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8. Electronic and Analogue Instruments for the Dance Producer Timbre Elements The
pallet of sounds available at the disposable to the modern Dance Music
composer is vast and can be daunting to a beginner.
By categorising
various instruments into descriptive categories, the production of
new and unique sounds can be achieved.
The
term instrument in the book refers to a source of sound that can be
used in a composition. An
example include a computer generated Bass Synth, a sampled phrase
of music or a vocal stab.
Individual
Sound To find
your own sound and individuality as a producer, you must create your
own Synth sounds, drum kits and sound effects for use in your songs. There is nothing wrong with using Synth presets
or using SFX from sample CDs, as long as they are used to compliment
your own sounds.
VST V’s
Hardware Synth There
has been much debate on the quality of sounds created by VST Synths
(Steinberg’s Virtual Studio Technology) or if they can match the authenticity
of hardware Synths. If the
tune gets the crowd dancing, they don’t care how the song was made. They don’t care if an authentic 808 was used
to record the Kick or a Sound Font sample bank of an 808 Kick. They don’t care if the latest 192 KHz surround
sound 64 stereo channel mixer was use for the final mastering or if
was mixed on a home PC. It
is important that the quality of the recording is clear, well balanced
and the song has a great vibe. Pallet of Available Sound Sources / Instruments Instruments
fall into the following main categories:
Timbre Matrix
The sound examples below are examples are instruments
with the minimal filters required for classification, and therefore
are not necessarily ready for use in a song.
Chapter 13 lists a few simple filter techniques to turn any
basic sound into a pro quality sample, ready for your tune.
Wavetable Most Synthesisers and Samplers come with Orchestra in a box
sounds, e.g. Harp, Violin, Trumpet etc, where actual audio recordings
of each note are mapped to a MIDI keyboard, e.g. Sound Fonts.
This is called, Wavetable synthesis, and it is generally more
convincing than Physical Modelling synthesis.
They will never be able to compete with recordings or real
instruments, but the obvious main advantage is that any musician who
can play the keyboard, can play any orchestral instrument as long
as they have the correct Wavetable Sample Bank.
Although
a Violin or Trumpet sound mapped to a keyboard sounds quite fake due
the subtle intricacies of the real instrument, a sampled Wavetable
Piano can be hard to distinguish from the real thing, especially when
layered under drums.
Fig:
The list of Wavetable synthesisers is vast.
A few examples are listed below.
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| Classical Sample loop |
Loop of classical music |
| Modern loop |
Funk, Pop, Rock etc |
| Individual instrument |
Flute, Harp, Sax, trumpet etc. |
| World |
Anything else that doesn’t fall into the above
category. |
Music Samples (Processed)
To give samples a more distinctive electronic music edge, apply the
following techniques.
|
Sample with filter |
Take a section of any unprocessed sample, and add a DSP filter
(see chapter 13). |
| Sample time loop |
A sample, with certain fractions of a second looped at different
lengths. |
|
| Grains |
Tiny bits of music, usually cut up into notes
or fractions of a note. |
|
| Glitches |
A sample that is processed by a variety of filters
rhythmically, i.e. each occupying a fraction of a bar. |
|
Guitar
The Electric guitar, is one of the most versatile instruments available
for the modern producer. Almost
any genre of music can include a guitar riff without it sounding out
of place.
| Distorted |
Distorted and overdrive. |
| Delay |
Delay, effective when remaining on 1 key. |
| Retro |
Tremolo |
| Gated |
Gated fast or slow |
| Wah Wah |
Funk based riffs |
Vocal
Elements (Unprocessed)
Vocals can add distinction and professionalism to a song. They can give personality to an otherwise faceless, digital composition.
| Choir Human |
| Rap Female |
| Rap Male |
| Singing Female |
| Singing Male |
| Shout Female |
| Shout Male |
Vocal
Elements (Processed)
An unprocessed vocal element may be sufficient for your tune, but
if the addition of a vocal line adds an unwanted Pop or Cheesy vibe,
you may wish to take back the electronic edge with some nifty processing.
| Ambience |
e.g. Reverb for stadium / church |
| Auto Tune Extreme |
The Extreme Auto Tune, which forces natural pitch changes
into accurate tones has been overused.
|
| Cut up |
Phrase cut up into syllables and re-arranged into a rhythm |
| Choir Vocoder |
Harmonise several individual Vocoder voices to create a robotic
barber shop. |
| Crackle |
Emulate the static nose interference of an old Record |
| Delay |
1) Short e.g. 60’s Vocal |
| Distortion |
Bit crusher, to remove quality and emulate Police Radio. |
| EQ |
Emulator the voice heard on Telephone |
| Gate |
Useful for screams, or long whoooo’s |
| Glitch |
A sample that is processed by a variety of filters
rhythmically, i.e. each occupying a fraction of a bar. |
| Jungle |
Jungle voice, speech slowed down. |
| Modulation |
Flanger / Phaser |
| Muffled |
Indistinguishable vocals |
| Robot / Vocoder |
See Vocoder |
| Pitch FX |
Use Pitch warp for comic chipmunk vocals. |
| Reverse Delay |
Reverse sample, add delay / reverb, and reverse again. |
| Squidgy |
Use Cut off modulated to LFO with high resonance to add a
high frequency. |
| Spread and EQ narrow |
Use a stereoscopic EQ to spread certain frequencies to the
left and right channel. |
| Speed Up |
Make Rap lines even faster. |
| Vocoder Instrument |
Use a Vocoder to play melody using speech. |
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