Skrillex vs. Lupe Fiasco ("Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites" & "Kick Push" mashup by 11:11)

Thought I would share this epic mashup with you guys, enjoy!

An In-Depth Study of Sidechaining

Sonic Transfer

Sidechain Compression Tutorial, Sidechaining, SSS Side Chain Compressor. The whole french house scene is practically defined by a signature sound. While the music itself is very different, every track seems to have this really loud sound. Some DJ’s call it a “push, pull”, “breathing”, or “suction” sound. It isn’t just artistry that creates this signature sound, it’s a lot of studio magic. That magic has a name: Sidechaining. After reading this SonicTransfer.com tutorial, you’ll know exactly how to do it.

To follow this lesson you will need:

1. A VST Host (e.g. Ableton Live, Cubase, Pro Tools, etc.)
2. SSS Stereo Side Chain Compressor – Free VST Compressor (now for Windows and OS X). Click here to get the SSS Stereo Side Chain Compressor.

What Does Sidechaining Do?

Sidechaining takes one sound and uses it to manipulate another sound. Most often you will see it on compressors, gates, limiters, and expanders. However, it can also be found on vocoders, synthesizers, and other effects. It is a really, really useful feature on compressors and gates because it allows you to place multiple instruments in the same frequency range without clashing. Or, more succinctly, it can make your mix sound really good.

This tutorial is going to demonstrate ducking using a sidechaining compressor. Ducking is the technique used by french house producers to get their characteristic “pumping” sound. Here are two snippets from popular french house songs that make heavy use of ducking:

• Daft Punk – One More Time
• Thomas Bangalter & DJ Falcon – Together

Listen to the horns in the Daft Punk sample. Notice how they become quiet when the kick drum plays? That’s ducking. The horn volume is ducked to make room for the kick drum. Listen to the DJ Falcon sample. The vocal loop gets ducked for the kick drum in the exact same way.

Now go grab any french house record from the last eight years. Almost all of them do it.

How Does Sidechaining Work?

Sidechaining really just means feeding sound into an effect that works on some other sound. But when most people talk about sidechaining, they are really talking about using sidechain compressors and gates to produce ducking. That’s what you will do today. This tutorial will guide you through setting up a Side Chain Compressor.

So, what does a Side Chain Compressor actually do anyway? It uses one of your audio tracks to control the volume of another audio track. To get a ducking sound, it will lower the volume of one of your audio tracks when the other gets loud. The screenshot below shows the volume of a synth pad before it is effected and after it is ducked to make room for a kick drum.

Now that you know how it works, it’s time to do it yourself. Read on.

Setting Up the Audio Tracks

First you need to prepare two audio tracks to feed into the compressor. The first audio track will hold a four-on-the-floor kick drum loop. The second audio track will hold a synth pad loop. Click the link below to download a ZIP file containing the two loops.

Click here to download a ZIP file containing two WAV audio files.

Start your VST Host (e.g. Ableton Live) and create a new song. Then open the ZIP file and place the two loops on separate audio tracks in your VST host. Make the loops repeat at least a couple times. Label the audio tracks if you prefer. When you are done, your VST host should look like the screenshot below.

When you press play you should hear the kick drum and synth pad playing on top of each other. The goal is to get the pad to “duck out” for the kick drum. You’ll need the SSS Side Chain Compressor to make that happen. Read on to learn how to set it up.

Setting Up the Compressor

Before you can use the compressor, it must be installed in your VST plugins folder. If you haven’t already done that, do that now. Next, load the SSS Side Chain Compressor effect onto the track with the synth pad. If you are using Ableton Live, you can click here to read a tutorial on using VST plugins with Ableton Live.

When press play you hear that nothing has changed. Before the compressor can work its magic you need to route the audio from the kick drum track into the compressor. If you are not using Ableton Live, then consult the manual on your VST Host’s audio routing procedures. Or, write a request on the SonicTransfer Forums. If I receive a request then I will usually write a tutorial for your host. Click here to visit the SonicTransfer Forums. If you are using Ableton Live, then reference the animated screenshot below.

Once you have routed the kick drum audio into the compressor, you are ready to start ducking the pad. The next section explains how to tweak the compressor’s settings to get the french house “pumping” sound.

