Rhythmism.comThe DubSpot Blog Class: 11 & 12 Bass & Keys and Chords
by .thejass.
Saturday, Apr 18th 2009, 01:15 AM
At class eleven, we learned about bass, or should I say BASS. This lesson focused on bass lines by using the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the different wave shapes that synthesizers can produce. We also looked at different types of bass lines and some techniques used to create them.
Ghost Note
Jon encouraged us to start 'thinking of notes in between notes', for example, good electric bass guitar players play "ghost notes" (notes of indistinct pitch, short duration and low volume) making a bass groove more effective.
We went over three types of synthesized bass:
sine (simplest bass sound you can synthesize, heard on many drum n' bass tracks)
square (produces incredibly high harmonics and a very usable sound)
saw tooth (know for very funky bass sounds).
Waveforms
We continued to build more complex drum sounds by spending a lot of time on the bass frequencies by changing the envelopes shape through ADSR (attack-decay-sustain-release).
Attack - how long it takes for the sample to reach it's full volume
Release - determines how long it takes for the sample to fade to silence after the Note Off MIDI message is received
Decay / Sustain - work in conjunction with each other.
Decay is how quickly the sound drops to the sustain level after the initial peak. Sustain is the "constant" volume at which the sound remains following the decay until the note is released. This parameter specifies a volume level as well as a time period
Our assignment over the week was to look at the bass parts we program and listen to it in relationship to the kick drum, Jon told us that the bass part does not necessarily have to carry the entire groove on its own, it is more important that the bass locks in with the song in a compelling way - there is no rule - just make sure to listen carefully to the groove.
For class twelve: Keys and Chords (Pads, Stabs and Leads), we focused on some of the essentials of sound design for effective chord parts and leads. We looked at how MIDI devices help with the creation of effective parts. Now that we covered bass and drums, we learned how the chord parts fall into two categories: rhythmic parts (interact with the bass and drums / enhance the groove) and pads (keyboard sound that floats over the groove).
'Geogaddi' by Boards of Canada
To understand how professional artists create their music, we listened and dissected a couple of songs while Jon recreated their distinct sound in Ableton. I am a big fan of the group Boards of Canada, and when Jon played their track "Dawn Chorus" from the 'Geogaddi' album, I was very excited to learn how to use Ableton Live to get that ‘nothing ever completely in tune’ Boards of Canada sound.
Next, we went over the process of creating great pad sounds that sustain the notes over a long period of time while also evolving a kind of motion in it. To achieve this, we used the Analog instrument in Ableton to first look at pad basics. Analog is becoming more popular with Ableton users because it sounds good and emulates the unique circuitry and irresistible tweak ability of vintage analog synthesizers.
Analog in Ableton Live
Lastly, we took advantage of making music with a computer by using MIDI devices - instead of years of classical training to learn how to create great effects on an instrument – Ableton Live can take the MIDI input and transform the MIDI effect before it reaches the instrument to create chord parts. I know that I am not a music theory expert, but with the MIDI Chord effect, I heard some great results by just using my ear.
The overall purpose of Level 2 is to create my own track. One approach to achieving this, as Jon recommends, is to create a foundation to build on. Sketch in parts, create one thing at a time, and get content early. What I start with will inform other decisions, and then I can refine my sound design based on the context. It’s time to start sketching…
DubSpot Blog Class: 9 & 10 Drum Programming
by .thejass.
Saturday, Apr 18th 2009, 12:50 AMAfter completing 'boot camp' Ableton Live Level 1: Remixing at DubSpot, I graduated to the second level, Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design.
At this intermediate level, we will slow down and focus on drum programming, dive deep into the compositional process with an intensive look at the building blocks of good electronic music by getting great bass sounds, and developing techniques for making my music more dynamic.
We welcomed a new student who has read our instructors' Jon Marguiles articles in Music Tech Magazine, he joined our class to add knowledge to his basic understanding of Live. Two students from the Level 1 course did not continue, one moved to Europe and the second student wanted more time to focus by himself on what he learned in Level 1 before moving onto Level 2.
Our first two classes in Ableton Live Level 2 were based on drum programming, drum racks and sound design. In these classes, we learned how to get around Ableton Live's Drum Racks introduced in Live 7 to give users an industrial strength tool to build banks of drum sounds to create an extremely large drum kit. We also covered the basics of shaping drum sounds using envelopes, and by the end of the class nine, we made our first drum kit.
Drum Rack
It was refreshing to learn that there is no right way to program beats, I learned how to play them on drum pads, the keyboard, and draw beats systematically in the MIDI editor. Adding to this, Jon gave us an example of how different musical styles generate their beats:
Hip Hop / Dub = more organic sampled sounds
Techno = making kits from synthesizers, tweak and automation
As Jon was building an elaborate drum kit, everyone laughed at Jon's joke, "see how you could easily lose a couple hundred hours doing this." Kidding aside, Jon showed the class a great thing about layering sounds - by creating a lot of interesting material.
