Posts Tagged ‘attack decay sustain release’
Secrets to holding a listeners attention
Secrets to holding a listeners attention
I wanted to talk today about music that is based on repeating loops. The challenge many of us have when making songs based on either premade or self made loops of 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars is that it can be difficult to keeps things sounding interesting and exciting. I run into this scenario quite a bit and I’d like to share some tip sand ideas to help you improve the flow and interest of your tracks.
Filters
Filters and resonance is probably the most obvious way to keep interest in a part that loops. Closing a hi pass filter can can create a feeling of tension or repressed energy and opening the filter creates a nice release. Depending on the part, this can be very intentional and noticeable or subtle. Either way it can keep the listeners attention as the ears are impeccable at distinguishing minor changes and fluctuations. 2 or 3 builds in your song can go a long way to keep your track interesting.
Lfo’s
An LFO (or Low frequency oscillator) is a fantastic way to create subtle movement in your loop or midi part. If you are working with a synth, adding an lfo to panning, filter or pitch is usually possible directly on your hardware or soft synth. It doesn’t take much give a sound more life. Sometimes you can’t really notice exactly what is happening with your sound but you instinctually just know that it sounds more interesting. If you are working with a sampled loop, you may need to add an effect that offers lfo movement. Ableton’s built in effects offer alot of options in this arena. Adding something as simple as a chorus or flanger at a low “wet” percentage can really help. For more randomness I wouldn’t sync the lfo to tempo. A slow lfo that repeats out of sync with the tempo will keep the lfo’s themselves from being too loopy.
Duplicate and Layer
I use this technique alot. There are one of a few things I might do to keep things interesting. I will duplicate my loop and make the duplicate an octave higher or lower to introduce different frequency information. Often times I’ll go an octave higher and filter out most of the low frequency content so it doesn’t clash with the original part or other parts in the song. Then I’ll add some dirt with a type of distortion or saturator. Next I’ll automate the volume subtly so hints of it comes in and out of the mix. I may make it more noticeable during breakdowns and buildups. You can also add a layer that is a harmonic of the original. I like trying to repitch a dupicated layer 7 semitones above the original. See what works for you.
Also something to look into is duplicating your part and reversing it. Then find the parts that sound interesting and cut them up and strategically place them in interesting places. It will often assist and enhance the feel and movement of the loop if not overdone.
Send/Returns
This can be similar to the last tip. You would simply create interesting fx chains on several return tracks. One might use bit reduction and erosion. Another might introduce an interesting delay or Reverb, while another has a chorus or phaser. Ableton has some really creative effects, so definitely mix and match. It’s best to put the wet/dry on 100% as you don’t want to send the original track back into itself in most cases. Once you have those chains, each of your tracks, including your loop track will have send knobs in your session view. Your track sends are just as automatable as volume or panning, so automate subtle hints of each effect in different points of your song. This is certain to keep things interesting. Just make sure not to get lost here. You were probably attracted to the original loop for a reason, so make sure you aren’t diluting what makes the part great.
Attack, decay, release times
This is another technique that can make a huge impact on your synth part. unfortunately, you won’t have this option with a sampled loop, but I’ll give you a tip that might still help. If you are using a synth, you are sure to have Attack, Decay, sustain and release. In most cases, I like to back off my sustain and release to the lowest setting and then tweak the decay between long and short times. It’s great to open the decay up during builds and breaks and then back it off when things kick back in. This can bring your sound from choppy to washy. Experimenting with the attack can create interesting results at times too. Just like I said before, make sure you don’t lose perspective of the loop that inspired you in the first place. If you are working with a sample, you can drag in a Gate effect and experiment with the threshold. Sometimes this can create a similar effect.
Sidechaining
This is a dance producers secret weapon and can easily be overused but the movement and groove it can give a part can’t be denied. Subtly (or more noticeably) syncing a loop to the kick can certainly help keep things interesting. Naturally when the kicks drop out, so does the sidechain effect which is pretty popular in dance music. Whether you choose a standard noticeable approach or or something more subtle, the listeners ears will thank you. Also experiment with sidechaining to other parts in your song for interesting results.
