My approach to sound design consists of having stages and an aim/target to what I am trying to achieve.
So if I am going to change anything then I would have a reason to rather than just pressing and changing things randomly with no objective (unless I'm trying to learn the effect of a parameter on a sound).
This I hold as my fundamental approach to a majority of practices as it will enable me to have an effective and efficient workflow by having a linear approach.
With this in mind my 1st task was to construct a sound palette of sound patches that should include..
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Drum Sounds
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Percussion Sounds
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Sound Effects
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Monophonic Bass Tone
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Monophonic Lead Tone
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Polyphonic Tone
Thought Process
When I am creating a sound or mimicking I try to picture its characteristics in all its forms.
Does the sound raise in volume and ends low? or is it constant? (The Dynamics of the sound)
Does the sound change in pitch? or is there movement in the sound? (Frequency/Modulation).
Below are a few examples:
Kick: When listening to a kick I can hear that its short, punchy, quick and impactful, focusing on the lower frequencies. With this in mind I have direction to create a kick knowing I would need a quick attack and decay in its amplitude and focus on the low frequencies so the sound I would form would need to be low end focused by using a low pass filter to cut out the high frequencies and to shape the sound.
Snare: The snare when listening to it sounds short, sharp and snappy in comparison to a kicks punch.
the dynamics of its volume is similar to a kick but I feel it has more decay. When listening carefully I can hear white noise in the snare which gives it a slight "sizzle" which contributes to the overall sound and character. With this in mind my approach would be similar to designing a kick but focusing in the mid-high frequencies and using 2 Oscillators (1 with a pitched sound and the other with white noise).
Hi-Hat (Closed/Open): The characteristics of a closed Hi-hat is very short, sharp and snappy like a snare but I feel the decay is instant. The pitch/frequency sounds high as though saying the word "TICK".
An Open Hi-Hat on the other hand has the opposite characteristics (even by name). It lasts longer than the closed hi-hat (more sustain) which also gives it a brighter sound. the frequency sounds high end with some noise blended in.
Sound Effects: When it comes to sound effects I let my imagination go wild and creative as there is no rules or constraints to follow allowing me to be inspired by the moment of a sound and idea. I feel although this breaks my rule of following a workflow I believe it is a good balance to be spontaneous as the ideas flow naturally when not forced. Once I hear a sound I like I begin to shape it to my idea in mind.
Monophonic Bass Tone: The characteristics of a mono bass when listening has low-end and sub frequencies although it can vary by touching in the low-mid frequencies. When listening to various forms of bass I get a vision of how the type of bass was sculpted for example a bass guitar when strung or plucked starts off loud and the sound continues for a while (sustain) and it decreases in volume slowly in comparison to a synth bass which can last infinitely if the note played is not released. to make the bass monophonic meaning only 1 sound/voice can be heard when several notes are played I set the voices to 1.
Monophonic Lead Tone: The characteristics when listening to a mono lead tone I feel usually contains information in all frequencies but to my ears tends to lean more to the mid-high frequencies. I can shape it similar to how a mono bass is shaped (strung or continuous sound with no end) but it would be focused in the higher frequencies and higher in pitch ((dependant on the style of lead). I would also set the voices to 1 to make it monophonic.
Polyphonic Tone: The characteristics of a polyphonic tone that I aimed for was one which when played with various notes would sound rich in sound and tonality. it also would last long if I held the note played down (full sustain) and when released the tail would last long. In order for me to make my sound polyphonic I would adjust the voices up so more notes can be heard when played simultaneously. i.e. 5 voices = 5 notes heard simultaneously.
This information gives me a direction and a target to aim towards when designing a sound. Combined with the knowledge of how to manipulate a sound in a subtractive synthesizer I can begin forming the sound Logic pro's ES1 subtractive synthesizer.
Subtractive Synthesis
My approach and workflow to sound designing in a subtractive synthesizer usually consists in stages of production.. First the sound/signal itself, secondly shaping the sound and tone, lastly adding movement in the sound. Regardless which synthesizer i use if i stick to this linear workflow with an objective and aim i am bound to come out with results efficiently. Whether it be hardware or software, simple to the hardest synthesizers This practice and workflow will help make the best use of any synthesizer and use with understanding.
