I didn’t see a thread like this, so I’m posting it. (I’ve had a track in mind myself but forgot)
Questions regarding particular songs or simply post tricks that you find useful.
Good thick dubstep snares (think Nero, Skrillex) – starting point, effects chain?
Oh and while we’re at it, gigantic huge grinding Transformers-eque dubstep basslines 
Vengeance samples
Massive, FM8 + countless internet youtube tutorials
sorry i can’t be more helpful to achieve your desidred sounds without using vengeance sample packs and Massive presets, but this is sadly the way 99% of producers do these kind of music nowadays…it’s been rinsed to utter poo really.
Aren’t the vengeace packs copyrighted, so you can’t use them? (Not sure about this, it’s just one of the first things that come up on google.
Of course you can deconstruct them and see how they are made, and try to recreate them. (Which seems like a better idea since it won’t necessarily make you sound like 99% of the producers, because you’ll have to give it your own touch in the process)
Surely if you’ve bought the pack you are free to use them in any commercial product, that’s how most sample packs work. Just downloading them from some dodgy site is exactly the same as downloading warez.
How about creating a good hardcore kick from an 808/909 base, only using native effects? Could get pretty good with freeware but from purely native I struggle badly.
I feel weird trying to offer advice to kazakore, but…
Yeah, native distortion is awesome but of such a digital nature this is harder than expected. It is very ‘raw’ and maybe should be approached as a tool and not always a complete effect in itself. Suggest using ‘fold’ for kicks and start with drive up only between 25-35%. This is pretty high already, really. After that i have to use quite a bit of eq (kill deep subs -45? and extreme highs, then try various v shapes in between there), cab sim (subtle pimp) and compressor to achieve that distortion pedal sound.
If you want a more distorted sound i find it helps if you first look for the rough timbres within the harmonic content of a not insanely distorted sound using post-distortion eqs. If you can’t find the right ones there then try turning the drive knob up.
Using these 4 plugins together with a roll-yer-own distortion box approach, i think you can do it. But accounting for taste and what samples you are starting with, i could be all wrong.
About Vengeance, they once had a rep for reselling sample content they maybe shouldn’t have. If i were an end user, I wouldn’t worry about the rumor mill when it comes to simple single hit drum machine samples, though…
Think closest I get is something like EQ - Distortion - EQ - Cab Sim - EQ.
Think from there I need to go into a Multiband send then keep the lower end pretty much static and do stuff with the Mid/High sections to get that kick sweep madness you get in a lot of hardcore.
Still never quite as punchy as, for eg, the kicks on this pack:
any got a quick way to get this sound, the delay on the vocal pitching down?
starts at 1:29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZclcKd-8xTM
i probably could figure it out but I had such a shitty day, so I thought you guys would cheer me up
i hope i understood you right. instead of using a delay-effect do it manually and repeat the sample, in this case a part of the vocal, a few times while lowering the pitch (and maybe volume) each time.
maybe there’s some time-stretching going on too, i dunno.
what Mandulin said. thanks for sharing a cool track man, really like this and never heard of it before.
can ox rocks.
tried to recreate it here with the 02xx command.
thanks for the replies!! just started a hiphop-group with a friend, and he’s really into the thought of messing up the vocals like that. i’ll post results in the song forum when we’ve got something done
You can also do it simply by turning the delay time knob slowly up after the word that you want slowed down.
This if you’re more into real-time tweaking than applying the effects afterwards (using the 02xx command).
The native delay works differently as it makes a scratching noise when moving the knob, so you should use some kind of VST delay instead.
I never achieved this sort of thing until overdriving the signal before it reaches the computer line ins. laurencedavies donated an old analogue mixer that has a pretty good warmth when distorting, and this is exactly what I needed. I can never come close using internal effects… that’s not to say its not possible, but it seems like a very convoluted way to do something that is rather simple with the right hardware.
I do actually have one of these but only a single stereo in/out on my laptop I use now, my studio isn’t even vaguely set up and I have no patching capabilities. Should probably just get my arse in gear!..
How do you make cold dark chilling pads like in this tune for example. Its in the beginning of the tune but the ending is very clear.
Sounds like there are sine waves with long attack time, some reverb, and a lowpass filter with high resonance. I think it’s better to build it as 2 separate layers, one for the background and another one with the filter to get that ringing tone.
Sorry if this was too obvious and not really contributing much.
Speaking of cold and dark, any advice on how this synth was made (starting at 0:32) would be helpful.
It’s mostly layering, transient shaping, compression and eq.
Check out “Reso Masterclass” on youtube.