{ "version": "https:\/\/jsonfeed.org\/version\/1.1", "title": "Daniel Sokolovskiy’s Blog: posts tagged Sound design", "_rss_description": "On the DJ career, music industry, marketing, professional growth, productivity tools, personal journey and life", "_rss_language": "en", "_itunes_email": "mail@dsokolovskiy.com", "_itunes_categories_xml": "", "_itunes_image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic-square@2x.jpg?1732048793", "_itunes_explicit": "no", "home_page_url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/tags\/sound-design\/", "feed_url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/tags\/sound-design\/json\/", "icon": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1732048793", "authors": [ { "name": "Daniel Sokolovskiy", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/", "avatar": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/userpic\/userpic@2x.jpg?1732048793" } ], "items": [ { "id": "708", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/music-standards\/", "title": "Music standards", "content_html": "

Every music genre has its own substandard. And it is very important to understand that there are no abstractly “good” and “bad” individual sounds or tracks, but there is a matching or failing to meet the standards.<\/p>\n

Listen to these two audio examples:<\/p>\n

\n
Kick-1<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Kick-2<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Which one is better?<\/p>\n

The answer is: it depends on what we’re trying to do and what problem we’re trying to solve.<\/p>\n

Speaking from the point of the nature of sound, the second kick sounds excessively distorted, flattened, clipped and formally unusable. But suppose a producer has set a goal to release a techno track. In that case, that rough and formally useless kick is potentially more suitable for this purpose because in some subgenres of techno it is so accepted<\/i>. In general, we often make the sound objectively worse so that subjectively it seems better to us and meets certain standards.<\/p>\n

It is also essential to understand that such standards always change over time. The sound design, production techniques, and character of tracks that were relevant ten years ago are hardly the standard today.<\/p>\n

Listen to a few examples:<\/p>\n

In Techno:<\/p>\n

\n
Adam Beyer — Compressed A1 (Original Mix), 139 BPM [Drumcode, 1996]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Wehbba — Coup Of Doubt (Original Mix), 128 BPM [Drumcode, 2020]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In Progressive House:<\/p>\n

\n
Shmuel Flash ‎– Chilling Moments (Bedrock Vocal), 128 BPM [Bedrock, 2002]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sugarcoat - Knives Out (Sasha Remix), 124 BPM [Bedrock, 2019]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In Psytrance:<\/p>\n

\n
Bitkit — Burn Out (Original Mix), 145 BPM [Yellow Sunshine Explosion, 2011]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Outside The Universe — Another You (Original Mix), 144 BPM [Sacred Technology, 2019]<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Notice how the timbres of individual instruments have changed and how the tracks sound as a whole. Of course, music is produced now for all tastes, including music that sounds like it was ten or twenty years ago. Making ‘oldschool’ music on purpose is also fine if you understand what the musical standards were at the time and why you need to do it in the first place.<\/p>\n

Does this mean that a young producer has to follow certain sound standards? Not necessarily at all. Anything is possible<\/a>, including ignoring the standards at all, especially if you just make music for yourself.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it is handy to observe the existence and change of these standards, both in order to follow them, if necessary, or vice versa, to know what to move away from.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2021-03-05T09:42:12+01:00", "date_modified": "2023-11-14T21:59:59+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Music Industry", "Production", "Record labels", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/music-standard-en.png", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Fri, 05 Mar 2021 09:42:12 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "708", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/kick-progressive-house.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 308448 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/kick-techno-industrial.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 308448 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/adam-beyer-compressed-a1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 2230015 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/wehbba-coup-of-doubts.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 2385705 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/bedrock-chillin-moments.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 3004284 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sasha-sugarcoat.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 2945770 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/bitkit-burn-out.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 2387795 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/outside-the-universe-another-you.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 2403468 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/music-standard-en.png" ] } }, { "id": "468", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/creating-a-weird-psychedelic-lead\/", "title": "Creating a weird psychedelic lead using LFO", "content_html": "

How to emulate a typical psychedelic glitchy sound you hear in tracks from the artists like Imagine Mars<\/a>, Tristan<\/a>, Ajja<\/a>, etc?<\/p>\n

Zahaan<\/p>\n<\/div>

Zahaan, I don’t know for sure how these guys making their sounds, but I’ll share my thoughts on how to achieve something similar.<\/p>\n

