I really enjoyed this video. Seeing the difference before and after the modules have been applied helped a lot. I assume having lookahead on the compressor would help to reduce or eliminate that initial peak?
@@david.szoeke glad it helped. Yes, you’re correct. The lookahead function looks forward in time and recognizes the transient before it actually happens, clamping down sooner. Useful for peaks that might be abrupt in say a snare or vocal (think sibilance, “p’s” “t’s” and “s’s” that are relatively sharp/ large in amplitude compared to the overall signal)
Quite interesting that this is the kind of sound which has come to be associated with the 303 in an 'Acid' context. I wouldn't go full tilt into it as @engineer has below, but he defo has a point. This sound is quite compelling, but has very little to associate it with a 303. EG, there's no slide and no accent. I'da thought those could be 'emulated' in vital using part-automation (somewhat painstakingly and unnaturally - unlike on the ABL3 etc). Classic Acid 303 (see Hardfloor they're still doing it) relies heavily on the movement of the cutoff and env mod over phrases and whole tracks, generally with raised resonance at peak times on at least some of the machines (there are typically at least a couple running) - all of which is pretty obvious/easy with 303-emulators like ABL3. Anyhoo - here you can see how to get a static snapshot of one of the almost infinite number of sounds a 303 produces in an 'Acid' context, which apparently has come to represent the whole gamut. Interesting.
@@kaliyuga6613 thanks for the comment. You are right, no slide or accent in this tutorial. I would hope that those watching would automate filter, resonance or other parameters for continued interest throughout a real track. The tutorial is labelled as an acid “style” 303 sound which I believe is fitting. Again I appreciate your input.
Thank you!! I can't find so much information about the relation between clipping/compression, mainly which order must be used in a signal chain of a track or bus, so I think the right way is to compress and then, clipping to reduce the peaks so I can handle better the RMS at the final stage? Thanks again!
If you’re looking to clamp down on a sounds dynamic range without introducing much/any distortion then yes compression followed by clipping would work fine (compression to reduce the dynamics more “naturally” then clipping to level off any peaks you don’t want). Take this with a grain of salt, though; there are many ways to control dynamics and so many unique styles of sound that there is never a “one size fits all” fix. Hope this helps!
Nice job. May I suggest, drop the background music; for me it's incongruous - a weird juxtaposition of steel guitar or Lord knows what and vital sound design for electronic music.
This is important: you can not convincingly emulate the TB-303's capabilities using sound design in any bread and butter synth! There are highly specialized emulations, which sound way closer to the original, carefully designed to reproduce TB-303's sound with all its strange behaviors. Good emulations are: AudioRealism's ABL3, Roland Cloud TB-303, D16's Phoscyon or Arturia's Acid V. None of them are free, though. There are some good sounding free ones: Anton Savov's Venom VB-303, RE-MET Toolchain Acid Devil and Witech's Bass Matrix. However, they all have drawbacks, which keeps me from recommending them: Venom VB-303 is only available as a 32 Bit VST for Windows. Acid Devil is difficult to setup, and it seems to be impossible to synch it the DAW. The Bass Matrix plugin is only available as 64 Bit VST3 for Windows, and I did not see the option to shorten patterns to less than 16 steps. So, no trippy 3- or 6-step off-beat Acid. An important part of the TB-303 is the sequencer and how all the components are interacting with each other. Anton Savov writes about this on his website: antonsavov.net/audio_plugins/vb303/ I produce and perform different styles of Acid music for many years. At the beginning, I tried to create the 303 in sound design on hard and software. The results were not satisfying for a real Acid connoisseur like me. Now, I am using different hardware clones (Avalon, TB-3, TD-3 and X0xb0x) and software emulations (ABL-3 and Phoscyon). Teaching how to create the 303 in sound design leads to bad sounding Acid tracks. Why don't you show how to use the proper tools for the job? Vital is an amazing great sounding synth with lots of capabilities, but it's not designed to convincingly replicate the sound of a TB-303.
Thanks for the information, this will be great for anyone looking to more closely replicate the TB-303 sound. The tutorial is meant to highlight principles which will create a style of sound similar to acid but not the exact same. You can still create some interesting and usable noises by understanding basic techniques involved in synthesis on any synth, and can use these techniques with the vsts you mentioned or with hardware to create the "real thing" if that's what you are after.
@@Dynamic_Music_Tutorials Yes, you can create interesting sounds by slapping a filter on a square or sawtooth wave on any synth, but you won't get anywhere close to the true magic of the 303's sound. This is essential! The 303 vibe falls completely flat in 99% of all sound designed 303s I've heard so far. Plenty of garbage Acid tracks are released every day by producers, who do not know any better. Why? Because RU-vid is flooded with "How to make a 303 in [insert any popular synth here]". Don't understand me wrong: Teaching people fundamentals in sound design is important, however. It is also important to show the right tools to achieve professional results. You don't show anybody how to hammer a nail in the wall with the handle of a screwdriver, when a hammer is designed for the job. Also, have a look at the original TB-303's "sawtooth" and "square" waveforms: tinyloops.com/tb303/sound_vco.html This headscratcher is just the tip of the iceberg on how strange the TB-303 actually is. Feel free to go down the rabbit hole.
