switch on Forte.
My take.
The Cloudburst is a reverb that’s very hard not to like. The Stereo Field is a synth that’s very hard to get a grasp on. Put the two together and you have an instant horror movie soundtrack.
The Pedal Tricks series of articles presents a little-known useful trick for a pedal or series of pedal. Want more of these? Consider buying me a coffee below to keep them coming.