Tweaking the Compression Settings

(NOTE: DualComp users should click here to read a tutorial on tweaking the compressor.)

Now when you press play you hear the pad ducking out for the kick drum! But, you don’t hear the kick anymore at all. This is easily fixed. Turn the knob on the far right of the compressor labeled KeyVolume. Turn it all the way up to 0.0db and the kick drum will return in full force. Wasn’t that easy?

The rest of the adjusting is up to personal preference. The threshold is a bit low so you may want to move it up to around -13 or -10db. Since the goal of this exercise is just to duck out the pads, you should turn the ratio knob all the way to infinity to give the pads the largest dynamic range possible. Keep the attack low at around 5ms. The hold knob will keep the pads quieter a bit longer and for this exercise should be somewhere around 40ms. The release determines how long the pads will fade in after each attack (and hold) and in this case should be around 90ms. Lastly, there is no need for any makeup volume so the gain knob should stay at 0db. (See the screenshot below.)

If you are using Ableton Live, you can click here to download the finished arrangement file.

Now you are ready to write some funky french house. Or, at least you’re on your way 

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed learning about Side Chain Compression. This technique alone can really improve the quality of your music. Keep experimenting and remember that this tutorial only scratches the surface of what is possible with sidechaining. If you have any questions or comments, please post a message on the SonicTransfer Forums. Click here to visit the SonicTransfer forums.

For more advanced side chaining, read this tutorial on side chain compressing a submix in Ableton Live.

Happy Producing!

Matt Sonic

(Note: Mac users might also be interested in the commercial Sonalksis Analogue Gate. )

Also, check out the free MdspCompressor for more sidechain fun. (Thanks Ben!)

Dear visitor, ignore these links, they are for the search engines:
sidechaincompression.com, freevstplugin.com, bassvst.com, abletonplugins.com, makehousemusic.com, howtomakehousemusic.com, www.sonictransfer.com/links

How to Make Dubstep "Screams" in NI Massive

(Special thanks to ByzaniteTV for this tutorial)

How to Get That BIG Kick!

Hello all! I apologize for my long absence --- have been quite busy lately with both my music and my novel, not to mention a long-overdo paint job for my bedroom. That's right, we are talking three walls white, one bright turquoise, how about that, eh? I wake up every morning feeling like I'm staying in a Caribbean cabana, minus the pretty island girls running around with grass skirts and pina coladas. All in due time though, all in due time.

Let's get right down to business, shall we? I'd like to use this article to share some of my most prized secrets --- some of the most esteemed and vital bits of information I have uncovered in my journey as a producer --- to creating the almighty "giant kick drum." You know the kind of kick I am referring to. And if for whatever reason you do not, go to Beatport.com and listen to the current #1 track (Martin Garrix - "Animals"). Even crazy Russian Youtube prankster Vitalyzdtv gave a shoutout to the epicness of this track. If Vitaly says it's good, it's probably good. He is a self-proclaimed Nutella connoisseur, and apparently an epic kick drum enthusiast as well. You can trust Vitaly.

Time to get that sound.

Time to kick society in the face with a... kick! Here we go...

To start off, let's refresh our memories as to where the most essential frequencies of a kick drum fall in the overall frequency spectrum. The sub frequencies of a kick drum lie in the 46Hz - 100Hz range while the higher, snappier "beater" frequencies that help a kick cut through the mix can usually be adhered to with a high shelf boost of about +2 or +3 dB at 2kHz and up. (See my article "The Correct Way to Choose Drum and Percussion Samples" for more info on layering kick samples).

Assuming that you already have nice, satisfying, thick kick drum in the works (whether layered or a single sample), I will now offer you some tips as to how to make it as massive as possible. First and foremost, if you have not yet sidechained your basses and pads to your kick, put down your Fun Dip and do it. Sidechaining is essentially what some producers traditionally call "ducking," in that the bass or instrument track that is sidechained with the kick will "duck" in volume each time the kick drum sounds. (I will explain in extensive detail how to sidechain in a future article.) This will ultimately free up the low-end frequencies that your bass tracks inhabit during each of the kick hits, thus allowing the deeper components of the kick drum sound to cut through the mix. It could almost be looked at as "pushing aside" the other instruments in your mix to allow your kick to punch through to the surface and breathe.