ES1
In ES1 for Logic Pro I begin by forming my sound in the oscillation section in where I am able to select the type of signal generated in 2 oscillators, the top being square, saw, triangle and pulse waveform and the lower being a sub oscillator with square, pulse and white noise waveforms. I am also able to transpose the pitch of the oscillators on the side bar.
Once I am happy with the sound I am designing and referencing it to my target sound I begin the next stage by forming and sculpturing the sound in the filter and amplifier section. If my target sound was designing a kick I would adjust the filter to cut out the higher frequencies and add some drive whilst in the amplifier section I would set it to ADSR mode (attack, decay, sustain, release) and adjust the sound in the envelope section to suit the characteristics of a kick (fast attack, short decay, no sustain and release).
In the global settings i am able to make my sound monophonic or polyphonic by setting the amount of voices.
My last stage of design would be to add movement (modulation) in my sound if required. i am able to achieve this in the modulation section using the LFO, router and mod envelope parameters. A great tip which i have learnt in the years of sound designing with software synthesizers is to take advantage of MIDI controllers when working with modulation!! It allows the user to be more tactile and expressive in designing the movement or modulation of a sound or specific parameter in where a mouse a keyboard struggle to achieve. to activate my modulation via my MIDI controller in ES1 i would have to set the INIT VIA WHL bar full allowing my MIDI keyboards modulation wheel to have full function.
With all my sounds finished i would take a break and come back with a fresh pair of ears to go through my sounds to fine tune them to the desired sound i was aiming for.
Envelope
Oscillators
Filtering
Modulation
Global settings
Amplifier
Music Production Process
My workflow for this task starts off by loading my created sounds into the Akai MPC software which communicates with my Akai MPC MIDI controller which in turn enables me to have full control in manipulating a sound. I would then seperate the sounds by slicing them and assigning them each to a pad on my Akai MPC controller. I would also fine tune my sounds for better performance when i press a pad on my controller. With all this finally done i am now ready to begin recording performances to compose my 2 tracks for my next task.
Genre Specific Track
To begin my genre specific track i used my mono bass tone which sounded like a p-bass guitar.
It didn't sound fat as I would like it to sound so I routed the sound into a hardware preamp which has an analogue saturation circuit which excites low end content by boosting odd/even harmonics.
After composing my bass pattern i began performing my hihat pattern for recording which i am able to make a rythmic pattern by changing my note repeat intervals.
Once my drum patterns were recorded I would use a horn sound I designed and layer it with effects to sculpture the sound. Reverb is a great effects i like to use as it can tame or smoothen dry harsh sounds whilst giving a spacey open environment. for my horn i used a large reverb with a long tail to make my horn sound eerie and cosmic.
I would make 3 layers of my created eerie horn and change the pitch for 2 of the layers to create an eerie melody.
With this melody i was able to create a counter melody by reversing the original melody and slicing out a certain part of the melody and layering this in rythmic pattern.
after all of the stages of sound designing my sounds i had made this arrangement which lead to the production of my genre specific track.
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Ambient Track
To begin my Ambient track i used my horn sound and played a appregiated style of pattern on my Akai MPC. The horn sounds rich in information and i wanted to sculpture it into a ambient sound.
I then added onto the sound alot of reverb to make the sound less dry and more open which followed by delay to allow the intial dry sound to repeat in the heavy reverb. lastly followed by compression to control the dynamics of the sound.
After sculpturing the sound i wanted to make it more open and spacey so i routed the sound into an impulse response reverb software. in this software i would load an impulse response i had recorded in my garden of heavy rain and a large airplane flying by ( i live near Heathrow airport unfortunately). I would set the wet knob on full for full effect on the sound i designed.
The sound of the rain layered onto my designed sound introduces a granular effect whilst the airplane introduces a drone sound. combined together i have my target sound created.
I would then create a simple kick pattern similar to a heartbeat. i did not want any other drum sounds as my target was to create an ambient track meaning i did not want any kind of rythmy to excite the listener instead the intention is to enable the listener to immerse themselves into the ambient tracks feeling.
This kick would be routed into a pre-amp for colour and saturation so the low end has more knock to it.
I would duplicate and create 3 unique versions of this designed sound and one i would transpose to a differnt octave to the orignal whilst the 3rd sound i added movement with a modulation fx plugin.
I would then arrange my sounds to create a 2 minute ambient track adding a few in game sounds such as my wall bounce i created for my game sound design assignment.
