Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
dubdub
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Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by dubdub »

Do you guys still have these "jesus, i'm only realizing this now" moments? I haven't been producing for THAT long but I feel like I know my way around Ableton and my plugins at least somewhat decently now and there's still always stuff where i'm like what the hell, how come I didn't figure this out ages ago. Maybe we can all learn something in this thread by sharing these moments :D

Case in point, I just figured out like a month ago that syncing LFO modulation on a synth's filter cutoff is pretty awesome. Of course I knew about modulating a filter cutoff, i've been doing it synced with some plugins but directly modulating the synths cutoff through the mod matrix... just never occured to me, somehow.

Another thing that happened just yesterday is I was randomly going through the Live manual (again) and in the part for the audio FX I realized that you can bitcrush the noise from Live's Vocoder in that little XY window. What the hell, I always thought that was just one these random XY things that are all over live. Also I only realized yesterday that modulating the Morph Filter from Live's Autofilter with an M4L LFO can yield pretty awesome filtering. I've also started using the envelope mod more, I knew about it but never really used for some reason because I didn't realize you can mod according to the sounds own envelope.

Opnå
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Opnå »

This happens to me a fair bit. Can't think of one off the top of my head though.

I also have a habit of forgetting things I already did know. It's like I need to make a checklist of tips and tricks to run though to see if any of them would apply to the track I'm working on.

Also recently i've been going over the stickies in this forum which are great, especially the master bus one. I used to do that, then stopped, thought it was bad practice so "trained" myself out of the habit. Now when it's carefully explained I see it's benefits again, i've dabbled and I do like the extra vibe you get from it.

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Críoch
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Críoch »

Been enjoying manipulating audio in a sampler..

Realised the power of parameters that you'd usually take for granted after watching tuts on neurofunk & all of that kinda stuff recently.

Id previously viewed samplers as playback devices.. but you can get super creative after a round or 2 of resampling & duplicating channels with different modulations or sample start points.
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by 1nfinitezer0 »

Críoch wrote:Been enjoying manipulating audio in a sampler..

Realised the power of parameters that you'd usually take for granted after watching tuts on neurofunk & all of that kinda stuff recently.

Id previously viewed samplers as playback devices.. but you can get super creative after a round or 2 of resampling & duplicating channels with different modulations or sample start points.
Any recommended neurofunk tutorial makers? I normally steer clear of that genre, but their sound design chops are impressive.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Planar »

Artfx is the best I've found. He can be a bit long-winded (and irritating) at times and he can go a bit far sometimes with his processing (for my tastes), but his later videos have good content. To be honest, once you get the general idea most neuro sounds are about experimenting and time. Perhaps the only knack is knowing how EQ chains will effect distortion and maybe not getting disheartened when it sounds like shit for the first 30 FX you add.

The general idea is:

1: Take a nasty sound (i.e. a Reese) and make a long note of 30s or longer
2: Split into bands (at least 2)
3: Process:
Low band: untouched and in mono
Other bands: Go crazy with filters/EQ (all automated), distortion and chorus/phasers
4: Re-sample the whole thing
5: Repeat #3 and #4 to taste
6: Take that long piece of audio and take sections you like and make it fit into the groove you want. You may need to Automate each "chop" a little more to make it fit.

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Críoch
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Críoch »

Artfx too. I appreciate his time chatting as the payoff is usually worth it. He knows his stuff & shares good knowledge.

GranularSumo is another. I've only watched a few.. but he has good technique.

NedRush. Has lots of vids on different subjects. Don't worry about the jokez.. He knows his shit.

When I remember the others I'll post them.
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Críoch
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Críoch »

Planar wrote: Planar's post.
Bang on mate. You be encapsulated/ condensed everything I've read & seen into that post.

Great advice.
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Planar »

Oh, and pitch bends are quite important for that twisting sound. Either automated, or with note glide.

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Críoch
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Críoch »

Indeed.. voices set to 1.

Just adding another.. Alden Evoke on YouTube. Has 3 interesting videos.
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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by dubdub »

Sample manipulation is probably something I should get into more. I just find working with audio kinda... tedious.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by gilesdavis »

Yup the standard pendulum of clashing thought processes:

'Fuck yeah, I love neuro and FM in general, I'ma LEARN SOME INTERESTING SHIT right now, Ableton is already up and everything.' fades to more sobering dude what are you doing opening an ArtFX video/cruising Seamlessr's channel of a billionn synthesis tutes, you're already 20 minutes late for work. Go get the bus, you don't even make drum & bass.

Someones's gotta pay the krokodil guy, he comes by every day. Nice guy, that one.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by sinesnsnares »

I have to say, and it's fucking stupid... I only recently started using low percussion outside of my basslines. Like, for the longest time, i was just making a bass + kick and wondering why my tunes sounded sparse. Recently spent a day playing around with toms making a bunch of loops... holy shit can you get a groove outside of the boom boom boom boom that is so prevalent in techno.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by purcer »

If you work in Ableton live, try the corpus-preset: 'Kick tight' on your kicks.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by dubdub »

Another one that just happened: Recording clip automation for rhythmmic modulation instead of using an LFO.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by buffered »

can't watch that artfx guy. can't stand the vaping, it's so annoying. He just bounces presets and then runs a bunch of effects. Really not much to it. I wouldn't say he knows his stuff. More like he has lots of stuff.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by rktic »

Just learned: Bitwig is a damn well considered piece of software engineering.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Planar »

buffered wrote:He just bounces presets and then runs a bunch of effects.
Not going to stick up for the guy too much (because he gets on my tits as well), but he clearly synthesises his patches in his later videos. And running a bunch of fx is a criticism? Thats the whole bloody point of his channel, its what neuro is.
buffered wrote:Really not much to it.
Lets hear your neuro bass then! Mine are shite and I've practiced loads.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by arkos »

Planar wrote: Lets hear your neuro bass then! Mine are shite and I've practiced loads.
Emu-X can make some bad ass reece's out of a single wave form just by turning on the chorus then when you add the morphing filters you're in D&B heaven, if you can find version 3 2nd hand I'd check it out for sure.

Reckon you can get similar results using the morph filters in other software like Kontakt and Live but I've go no idea where you'd find that mad chorus elsewhere.

It's really all about finding the right combination of effects, resampling and layering. (filter,chorus,distortion,phaser,reverb,saturation)

I know you know this Planar just keep at it mate and you'll be coming up with killer reece's eventually.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by Planar »

Thanks Arkos. Your words of encouragement will hopefully help me reach bassline nirvana at some point in the future.

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Re: Things you somehow just figured out NOW...

Post by dubdub »

rktic wrote:Just learned: Bitwig is a damn well considered piece of software engineering.
Speaking of DAWs: I just realized Ableton's Corpus has a sidechain function for easy midi-tuning.


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