Formally speaking, this sound is very simple and it’s made of two key components: a bandpass filter and an LFO with a “Sample and Hold” waveform, all the rest is processing. Special thanks to my colleague Evgeniy Dolgih for hinting that specific LFO type, I probably wouldn’t figure it out myself.<\/p>\n

Let’s try to recreate it from scratch. I going to use Sylenth1, but you can use any other synthesiser you have as long as it has an LFO.<\/p>\n

Recommended synths<\/a><\/p>\n

Initial preset. Single oscillator with Saw wave and one voice. Choose bandpass filter type and assign modulation envelopes to the filter cut off.<\/p>\n

You should get something like this:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n
Initial preset with a few tweaks in the filter and envelopes sections<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Basic sound with a bandpass filter<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now in the LFO section, assign it to the filter cut off and choose “Sample and Hold” waveform in the dropdown menu. Tweak rate and gain knobs up to your taste.<\/p>\n

Here is what we’ve got:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n
Choosing LFO waveform in the dropdown menu<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Bleeping weird sound<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That’s pretty much it. You can play around with the LFO rate, add distortion, reverb, frequency shifter, or any other audio processing effects.<\/p>\n

After spending a couple of minutes tweaking it, I’ve come up with this really weird sound:<\/p>\n

\n
Weird sound with extra processing<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And here’s how it sounds like in context:<\/p>\n

\n
Weird sound in the context<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"\"\n
Effects processing chain<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Have fun tweaking yours!<\/p>\n

P.S. I had a personal chat with Zahaan sharing these tips, and he eventually made the following sound using an extra phaser and distortion:<\/p>\n

\n
Zahaan's result<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Well done!<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2017-08-23T13:48:14+01:00", "date_modified": "2021-09-19T18:21:11+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/weird-psychedelic-sound-1.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 23 Aug 2017 13:48:14 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "468", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 142476 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 142476 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-4.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 349366 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-5b.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 590737 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-6.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 278313 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/weird-psychedelic-sound-1.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/weird-psychedelic-sound-2.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/weird-psychedelic-sound-3.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "433", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/making-a-robotic-texture-sound-in-spire\/", "title": "Making a robotic texture sound in Spire", "content_html": "

Could you explain how you got to producing that arp on Machinery (Preview)<\/a> at 0:02 sec?<\/p>\n

Mohammed Sharook<\/p>\n<\/div>

I’m glad you asked because I love that sound and quite satisfied with it :-)<\/p>\n

In few words — it’s all about a comb filter. That particular filter type is what makes the sound so badass and “robotic”. But let’s try to recreate this sound entirely from scratch.<\/p>\n

Comb filter<\/a><\/p>\n

First things first, we need to use a synthesiser that has a comb filter. For instance, Sylenth1 which I know many Psytrance producers use a lot, won’t work in this case since it doesn’t have that filter. So, for this example, I’m gonna use Spire.<\/p>\n

Recommended synths<\/a><\/p>\n

Let’s create a new MIDI channel, put a new instance of Spire with initial preset, and draw a MIDI note. Keep in mind that actual note on a piano roll doesn’t matter because we gonna use noise as a waveform which obviously doesn’t have a tone.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n
Picture1. A new instance of Spire synthesiser with init preset<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Init sound<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Now let’s do some tweaks. In the oscillator section, change Classic mode which is set by default to Noise. Right next to it, turn off oscillator key tracking and turn the Wide knob all way to the right.<\/p>\n

By default, Envelope-3 in Spire is mapped to a filter cutoff. We don’t need it here, so set it to “Off”. Here is what we’ve got so far:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n
Picture 2. A simple noise with no envelopes<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Simple noise<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Nothing fancy so far, just a basic noise sound. Now, turn on the arpeggiator at 1\/16 notes to add some rhythm. Map Envelope-1 section to the filter resonance and crank up its amount to a maximum position, and also slightly adjust the Release parameter for 15~20% of its total volume.<\/p>\n

Now comes the most interesting part: in the filter section which is off by default, choose the combo (Mono+) filter type. You should notice a pretty dramatic change as soon as you have done it. What’s interesting about this filter is that its cutoff frequency determines the actual tone of the sound. For example, at cutoff about 235~240 (Spire’s value, not Herz), we get the sound at G# — that’s the root key of Machinery since you asked about that track:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n
Picture 3. Arpeggiator, comb filter, and filter envelopes<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Comb filter at G#<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

That’s pretty much the basics. Now you can add EQs, compression, delays, reverb, more filters, play around with arp gate parameter, and more. With this in mind, you should be able to make something like this:<\/p>\n