Never overlook the power of a simple sub frequency pulse beneath your kick drum samples. You can achieve this via NI Massive or just about any other synth software at your disposal that allows you to create a simple sine wave with very fast attack and release. Try experimenting with mimicking the sound of a kick drum by adjusting the release time, pitch, attack, and other envelope parameters until you get a nice heavy sub bass "boom". For example, to mimic the slow "booooom, booooom" (apologies for my inability to think of a more effective way to describe it) of the "Animals" kick drum, your sine wave pulse should have a quick attack with a slower release. Try increasing the sustain time as well to achieve the drawn out resonance. Depending on the nature of your software, either the sustain or release can offer you the optimal result of a long, powerful sub kick. The key is to know your software and experiment; your ears are your best weapon. As far as building a sub kick layer from Massive (or other softsynth), it is important to remember that the sound you are building is intended to blend with your main kick sample(s) rather than stand out as the prominent component of your kick. That said, it may not sound like anything special when you trial it separately, but depending on where the frequencies fall (16Hz to about 25Hz is ideal) it will certainly add a surprisingly thick, deep "thump" to your kick drum sound when layered over your other kick samples. Of course, the proper EQ and compression treatment for a sub kick would be applicable for your sine wave pulse layer, i.e. a low pass filter and beefy compression. Word of warning: this method is to be used very conservatively. In other words, it won't take much volume to get the self-made sub kick to serve it's purpose. Make sure it is low enough in the mix so that you don't necessarily "hear" it, but rather "feel" it.

One seemingly simple yet extremely critical concept to consider when striving for a gigantic kick drum is to keep an uncluttered mix. Don't overdo the instrument tracks if you want your kick to be the focal point of your beat. This does not have to be considered for the entire song, however, but when you are attempting to create a track that features a passage where the pulse of the kick drum dominates the entire mix (in place of a bassline perhaps, even), you want to have a clean slate to lay down your beat. To reference "Animals" once again, let us examine the passage where his monster kick drops. You have only two components occurring musically at this moment in the song: a.) the insanely massive kick drum; b.) a minimalistic percussive stab melody to accompany it. That's it. Two things. Think about the implications of this. With only two sounds, Martin Garrix has crafted a drop that pushed his track to the top of the Beatport charts. The key is to be tasteful and to have a plan as far as what you wish to accomplish with your drop. For him, he chose to throw all crazy growl bass Skrillex-ey whatever sounds out the window, settling instead for a minimal house club-thumping kick pulse doing nothing more than hitting the downbeats. That is all there is to the bass component of this drop. There is no bassline whatsoever in the drop, just his huge kick. This is what I mean by focusing on your "plan" for the drop, and for paying attention to how your mix should not be overflowing with instrument tracks. When you are shooting for a massive kick, keep your mix simple. I will say this again because I cannot stress it enough as far as huge kick drums are concerned. When you are shooting for a massive kick, keep your mix simple.

Always make sure to use your monitors with your subwoofer when producing kicks, as well as any bass or sub-frequency sounds for that matter. This may sound like common sense but you would be surprised at how many novice producers underestimate the importance of having a subwoofer in your arsenal, settling instead for standalone computer speakers or headphones. Though each serve their purpose, producing a giant kick drum is best adhered to when done through your monitors with your subwoofer turned up.

So there you have it. It may take rocket science to put a man on the moon, but getting a massive ass-obliterating kick drum is thankfully much easier. The most critical elements come down to paying attention to the quality of your samples, making sure your mix is not over-cluttered, a generous dose of sidechaining, and perhaps a subtle sine wave pulse mirroring your kick samples for added sub frequencies. Utilize these concepts when crafting your next kick drum and you might just be the one who "kicks" Martin Garrix out of the #1 position on Beatport!

And who knows, if you are lucky enough you might even get a shout-out from Vitalyzdtv!

How to Make a Koan Sound Style Reese Bass

(Special thanks to Le Fu Music for this video)

Mixing Like a Conservative: Gain Control and Headroom

There happen to be a decent number of possible pitfalls along the way to achieving a great mix but the most critical lies in the treatment of your gain levels. Without proper control of the dB levels of your tracks, your master fader may clip causing undesirable distortion, noise, and general poor quality. In order to avoid this problem, you need to get into a unique mindset specially made for the mixing stage; you need to think like a conservative.