Outside the loop
Although there are many many things you can do to make a repeating loop sound interesting, there is also something to be said about building interest outside the loop. In general, the listener is not going to want to hear a static loop for more than 8 bars. There are things outside the loop that obviously need to stay interesting as well. Filter rises, swells, evolving ambient sounds and high frequency sounds are some of my favorite ways to keep interest. Many songs, for example, will put a crash at every 8 to 16 bars. Surprisingly, that one sound can reset your interest in listening to a loop for another 8 to 16 bars (depending on how interesting the loop itself is). On top of that though, reverse sounds and weird noises run through reverb and delay can really create space and depth in your track. Another favorite trick of mine is stretching audio. Whether it be a vocal sample or, well, pretty much anything, you can really get some amazing drones with tons of subtle movement. Heck, even try stretching your loop itself. You can do some pretty massive stretching in Ableton but I prefer a fantastic free program called Paul Stretch which you may recognize from an earlier post of mine. It does some fantastic things and can bring endless fun!
I know there are ways to keep a track free from too many effects and dry sounding without losing interest as well, and that would have alot to do with drum programming, groove quantizing and knowing when to add another layer of hihats or when to drop the kick for dramatic effect. Hip Hop is really good at this, but remember, most hip hop is only a few minutes long and has vocals throughout. Getting the same results on a 7 minute track without vocals is much more challenging. I’m certainly not an authority on this approach, but I admire those who are able to take a minimal approach and keep things interesting and engaging.
Other things to note for keeping interest are counter melodies. Being able to change the attention from one melody to another can keep listener interest for a far longer time. Just make sure both parts have movement and have areas in the song where each is more noticable than the other as well as a part where both parts are layered pretty evenly. That alone gives you 3 movements for your track.
Last but not least, changing just 1 note in your bassline can make a dramatic effect if done in the right place. Don’t underestimate the power the bass plays on a melodic loop. Changing the key of your bass, or just a note here and there can do wonders to keep interest.
Use you best judgement
All of these techniques are simply suggestions and it’s really going to come down to your personal style and what you would like to accomplish. Some technique might not benefit your track at all, or perhaps you’ve found the perfect loop that needs very little to keep interesting. You are the master of your own craft and ultimately, you make the rules. All I am hoping to do is empower you to be the best YOU possible.
Below is a video I posted not long ago, but I thought I would add it to this post as it lead me to writing this blog and might give you some other ideas.
Creating Evolving Loops/Soundscapes
This is a simple way to take 1 boring midi loop and make it much more interesting through layering the same part through different effects chains. I also show you a trick of creating automation for each layer that loops at odd times. If you think of running several tape loops all at different lengths, when played together, the sounds never combine the same way twice. This makes things more pleasing and interesting to the ears.
Below is a video showing you this process in Ableton Live 8.
http://www.musicsoftwaretraining.com/vids/evolvingloop.f4v
(Right click and Save as)
Feel free to download the song file to see exactly how I approached this:
Happy Music Making,
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
30 Day Ableton Music Production Journal
Welcome to my 30 Day Journal experiment. Below are 3 of the 30 videos available in my full Ableton video collection. Over the course of 30 days I forced myself to record at least 30 minutes of producing everyday journaling my full creative process for 2 songs and a DJ mix. I also show you how to take a song from within or outside of Ableton and prepare it for live performance.
Be aware that due to the volume of video material I’ve recorded (20 or more hours), there are no zooms or tricky video effects. I am also aware that there may be some imperfections & volumes may fluctuate with my voice from video to video. In this case I’m going for a wealth of content instead of perfection. It is recommended that you enlarge this video to fullscreen for best results. Enjoy and please share this with your friends through word of mouth, email, Twitter & Facebook. I’d like to share this free content with as many people as possible.
Day 1 (Song 1 begins)
Day 14 (Song 2 Begins)
Day 27 (DJ mix begins)
Download completed songs & the Mix at the links below(right click and save):
Jason Timothy – DJ Mix August 2010
Final thoughts:
Realize the songs & dj mix were not abandoned at the point of perfection as reaching that can require far more than 30 days. Also be aware that reaching a level of satisfaction instead of perfection may be just the discipline you need. I know many people who spend years on their work and by the time it’s close to perfect, they realized it now sounds outdated to them thus starting the cycle all over again.