\n
Final sound with extra processing along with the kick and bass<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Or add any twist to this sound, as you like. I hope it helps.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2017-05-03T19:38:39+01:00", "date_modified": "2019-05-11T12:15:43+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/texture-1.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 03 May 2017 19:38:39 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "433", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/texture-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 73513 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/texture-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 73513 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/texture-3.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 73513 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/texture-4.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 569839 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/texture-1.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/texture-2.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/texture-3.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "318", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/creating-a-chords-stab-sound\/", "title": "Creating a chords stab sound", "content_html": "

Hey, Daniel. Thanks for creating this Advice series. :) My question relates to a track from Leftfield called “Original<\/u>”<\/a>. There’a certain sound that comes in at around 1:28, 1:34 and 1:39, but I cannot for the life of me figure what it is. Is it a synth? A pad? I would like to ask if it has a name, and if so, could you show us how one could go about producing the same sound? Thank you. :)<\/p>\n

Florin <\/p>\n<\/div>

Well, formally speaking, a pad sound usually has a big amount of Attack and Release parameters, i.e. it slowly fades in and fades out. But since that sound in Leftfield’s track has pretty short Attack, I would call it a “filtered-chords-stabs-with-delay” (a sort of) rather than the pad. Anyway, it’s not that hard to re-create such kind of sound, so let’s get straight into it.<\/p>\n

First things off, I’ll create a new MIDI-channel and add some synthesizer on it. I gonna use Spire in this particular case, although you can use whichever you’re up to.<\/p>\n

Recommended synths<\/a><\/p>\n

Then I’ll create two MIDI-clips and draw those chords, although you can make audio recordings using MIDI-keyboard if you have one. Here is how these chords sound like with no any sound manipulations, just using the initial preset in Spire:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n
\n
Chords with initial preset<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Okay, the melodic pattern matches the reference track now, let’s go to the sound design.<\/p>\n

I’ll increase “Voices” parameter up to 4 voices and open up the “Wide” knob to give extra width and dimension. Then I turn on a Band-Pass filter with a solid amount of resonance; add a pinch of reverb, and delay on 3\/8th.<\/p>\n

Important note for Spire users: by default, Envelope 3 is assigned to the filters, and “Cutoff 1” is selected as the sound source for modulation. We don’t need this here. Choose “off” instead, or simply drag its amount to a neutral position at 12 o’clock.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n
\n
Chords with BP-filter, reverb, and delay<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is the very foundation of our sound, and I would say we’re 90% done. Just a couple of tweaks left. What else we can do here? Well, we certainly can EQ it: cut some low frequencies off and gently boost mid-highs.<\/p>\n

Also, seems default wave shape is not the best one for this type of sound. I found “Organ 2” matches pretty close.<\/p>\n

And at last but not least, in the reference sound, you can notice that each second chords hit sounds slightly “brighter”. You can either record Cutoff automation, or simply add a new modulation of Cutoff either on LFO, either on Velocity. Like this:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n
\n
Final sound result, solo<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Leftfield - \"Original\" cut<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Our final sound on top of the reference track, altogether<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sounds about right to me. Not 100% matches, but I hope you’ll get the idea. If some moves were unclear to you and you still have some questions about this sound, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below.<\/p>\n

A specials thanks to the sound design guru Tetarise<\/b> for the consultation. Check out his advice on creating an FM Psy lead<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2017-02-17T22:00:00+01:00", "date_modified": "2020-07-31T16:33:26+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/chords-1.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Fri, 17 Feb 2017 22:00:00 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "318", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/chords-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 449339 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/chords-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 449339 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/chords-3.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 449339 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/leftfield-original-cut.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 449339 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/chords-4.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 449339 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/chords-1.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/chords-2.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/chords-3.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "355", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/making-atmospheric-effects\/", "title": "Making atmospheric effects", "content_html": "

Hey Daniel, I’ve always wondered how does well-known psy-producers (such as yourself) create atmospheric SFX? This also includes complex zaps, squelches, just the overall SFX that you often hear in today’s psy-trance. How is it made? Do you make it from scratch? Or use samples? Thanks :)<\/p>\n