In class ten, we covered the rhythmic concepts and programming techniques of drum programming. In this lesson, we spent time listening to a variety of different drum grooves, discussing their fundamental components and looking a different approaches to programming.
Henrich Zwahlen
Jon was out of town at a gig, and Henrich Zwahlen substituted. Henrich teaches the other Ableton Live course at DubSpot, he is a swiss german synthesist, and had the opportunity to study with the greatest of electronic music such as Yello and DAF before coming to New York where he hit the scene with his project Basscut (ten/virgin). Musically between electro, breakbeat and house Henrich was always on the cutting-edge of technical innovation and working with an eclectic set of dj producers from hiphop to house. After a three year recess in Berlin, he now lives in Brooklyn.
Henrich and Jon are both great teachers, although they have different teaching styles, both get the message across. Jon teaches each lesson by having us create from scratch, where as Henreich loaded up a pre-built drum rack into everyone's computer, starting us all with his material, as Henrich put it, "this is my swiss control of order."
We learned yet another way to program beats that incorporates a sound design element to by 'slicing'. To slice, we took an audio drum loop and recycled it to individual drum 'hits' by slicing one beat in the drum loop into a segment using warp markers. Then we added that sliced segment into our drum rack. Henrich informed the class, "I used to spend hours slicing on MPC's (Music Production Center), now Ableton Live takes seconds."
An AKAI MPC2000 sampler
This was a great lesson in learning how to sample a specific sound, use it as raw material, and shape it to make it my own sound.
At this intermediate level, we will slow down and focus on drum programming, dive deep into the compositional process with an intensive look at the building blocks of good electronic music by getting great bass sounds, and developing techniques for making my music more dynamic.
We welcomed a new student who has read our instructors' Jon Marguiles articles in Music Tech Magazine, he joined our class to add knowledge to his basic understanding of Live. Two students from the Level 1 course did not continue, one moved to Europe and the second student wanted more time to focus by himself on what he learned in Level 1 before moving onto Level 2.
Our first two classes in Ableton Live Level 2 were based on drum programming, drum racks and sound design. In these classes, we learned how to get around Ableton Live's Drum Racks introduced in Live 7 to give users an industrial strength tool to build banks of drum sounds to create an extremely large drum kit. We also covered the basics of shaping drum sounds using envelopes, and by the end of the class nine, we made our first drum kit.
Drum Rack
It was refreshing to learn that there is no right way to program beats, I learned how to play them on drum pads, the keyboard, and draw beats systematically in the MIDI editor. Adding to this, Jon gave us an example of how different musical styles generate their beats:
Hip Hop / Dub = more organic sampled sounds
Techno = making kits from synthesizers, tweak and automation
As Jon was building an elaborate drum kit, everyone laughed at Jon's joke, "see how you could easily lose a couple hundred hours doing this." Kidding aside, Jon showed the class a great thing about layering sounds - by creating a lot of interesting material.
In class ten, we covered the rhythmic concepts and programming techniques of drum programming. In this lesson, we spent time listening to a variety of different drum grooves, discussing their fundamental components and looking a different approaches to programming.
Henrich Zwahlen
Jon was out of town at a gig, and Henrich Zwahlen substituted. Henrich teaches the other Ableton Live course at DubSpot, he is a swiss german synthesist, and had the opportunity to study with the greatest of electronic music such as Yello and DAF before coming to New York where he hit the scene with his project Basscut (ten/virgin). Musically between electro, breakbeat and house Henrich was always on the cutting-edge of technical innovation and working with an eclectic set of dj producers from hiphop to house. After a three year recess in Berlin, he now lives in Brooklyn.
Henrich and Jon are both great teachers, although they have different teaching styles, both get the message across. Jon teaches each lesson by having us create from scratch, where as Henreich loaded up a pre-built drum rack into everyone's computer, starting us all with his material, as Henrich put it, "this is my swiss control of order."
We learned yet another way to program beats that incorporates a sound design element to by 'slicing'. To slice, we took an audio drum loop and recycled it to individual drum 'hits' by slicing one beat in the drum loop into a segment using warp markers. Then we added that sliced segment into our drum rack. Henrich informed the class, "I used to spend hours slicing on MPC's (Music Production Center), now Ableton Live takes seconds."
An AKAI MPC2000 sampler
This was a great lesson in learning how to sample a specific sound, use it as raw material, and shape it to make it my own sound.
DubSpot Blog Class 8: Master Class
by .thejass.
Sunday, Apr 5th 2009, 10:55 AMThe last class of Ableton Live Level 1: Remixing is the 'Master Class'. As we sat back and watched everyone's remix play in front of the class on the projection screen, we analyzed each others' songs by discussing their composition, arrangement, and sound design. Adding to the comments, our instructor Jon showed us his recommendations and edits to improve our remixes.