Now, before you start assuming that this article is about to turn into a political shitstorm, take a moment to recall what the term “conservative” really means in a music production context. It refers to a very modest approach to the utilization of your production tools and techniques. In the context of gain levels, a conservative treatment will fare your project well and leave you with plenty of headroom in your master fader.

The master fader itself should be brought down at least -5 dB to begin with. Keep your kick and snare set anywhere from -8 to -10dB so as to allow for extra headroom for your basses. Don’t worry about your track sounding “loud enough” at this stage; this is a MAJOR pitfall that will cost you a balanced mix if you worry about your overall loudness at this stage in the game. Getting your track to be a strong contestant in the “loudness war” comes during the mastering stage. Worry about it then, and only then.

It is always a good idea to A-B (compare) your work-in-progress with a professionally mastered song of a similar genre or sound. However, it is easy to get anxious and frustrated while doing so since your track is obviously a work in progress and has not been treated with the mastering components (loud amplitude, cohesive saturation, stereo metering, etc.) but don’t let this get to your head. Remember, you are in the mixing stage, not the mastering stage. Pay close attention to the professional track’s mix and do your best to see beyond the mastering aspects, i.e. volume. It is the sound of the professional mix you are after right now, not volume. One tip I have picked up over the years that will aid in making the A-B process more fruitful is to bring down the volume of the song you are trying to emulate so that it matches your project rather than boosting the volume of your project to match that of the other song.

Let’s say, for example, that you are trying to create a growl bass similar to the one from Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” but you are finding that your drums are sounding a bit weak in the mix. You open iTunes and play back Skrillex’s song to compare and you find that not only do his drums cut through the mix but they are punchy and have a vitality all their own, and the overall volume of the track is much louder than your work-in-progress. Well, as I said before, forget about the volume issue right now. Bring down the volume of iTunes, listening by ear, until it matches the volume level of your session. This will allow your focus to go where it should: the mix.

Now, back to the drum issue. You want yours to kick and snap with the punchiness of Skrillex. Instead of simply dragging the fader of your drum bus up a few dB, simply bring everything else down -1 or -2 dB and leave your kick and snare hitting right where they are (which should be -8 to -10 dB). You should find that, with proper treatment such as sidechaining your basses and melody synths and proper EQing, your drums will definitely cut through the mix in a much clearer, punchier manner.

A conservative approach to gain control will be sure to put you on the right track for a clean mix that is powerful, crisp and huge. It is important to remember that power comes from a good mix, not from an over-limited slab of non-dynamic sound waves. Think like a conservative and bring down dB levels of opposing tracks rather than boosting one or the other so that it overpowers its opponent. Headroom is your best friend when it comes to dynamics and a clean mix, and when you leave enough dB between your peaks and 0dB, you will make the mastering process incredibly easier. That volume that you seek to emulate from professional tracks comes from the mastering process, but the power comes from a mix that was treated carefully and conservatively.

Free Plugins: The Ultimate List (VST, RTAS, AU, AAX, etc.)

Audifex - ampLion Free - guitar amp simulator

Avid - Structure Free - sampler
Avid - SignalTools - metering
Avid- Xpand! - virtual instrument
Avid - D-Fi - low-fi sound design
Avid - Bomb Factory plugins - various free Bombfactory plugins
Avid/TL Labs - TL Utilities - tuning, metronome, metering
Avid/TL Labs - TL AutoPan - panning effects

Blue Cat Audio - Free Plugin Pack - a little of it all
Blue Cat Audio - Chorus - chorus
Blue Cat Audio - Flanger - flanger
Blue Cat Audio - FreqAnalyst - frequency analyzer
Blue Cat Audio - Gain Suite - gain utilities for controlling volume
Blue Cat Audio - Phaser - phaser
Blue Cat Audio - Triple EQ - 3-band EQ

Brainworx - bx clean sweep - hi and low-pass filter
Brainworx - bx solo - M/S tool

Cableguys - Pancake - panning modulation

Camel Audio - Alchemy Player - virtual instrument with 1G sound library
Camel Audio - CamelCrusher - distortion unit

