Transient shaping on drum loops/breaks

Verva

Verva Music
VIP Junglist
Joined
Feb 3, 2012
Location
East sussex
I think any will work. NI do a great one. If you want to solo out kicks and snares then take the sustain down most of the way, it takes the tails of hats and rides and leaves the initial hit there.
 
It was just some advice... I knew it anyway but I'm sure a lot of people don't.

Before I start to use a drum break I'll take a bit of release off, which tightens is up, then I'll bounce it and chop it.
 
Here is what I've been doing lately:

. Drag desired break into Logic
. Use Melodyne to change the pitch of the entire break until the snare matches the desired key
. Slice the break whilst removing any unwanted bits (usually just before another hit)
. Spread the break so that each hit is on it's own beat (kick:1 hat:2 snare:3 etc)
. Apply short fades to the end of each hit, if necessary (a quick way to do this is to highlight every hit and drag the fade out value, located on the drop down menu towards the left of the screen, to 10 or so.
. Bounce in place

. Slice the bounced break with the scissor tool whilst holding the apple key and Alt. Hey presto! The whole break is sliced perfectly!
. Right click > Convert > Convert to new sampler track

. Change the esx24 from a 'stereo' to a 'multi output' instrument
. This is subjective, but try shortening the decay, have a low sustain and a very short release
. Now click 'edit' (located towards the top right of the instrument panel)
. Find each kick hit and change the output to '3-4'
. Find each hi hat hit and change to the output to '5-6'
. Snare '7-8'
. Shuffles and other hits '9-10'

. Open mixer > Options > Create new auxiliary channel strips > Number '4' > Format 'stereo' > Create

. Change the created aux inputs to:
. Aux 1 l, instrument 3-4

Yeah you get the idea. I shouldn't have to explain that bit.

You can now process each hit individually. I usually remove the low end from all elements except the kick.
. Highlight each channel and change the output to bus 5 or whatever and rename 'break'
. EQ each instrument channel and use transient shaping until you get the desired result

On the bus entitled 'break';
. Hi pass at around 60 to 80 Hz
. Apply some creative EQ ('sweetening') try using a high shelf eq and boosting by around 3 dB or so
. Use a reverb that has internal EQ controls that allow you to high pass the wet signal
. Create a short reverb setting
. Use mild distortion then overdrive but don't over do it.

There is a shit ton of stuff I've left out. I'll post later if I can be bothered
 
I just got into transient shaping myself. Never used any of the plugs before. Kinda still messing around to see how they work and how much of a change it makes.

I wish someone would make a transient shaper that would show the waveform of the audio being manipulated live as you made the changes.... Maybe someone does, not really sure. Obviously your making changes until it "sounds" the way you want it to, but it would be pretty cool to see how each change effected the audio visually at the same time.

:: sent from android with tapatalk ::
 
the best way, imo, to do transient shaping (outside of the extreme ends of creative processing), is simply to use a Compressor very carefully, the simplest solutions are often the best :)

Know_one - doing things visually can be deceptive, if you want to really understand what is happening to a sound as you processing it, the best thing you can do is simply listen, the more you tune your ears up, the more detail you will hear, and the more you will "see" (in your minds eye) what is actually happening to the sound
 
well, know one, that stand-alone thing by propellerheads that makes soundfonts can do just that. tell you what buddy, that is a damn fine app, i highly recommend it.

and you seem somewhat autistic mugatu. luckily transient shaping is always a hot topic, so the discussion starts pretty quick.
 
On top of what miszt said...

Yes you can use a compressor to do the same job as a transient shaper in terms of boosting the attack. Some compressors work better than others though.

If don't really do this anymore but I used to use Logic's compressor on the one of the kick layers to create a nice 'snap'.

Use the 'Platinum' circuit type (should be the default setting). Change from 'RMS' to 'peak' mode (located just below the threshold setting'). Have the ratio at around 4-1. Have the attack set at 60ms and above (depending on how short you want the snap to be).
Adjust the threshold until it sounds right. Have a longer release if you feel that too much low end has been lost.

Bounce it and layer.

The 'platinum' circuit type isn't really good to use if you have a rapid kick pattern as the following kick may be quieter than the one before... Even if you have a really short release time. Bouncing it will help you avoid this problem.
 
very nice sam, only its a tad logic centerd, but still, very nice. you know what you always post really good stuff, did you ever consider doing a video tutorial? serious question, not being sarcastic in the least.
 
very nice sam, only its a tad logic centerd, but still, very nice. you know what you always post really good stuff, did you ever consider doing a video tutorial? serious question, not being sarcastic in the least.

Cheers Karl. Yes I've been meaning to but I don't even have a proper table for my set up. Or a camera. One day though...
 
Know_one - doing things visually can be deceptive, if you want to really understand what is happening to a sound as you processing it, the best thing you can do is simply listen, the more you tune your ears up, the more detail you will hear, and the more you will "see" (in your minds eye) what is actually happening to the sound

Yeah, your ear is definitely what should be used to identify what changes need to be made and what changes are being made. I'm sure I make decisions based on visualization more than I should at times... I just love to see waveforms at the same time... I came from reason originally, which had no true audio capabilities. Everything was in a sampler or drum machine (unless it was a synth or course). When I finally started using other daw's I was so excited to "see" my audio. See the shape of my kick drum, if it dipped at all, how quick the attack was, how it shrunk after pitching it up, etc. Is was also cool to see the dynamics of a sound, or if and how much it was already squashed due to compression.

But it is definitely deceptive at times. One of the reasons I live ableton. It's so "plain" looking... I don't get caught stairing at fancy plugs or devices nifty GUI. But I do zone out on the spectrum analizer a lot, mostly to help find what key something is in.


:: sent from android with tapatalk ::
 
Back
Top Bottom