Timothy Bourne<\/p>\n<\/div>

Timothy, I can’t speak how other producers do their atmospheric effects, I can only tell how I do this. It’s also hard to say how to make some sound without knowing exactly what kind of sound do you mean by ‘atmospheric effects’, so I’ll go over general idea.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, two things are crucial for making effects: knowing how to use audio processing devices and creativity. If you know how to use reverb, delay, gate, compressor, phaser, vocoder etc, you can turn pretty much anything into an effect.<\/p>\n

Here are a few examples of how I do atmospheric effects in my production.<\/p>\n

Reversed ‘woosh’ with gate<\/h2>\n

A simple detuned chord stab:<\/p>\n

\n
A simple chord stab<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Adjusting ADSR envelopes and adding a long reverb:<\/p>\n

\n
Stab with a long reverb<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Then I reverse it and add some gate:<\/p>\n

\n
Atmospheric \"woosh\" effect with gate<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"\"\n
Making a reversed and gated “woosh” effect<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Rolling texture<\/h2>\n

Now something different, with more texture. I’ll start with some simple saw wave stab with a bandpass filter:<\/p>\n

\n
A simple saw stab<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Then I turn on the arpeggio to add some rolling pattern, and also add some long delay to keep this roll going longer:<\/p>\n

\n
Rolling arp with delay<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This already sounds good to me, but we can make it more interesting by adding a high-pass filter and a pinch of metallic flavor:<\/p>\n

\n
Rolling texture<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"\"\n
Making a rolling texture with reverb, delay, panning, filtering, and ‘metallic’ flavour<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Pitch-shifted gate pad<\/h2>\n

For this example I’ll take some ordinary string:<\/p>\n

\n
A simple pad<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

We can achieve some interesting pitch-shifted effect simply by modulation Pitch-bend wheel on top of some extra reverb:<\/p>\n

\n
Pitch-shifted pad<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Let’s make this effect more driving by adding gate:<\/p>\n

\n
Pitch-shifted pad with gate<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"\"\n
Making an atmospheric pitch-shifted gate effect<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Background atmo lead<\/h2>\n

Now let’s try to change some ordinary lead into a smooth background atmospheric effect:<\/p>\n

\n
Ordinary saw lead<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tweak the synth a bit, add reverb, filter automation, and auto pan as a ‘sidechain’ effect, and we’ll get this:<\/p>\n

\n
Background atmo lead<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Just to put into perspective:<\/p>\n

\n
Background atmo lead with kick and bass<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n\"\"\n
Making a background atmospheric lead<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is it, that’s how I usually do effects. This is not a ‘how-to’ guide, but rather just one of the way of making it, approach.<\/p>\n

Some of these examples are taken from my forthcoming album<\/a><\/p>\n

Zaps and squelches you’ve mentioned have a slightly different approach, it’s more about synthesis rather than processing and maybe I’ll go over it next time.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2016-10-26T09:18:59+01:00", "date_modified": "2019-05-10T18:33:53+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Behind the scenes", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sfx-1.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 26 Oct 2016 09:18:59 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "355", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 57711 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 447249 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-3.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 447249 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-4.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 113717 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-5.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 558426 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-6.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 558426 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-7.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 168888 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-8.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 447249 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-9.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 447249 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-10.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 224895 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-11.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 669603 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sfx-12.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 447249 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sfx-1.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sfx-2.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sfx-3.jpg", "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sfx-4.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "308", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/criteria-of-professional-production-part2\/", "title": "Criteria of professional production. Part 2", "content_html": "

Fills and transitions<\/p>\n

\n\"cover\n<\/div>\n

What are criteria of professionally-made tracks?<\/p>\n

Daniel<\/p>\n<\/div>

Previously we talked about the most crucial aspect of professionally-made tracks, sound design. In this second part, I’d like to highlight one of the most underrated ingredients of production, the things I call fills and transitions.<\/p>\n

Part 1. Sound design<\/a>
Part 2. Fills and transitions
Part 3. DJ-friendly arrangement<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s assume you’ve made an amazing sound design, each and every element sounds perfect. What’s next? You go out to the level above and start building up a track as a whole. You making some loop, then another loop, that’s how your track is getting progression.<\/p>\n

The things I call “fills” is made to build a connection between those loops and parts of a track to ensure smooth transitions. I’m not good at writing, so let’s just compare these two:<\/p>\n

\n
Daniel Lesden - Ignition (Original Mix). Transition-1 with no fills<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Daniel Lesden - Ignition (Original Mix). Transition-1 with fills<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It’s not about sweeps and “woosh” effects, but about those couple of extra sounds in the middle at 4~5 second. Have you noticed it? Or here:<\/p>\n

