How to make a standard drum sound speed up into a blur

#1

You may know the track Un Sub by Mia Dora (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq7dpoGx6Bc). I’ve been trying for ages to work out how to get a standard sound, like a cow bell, speed up into a blur which i can pitch shift around and add filters to and what not. I’m using Logic Pro. Completely stuck! Any help very much appreciated.

BB91 - the future
BB91 - the future
#2

In ableton, you can just automate the loop points on a sample. I’m assuming this is basically possible in any other DAW as well. Short enough of a cycle means that it will repeat in audio range, producing audible tones.

#4

heya,

Have you tried importing sounds into alchemy? You can use it to turn sounds into granular synths, or pitch up down (slow down speed up). You can also get super complex while designing your sounds inside of it with lfo filter, or sequence step filtering, or route it to a modulation X:Y and determine what gets sent to each and then morph it. Or you can layer it with additive sounds like sine waves, etc all inside of the same synth.

Open it up. Go to file, select clear.
Go in Advanced Mode and select a location A,B,C,D and select import audio.
You will need to navigate to your audio, and determine if you want to drag it in as:
Additive, Spectral, Add=Spec, Granular, Or Sampler.
Select Sampler. Import Audio (navigate to cowbell). Import.
If you click on A (or whichever you decide) you can click edit, and determine key, or if you want to gain stage the sound, or cut a section, etc.

To get it to pitch up or down go up or down the keys (command+k if you don’t have a midi controller).
Now you have the sound in the sampler. You can add filters on individual Synths or global, as well as create movement, or blur it out.

Here’s a video tutorial on some basic fun concepts to do in alchemy, and I hope my rambling helps inspire you to get where you are going.

#5

This!

Some samplers also allow to adjust playback speed and pitch separately (Kontakt Time machine does this). You can then increase playback speed on the looped sample. That way you should get a somewhat similar effect, but the whole sample plays at any given time.

#6

@Blingley is that basically making it a single cycle wave form and using it as an oscillator?

#7

More or less, but instead of just automating the pitch of the oscillator, you automate the length. That is, higher pitches will loop a shorter segment of it, and have a different timbre to them. This is particularly noticeable if you do it on a percussive sample - especially one that has a pitch envelope such as a tom sound.

#8

Thanks dudes, great advice. I’ll twiddle some knobs and see how it goes. Thanks again.

#9

Or just play around with an arpeggiator, set really fast (so ms instead of notes). Good luck!

#10

there’s another way
it is basically just the cowbell sample being triggered over again, easily accomplished in a daw without any automation, just sequence it like making a snare roll but faster
can’t put into words this video explains it better than i can

#11

the cowbell in the example is looped or re-triggered very rapidly (quicker and quicker until it becomes almost oscillator speeds), but with a separate amp envelope over the whole thing to give it the feel of a single hit still.

personally i would do this in a sampler. i would set up a loop and automate the loop end to get earlier and earlier, then apply a simple envelope to the amplitude.

#12

This is awesome. Thank you all so much. I’ve got the right sound by changing the loop end point in the esx24 but any ideas how to automate this? I’ve looked but can’t seem to find the appropriate parameter in logic. Thanks again!

#13

I know in alchemy this can be done by doing the following:

Import Audio onto a new location (A, B, C, D). Choose to import and analyze by way of Sampler mode.
After the sample has been imported, click on your desired oscillator (a,b,c,d).
Set the speed to 0, and use the position knob to scroll through the sample.
And either use latch to Create a automation, or just set the start of where you want the first sample, and then hit the A button on your keyboard to open up automation lanes. Then draw in where you want the positions of the sample to change.

here’s a site that explains it a little better, but on it they discuss using granular synthesis:

As far as using the EXs for sample manipulation I’ve found that it works best as a re-slicer. Ie. bringing in REX files, and creating new vectors. The vectors can then be made out to a midi file, which then can be altered to change positions of samples/slices v.i.a. the arrange window.

Hope that helps.

#14

not all parameters can be automated on some plugins. i dont know EXS24 well enough to know if that is the case though.
another way you could do it though, would be to set the sample to end on a ‘note off’ MIDI event, then draw your MIDI notes manually so that they get smaller and smaller.

#15

The beauty of logic is that most parameters can be automated. And if you can’t get it to “auto-detect” whatever your moving in a “automation mode” you can always go in the backdoor (ie. Inspector or Mixer ((the d.a.w. allows you to look at patch point routing))) and re-route the parameter to be determined as a lane to be automated.

It does become harder to determine how to send CC or midi code to a controller or device, but this can also be done.

In logic there are a few write modes for automation, and the latch mode will simply “latch” on to a parameter when touched (on screen or v.i.a. a outboard piece of gear/controller) and begin writing the selected parameters nodes.

This can be taken steps further by parameter mapping (ie. setting a macro to read multiple parameters of different vst or just parameters from within one vst) a multitude of states to a individual channel and altered at the same time. Many d.a.w’s have this type of thing.