At the end of the day, completing your creative works takes a level of skill, patience and most importantly confidence. If you can’t muster the confidence in your work, you’ll never be able to say “This is finished”.
I took a huge gamble when starting this 30 day video journal. I had no idea what I would accomplish, if anything. I had no idea if I would be well received as I stumbled through each day trying to share an honest reflection of my creative process. I knew I would be far from perfect and that I would have several of my weaknesses exposed for all to see.
For me, this was a test of will, persistance and courage. I completed the challenge and I came out alive on the other side. As a sidenote I’ve pushed my comfort zone out quite a bit and have become less resistant to facing my fears. I want to thank you all for the support and the positive feedback. I hope this process has inspired you to have the confidence to create and complete your work.
Special thanks to Nick from NicksTutorials.com for loaning me the space and bandwidth to make this possible. I highly recommend you stop by his site. His Ableton tutorials are fantastic and he has loads of free vids as well.
For those who are interested, all the songfiles, samples and final mixes of the songs available immediately if you decide to order this full collection (you’ll need version 8.1.3). The full collection will soon be priced at $79 but is reduced to $59 for a limited time. (Keep in mind that the songs used for the DJ Mix are not included due to obvious legal reasons).
I hope you enjoyed this 30 day experiement.
Happy Music Making
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
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Basic Synthesis and Sound Design essentials made easy
Basic Synthesis and Sound Design essentials:
I wanted to give you some basic concepts to synthesis that you can quickly use to better your sound design abilities. My hope is that I am able to help people who haven’t yet had the ability to grasp it quite yet. I will do my best to share what I understand in a way that is easily digestible. This stuff has taken me years to understand. With any luck, this will shave a lot of time off of your learning curve. Feel free to correct me if you find more useful or more simplistic definitions for the following terms.
Waveforms
Sine wave – The simplest of all waveforms. It has no harmonics so is quite pure in sound. a Sine wave is best used for Sub-bass.
Square wave – This waveform only exsists as highs or lows with nothing inbetween. It’s produced by only odd harmonics which gives a more hollow sound. Good for creating wind instrument tones, widening strings and pads and deep wide bass tones.
Pulse wave – This is basically like a Square wave with adjustable highs and lows which can vary the harmonic content of the sound. can create reed like tones.
Sawtooth Wave – Produces all odd and even harmonics which is great for raspy dirty tones as well as brassy sounds. Also good for lead sounds and in your face bass tones.
Triangle wave – This only contains odd harmonics and is great when mixed with Sine, Square or Pulse waves to add some brightness or glitter.
Noise wave – A random mix of all frequencies instead of actual tones. White noise has an equal amount of amplitude throughout the frequencies which Pink noise has differing energies giving it a perceived deeper tone.Noice waves are excellent for percussive sounds (especially snare and handclaps) as well as wind or ocean sounds.
Additive Synthesis:
If you are using a waveform that is more complex than a simple Sine wave, then you are using a form of Additive synthesis. Anytime you add harmonic content to a wave to create a Saw, Square, Triangle or Pulse wave, you are using Additive synthesis. When you see wave options that say, for example, Saw 16, Saw 32, and Saw 64, just know that the higher the number (16, 32, 64 etc), The more high frequency harmonics have been added to the sound. You may want to think of this as fuller or brighter in tone.
Oscillators:
An oscillator is basically a sound generator. This oscillator generates a Sine wave in its most basic form. Square, Triangle and Saw waves are all derivative of the Sine wave. The only difference are the harmonics added to the sound at different frequencies and amplitude (volume) levels. The process of adding harmonic frequencies to a sine wave is called Additive synthesis.
Lets use the Operator instrument as an example…
The Operator instrument has 4 Oscillators, meaning 4 simple sound generators, which can by mixed together in a number of ways to create a final sound. Operator offers both Subtractive and FM synthesis algorithms.
One approach would be to to make 4 separate waveforms and mix them together(This could also be a form of Additive synthesis). This would give you more predictable results as you can fairly easily distinguish each separate sound of each oscillator that creates your completed sound. In it’s most basic form, this is similar to having a 4 track recorder and simply mixing each instrument together to make a song by adjusting the volume and a few other parameters.
