Often a bit of Saturator is just the thing to push an aggressive bass sound just over the top. The problem is that while the Saturator can add midrange and high end grit to a sound it sometimes ends up reducing the bass frequencies – not such a good thing for bass. The trick to […]
LAYER IT UP
OK, one more Operator tip. Can’t resist. Part of the fun of working with the algorithm we used yesterday is that you can run all four oscillators in parallel to create some really thick sounds. Also, once you’ve set up the LFO to modulate the oscillator feedback, it modulates the feedback for all four […]
LOOK MA, NO FILTER
One obvious thing to do with an aggressive bass sound is to use a modulated filter to make it “wobble”. Since that’s something that’s been done quite a bit lately, I’ll show you an alternative method to get a subtly different effect. Start off by following yesterday’s tip to get some oscillator feedback (about 25%) […]
OSCILLATOR FEEDBACK
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 […]