\n
Daniel Lesden - Ignition (Original Mix). Transition-2 with no fills<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Daniel Lesden - Ignition (Original Mix). Transition-2 with fills<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

You see, these are very tiny tweaks, but it makes a huge difference, never underestimate it. It’s a sort of finishing touch that turns your track from “work in progress” feel to the finished product. Here are some more examples:<\/p>\n

\n
Symbolic - Insidious (Electric Universe Remix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Zyce - World Rebirth Party (Arhetip Remix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Nertum - Portal (Original Mix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some longer transitions between major parts of the tracks:<\/p>\n

\n
Astrix - Deep Jungle Walk (Original Mix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Ace Ventura - Going Back (Vini Vici Remix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Captain Hook & Astrix - Bungee Jump (Protonica Remix)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

As more nicely you work on and polish these parts, the stronger connection your tracks gets, it literally tightens things up together like glue.<\/p>\n

There is no hidden secrets or shortcuts, behind every professionally-made track is hours and hours of hard work. just make sure to work on these transitions too — they really make a tremendous difference. Listen to how other producers do this job. Experiment and be creative.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2016-04-13T11:09:23+01:00", "date_modified": "2019-05-09T20:06:28+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/fills-hero.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 13 Apr 2016 11:09:23 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "308", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-1a.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-1b.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-2a.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-2b.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-3.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-4.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-7.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-5.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-6.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/\/blog\/audio\/transition-8.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": null } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/fills-hero.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "307", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/criteria-of-professional-production-part1\/", "title": "Criteria of professional production. Part 1", "content_html": "

Sound design<\/p>\n

\n\"cover\n<\/div>\n

What are the criteria for professionally-made tracks?<\/p>\n

Daniel<\/p>\n<\/div>

Being a DJ and A&R guy, I receive a lot of promos and demos regularly. Some tracks are great, and some are... well, not really. Some producers ask for my opinion, and if I honestly tell them, «sorry, the quality of production is not good enough», it brings debates about professional vs amateurish tracks, which leads to even more questions than answers. I’d like to help all up-and-coming producers out there by defining the main components of professional tracks from the technical side of things.<\/p>\n

After thinking about it, I came up with the three main criteria: sound design, transitions\/fills, and DJ-friendly arrangement. I’ll tell you about each criterion in detail in this series, and today’s talk is about sound design.<\/p>\n

Part 1. Sound design
Part 2. Fills and transitions<\/a>
Part 3. DJ-friendly arrangement<\/a><\/p>\n

What is sound design<\/h2>\n

Sound design is a broad term, so let me define it to avoid confusion. By sound design I mean the timbre, the shape, the feel of each and every sound in the track individually and their matching together, which in turn includes equalization, compression, effects, and other post-processing. At some point mixing and mastering also could be named “sound design”, but I prefer to put it separately as it’s a pretty distinctive field of work.<\/p>\n

The thing is, in electronic dance music, it’s not that important what<\/i> sounds, but how<\/i> does it sound. Although personally, I love musical content, there is plenty of professionally made and successful tracks with literally just one or few notes, so bear with me.<\/p>\n

For example, here’s a simple kick and bass:<\/p>\n

\n
Kick and bass, example 1. Ready-made samples taken from some popular libraries<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Kick and bass, example 2. Taken from Technological Singularity from my album 2000 Years Ahead<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Which of these audio examples is better? Right off the bat, this is a tricky question: “better” or “worse” are not the right words to use when comparing sounds. The first example seems outdated, as if from the 2000s. The second example seems more modern-sounding, given the current subgenre’s standards. When I was working on the album, I wanted to convey a sense of futurism, so the second example suited me better in this context.<\/p>\n

Read also about music standards<\/a> and album behind the scenes<\/a><\/p>\n

Or here’s a more melodic example:<\/p>\n

\n
Bass and melody, example 1. Default presets of some popular synthesizers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Bass and melody, example 2. Taken from my single Binary Star<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note that in both examples, nothing has changed regardingcontent<\/i>: here are all the same notes and the same instrument groups — bass, acid, pad, and one more melody. But the timbres and processing, that is, how all these instruments sound, differ significantly.<\/p>\n