@@borjonx This might be right in some cases, though if you want to get your track signed with a true 303 Acid label, your chances are significantly higher when you have a proper 303 sound. I suggest start listening to lots of old school 303 Acid to get an ear for this. "Acid Tracks" by Phuture, "Acperience 1 " by Hardfloor, "Da Funik" by Daft Punk, "Tone" by Emmanuel Top, "Can't Breathe by Punk Floyd", "It's Our Future" by AWeX, "Golden Times" by Microwave Prince and "Acid Air Raid (George´s All Nighter)" by Solar Quest are a good start.
@Engineeer used a real 303 recently and also heard that 303 used by my pal in his hardware set while i used a behringer td3 and tbh the distortion and fx you put on it matter just as much and I didnt have a noticeable loss in peoples vibes to the acid tones on my td3 after it was run through wach of our respective chains. also dueling 303's with different characteristics on each are sick as hell. sorry to beat a dead horse but its like sounds evolve, look at a modern reese or forghorn tutorial. there will always be a place for the real 303 sound but being gatekeepey keeps the circle too small and keeps new people from getting into production. also I'm sure you know most everyone on the internet refers to a bassy kick tail as an 808 and you dont hear any purists on that end.
I like your technical intelligence. I would try that technique but I bought kick 2 yesterday and this vst makes it incredibly easy and fast to design unbelievable kicks
When we see how much sample editing is needed for just a KIck to align in a sequencer, a total live Midi Mixup in Oldschool ways with real hardware is much faster, when it is set up correctly, altogether and often times sounds much more organic and not that sterile...not to mention that it is much more flexible than Mouse Click Studio Parades.
Hey lasertrance, def agree with you on a couple points. I'm a big fan of hardware and the sonic character that comes with it, and I agree this type of production can be, at times, time consuming and monotonous. I still think theres something to be said for producers more talented than myself and the way they have mastered a craft which is still new and evolving, and the way they inject life into their art through the use of plugins and other editing techniques. Also, hardware is expensive and takes up room! To each their own
Yes, it takes up room, I was in all worlds of music production and I know all aspects of it, long before youtube came into being...@@Dynamic_Music_Tutorials
Hey mate, just to say thanks a million for this guide. I can't believe how few views/likes/comments this has. I'm brand spanking new to Ableton and only have the stock stuff, so this was a fantastic tutorial. Thanks a million mate!
You'll want to listen in context while cutting and layering. If you're putting a sine sub underneath, you can play both your sample and sub at the same time while highpassing your sample until it "fits" in w/ the sub (ie the two layers sound like one). If you're layering samples on samples (ie using a sample as your sub and then a sample or two above for mids and highs) it can get more complicated. Phase and polarity of the samples (additive/subtractive phenomenon) come into play here, as well as setting the correct eq settings, levels, etc. Clear as mud?
Definitely something to look into. The glue comp in Ableton is modeled after analogue equipment and colours the sound a little more than the standard compressor; its response is slightly slower, warmer, and more apt in meshing/ gluing sounds together. Very good for bus processing, but theres nothing wrong with experimenting with it at the start of a chain. You could always put both compressors side by side, with similar settings and A/B between the two to see which sound you prefer. I chose the standard comp here as the guitar was quite dynamic. I wanted a quick attack triggered by the peaks of the signal, and transparency since I was going to colour the sound further down the line. Hope this helps!
The best part of Ableton is every individual channel has its own set of instruments and effects whereas in Reason Studios it’s a mess of all of them stacked end to end in a row and if labelling is not done it gets tedious to find which part is to which. Hoping around with fn5, fn6, fn7 and other things. In these department Ableton is so efficient and quick
How do make melodies in Ableton the best way? Double clicking is so slow. The option/ copy is slow as well. In Reason you can hold command and the pointer turns into pencil mode temporarily. When let go, you can muck with position of notes and length quickly
I believe the default shortcut to switch to the pen tool is CTRL B. You also have the ability to assign this function to the press of a single key on your keyboard using hotkeys in Ableton. Cheers
Ableton or Reason Studios? Which one to go for? I I find Reason more fun and faster workflow than Live. On the Internet everyone says Ableton has the best workflow, it’s fast and fluid. It’s the best DAW, which is proven but I don’t know why I don’t like it. You could help please. Thanks for reading.
Honestly its whatever works best for you. If you find the workflow in Reason suits your needs better than Ableton's, stick with it and master it. End of the day it doesn't matter which software you are using, all modern DAWs are more than cable of creating great music as long as the person using it is using its tools properly. I switched over to Ableton from Reason for 2 main reasons: VST support seems better in Ableton (more CPU efficient per plugin instance), and I like the sequencer in Ableton more than Reasons (which, to me, feels very outdated). Cheers, hope this help!
You would have to figure out how to set the "sidechain in" trigger within that plugin on, choose what audio source you wanted "affecting" the trigger, and specify (as I believe the F6 is a dynamic EQ, correct?) which frequencies you would want the trigger to affect.
@@Dynamic_Music_Tutorials Oh, I was researching and I inform you that unfortunately you cannot use other plugins than Fab Filter to use them in that sense.
@@picaf if you are trying to target specific bands in the frequency spectrum for compression you can do so with the stock effects in reason. You can set it up with a stereo imager and compressor combination.
OMM yes it would. Generally for vocals you want to try and preserve dynamics to a certain degree (ie keep the soft parts soft and loud parts loud) for a more natural sounding performance, so subtle compression is often better. There are techniques you can employ however to heavily compress in order to bring a vocal thats sitting in the back to the front of a mix while maintaining dynamics. Hope this helps!
