subsekt sound design school _ PERCUSSION

[Críoch]

Ok.. Percussion.

I hate doing percussion.. its a weak area for me (one of many..) but I'm gonna give it a blast - who else is in?

Same as usual.. document the process with screenshots & give us a bit of audio too

subsekt sound design school _ KICKS http://www.subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=634

subsekt sound design school _ BASS http://www.subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=698

[helloitsmeagain]

i'll join. but i'm not sure how much value i have to offer here...

[Mattias]

I'm on as usual when I find time

[Críoch]

The fun is in doing!

Cool chaps.. Anyone else?

[kuba_rubacha]

ill do the Porc bow worries...spend the most of time meaain about with it so mite aswell,where and when do we start;-)

[Críoch]

Yeah man.. Just do what you normally do. Make an example of how you go about things..

Take screenshots of it & UL an audio example too. You can attach everything in the post.

[kuba_rubacha]

grand job:-)mite put up Porc out of a track im wprkin on now...she aound tashhtyyy:-P

[helloitsmeagain]

ok, so here i go

first let me say, i never approach a track with a master plan. I just play around till i get something i like. i know my synthesis and effects, so i know what i can expect from applying a tweak here and there, but i never work with a goal in mind. i just go till it sounds good.

right then, image 1. I messed with my original bass sample.

ok, onto the goodness.

I used samples. cause i'm lazy.

image 2. the first sample is a cajon drum box. i grabbed it from a loop. you can see that in simpler. the interesting part is what goes before simpler. i pitched the loop down 12 notes and then dropped a random midi effect which allowed it to step 24 notes up.

after simpler just a stock standard saturator setting, followed by some overdrive to dirty things up.

lastly, EQ to keep it tidy.

then, for no particular reason, other than i felt like it, i duplicated that and threw one channel hard left and the other hard right. Now i had different randomness on the left on right.

for midi, i just laid a sound on each 16th and then deleted where i wanted.

ok, so i let that play for 32 and then chopped it up till i landed up with 7 hits i liked. I then rearranged them. which made my previous midi laying out a useless waste of time.

Next sample.

Conga. same process really. Pitch. Random. Sample from a loop. This saturator i played with till i got the exact sound i wanted. EQ to make sure no hits got in the way of my bass and kick.

The filter effect was there cause originally i was gonna record a 32 loop and choose the best portion. i didn't ant it to stagnate. ultimately i did the same with the cajon, in that i used the 32 to cut and shift to get what i wanted.... it's why i didn't bother with the midi image this time...

I panned this one a bit left to give it it's own unique space.

last sample. actually, it wasn't going to be the last but i didn't like how the drums where just taking up all my space. I think it's an error of mine from early days. i tend to clutter stuff up with drums. I'm trying to self correct.

so, this was some mid range Porc. there's no image cause it's exactly the same as the last, just with different midi (again, irrelevant) and it's panned left

the hats. i synthezed those in FM8. i used to way over think my hats. no more. every second 16ths with one or two for drive. done. the decapitator for dirty and then i want some swing in the freq. got that with filter freq.

i sent that all a bit left. then on my 2nd return i dropped a echoboy with swinging 8th's. an another filter freq. that i set a tad right. Theme here... just some experimentation. But i wanted to get different results on the same instrument in each ear.

The lot was compressed. and sent to the 3rd return and a touch to the 1st return, my verb. on that verb i spaced my timing according to my bpm of 128.

and, oh yeah, i dropped an MPC groove on the lot. 16 double up - 70. timing 63%. velocity 5%. amount 59%.

I the grouped drums 100% to a third return, with decapitator. more dirt! yeah, rub it all over me!

my sample audio. first the cajon, then the congas, then the mid Porc. then the lot together with the kick, and finally, with the bass.

that was it. I'd really love some feedback on this!

it probably took me as long to do this post as make the sounds. It would be nice to see some ideas from others!

[Críoch]

Fair play Renato.. Will give this a listen when I get home Mate. Thanks a million.

I'm on a course all week, but I'm hoping to get some time to do this maybe tomorrow

[helloitsmeagain]

13 downloads and no feedback? guys, if it sucks, tell me. i'm not precious.

it wasn't my most whole hearted effort but i do like the way it sounds, so i'd love to get some opinions of how it could be better. don't make me beg.

[sam]

lol hima, i was one of the 12 and i've just been listening to it, and this is all just my opinion...

i think each bit of your percussion on its own sounds good, and i know this is just an example but layered together the levels need to be sorted out a bit. the kick might be a bit loud and it's masking the reverb and smushing things together. i think they would be good sources alone and definitely usable tho.

i haven't posted in this thread yet because i find percussion pretty tricky and i'm basically coming at it from the ground up every time.

for what i'm trying to achieve less is definitely more and i find myself doing some pretty dodgy distorting and eq cuts n boosts to make things pop out and fit where they're supposed to sometimes.

i think a big part of what makes percussion (and other things) work is determined by how they're mixed. i've found a good exercise is to load up a semi random selection of sounds and make something groovy out of them by using only grid placement, eq, reverb, and volume, as opposed to flipping though 6000 samples trying to find the perfect fit for each element. try and listen to each sound and work out what it's good for in context and try and bring out those qualities in it. just as an exercise tho.

i'll put a few bars of one of those exercises up later with some screenshots so you can see and hear what i'm on about.

[helloitsmeagain]

thanks for the comments man, i'm working on it! actually please pop over here http://www.subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 6650#p6650

i'd dig to hear your thoughts.

[Críoch]

Sorry Guys.. I've been really busy the last week - Will try & get something done over next couple of days.

[benjaminwilliams]

Pff percussion is the worst. Everytime i hear a track and the percussion sounds so fingerlicking good i tend to die a little from the inside. I never seem to manage to make it sound organic, something i think is essential for decent percussion. The groove is not the problem for me. I'll see if i can upload something i've been working on the last couple of days, although i probably will be too emberrased to post it here. Will check helloitsmeagain's Porc tomorrow.

[Críoch]

I accidently deleted the channel / midi of the percussion that I was working on. Thats why I havent posted yet. Have to start again.

Sorry fellas!