De La Mancha - FMMF - user-friendly FM synthesis

Desample - Glaceverb - vibration and acoustic response emulator

DDMF - Colour EQ - EQ with custom-made 4th order IIR filter

Elysia - Niveau Filter - a handy filter tool

Flux - BitterSweet II - transient designer
Flux - Stereo Tool - stereo shaper/designer

FXpansion - Orca - virtual synthesizer instrument
FXpansion - ClapOMatic - virtual crowd/clapping simulator
FXpansion - DCAM Free Comp - a model of a classic console bus compressor design

HOFA-Plugins - ProjectTime - measures the elapsed hours of work that went into individual projects
HOFA-Plugins - Meter, Fader & MS Pan - metering, fader and MS decoder
HOFA-Plugins - Goniometer and Korrelator gonio and correlation metering

Human Touch Technology - SIKA Oriental Scale - SoundFont player dedicated to Arabic and Oriental scales

IK Multimedia - AmpliTube Custom Shop - amp and FX simulation
IK Multimedia - T-Racks Custom Shop - lots of helpful plugins
IK Multimedia - SampleTank 2.5 - virtual instrument

iZotope - Vinyl - vinyl simulator

JK Plugs - JK Pipe - captures default audio input set in System Preferences

Klanghelm - DC1A - user-friendly compressor

Magix - Independence Free - sampler workstation

Massey - Massey Tools - various helpful plugins

Metric Halo - Thump - extreme bass modulator

Native Instruments - Kontakt Player - sample player for use with Kontakt instruments
Native Instruments - Reaktor Player - virtual instrument
Native Instruments - Guitar Rig 4 - modular effects processor

Ohm Force - Frohmage - a nifty filter device
Ohm Force - Cohmpost - a very bizarre, filter-ish plugin
Ohm Force - Symptohm: Melohman PE - virtual synthesizer instrument

Pleasurize Music Foundation - Dynamic Range Meter - metering tool

PSP Audioware - PianoVerb - a strange reverb unit
PSP Audioware - PSP VintageMeter - metering tool

Sonalksis - FreeG - metering tool

Sonoma Wire Works - DrumCore - virtual drum instrument

Soundhack - Delay Trio - creative delay effects
Soundhack - Freesound Bundle - an array of helpful tools

SPL - FreeRanger - EQ unit

Studio Devil - Studio Devil BVC - amp modeling

TriTone Digital - MuteTone - a workaround to the inability to shut off input monitoring

Two Notes - Torpedo PI-FREE - mic and speaker simulator

U-he - Zebralette - virtual synthesizer

UVI Sound Source - UVI Workstation - sample player

ValhallaDSP - Valhalla FreqEcho - frequency shifter and echo unit

XLN Audio - Addictive Drums Free - virtual drum instrument
XLN Audio - Studio Grand Free - virtual piano instrument

Yohng - 4Front Bass - virtual bass instrument
Yohng - 4Front E-Piano - virtual electric piano instrument
Yohng - 4Front Piano virtual piano instrument


(Let me know if I missed any!)

Using 808 Samples to Create Sub Bass

The following video shows how to create a sub bass using 808 drum samples. Quite a unique way of going about it! (Thanks to dubstepforum.com participant Skeemstep for this tutorial)

How to Glitch-ify your Dubstep Tracks

A key component to making creative dubstep lies in attention to detail. Often, the more detailed and complex your soundscape, the more your track will stand out from the plethora of competition on Beatport, Soundcloud, Youtube and the internet in general. In most cases, complexity indicates a certain skill: the art of subtlety. Dubstep subgenres like complextro (technically not a specific subgenre, but let’s say it is for the sake of example) are almost entirely based upon their detailed structure with the rapid morphing from one bass sound into the next, syncopated waveform oscillation, percussive additives and more, lending the “complex” aspect to it’s name. It’s all in the “glitch,” as you will soon learn. It is the art of the unexpected. Today we will be exploring how you can “glitch-ify” your own tracks, making them as interesting as possible.

As previously stated, the secret to great, glitchy sound lies in the unexpected nature of your transitions, sounds, and overall flow. Start by creating your bass patches. If you are a Massive user (I would highly suggest investing in this wonderful software instrument if you are not), create a bass patch with a fast attack, long sustain and some grit. Throw a Sine Shaper onto it along with a Tele Tube or Classic Tube effect to bring out some distortion. Adjust the stereo width to your liking.

