Rack/Chain Fun - Crossfading Between Effects

Hi all,
This post talks about a cool feature I needed and found a way to solve.
I wanted a way to cross fade between effects and didn't want to use sends.
I decided to go with racks , since I've already seen cool demos of switching between effects using chains, I decided to try and crossfade between them.

Lets get started!

First of all, let's put a nice pad on the floor playing a I-IV progression. I chose Operator->Synth->Pad->5th Pad and put a 2 bar loop of a C note and an F note:

Now let's drag an Auto Filter after the whole operator chain mess and group it (right click the auto filter bar and press group):



Rename the first chain to "Pulsing" and add another two chains - "Down Step" and "Clean". Drag another auto-Filter into the "Down Step" chain:



What we have now are three different channels to choose from - two effects and one clean one.
Now press solo on the first chain ("pulsing") and create a nice pulsating sound using the frequency settings of the autofilter:



Now solo the second chain ("down step") and create another linear frequency effect. I put the filter on Hi Pass mode with an initial filter of 4.8khz and a Q of 2.26 for a cool resonance effect.



and put on a nice envelope for a down step feeling:



So now we have 3 channels in one, A nice pulsating effect, A cool down step and a clean channel. Let's create three 64 bar,unlinked envelopes on the mixers of each chain: start with a clean effect, move on to the pulsing and finish it off with the down step. Remeber to unsolo the chains and unlink the envelopes:








Now sit back,press play and let the next two minutes sweep over you :)

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J

The making of Calliope MK I - DIY in the rough

Here's an off-topic post :D

Ever on the lookout for exercises in futility, I've decided to build my own midi controller for Ableton Live.
What I wanted was a way to trigger loops and sounds without using my laptop. I got some cool ideas snooping around on the internet and decided to build my very own DIY midi controller.

I always find it hard to decide what I want for my birthday. This year the choice was easy, Arcade Buttons!
My Mom and Brother bought me 52 really cool arcade buttons and thus the project began.

I have an old Fatar midi keyboard I never use so I decided to take the plunge. I took it apart and found out how to cause MIDI events

After a million hours of connecting wires and checking that everything works it was time to build the chassis.
I asked my dad for some help here (carpentry not being my forte) and we set to work drilling holes .

Next we put the buttons in

Wiring it all together

And here is the completed project (more pictures and videos coming soon):





Wanna contribute a cool tip?
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J

Side-Chain Compression Fun I - disappearing bass drum

In this tutorial I'll teach you the most basic use for a Side-Chain Compressor. This is the reason it was invented.
Ever notice how your bass and kick get all muddy together and you don't get exactly the sound you intended for?
the reason for this is very simple: The kick and the bass are on the same frequencies. They both compete over your attention, The result usually being a musical version of a black eye and hospital bills.
But what if we could teach them to just get along?
The bass has a long sustaining sound. Usually the attack isn't an important part of our bass sound design.
The kick on the other hand is defined by its attack but has no need for a long decay.
That's where side compression comes in: You ask the bass politely to lower (compress) it's volume for a bit every time the kick plays and then raise it back up.
Bingo!
You get a sharp kick for 2-3 ms and then let the bass take over the frequency.

Lets get started!

• Open a new project in Session View and create two midi channels with operator in them.
• One channel should have the drums->kick->house kick preset with a "4 on the floor" pattern:

• The other should have the synth->bass->disco preset with a simple bass line:

• Now press play on the kick clip. You should here a simple kick 4 times each bar.
• Now press play on the bass clip. Suddenly the kick disappears every 1st and 4th beat. Told you, didn't I?
• Let's put a compressor on the bass channel, press the on the compressors title bar to expand the amount of options:

• Turn on side chain and get your input from the Kick channel :