Envelopes:
Any thing that happens to a sound over time involves envelopes. Amplitude(volume), Oscillators and filters all have Envelopes as can pitch. Each of these Envelopes can be completely different within one sound which can drastically influence the final sonic results.
In any sound or effect there are 4 components over time that make up an envelope. We will use an amplitude envelope as an example:
Attack – how quickly a sound reaches it’s peak level after a key is hit to trigger the sound
Decay – how quickly a sound drops to a level that it will remain at after the Attack peak. Sometimes the sound will remain at it’s peak level. Other times the sound will jump up quickly in volume and then settle at a lower volume.
Sustain – The level that that sound remains at after the decay until the key is released (this is a volume setting not a time setting)
Release – How quickly the sound level fades to nothing after the key is released.
Since each sound can have multiple envelopes, a sound can get really complex, but that doesn’t mean the building blocks of these sounds can’t be made from a basic knowledge of synthesis.
Subtractive Synthesis:
Subtractive synthesis is a model of sound design where you chip away at the frequencies of a simple or complex waveform with a filter (Complex waveforms being the result of additive synthesis, or, the adding of harmonics to a simple sine wave). You are subtracting certain frequencies from a rich, full range sound to create a tone you find satisfying. You can think of subtractive synthesis sound design in a similar way to how a sculptor creates his art. The “art” is already their, he just needs to chip away what isn’t needed.
FM Synthesis:
With this approach, the results of how each oscillator will effect your final sound is less predictable. Basically FM synthesis uses 1 oscillator as the main sound and each other oscillator as a waveform that modulates the first sound. This combination makes for much more complex results. You can look at subtractive synthesis like a salad. In a salad you have a combination of vegetables but with all it’s separate parts completely recognizable. FM synthesis is more like baking a cake. The sum of each ingredient may result in something that looks nothing like the original raw ingredients. The math involved would make your head spin, so just trust me on this. Another way to look at it is that subtractive synthesis is like a mixture of wet and dry signal on a reverb whereas FM synthesis is like having the reverb set to 100% leaving none of the original signal. This isn’t the perfect analogy however as Subtractive synthesis can be a mixture of several tones whereas classic FM synthesis is the processing or modulating of one single tone.
With FM synthesis you will need to rely on experimentation in order to build a vocabulary of familiar combinations. If you have never heard what a square wave sounds like when it is modulated by a triangle wave, which in turn is being modulated by a saw wave, you won’t be able to predict in your head the outcome. Do not feel like an idiot that you can’t simply think of a sound in your head and bang it out using fm synthesis. It’s going to take some time to understand how one waveform alters the sound of another. For now, just clear your mind and mess with the oscillators until something sounds cool, then take note of how you created it. You’ve now built your vocabulary. Repeat this step until you can start to predict how something will sound. Then you will move to a combination of predicting and experimenting.
Whereas with Subtractive synthesis frequencies can be altered with a filter, FM synthesis can create rich harmonics when one oscillator is modulated by one or more other oscillators. It is advisable to start with a darker tone and build the harmonic frequencies with other oscillators and then use the filter at the end if desired. The use of a filter on FM synthesis is supposedly not necessary since modulating oscillators can do that for you and classic FM synthesis doesn’t involve a filter. The use of a filter is kind of a mixture of FM and Subtractive synthesis.
Other forms of synthesis:
Other forms of synthesis includes:
Granular synthesis which uses a sequences of short grains(waveforms) to form a longer output sound.
Physical Modeling which uses some very complex mathematics and waveforms to create a realistic sound of wind a drum hit or bowed instruments.
Wavetable Synthesis which is usually made with a small collection of waveforms spliced together and looped. These loops can be measured in milliseconds. Think of it as microscopic audio samples mixed together to create a complex texture.
I’m not going to dive any further into those as my goal was to help you dive into the basics of synthesis. If you would like to really elevate your sound design skills, I highly recommend you purchase the Sampler or Operator video collections by Nick Maxwell at www.NicksTutorials.com. Much of what I am sharing with you has been made much more clear through watching his videos and being lucky enough to chat with him on the phone. This guy goes DEEP into what is possible with sound.
Hopefully this has cleared a few things up for you, now go make some music!
Jason
P.S. – Don’t forget to comment & tweet (down below) & “like” (up above).
All your feedback & support is appreciated!
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