I love the technique of taking the transients out of the reverb. There's gotta be a way to automatically gate the transients out so you don't have to automate them
could also try sidechaining the reverb to the audio source itself? I haven't tried/figured it out yet but it's a tip I picked up from Alice Yalcin Efe from this vid, Vocal Throws part th-cam.com/video/aOQc7B8HRx0/w-d-xo.html
I agree that the simple panning of elements draws unwanted attention as a "production gimmick." That's why I use things like the (excellent, and free!) Ambeo Orbit from Sennheiser that models a room, and allows you to place the sound in the room (and move it around), similar to Atmos mixing techniques. It lets you place and move sounds organically in the mix, without it sounding like you were sitting there twisting the pan knob.
The placement of the spot-on reverb is really inspired. The difference you demonstrate with that is startling. It opens up so many possibilities. Thank you.
for field recording as mod source (or any noisy but inconsistent audio), try pitching it down. i did that once as fm, and it would morph between noise and timbre change and pitch bend, and made it feel very organic
Sometimes I like to double track a melody and then have each one pan left and right in opposite positions, so they line up and spread out as they play, it creates quite an interesting effect
i sometimes put trem control (basically a tremolo with a LOT of stuff to control) after a reverb to, for example give the reverb an effect similar to a sidechain! awesome ideas as always!
Chopping off the transient before the reverb is such a great idea! I love my vintage algo verbs but they often handle transients really badly. Another fun pre-treating trick is aggressively EQing before a colourful compressor, and then putting an inverse EQ after. like cranking the bass so that it really smacks the compressor hard, then pulling it all back out again afterward.
I love the field recording as modulation trick. One patch that worked very well for me was taking a recording of ocean waves and feeding it through a fixed filter bank with an envelope follower per band (essentially the analysis half of a vocoder: Frap Tools Fumana in this case), then using different bands to affect different parts of the patch. As well as modulating timbral parameters, I used the CV outputs through quantisers to create generative melodies. Then at the end of a performance I could fade in the actual recording to reveal the relationship between the wave sounds and the patch it was controlling.
10:00 If anyone wants a good sounding envelope follower without using analog modules, Kilohearts actually made a really awesome update to their Snap Heap plugin, which is basically a digital effect rack thing with modulators, but like what was happening in Live, and they have many different effects to modulate with an envelope follower that way.
my random production input: put your unfinished tune missing an intro as one audio clip (or any vocal or whatever) into granulator, assign some knobs and add some knobs for reverb and delay amounts/drywet and have some fun recording the madness
I've been having a rough go of it lately, haven't made anything for months. This video gave me the inspirations I apparently needed to go and make music. Thanks, man.
A very simple trick I've found for some really thick and piercing supersaws, is layering a lush unison saw with a normal single waveform saw, and then giving that single waveform saw a slight vibrato. Works wonders for leads, with chords it can work too but you gotta make sure that the single waveform saw isn't causing phasing issues.
i like automating the time of the delay, it sounds sort of like format shifting an echo, and every delay plugin has a unique sound to it, when you turn the time knob, just sounds super cool to me
Would love to hear the bird modulation from the end again but with the bird noises mixed back in a little bit. Get to really hear the cause/effect in play that way.
Speaking of being creative with reverb, one of the tastier FX that I've played with is a downsample distortion AFTER the reverb. If you dial it to taste, it almost breaks up into this gnarly glitchy/cyber sounding fade rather than the smooth release you're typically accustomed to on reverb trails.
Youre a never ending fountain of creativity! After all these years your channel still inspires me. The only down side is if I'm not able to access my DAW im itching to have a go afterwards 😅
My favorite tip/little hacky thing to do is have some sort of quadraphonic setup. Planar2 makes for a great 4 channel panner/mixer. I randomly choose two outputs, pan them hard left and hard right, and then the other two I mid/side decode and then mix together with the first two outputs. It can do some wacky stereo stuff, depending on which quadrant goes where. And, best of all, you can run a mono or stereo signal as the input. The Planar 2 really shines in polar mode for this, with a smooth random lfo or two thrown at it. My other related trick or to use a mid/side encoder going into an autofilter, ringmodulating the side output, and then having all that in the send/return loop of a stereo delay. It’s wild
This is a trick I found when i was trying to recreate some NIN sounds: record a distorted guitar into ableton, take that dry mono recording and put a tal chorus lx on it to throw it into the stereo field, put another distortion on that like soundtoys devilloc deluxe, and put the tiniest amount of reverb on that. This give you an AGGRESSIVE industrial rock guitar lead sound that is reminiscent of NIN. Obviously you need to EQ, tweak, and clean the sound as you like. But, otherwise, it really adds that intensity i love in rock and metal.