• Well , that didn't work. It sounds exactly the same! Lets see why :
• You've probably noticed by now that the threshold bar is showing the kick track and not the bass track meter. Also you've noticed that the little triangle on the bar is higher than the signal ever reaches. Now start lowering the threshold triangle. You'll notice that the kick really comes out below -35 DB , and not sharp enough , also totally ruining our bass sound.
• Lets make the cut faster, we want the kick to lower the bass immediatly and then let the bass kick in quickly. We'll set the attack as low as it goes : 0.01 ms and set a fast release at around 5 ms.
• Now lets set the ratio of the cut much higher. The ratio is the amount of compressing to be done. For instance , if the limit is set to -35 DB and the ratio is 2.0, a -25 DB signal will be reduced to -30 DB (a 2:1 cut on the excesive volume). Since we want to immediatly cut the bass and let it fade in gradually after the kick , lets go for an extremely high ratio 8 ( in the previous example, a -25 DB signal will be cut by 7/8 towards -35DB meaning it will be -33.75 DB)
• ok, so we have a great sounding kick but the bass sounds really ill. That's because we're cancelling it out too much , there's more room now for the bass. Bring the threshold back up to -20DB and check it out.

We have a wicked sounding kick and a groovy bass. Just for fun, press the bypass button on the compressor and listen to the original mix before the compressor was added and tweaked. The bass sounds a bit punchier now (we gave it back it's attack) and the kick totally disappears on the 1st and 4th beats. Try playing around with the different knobs and see if you can get a sound you like better. Always remember that sound design is a matter of taste.


Wanna contribute a cool tip?
email me : fireballgames AT hotmail DOT com
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J

Arpeggiator Fun - Part I

I remember the first time someone showed me an arpeggiator on his synth. I thought it was pretty dumb. Why would I want something like that? I can program it myself or even play it myself.
Well, all that is true, but still, there are many things that are just too complicated to program which you can easily do with an arpeggiator. There are also many randomizable events that are just impossible to program. In this post I'll show cool things that can be programmed but are easier to do with an arpeggiator. This post assumes you have a decent knowledge of envelopes in live.

Lets get started!

• We'll start by opening Live in session view , dragging our favorite SW synth into that channel (I chose operator) and creating a simple 1 bar loop:

• Next we'll drag an arpeggiator into the device list (right before the SW SYNTH):

• Now let's start playing with the different parameters ( I won't go into them all):

1. Rate - this is the frequency of the notes played for each note fed into the arpeggiator. play around with it a bit and then bring it back to 1/16th which means every note played will be divided into 1/16th note repetitions.
2. Gate - the length of the note being played. 100% means that notes will play their full length as set in the rate parameter, in our example, full 16th notes. Setting the gate to 50% will make the notes shorter , in our example, each 16th a short 32th note will be played giving a staccato feel. If set to more than 100% notes will overlap giving a legato feel. very useful for gliding (portamento) sounds.
3. Steps - the amount of arpeggiator steps to be executed. With steps set to zero we just have a note repeater, play around a bit and see what happens. Each new note re triggers the arp, so having more than 4 steps will have no effect in our specific example (4 16th notes for each 1/4th note played into the arp).
4. Distance - The interval (in semi-tones) of each step set above. If set to +12, for instance, each step in our arp will jump up and octave.
5. Style - since we only programmed one note at a time in our midi clip, most of the styles will sound exactly the same, but random will have a nice effect on this one as well. Once you've had your fun , bring it back to UP.

• Now let's set up automation for the first 4 parameters:

• Make a 4 bar looping envelope which plays 3 bars of 1/16th notes, Half a bar of 1/8th notes a quarter of a bar of 1/32th notes and a quarter of a bar of 1/8th notes. Start off by setting the knob manually to 1/32th notes,and in the envelope make 1/16th notes +2 and 1/8th notes +4. starting to sound cool already huh?

• Make a 3 bar looping with a simple up and down pattern for the gate parameter. manually set the knob to 135% (this will define the peak of the envelope):

• set the steps knob to zero manually. then build a 5 bar envelope setting the value at +4. In draw mode set each 1st quarter to a different value:

• set the distance knob to zero manually. Then build a 1.5 bar loop with a +7 and +10 distance somewhere in the middle :
  

With 5 minutes, a bit of tweaking and minimal imagination, we took a really dumb loop and made a cool (almost) random feeling loop out of it. Try changing the simple operator patch into something cooler or better yet, add more automation to the SW synth and see how far you can take it!



Wanna contribute a cool tip?
email me : fireballgames AT hotmail DOT com
Feel like being a good sport?
Add me as a friend on myspace!
Cheers
J