Before I say things," Jon stated, "you say things - what were you going for - what do you want to say about your remix." The responses were as varied as the musical styles, but mostly we gave examples of challenges we had in creating the remix:
Having the volume in the headphones match the sound in the monitors (Jon recommends that the best set up is constantly going between headphones and monitors to give your ears a 'reality check'. Unless you have a professionally built recording studio, most people produce in a small room where bass is going to bounce around. Jon suggest we go to a music store to listen to a variety of monitors before spending a lot of money on a pair that does not work for our specific environment)
The difficulty in getting the sound in our head - out in the song (To get to the level of a synthesizer programmer, where you want to go beyond tweaking factory patches and develop specific sounds all your own, is a five year process. Jon reassured our patience that by taking these classes, especially Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design we should we should be able to do it sooner)
DubSpot instructor Jon Margulies
While we went over the songs, I noted a couple of instructive comments Jon suggested:
*When fading in a synth part in a slowly evolving song, let it stay there for a minute, establish it, then duplicated time before you change it with a slow movement in the auto-filter, a very subtle automation that keeps the ear engaged
*Put a little breath in by deleting small sections, it's not so much of what you have, but what you don't have
*It is common for beginners to pull down the master level to avoid 'clipping' (type of distortion unique to music recorded digitally, when the sound is too loud, the waveform of the music peaks, and creates a static like type of distortion). To avoid clipping in the master level, Jon told us to get the volumes under control in the very beginning by lowering the mixer volume levels to increase headroom on the master. For example, mix engineers start with all their faders down, then bring up most important sounds in a track when mastering. In Ableton Live Level 2, and 3 we will go in to deeper detail on mastering volume
*By thinking of music visually from left to right, and front to back, you will understand that the reverb effect has a way of pushing a sound hard to the back (very wet sound) where a delay effect pushes back, but not as much (more dry sound).
The DubSpot Blogger Jass
Personally, making a remix was an encouraging, yet challenging process. By taking classes at DubSpot, I have more confidence than ever in knowing how to create music in Ableton Live, but at this point, I lack confidence in knowing exactly what style of music I want to create.
Audion "Billy Says Go" (.thejass. remix)
For my remix of "Billy Says Go", I contemplated in turning the song into a warm lush ambient tune, or a dark and dirty after-hours version; after playing around with the clips, I decided to go for energized buzzing sound. Am I happy about what I created? No. However, I am more motivated than ever to create music; by breaking down my own mental walls, I no longer think that musical producers are magicians – that only "they" can mysteriously create these wonderful songs. Heading into next week's DubSpot Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design reassures my self-confidence that more mental walls will be coming down.
Before I say things," Jon stated, "you say things - what were you going for - what do you want to say about your remix." The responses were as varied as the musical styles, but mostly we gave examples of challenges we had in creating the remix:
Having the volume in the headphones match the sound in the monitors (Jon recommends that the best set up is constantly going between headphones and monitors to give your ears a 'reality check'. Unless you have a professionally built recording studio, most people produce in a small room where bass is going to bounce around. Jon suggest we go to a music store to listen to a variety of monitors before spending a lot of money on a pair that does not work for our specific environment)
The difficulty in getting the sound in our head - out in the song (To get to the level of a synthesizer programmer, where you want to go beyond tweaking factory patches and develop specific sounds all your own, is a five year process. Jon reassured our patience that by taking these classes, especially Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design we should we should be able to do it sooner)
DubSpot instructor Jon Margulies
While we went over the songs, I noted a couple of instructive comments Jon suggested:
*When fading in a synth part in a slowly evolving song, let it stay there for a minute, establish it, then duplicated time before you change it with a slow movement in the auto-filter, a very subtle automation that keeps the ear engaged
*Put a little breath in by deleting small sections, it's not so much of what you have, but what you don't have
*It is common for beginners to pull down the master level to avoid 'clipping' (type of distortion unique to music recorded digitally, when the sound is too loud, the waveform of the music peaks, and creates a static like type of distortion). To avoid clipping in the master level, Jon told us to get the volumes under control in the very beginning by lowering the mixer volume levels to increase headroom on the master. For example, mix engineers start with all their faders down, then bring up most important sounds in a track when mastering. In Ableton Live Level 2, and 3 we will go in to deeper detail on mastering volume
*By thinking of music visually from left to right, and front to back, you will understand that the reverb effect has a way of pushing a sound hard to the back (very wet sound) where a delay effect pushes back, but not as much (more dry sound).
The DubSpot Blogger Jass
Personally, making a remix was an encouraging, yet challenging process. By taking classes at DubSpot, I have more confidence than ever in knowing how to create music in Ableton Live, but at this point, I lack confidence in knowing exactly what style of music I want to create.
Audion "Billy Says Go" (.thejass. remix)
For my remix of "Billy Says Go", I contemplated in turning the song into a warm lush ambient tune, or a dark and dirty after-hours version; after playing around with the clips, I decided to go for energized buzzing sound. Am I happy about what I created? No. However, I am more motivated than ever to create music; by breaking down my own mental walls, I no longer think that musical producers are magicians – that only "they" can mysteriously create these wonderful songs. Heading into next week's DubSpot Ableton Live Level 2: Composing & Sound Design reassures my self-confidence that more mental walls will be coming down.