Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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By medearis Sun Jul 28, 2013 12:38 am
Word!

Might sound strange but I'm getting tired of having 'standard' sounding drums in my MPC. Since I play drums it seems a bit redundant to have most of these samples on my memory card.

Lately, I've been experimenting with creating strange or unorthodox drum sounds. Maybe I'm not just getting far enough outside the box, most of what I end up with sound like standard'ish drums... just slightly processed.

Right now I'm playing around with sampling non-drum/perc sources and seeing how far I can get inside the MPC or Logic 9. Are there any particular tricks to mangling/transforming sounds inside the MPC? I'm using the free JJOS. Keep in mind I would like to be able to process sounds INSIDE the MPC, to keep things a bit more intimate.

Thanks a bunch.
Peace.
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By bliprock Mon Jul 29, 2013 5:43 am
sciguy wrote:Go crazy with tuning/pitchshifting/timestretching.

Those can really entirely transform sounds.
yep this and then filters, LFO, pitch env ect to really mangle, then resample it- and do it all again
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By Ibunshi Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:27 pm
one shot foley sounds from games - lots of variation and interesting sounds can be found that way, and many pc games comes with sound folders already sorted, build your rhythms with anything from footsteps to arrow impact sounds on various surfaces..

build your own with layers - you can create authentic but unreal sounds that way

just regular drum and percussion sounds, filtered, pitched and mangled - many ways to create something new and interesting of something more generic.. and that is something you can do in most mpc's


personally i prefer using various sounds and layer and use simple processing like pitch and filtering, as those are timeless in a way, where various other effects that saturate and distort sounds tend to have everything sound the same after a while, where you can look back and things sound dated because of everyone using the same effect, and its coloring is to be found everywhere .. but then you can just with layering continue to build sounds that keep being fresh because they are "neutral" in a way
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By bliprock Tue Jul 30, 2013 5:47 am
Ibunshi wrote:one shot foley sounds from games - lots of variation and interesting sounds can be found that way, and many pc games comes with sound folders already sorted, build your rhythms with anything from footsteps to arrow impact sounds on various surfaces..

build your own with layers - you can create authentic but unreal sounds that way

just regular drum and percussion sounds, filtered, pitched and mangled - many ways to create something new and interesting of something more generic.. and that is something you can do in most mpc's


personally i prefer using various sounds and layer and use simple processing like pitch and filtering, as those are timeless in a way, where various other effects that saturate and distort sounds tend to have everything sound the same after a while, where you can look back and things sound dated because of everyone using the same effect, and its coloring is to be found everywhere .. but then you can just with layering continue to build sounds that keep being fresh because they are "neutral" in a way

Yes, but for me HELL NO, do it yourself you have the same tools the game dev guys have! and most are straight sample libs anyways, so not original as say making it yourself. A synth of any kind will really help in this situation of course as well but with XL and such, you can do it in sampler. But synth helps though. Now I say this as I am actually doing game dev/app sounds at the moment. And I have not needed to sample anything. It took a days work and then the sounds I made for a game, I assigned to my MPC pads so as to bang it out and see if it is sounding like a game and how they work together. And it is to a brief and or idea, like OP is doing. I think if you hear it you will say yeah its some stupid game and that is what I am going for here, so job done.

Game over dude. See it sounds like a a game, but the same thing applies to any sound set you wanna make.
So what I am saying is you can do anything, not just sample other peoples work, if you put some time into it and learn how to make any sound.
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By Ibunshi Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:13 am
bliprock wrote:
Ibunshi wrote:one shot foley sounds from games - lots of variation and interesting sounds can be found that way, and many pc games comes with sound folders already sorted, build your rhythms with anything from footsteps to arrow impact sounds on various surfaces..

build your own with layers - you can create authentic but unreal sounds that way

just regular drum and percussion sounds, filtered, pitched and mangled - many ways to create something new and interesting of something more generic.. and that is something you can do in most mpc's


personally i prefer using various sounds and layer and use simple processing like pitch and filtering, as those are timeless in a way, where various other effects that saturate and distort sounds tend to have everything sound the same after a while, where you can look back and things sound dated because of everyone using the same effect, and its coloring is to be found everywhere .. but then you can just with layering continue to build sounds that keep being fresh because they are "neutral" in a way

Yes, but for me HELL NO, do it yourself you have the same tools the game dev guys have! and most are straight sample libs anyways, so not original as say making it yourself. A synth of any kind will really help in this situation of course as well but with XL and such, you can do it in sampler. But synth helps though. Now I say this as I am actually doing game dev/app sounds at the moment. And I have not needed to sample anything. It took a days work and then the sounds I made for a game, I assigned to my MPC pads so as to bang it out and see if it is sounding like a game and how they work together. And it is to a brief and or idea, like OP is doing. I think if you hear it you will say yeah its some stupid game and that is what I am going for here, so job done.

Game over dude. See it sounds like a a game, but the same thing applies to any sound set you wanna make.
So what I am saying is you can do anything, not just sample other peoples work, if you put some time into it and learn how to make any sound.



i am talking about foley sounds though, not synthesized 8bit style stuff.... and no, i don't have the same tools for that.. sure, i could invest in an expensive mic, and gather all kinds of material just so that i could make something sound like a real sword fight, for example.. but then, if successful, it will sound like the things already available, and there will be no originality.. the originality will come from how it is put to use afterwards, i can change the sound so that you would not have a clue of how it first sounded.. for me it is a huge waste of time if i put it in time doing something that in the end will just be a sound that is neutral on its own, that on its own is just another sample... then i rather get into the music making right away.. i don't need to make a blip or footstep sound on my own, just for the sake of it, it is not going to make the final output more original if i recorded it myself, so at most it would just serve as ego stroking and not affect the final output much compared to if i used an already recorded sound.

the reason big game/film studios do a lot of sounds by themselves is because they have to (even though many have their own sound libraries) but they might have to make new sounds in order to make them fit some very specific visuals on a screen, but that is not the case with most music that is being made, there is no reason for me to buy new tools and set things up just to record a sound that i can find already recorded, i have thousands and thousands of sounds that are not going to be much different from if i recorded them myself, so it is just a waste of time compared to just being able to browse folders and make use of the sounds right away, i can just load them up and get going from there.. there is no difference from that and making use of drum libraries, or any other sample that you have not created from scratch
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By hyena Tue Aug 06, 2013 10:29 am
i'm more and more using fm synthesis to build my drum sounds.
actually i'm working with a yamaha sy99 keyboard, but fm-8 or operator or any other good software or hardware fm synthesizer will do.
the hardest is snares for me, but some feedback loops on operators and some clever filtering\enveloping should do the work. kicks are HUGE and snappy if you know how to do them.

i'm also using a virus ti for building drums. there you can use various kinds of synthesis and tons of filtering\fx.

i tend also to record some sounds myself with a sennheiser mkh416p condenser shotgun mic (like metal plates, various material objects and stuff), eq them, tweak the dynamic and using them (usually to layer on top of other drum sounds)

also i find particularly useful all "impact" sound libs i can get my hands on.
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By -niN Sat Aug 10, 2013 7:31 am
Oldschool kung Fu flicks got mad Kicks!


Pun intended

You can also make claps from crackle...
punch a baloon.. Try beatboxing. Drum on Ur chair/ table/ couch..sample your Systems noise. Hold a mic to a speaker (carefull)... :arrow: Experiment