Now that you have one bass patch you are happy with, it is time to make the next one. Here is where the “dubstep mindset” really comes in. You want to be glitchy and unexpected, so adapt this concept into your workflow. You know that your last bass sound was hard-hitting and gritty, so perhaps it might be worth your while to make a bass with a slower attack and more warmth to counter it. How you will use it in the context of the song comes later. Don’t worry about that just yet. For now, create a palette of varying bass sounds.

When you have two basses with qualities that lie on completely opposite sides of the aural spectrum, make at least three more to fill out the middle arena of sound. (By “middle” I am not inferring midrange frequencies, per se). Make some basses that include aspects of both your first and your second bass patches, but this time around add some interesting effects via wavetable oscillation, filters and 3^rd party effects plugins. The key is to exercise true freedom when it comes to sound design. While it is important to think of your work as a whole and envision the atmosphere of the end result, too much planning can inhibit your creativity as you will end up losing that sought-after “craziness” that you can only get with musical freedom being point number one in your musical mindset.

Play around with different ratios in your oscillators and don’t be too discouraged if what you are making sounds lackluster on its own in solo mode. All too often I slave over getting a patch to sound “just right” in solo mode, not realizing that the “power” I am seeking is really that of the full mix. You may have just heard your track and thought to add a new bass; next, you add the midi instrument track for the bass and solo it to work on crafting that sound without background noise. Here is the pitfall one must be aware of in this stage: don’t try to make your bass as loud (or worse, louder) than the pre-existing mix. Your sound obviously can’t hold the same amount of amplitude or frequency range as the entire mix of your song in one sound and expect it to blend well, so it is important to bear this in mind when you are finding your basses a little weak while in the designing stage (in solo mode). Keep A and B-ing your new sound in solo with the rest of your mix so that you are working towards a solid sound that meshes with the mix rather than one that tries to overpower it. It is easy to get carried away with distortion and volume, but be wary of how you treat these when it comes to basses since the quickest way to lose your balance in the mixing stage is by working with sounds that are competing with just about everything else in your track. I guarantee you, if you follow this step carefully you will be much happier and quite surprised at how amazing some of those basses are that you otherwise thought would not be powerful enough. Power doesn’t necessarily come from volume. It comes from a balanced mix with well-crafted sounds — sounds that were crafted with that particular attention to detail that is crucial in glitchy electro or dubstep.

While an array of bass sounds with different modulation rates lends the glitch aspect to your low-end groove, cymbals and white noise swells can play crucial roles in your high-end and your buildups. The standard crash cymbal features a long decay and quite often a slight tinge of reverb. To glitch things up a bit, try separating your sample in half and remove a portion of it in the middle so that there is a small gab between the two sections. When done correctly, you can get a nice, flavorful stutter effect which really lends some interesting flavor to an otherwise normal crash cymbal. A perfect example of this can be heard in Porter Robinson’s song “Spitfire.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89KV_LcbqsA)

It might also be worth your while to take into consideration the level of interest of your kick and snare patterns. A 4-on-the-floor, thumping kick might work well for house or electro, but when it comes to glitchy dubstep it simply will not suffice. Switch things up and try cutting into half time at key parts of your song. A few “misplaced” kicks often lend a really interesting aspect to dubstep that artists like Skrillex have been known to use prevalently. It is critical to make sure your overall beats themselves are quantized to the grid so as to preserve neatness and order, but transitions can be made much more interesting when you let the beat fall to the wayside with a quick flurry of bombastic mayhem during those key transitions. (I practiced this technique in my Leona Lewis “Trouble” remix which can be heard throughout the song, particularly at the transition starting at 1:42. Pay attention to what the kick does there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHAg1cpv_W0)

The key to adding interesting glitch aspects lies in how creative you are willing to get. It requires an open mind and a loosing of all of those “hard and fast rules” you were taught to follow. While it does pay to stick to formulas that have been known to work, sticking too much to any given formula will only lead you into the arena of “heard it once, heard it a million times” and no producer wants that. Think for yourself, use your ears, and open your minds! The possibilities are endless.