Tag Archives: Sound Effects

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

 

Hybridized Beat Repeat

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In my last post I explained how I rein in random processing behaviors to get the results I’m after. A good processor for randomizing audio is Ableton Live’s Beat Repeat. Beat Repeat effortlessly duplicates the once tedious process of repeating small chunks of a sample to get stuttering effects, but also has parameters to randomize the repetitions in a variety of ways.

For the Rhodes solo in “Six Weeks” I wanted to scramble my performance in some way to match the “broken” drum programming. Beat Repeat was the ticket, but I couldn’t get a complete take that fit well with the rest of the piece. If you look at the image you can see that the solo is made up of fifteen separate regions of audio. These are all abstracted from specific renders of the performance through Beat Repeat. After rendering the audio several times I selected specific phrases and organized them in a way that enhanced the dynamics of the piece, creating a hybrid. Listen to the solo by itself and then to hear it in context play the full track at 2:54.

Six Weeks (solo) – Hybrid Beat Repeat Solo

Six Weeks (full track) – One Day to Save All Life

Distorted Percussion

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In this category I am planning to post a new sound everyday. I may not have created the sound the very same day of the post, but it will be something recent at the very least and more than likely created on the day I submit it. The idea is something like my colleague Tim Armato’s p{365} blog where he is posting a Processing sketch every day for a year.

My goal is to learn more about some of the audio processing that is available to me. It’s not always convenient when working on a project to explore new plugins or new ways to use old ones, especially in the studio or while collaborating. With this exercise I can do that and archive the results here. I’ll briefly describe the process of creating each sound and something about the software and hardware involved.

Today’s sound is a loop of audio that has been heavily processed in Ableton Live with filter taps (Pluggo), distortion, eq, dub delay (MDA), reverb, and more. The loop is an excerpt from a remix of “Some Kind of Adhesive” (One Day to Save All Life) that I produced with Nils Westdal. Believe it or not it started out as a simple shaker pattern. To me it sounds similar to the over driven thumb pianos of Konono N°1, although this was an accident since I was basically tuning the pitches to work in the remix. After I added distortion and a little virtual knob turning on the dub delay, this is what I got.

Distorted Percussion

The Concept for AudioCookbook.org

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Stove Top AudioDuring my life as a musician, audio engineer and sound designer I have always been fascinated by the unique ways we construct believable sound environments. The concept of AudioCookbook.org is to pass on what we have learned as sound designers, foley artists, musicians and engineers by hosting “recipes for sound design”. This can include all sorts of things we do as audio professionals to create great sounding productions. From crazy foley techniques to step-by-step sound design tutorials.

Plenty of great sites offer terabytes of pre-recorded audio files. That’s not the purpose here. The goal is to share fun and useful techniques on how to create high quality, original sound effects. Perhaps this will lead people to reach for the microphone instead of browsing for needle drop. To help illustrate techniques, an integrated media plugin routes audio or video files directly into a player within posts. If you’re an audio professional and interested in sharing your techniques we please consider participating.