Binary Star<\/a><\/p>\n

I believe sound design is the main criterion of professionally-made tracks. Even if your track has some amazing ideas and musical content (which I’m not talking about in this article), but if the sound design doesn’t match the sub-standard, it sounds poor. Keep in mind that vice versa isn’t necessarily true: a musically poor but professionally-made track can be a dancefloor hit.<\/p>\n

in electronic dance music, it’s not that important what sounds, but how<\/i> does it sound<\/p>\n

What to do<\/h2>\n

Here is some advice:<\/p>\n

Learn the basics.<\/b> I’m talking about synthesis, sampling techniques, processing, modulation and other fundamental aspects of music production in general, which are also essential for sound design.<\/p>\n

Keep learning.<\/b> When you think you’ve learned enough, learn more. Make sure to invest your time in learning new things, technologies, and tricks. In fact, as a music producer and as a professional, you should never stop learning. Luckily, the internet opens huge possibilities for education — you can easily find courses, online schools, master classes, communities, blogs, and millions of free tutorials.<\/p>\n

Be creative. <\/b>There is nothing wrong with using sample packs or presets, but use them wisely. Rather than use it as it is, do some clever processing: tweak, resample, reverse, chop, and do more weird things. Watch the video on how John 00 Fleming turns an ordinary guitar sample sound into a lush trance pad:<\/p>\n

\n
John 00 Fleming on Facebook<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In the next instalment, we’ll talk about transitions between parts of the track.<\/p>\n", "date_published": "2016-04-06T08:54:08+01:00", "date_modified": "2024-07-21T23:04:00+01:00", "tags": [ "Advice", "Production", "Sound design" ], "image": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sound-design-hero.jpg", "_date_published_rfc2822": "Wed, 06 Apr 2016 08:54:08 +0100", "_rss_guid_is_permalink": "false", "_rss_guid": "307", "_rss_enclosures": [ { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-design-kick-bass-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 315592 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/sound-design-kick-bass-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 315592 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/binary-star-sound-design-example-1.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 1222733 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/audio\/binary-star-sound-design-example-2.mp3", "type": "audio\/mpeg", "length": 1222733 }, { "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/video\/john-00-fleming-sound-design.mp4", "type": "video\/mp4", "length": 1249850 } ], "_e2_data": { "is_favourite": true, "links_required": [ "system\/library\/jquery\/jquery.js", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.css", "system\/library\/jouele\/jouele.js", "system\/library\/media-seek\/media-seek.js" ], "og_images": [ "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/pictures\/sound-design-hero.jpg" ] } }, { "id": "284", "url": "https:\/\/dsokolovskiy.com\/blog\/all\/creating-a-pitch-rise-effect-in-ableton\/", "title": "Creating a pitch rising effect in Ableton", "content_html": "

Hi Daniel, can you advise how to make a pitch rise effect on a vocal? E. g. like in this video<\/a> at 2:42, they call it the “dub delay”. I can’t find any good tutorial for this. Many thanks!<\/p>\n

Andy <\/p>\n<\/div>

In Ableton Live, there are at least two easy ways to do that using built-in devices: Ping Pong Delay and Simpler. They give slightly different results, so choose whatever better suit your needs. Let’s go over both methods.<\/p>\n

Method #1: Ping Pong Delay<\/h2>\n

First things off, we need to take an audio sample which we will use for the processing. I’ll grab just some random phrase from my library, a one-shot speech sample says “Dark”. It’s pretty raw and dirty, but okay for this example.<\/p>\n

\n
Original sample<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Put this sample to a new Audio Channel, and add Ping Pong Delay on top. By default, Ping Pong use an algorithm called “Fade”, we need to change it to “Repitch”. Click right mouse button on the device title and select it from the list:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

From now on the modulation of the “Beat Swing” parameter will affect the sample’s pitch. Change it to the maximum value of 33.3%, and draw automation down to the end, at -33.3%. Here is what we’ve got so far:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n
\n
Pitch modulation<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The effect itself is fine, but as you can hear the sound fades out over time, and we don’t need it. To fix this, simply turn on the freeze function, a small square “F”. Now the delay effect will last infinitely as long as the freeze is turned on:<\/p>\n

\n\"\"\n<\/div>\n
\n
Pitch rise effect using Ping Pong Delay<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Method #2: Simpler<\/h2>\n

Now let’s take a look at the alternative method. It requires a few more steps, but I like it more. I’ll put the same source sample to a new MIDI Channel, Ableton automatically creates a Simpler device. By default, Simpler has some parameters that we don’t need, let’s change it in four clicks:<\/p>\n