Creating your own sounds Pt. 7 ( Simply Green)

Posted on February 20, 2013 by flux302

Simply Green
The art of
Reusing sound

Once you have a collection of sounds you may want to reuse them without them sounding the same.
There are many techniques that don’t require an awful lot of work to sculpt a drum to an individual track. One of the easiest improvements to a sound is to Tune your kick drums to your bass line. This can prevent clashing of sound and drastically improve a mix. If you have a long ringing 808 style kick you can toss a tuner such as guitar rig over the sound and watch what key the drum is tuned to. By simply pitching up or down you can tune it to the key of your bass line. simply throw a tuner (guitar rig for example) onto your kick track is a dirty fast way to get an idea of your kick or you can use a spectrum analyzer and look at where the harmonic frequencies are prominent. though I tend to just use my ears for this process.
Another great way to sculpt a pre made drum is by using bit crushing or distortion. Adding subtle to drastic hints of lo-fi to a pristine sample can really change the overall sound of a kit and create a drum sound totally new.
Don’t forget filtering and layering of premade sounds as well. And always keep an eye on your levels. When stacking premade drums it’s very easy to start clipping so turn it down a bit and you shall be fine. Adding harmonics to a sound can be a great way to alter a drum or instrument as well. adding Ring modulators and tuning the ring mod then resampling is a great way to enhance a sound. There are pleny of options and ways to do this. Everything from guitar plug ins and actual hardware fx pedals to Reaktor ensembles to simply getting creative with the EQ.
Also a spectrum analyzer can help you see trouble frequencies you might not be hearing such as increased bass tones below 40hz that are causing mixes to peak even though they sound quiet. Simply filter them out or use a sculpting EQ.
Sometimes simply routing sounds out of your computer and through something simple like a korg monotron or a aha pedal can change the sound just enough to make it feel new and fresh to you. Experiment and have fun with it.

Creating your own sounds Pt 6.

Posted on January 18, 2013 by flux302

Steppin to the AM

(modulation sources)

Modulation sources help a sound evolve over time. When creating a pad sound for example from a sampled hollow tube try adding some band pass filters and setting the cut off and resonance to be modulated by an Envelope or Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO). This set to a slow rate will cause a long evolving or moving sound that may be more complex and interesting. Additionally Mod sources can be controlled by aspects such as a mod wheel on a keyboard or even by the velocity envelope on your keyboard. So by pressing a key harder you can make your sound evolve more sharply or more smoothly depending on your positive or negative settings. When used on Drums Modulation sources can cause some pretty interesting and funky results such as a filter sharply cutting a kick or snare drum to create a pulsing effect. Continue reading →

Creating your own sounds Pt. 5

Posted on January 14, 2013 by flux302

Change clothes

Here I discuss the mentality of sound processing.
Sound processing your samples starts with one fundamental Ideal. Make it sound better! There are many ways to achieve the same sound, many ways to achieve slightly different sounds and many ways to ruin sound or just plain exaggerate it. So let’s define good sound vs. bad sound. First up is in the method to avoid bad sound is to make sure your level is proper. You don’t want your sound to appear as a brick. This means if your sound is up to loud and your using a digital interface to work with sound anything above 0db will be truncated and the wave will just be shelved resulting in a waveform that looks like brick. The sound will be harsh and unpleasant so be sure your levels allow enough head room before your peaks touch 0db. Continue reading →

Creating your own sounds PT4

Posted on January 8, 2013 by flux302

Quiet on the set!

Often times it can be difficult to cut out back-round noise especially if you live in the city or in a house with many other tenants. Here I’m going to talk about ways to minimize the annoying back-round noise from your recordings. The first issue to overcome with using condenser mics outside is the wind. Sure there is the old method of using a simple Sock from your dresser over the mic but that often doesn’t do the job very well and can sometimes muffle the sound. Instead why not build your own “Dead cat”. A Dead Cat is a mic cover that is made of fur (synthetic in this case) with long hair. The Long hair prevents wind pressure from disturbing the mic while allowing frequencies through undeterred. The materials are really very basic and can be bought at any local craft store. All you need is a strip of synthetic long hair fur. (Comes in many colors) some elastic banding and some thin cotton sheeting. The cotton sheeting gets sown to the back of the fur, and then wrap the fur around the mic to measure it and sow it accordingly. Next just sow in an elastic band so that it will fit firmly over the mic and not move. Now you have a very cheap dead cat that should work just fine. (I will post pictures up as well)

Continue reading →

Creating your own sounds PT3

Posted on December 27, 2012 by flux302

Strange Fruit

Sound can be found anywhere. Just walking around with a pocket recorder turned up and listening can be a great way to find interesting new sound. Try walking around the house with headphones on and sticking the mic in different areas. Keep a keen ear out for interesting frequencies.

What are some other interesting sources to sample that you have just around the house???

Let’s start in one of the more acoustically interesting places of a house, the bathroom.

First and foremost is the bathtub. It has a huge range of sounds that can be found from this shape. And don’t forget the shower head. Using mallets against the tub with varied amounts of water in the tub. Continue reading →

Creating your own sounds pt2 (Source your sounds)

Posted on December 14, 2012 by flux302

Source your Sounds

Some Ideas for basic sound design are starting with not just where the sounds are going to be coming from but HOW they come from that sound. As an example say you want a nice round organic thumping kick sound. So you decide a nice car tire will do the job. This is a great place to start but where do I record the sound at to get that real thump? Try different techniques such as placing a mic behind the tire close to the middle of the rubber on the side wall to get the reverberating 808 style sub bass. And if then mic up the tread to get the higher smacking sound as you hit the tire with various instruments, a rubber hammer, your palm, a drum stick, a wooden spoon, a piece of metal rot iron. Etc. once you have these sounds you can take them into your DAW or sampler and layer the sounds on top of each other. Make sure to pay attention to the phase of the sounds so that you don’t cancel out your bass waves.

Continue reading →

Creating your own sounds Pt1

Posted on December 10, 2012 by flux302

All your drums are belong to us.

Ok so you’re about to drop a cool $300 on some new sample set that has about 300 new drums in it, seems like a deal right? Hmmmm not so fast.
For that same $300 you could get yourself a great portable digital recorder and actually make an infinite number of your own custom sounds. Allowing you to break out of the norm and finally have some sounds that no one else has. The added value to this is that once you learn to create your own sounds you can better understand what it is about commercial libraries that set the ho hum from the amazing. This will allow you to better spend your money in the future on sound sets that are actually valuable to you. So you’re wondering if you have enough proper knowledge to create your own sound set. Well that’s half the fun. This should be a learning experience, an opportunity for your knowledge of sound to really expand and translate into your music. Mistakes are not always a bad thing unless you don’t learn from them and there is only one way to gain Experience.
Creating Drums of your own should mean creating a signature sound of your own. Some drums are not meant to be used over and over. Sometimes it’s just good to have a signature sound all your own for just that specified moment. Don’t get to hung up on perfect, worry more about YOUR sound.

Continue reading →