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# rpm 2012 post-mortem, track 7: oberth
- URL: https://wootangent.net/rpm-2012-post-mortem-track-7-oberth/
- Published: 2012-03-13T07:29:40.000Z
- Updated: 2012-03-13T07:29:40.000Z
- Author: Leigh Dyer
- Tags: Music, RPM, ardour, blofeld, drmr, hydrogen, rpm12, TAL, #Migrated-1792830072870, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 08:21

[oberth by pneuman](http://pneuman.bandcamp.com/track/oberth?ref=wootangent.net)

> "In astronautics, the [Oberth effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberth%5Feffect?ref=wootangent.net) is where the use of a rocket engine when travelling at high speed generates much more useful energy than one at low speed."

I'd been wanting to write something in 6/8 for a while, and RPM seemed like as good a time as any to give it a go. I started this track by creating a simple triplet beat in Ardour, using the Hydrogen 909 kit, and then playing with ideas for a looping bassline using TAL NoiseMaker. Once I had a bassline, I added a simple pad part. Initially, I used presets for the bass and pad sounds, but they didn't quite fit the sound I was after, so I soon replaced them with my own patches.

Even though I used a Hydrogen kit, I didn't use Hydrogen to load it at first -- instead, I used a new LV2 synth called [DrMr](https://github.com/nicklan/drmr?ref=wootangent.net), which works with Hydrogen drum kits. It's early days for DrMr, and it's promising, but I ended up swapping back to Hydrogen when I discovered that DrMr doesn't yet respond properly to velocity information.

With the bass and pad in place (with some cutoff automation to spice them up), and the drums fleshed out a bit, I added the arpeggio part, using a TAL NoiseMaker preset, and then the lead, using a proggy patch on the Blofeld. After my experiences on tracks like *hohmann*, I wasn't shy about using the pitch bender here, but I think it helps breathe some life in to the lead part, and makes the whole thing sound a bit like a Jean Michel Jarre track.

This was one of the last tracks I worked on; I started it on day 22, and wrapped it up at the start of my final sprint, on day 27\. I wasn't quite happy with the drums (I don't think that 909 kit works as well here as it did on *periapsis*), but everything else came together pretty well. It's not particularly outstanding, but it's a good, solid track.