Tape Notes TN:176 Fred again..
17 snips
Mar 11, 2026 
Fred again.., British songwriter and producer behind the Actual Life trilogy, discusses making the album USB. He talks about sourcing and chopping samples, turning long jams into songs, framing aggressive vocals and building drum textures. He also shares his essential gear, real-time processing tricks, collaboration choices and how USB blends diverse genres.
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USB As An Infinite Rolling Mixtape
- USB is conceived as an ever-rolling mixtape rather than a fixed album, freeing Fred to add remixes, bootlegs and new tracks endlessly.
- He treats it like a USB folder: cohesion is what he wants to hear in rooms with people, not a tightly honed narrative statement.
How Solo Started From A Splinter Frames Clip
- Solo began from a slowed Splinter Frames clip dragged into a flight session, tuned and polyphonically edited in Melodyne to become a chordal sample.
- Fred used Melodyne's polyphonic pitch tools to reharmonize the sample while keeping its sonic character.
Use Polyphonic Pitch To Preserve Sample Magic
- Melodyne's polyphonic pitch editing lets Fred keep a sample's timbre while changing harmony, reducing time spent surgical-EQing samples.
- That tool lets him morph one recorded chord into new harmonic functions without losing texture.