Music Production
Anyone with a computer can compose, record and releace music from there own bedroom. This page is designed to help and inspire bedroom producers with tutorials, links and ideas:
- Dubstep Bass Tutorial - Albino 3
- Gamepad 2 MIDI - Use a game pad to control Ableton Live
- Drum sequencer in Max/MSP
- How to make dubstep bass using logic pro es2
Dubstep Bass Tutorial - Albino 3
A ‘wobbly’ (wob wob wob) baseline is achieved by using a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO) to affect the cut off point of the sound. This tutorial will explain how to affect the cut off with an LFO using Albino 3.
1) Start of by selecting the preset called ‘Bass-molecules’ from the ‘Deep Basses’ section.
2) This preset fades after a while so make sure you whack the sustain level all the way up
3) Now go to the ‘Mod Matrix’ and click on the line of dots underneath where it says LFO 1.
4) A menu will appear, select LFO 2. This is the next free LFO.
5) Now click on the three dots to the right underneath where it says ‘Main Pitch’. Another menu will appear, select ‘Fil 1’ -> Fil 1 Cutoff’.
6) The LFO 2 is now affecting the Cutoff of Filter 1. Now we need to set up the LFO. Click on the little box ‘L2’ next to the ‘Mod Matrix’ this opens up LFO 2 settings.
7) Select the sine waveform for a smooth wobble and set the sync to a fraction probably somewhere between 1/2 – 1/16. This keep the wobble in time with the track.
8) Now click on the little ‘MX’ button to return to the ‘Mod Matrix’. Click and drag upwards on the numbers in the middle to specify the range of the wobble. Your mod matrix should now look like this:
9) Finally adjust the cut off of filter 1 to set the mid point of the wobble.
…and your wobbling.
The difficult/fun part comes when creating the noises you want to be wobbled. You can set up a subbass sinewave on one oscillator and use the others to create the more dirty midrange frequency sounds for the cutoff to wobble. Some people deal with sub using a completely different synth. Some people like to have the same noise doubled again an octave higher to give it a thicker sound. Use square waves and triangle waves combined with the spectral waves as a starting point. Either way experiment, have an idea in your head before you start and read the albino 3 manual.
Gamepad 2 MIDI - Use a gamepad to control Ableton Live
If you haven’t got the dosh to spend on a really expensive MIDI controller, use an £8 gamepad instead. Portable, hard wearing and makes your performance more interesting than just someone crouching over a Laptop. Follow this tutorial to get a gamepad hooked up to Ableton Live.
You will need:
1) A Gamepad – I used the ‘Saitek p380’ I bought it for £8 from PC world. Im not sure if all gamepads send out the same information but it know it works with this one.
2) Max/MSP Runtime – Download this free little program to run stuff made in Max/MSP.
3) Gamepad 2 MIDI - Download this patch I made that converts gamepad information to MIDI data.
4) Open the gamepad2midi.mbx using Max/MSP runtime, select your gamepad from the menu, hit some buttons and wiggle the joysticks to make sure it works. Now double click on the little box that says ‘midiout’ and select ‘From Max/MSP runtime 1’.
5) Open Ableton Live -> Preferences, click on the MIDI/Sync tab and turn ‘from max/MSP runtime 1’ - remote on.
6) Now you can use the MIDI map to assign the buttons and joysticks to do stuff in Live. If you don't know how to do midi mapping this nice american will tell you: YouTube
There you go, you now have an ergonomically designed, fully customizable very cheep MIDI controller. If you are a bit of a Max whiz and want to customize it, here is the original max 5 patch or just text.
For all you people who want a bit of remote MIDI control, here is the 'Apple Remote to MIDI'. Control Ableton Live from across the room using your apple remote!
Drum Sequencer in Max/MSP
A simple 16 beat Drum sequencer/machine made using Max/MSP 5.
How to make dubstep bass using logic pro es2
A lot of Dubstep baselines have a characteristic "wob wob wob" effect. This tutorial will explain how this effect is created using logic's 'es2' plug-in. The same principles can however be applied to hundreds of synths. The "wob wob" is achieved by assigning the filter cut off to a low frequency oscillator. This means that the amount of high frequencies allowed to pass, increases and decreases constantly, creating the desired effect.
1) Set oscillator 1 as a squarewave, this type of waveform is used allot in dubstep although don't be afraid to experiment!
2) Take an empty router. Assign the target to the cut of filters "Cut 1+2". Leave Via "Off". Assign the source to "LFO2". Drag the green arrow on the right slightly up to control the depth of the cut off. The LFO will now open and close the filter cut off.
3) LFO 2 is used because its sync function means it will always be in time. Drag the slider to about 1/8 of a bar. Later you can automate the LFO2 to vary the length of each cycle to change the length of each "wob".
4) Now alter the cut off to get the desired level "wob".
5) This will give you a dirty wobbling sound, however it is fairly high pitched. If you really want to rattle the lungs of your audience, you need big sine wave sub bass. The easiest way of doing this is to put the sine level up.
6) Put the attack and release time to it's shortest to keep the bass tight.
And that's it, dirty wobbling bass. You can play around with different oscillators, levels, depth of cut off, LFO rate, drive and distortion. Click here to download some free dubstep by 'Axon'.
