Tag Archives: Sound Design

Automated Auto Pan

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As a producer, a technique I have found that is an effective way to develop the dynamics of a performance is by adding expression through automated processing. In this phrase of synth from a composition that I’m working on I have applied automation to add an expressive quality to the recording.

I have always been fascinated by the Doppler effect as it is mechanically applied to sound through the use of Leslie speaker cabinets. I own a Leslie cabinet that I had modified so that I was able to run instruments through the amplifier, other than Hammond organ, and control the speed with a foot switch. My goal was to play my Rhodes through a Leslie, and this is something I did during live performances for years to come.

My favorite characteristic of the Leslie is the slowing down and speeding up of the motors that control the speaker rotation. This can be simulated quite well with plugins or virtual instruments such as the Native Instruments B4. In this example, rather than use Leslie simulation, I opted to simply automate the “Rate” parameter in Live’s Auto Pan effect. Leslie simulators often add other characteristics like motor noise, filtering and distortion, but I wanted to keep the signal relatively clean while still getting a speeding up and slowing down expressive quality to the instrument. To get the full effect of the automated panning, listen with headphones firmly planted on ears.

Automated Auto Pan

Door Stop

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I always liked the sound this old spring door stop makes when accidentally kicked, but never recorded it until now. I think the fact that its attached to a one hundred two year old wooden door gives is some nice resonance.

This is a basic mono recording originally at 48kHz and 24bit. I plugged my favorite large diaphragm condenser into my M-Audio Firewire 410 with the phantom power enabled. I’m not sure what I might use it for. Perhaps it will make up some percussion in a future track.

Door Stop

 

Precambrian Resonance

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Remember those Precambrian rock noises from North Shore Rocks? Well for this piece I loaded the unprocessed recording of those rocks into a simple sampling plugin, then arpeggiated the sampler randomly within a scale. This created a cloud of stumbling chaotic rhythms that changes every time it is played back in the software.

I listened to this for a long while, fascinated by it, then decided to run it all through the Resonator in Ableton Live. This processor produces a chord of resonant pitches that react to the signal sent to the device; in this case, my falling rock sample. Since the rocks had no discernible pitches, this instantly created a musical bed of sound. I tuned the resonance to a C minor 9 chord and then automated the tuning of a fifth pitch to create a melody. A little bit more fussing about, and this is what I got.

Precambrian Resonance

Unity Status

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Technically this post and the last have been more than one sound, so perhaps I should rename the category “one sound or more every day”. Anyway, I just made a rough mix of this musical sketch (not quite a complete piece yet) and thought it could serve as today’s sound.

The image is a partial screen grab of one of the virtual instruments I used. The chordal and melodic tones and the bass are all played and programmed by me, but the rest of it is sampled from an unnamed jazz recording, so although the samples are heavily manipulated this composition is unlikely to go much further than this.

Unity Status

Piano and Kalimba

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Every so often I think it might be a good idea to record using acoustic instruments I have lying around my studio. This time I started with a little loop of syncopated piano. On top of that I added a very simple melody with a kalimba, or thumb piano. There’s no processing other than normalization to -3db to give the levels a little boost.

I have dozens of these tiny pieces, and once in a great while they actually get finished as tracks, but the vast majority of them, like this example, sit in dusty folders on backup hard drives. Most of the time that is exactly where they belong, but I do review them occasionally to get ideas or see if there’s anything worth producing.

Piano meets Kalimba