Impulse

 This is my area of expertise I have chosen overall for the project.

 

The impulse allows the user to load samples into a bank of 8 slots

 

For my example I will look at what I have loaded into the slots for my piece.

 

Slot 1: Bass drum

Slot 2: Snare

Slot 3: Snare rim(shot)

Slot 4: Ride (bell sound)

Slot 5: ride (mellow edge)

Slot 6: Tom 1

Slot 7: Tom 2

Slot 8: Splash cymbal

All these samples are real drum samples, cropped & ready to use, clicking into the file browser of ablteton I have located the samples & dragged them from the file browser into the desired slot (1,2,3 & so on).

Once these samples are loaded in, changes can be affected upon the samples with the many features within impulse.

Piano pt 2: an evoloution with effects

Since I did the piece, I have added some rock organ to it & gave it a nice undertow, using the organ as a pad to keep something subtle underneath…………..

After which I added drums, using the impulse instrument in ableton, I have created 2 drum parts to match the 2 piano pieces.To give it more atmosphere I have added a reverb to send channel A & turned it up to quarter of the way round the dialI have placed the altered reverb 1st & at per-set 2nd, as you can see I have altered alot on there, adding more to the reverb, making it individual to my piece & not just another pre-set.

1. Activating spin & placing at 43 from 46

2. taking the spin frequency down to 20Hz

3. activating the low end feature and placing at 122Hz

4. increasing chorus up to 0.48 from 0.02Hz

5. Making sure the delay dial is increased from 1.53s to 2.64s

 

Now I am wanting to add some effects to the piano to make it sound, bigger…….. I have tried some delay, yet that has played havoc with timing & feel, I have been through some other effects such as redux, chorus & finally settling on the auto filter.

Gained from file browser by selecting midi files, audio effects & then auto-filter. Using the “slid away” preset I have tweaked it a little to settle more with the performance, turning the piano from a straight sounding keys to an almost, guitar sounding with wah pedal added to it.

I adjusted the frequancy from 703Hz to 624Hz as the pre-set was too hi-end a touch, I also moved the piano settings on the honkey tonk option from 0 – 86 & the motion from 0 – 127

below is an example: 1st is the altered piano settings & then the auto filter altered settings & next to it the original pre-setting

Piano piece

My want was to have a piano piece in the song, be it a singular section or a running motif, I haven’t decided yet.

 

I began by loading up the grand piano midi instrument, from the file browser

 

1. click on midi section
2. select instruments
3. select keys
4. select grand piano
5. drag from file browser to the top of the session view

once loaded, a box appears in FX rack at the bottom of the screen

After which I began by simply running the click & practicing a small series of notes using the computer keyboard, after 5mins of checking which notes worked with which, I recorded a more lengthy & not as in tune as I am looking for, piece.

 

This is how I rectified the notes, locked the midi clip into time, and also built a progression on top of what I had just done.

 

1. I played the piece through & found the best elements; this was the main 2 cycles of the piano.

 

1. clicked the fold button so I could see just the note rang I had played

 

1. I then went through the notes manually instead of selecting every note & doing a general quantize, I felt this may diminish some of the feel & accidentals from the piece.

 

 

1. I then went through the piece & set the loop markers & once done used the draw tool to place some more notes in some places to thicken up the sound.

After this process I took one of the phrases from the piece & made another midi clip using the same techniques as above & created a progression

The next level

Now I have some idea of the percussive rhythm I can begin by moving onto something completely different! Strange as it may seem, the 2 will meet together in the end.

 

Taking an audio sample of something that can only be described as “creepy” I have warped it to my tempo (set at 90bpm for the moment) & then altered the start / end points using markers to narrow down the sample to a 3^rd of the original

 

This sample comprises of three separate elements, a creepy plinking motif, old record static, and what sounds like some reverse screams (as though the very gates of silent hill had opened up to swallow you whole)

Focusing on this technique loading another sample & reversing it, then warping it to the 90bpm tempo I have clicked on the warp markers within the loop points to do some experimental time alteration in some snippets of the sample, this will create a time / stretch effect that I don’t want to be “on the mark”. This will create a shimmer effect underneath the original sample, which I intend to place on-top of this one & pan one 20% to the left & the other 20% to the right, giving each a distinguished presence in the balance of the mix.

 

Now there seems to be some type of, build up in the intro to the song & the idea which accompanies it, I have an idea for the next scene, however this may whilst sticking in the dark ambient field may drift into van gelis` blade runner territory using the midi instruments of ableton.

Where to begin?

 

Constructing the skeletal rhythm

 

1^st off I wanted to build the track from the ground upwards starting from the drums / percussion.

 

I have pieced together 2 separate midi-clips using the “Impulse” generator. I have loaded in 2 separate presets to begin with which are “Drum circle” to create a percussive undertow, “Darkening” that gives some extra effect noises, I have used a sub-kick & snare rattle preset sound & made some adjustments.

What scene this will feature in I do not know yet, also I may replace some sounds in the Impulse generator at a later stage.

 

I will detail adjustments within impulse I have made:

 

Drum circle – creating a simple counting clave & pitched tom pattern I have mainly altered the start time range from o.ooms to 24.1ms and added a ping pong delay on preset 16, to give a long lasting after effect & a compression to thicken the sound up.

Darkening – Using a sub kick & scratchy snare, I have moved the filter freq` down to 138Hz on the HP1 mode on the kick & cut the start time of the snare scratch.

The 2 combined have created a subtle percussive element that although doesn’t have the sinister edge I want for the overall track, these are merely my baby steps, in this my Frankenstein of the ableton world.

 

Looking at what has been done so far & what forges ahead in my mind it looks as though I may use the impulse as a main focus point for my “specialist” area.

 

“Until next time, My pretty ones…….HE.He, he……”

 

 

Dan Mullins introduction

My Name is Dan Mullins

I have been a drummer for 15yrs & have a passion for production & sound design. I am currently on the level 3 music tech course at beumont street studios in huddersfield, starting work on my final composition which will be performed on march 7th 2008 @ the huddersfield media centre.

This will be a running blog, comment fest` utiliseing pictures & possible sounds

The main elements I want to look at involving in my final performance are:

- Triphop, heavy drums (either programmed or sampled)

- Female vocals

- Sampled guitar, distorted, using creative warping to alter the original sample(s)

- Use the impulse instrument, to create a midi-rhythm using edited guitar or vocal samples which i have altered

- Midi piano / strings / sound effects

- Create sound effects / pads using household objects, introducing the sample to ableton, warping of effecting to make original sounds to be used in performance composition

- using midi-control keyboard to trigger scenes, individual clips & use dials to introduce effects to clips whilst a scene is running

- look to creating a home made choir using female / male vocals

The musical approach will be composing from a dark ambient, classical, horror angle, utilising influences from nick cave, portishead, rob zombie & some classical & black metal genres.

And so it begins………..