A couple of days ago I suggested that if you’re crafting more aggressive sounds, you probably don’t want to start with a sine wave. With Operator however, there’s an exception to this that involves the use of oscillator feedback. Essentially, this feature allows an oscillator to modulate itself – with some very interesting results. If […]
IN THE MIX
Over the last weeks, we’ve done a lot of sound design stuff so today I want to remind everyone (myself included) that the best way to tweak a sound to perfection is in the mix. In other words, sometimes you have to listen to a sound in isolation, but once you’ve got it in the […]
ROBOT NINJA ASSASIN BASS
So we’ve talked a bit about a few things you can do with sine wave sounds, but haven’t yet addressed the bass arms race that’s going on in a wide variety of genres these days. To make these gigantic aggressive bass sounds, you may not want to start with a sine wave. Switch over oscillator […]
SIMPLE BASS
Bass sounds can be tricky – but they can also be very simple. Many times you simply need something solid sounding to fill up the low end of a track without getting in the way of other parts of the song. The trick to good sounding bass is often striking the right balance between the […]
SYNTHETIC PERCUSSION
Another quick and easy thing to do with The Best Preset Ever is to make synthetic percussion. Start out by making the volume envelope of oscillator A fast and percussive: You’ll probably want to crank up Operator’s volume control at this point (it’s in the lower right hand corner). Now, get oscillator B into the […]
THE BEST PRESET EVER
OK folks. Here it is: That’s right. Operator in it’s default state is my favorite preset. When I need a sound fast to get an idea down, it’s almost always where I start. A few thoughts about why: It’s a freakin sine wave, with full sustain (meaning the note sustains as long as you hold […]
GRAIN DELAY: STEREO-IZER
Ah Grain Delay, how many times will I return to you this year? A lot, I’m guessing. One of the tricks to making a compelling mix is to fully utilize the stereo field. Sometimes you want to impart width to a sound – simply make it sound as if it’s coming from the sides of […]
ONLY THE BEST
Since we’ve spent the last few days majorly tweaking a sample, I want to take a minute to remind you (and me!) that the purpose of selecting a small group of samples is to get up and running quickly when creativity strikes. Hopefully, you’re now feeling secure in the knowledge that it’s possible to shape […]
KICK THAT SNARE
Alright. In the name of silly sound design experiments, today I’ll make a snare drum out of the same kick sample I started with a couple of days ago. I’m not saying that you’ll necessarily want to do this in real life – just showing how flexible every bit of sound in your sample library […]
KICK THE MIDS
Yesterday we took a look at filtering and layering to transform a kick drum sample. Today we’ll fill in the midrange a bit and look at a couple of other pieces of technique. I’ve duplicated the chain again, so now the Rack looks like this: The purpose of this chain is to add midrange punch […]
