You know that really great feeling you get when you happen upon an obscure mode or a combination of features in your rig that produces a totally fresh sound? It’s exhilarating. And there are two common responses to that wonderful revelation: (1) keeping it a secret and selfishly taking that beautiful discovery with you to the grave, and (2) sharing that newfound wisdom with the rest of the world, inspiring others to fall down this amazing musical rabbit hole with you.
Luckily for all of us, our pal Bad Snacks is more than willing to share her secrets. She recently posted a series of short videos showing off some functionalities, settings, and combinations of pedals and synths in her rig that deserve to be celebrated and shared.
Check out her sonic explorations on Instagram and watch along as she gives us a healthy helping of the wild and wonderful world of the Secret Sauce.
"I’ve been enjoying the ever living heck out of my Werkstatt (the sound quality is pure insanity), so here I’m throwing it thru my Meris Hedra pitch shifter & delay pedal. The Hedra can be set to a fixed key and then you determine which three intervals you’d like from the three center knobs.
"It’s also pretty neat 'cause the alt function of those knobs allows you to delay certain parts of the chord or make it an immediate pitch shift (which you can hear in the bassline). Yes, I did manually tune the Werkstatt to C in order to do this, but to get some of that warmth and chorus-y sound, there’s a microtune knob top center of the Hedra. This combo is a chef’s kiss.”
"This fun wildcard ‘Beer’ setting on the Empress Reverb has become one of my absolute favorite ways to process/demolish all kinds of samples. This pedal is like the gazpacho of reverbs with a super spicy flavor kick and combining it with the infinite power of the OP-1 results [in] one tasty li’l hors d'oeuvre. Also, I will never get tired of the drum monkeys.”
“This is from my track 'F*ck' off of NT2 and is honestly one of my favorite sound design moments from the whole project. Y’all know how obsessed I am with my Organelle and this polyrhythmic sampling patch thrown thru the Ottobit Jr. is truly the skronkiest of chef’s kisses.”
"I used the Blooper by Chase Bliss all over the new project Bathtub Bumps for all kinds of textural, nostalgic & shimmery elements. Here’s an example of some guitar processing in ‘Same Water, Different Seas’ where a simple guitar riff and a very dirty shoe (sorry) result in some extra sweetness.”
"This is a lil jam using the drift function on the Julianna chorus/vib pedal by Walrus Audio on my JU-06A (one of my fav smol bois) followed by some syrupy chorus-y guitar sweeps & a crunchy as all hell bassline thru the Loomer by Keeley Electronics."
If you enjoyed watching these and want to keep exploring, you’re in luck! You can find the downloadable .wav files from all these adventures by clicking this link. We encourage you to download them, jam on them, and share your work on social using the hashtag #secretsaucewithbadsnacks.