A co-worker of mine has been learning Ableton and has been struggling with figuring out how to get the sounds they want. In an effort to learn the program and music writing in general, he has been trying to recreate a song that he liked. Unfortunately no one has taught him the fundamentals of synthesis or cutting his own samples and he has been
taught to rely on different pre-made packs and presets that he has been buying online. A lot of producers use this method and have had success but I personally feel it is lazy and limits your music to what others have made for you. The end result is a generic formulaic sound, a limited range, and lots of money lost.

Last we talked about his recreation project, he was stuck because he couldn't find one of the sounds he was looking for in any sample packs. I told him I could probably synthesize it and he let me listen to the track. The sound he was struggling with was a percussion sound that he described as "banging on a trashcan or something". From there i took to Ableton using the native synth engines to re-create what he was hearing. From that sound I ended up writing a song in the stylings of the one he is recreating, with my own personal tastes/flavoring of 80's synth work, ambience, and processing for this weekly beat.

This is the end results. you can hear the "trashcan" sound that I synthesized in the beginning and end of the song.

Gear used:
Ableton (operator and collision for synthesis)
Tal's Juno 60 plug in
Plogue Chipcrusher (to imitate the sounds of old hardware sampling)
Soundtoys Radiator (to warm up some sounds)

Tags: 80s, ambient, deep house, edm, synthesis, week 6 2018, View by:ENC_