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Harsh, Sharp and Gritty Pad
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| Four_On_Four-er |
Greetings,
I've been experimenting with a bit of industrial/metal sounds. I'm thrashing away with a heavy metal track produced by sampled instruments instead of a band. I don't know the genre well, but I was composing something to create a specific, climactic/dark atmosphere. I have a specific sound that I can hear in my mind flowing in the track, but I can't seem to have alot of luck creating it.
It's a type of pad that I don't often hear, but it's hollow, dark, and very much in the bandpass spectrum. It almost sounds like a thick bunch of strings playing through a broad pipe, and being heard over the telephone.. I've tried pushing squares and saws through a bandpass with noise, and some overdrive. The result was a cheesy sounding pad with some clipping. Most pads I construct are not like this, AND thi style of music is outside of my comfort zone so I could use a few pointers.
It's frustrating because my mind fills in the part... It's that harsh/filtered bleed of sound that sits in the background like a pack of spirits haunting your amps.
Perhaps what I need to look into is a few vox effects. I could be wrong, but I'll be experimenting with this as I await your replies (IF anyone is interested).
In the meantime, I'll be putting the hammer on these synths:
V-Station...
Green Oak's Crystal...
Octopus... (This is a fun baby to work with, but it's tedious as well)
Vanguard...
Thanks... |
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| BOOsTER |
what a description:D
It almost sounds like a thick bunch of strings playing through a broad pipe, and being heard over the telephone..
take a thick bunch of strings then use a metallic reverb...use some distortion + EQ for the telephone
or maybe just get a few samples...broad pipe and a telephone :stongue: |
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| Allied Nations |
| quote: | Originally posted by BOOsTER
or maybe just get a few samples...broad pipe and a telephone :stongue: |
HAHA! Great advice! :p |
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| david.michael |
| Do you have any samples of a similar sound so we know what you're going for? |
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| Four_On_Four-er |
I really can't... see the closest thing I can think of is a pad from another metal song that I don't currently have access to, and I can't find any samples online. HOwever, this track's pad is thinner-sounding, and more phono-graph like. It's achieving a dark-driving background howl, but it's still a little different than what I'm looking for.
Another example of the "pandpass" pad principle is in Jean Micheal Jarre's Oxygene 7. It's after the quiet part during the rain. It's got that phonograph touch that's alot simpler.
Getting the right bandpass sound shouldn't be a problem. It's the original sound that I'm having issues with. My next experiment will combine string and choir samples over a flute-ish sound into a warming compression unit. The hollowness I'll try to achieve by layering a square pad and getting that metallic reverb.
If this can be achieved, there'll be nothing more satisfying than hearing it resonate over the thrashing-bass guitars I've got engineered.
I'll throw that in the crockpot this afternoon and see what turns up. TUne in next time for "Sound-sculpting with Bob Ross." |
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| MrJiveBoJingles |
LOL.
Do you have the hair, too? |
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| Lindo |
| distortion, bandpass, and a lot of resonance with a mild filter cutoff. I'm thinking vanguard might do well with this just because it gives a pretty nice metallic, hard, gritty sound in the first place. Also, I think Vanguard does a damn good job on most pad sounds. Most people don't like it, but it has potential if you use it properly. I'm also thinking maybe a formant filter with an "o" vowel sound would work quite well. On second thought, I'm thinking Absynth would probably be able to create this quite easily, you just need some skills in using the damn thing since it's so ridiculously complicated to new users. |
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| Four_On_Four-er |
Hmmm.... Yeah, the dist/band is a no-brainer. However, usually when I try to manually preform this with EQ-compression-overdrive there's a significant lack of resonnance. I'll have to work on those mid-range and resonating freqs.
Do you think that some lo-fi and bitcrushing effects could aid?
I'm actually eyeing the freeware Rock synth, and the Vanguard for this sound. The Vanguard has a digital bite, but could be used to my advantage, like you said.
You are most likely spot-on concerning the Ab-Synth. I don't own the Absynth, but I could see it being easier on that pad-monster.
Thanks for your comments/statements. |
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| Four_On_Four-er |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles
LOL.
Do you have the hair, too? |
No, and sadly, the college I'm currently at would not allow it. |
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| drillindrums |
| you should use the new massive vsti by native instruments it just received it and it's the best plug ins for what youre trying to do. The demo version just got released you should try it |
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| Four_On_Four-er |
That is similar to the sound I'm looking for... not exact, partially because I'd need to EQ alot of stuff out of it (some of the higher pitched resonance, and some of the middle-frequencies). I'd layer that over a soft string being played an octive higher and give it enough reverb and cutoff to sound "off in the distance", so to speak. It's a little too phat too big and phat to sit properly in the mix I'm working on. But it's still pretty cool!
Fascinating work. Did you make that? Sounds a tad like a large bell that you reversed the sample of and applied all sorts of gritty effects to. |
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| Four_On_Four-er |
I took another step closer. I layered a choir pad, and a stringed soundfont and gave them somre gritty bitcrushing, some "moog distortion", and some filtering with resonance. The result is still not where I originally intended, but at least it's closer. I tried to add the pad to the current mix as well for you to preview as well! :)
[[ LINK REMOVED ]]
It's too low-pitched, but it's cooler than my original pad sounds. It's very choir-like, but I discovered that the choir on top of the strings made it more hollow and gothic-like.
For the pad, I used:
(samples)
Fruity's String ensemble (came with fruity)
Floresant Ahh Choir (free)
(effects)
arcdev's HoseBeast (free)
Moog distortion plug-in (free)
Fruity Reverb (duh) |
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