This one was OUTSTANDING. I mean, all of your content is great, but this one was EXACTLY the kind of content that I seek out lately. Just quickie tips and tricks with really unique sounds that can be sprinkled in whenever for flavoring. Thank you so much Andrew. Keep up the great work!
The first trick reminds me of the stereo phase trickery video Dan Worrall did with the all-pass filter. I re-created that setup using FF Volcano recently to randomize based on LFO, and it's a similar effect, but with a phase shift gap that moves around rather than a bandpass bump.
Field recording modulation is very interesting. I have a guess that recording machinery would provide a strange and usable source. Sort of regular, but with real world variance.
I often put Native Instruments' Transient Master before the reverb to help "soften" the inital attack going into the reverb. Now I'm going to try Andrew's approach...
I'm glad Andrew's got through his no-mojo phase and gone back to this style of video. Just straight up production advice and ideas, which in my opinion is what Andrew is best at.
The Filter tip and shaping the reverb are some things that are going into my next song. And I don’t care if they don’t fit! (in reality I care immensely and am hoping they work well so that when you hear my song you don’t call me out anxiety is fun)
On your field recording modulation sources, use a multiband gate with a heckin fast atk/rel (microseconds are best) and then throw on an OTT or two with high attack and low release with boosts at each stage... with a limiter on the master just in case. Get that 30dB dynamic range for great justice
Andrew. Andrew. I have a challenge for you. You have stated in the past that you are not the biggest fan of your voice. I want you to make song were you love your voice. I think with the right backing, you will never deny how amazing it is.
One tip I've been meaning to try after hearing Steven Wilson talk about it for the new Porcupine Tree record is adding some distortion after reverb in the guitar FX chain to make it sound a bit dirtier and grittier. It sounded really great, gonna have to see how well I can recreate it.
One thing I love to do in Ableton is to slice a loop to a new midi track in Sampler, then group the sampler, create a bunch of different chains with different effects on them, then use the Velocity midi effect to randomly switch between all the chains. Great for glitching up breaks and drum loops!
For FL Studio users, the envelope follower is instead referred to as a peak controller -- using input peaks as automation. Same thing, same parameters!
I really enjoy the trick where you tune/detune 4osc in that 5note pattern -- seems like you could get a lot of random variation while still keeping the feeling of "playing" something, rather than automating/generating/or shifting midi notes around in the piano roll
The de-esser tip is my favorite I think. Such a small one but for some reason I never considered using it in anything but vocals. Edit: ok the round robin one too. And the field recording one... Damn this video was full of great tips!
For the first tip, try using sync'd LFOs with an inverted signal for one channel or tying it directly to an envelope of the signal. You're basically recreating the classic Mutronics Mutator at that point.
I love the bird modulation idea! I did something similar but used keys jingling through the khs convolver on some pad sounds to give it a twinkly effect
Fun little thing for LittleAlterBoy, automating the formants when using a distorted signal (guitar or vocal chop) can create a cool "wow" guitar effect
Lately I have been doing the surround panning thing, because it solved a problem, of when I have more thna one guitar part, if one of them is moving around, the two of them don't clash and become like a washing machine of sound.
Definitely! They take some tweaking or getting used to, though, since it can fairly easily lead to some surprising tones being amplified through the reverb/feedback. But one of my favorites is a rainy day with bird song that I recorded - works wonderfully on piano!
Run your delay send signal through a copy of the reverb in the reverb send, and set the reverb dry wet to 100%, it adds a more realistic delay at times in my opinion which can also be great for more ambient music.
That field recording trick is rad. Not sure if this has been covered on this channel, but I like to do audio rate pwm on a square wave lfo. You can throw all kinds of audio rate waveforms into a pwm input and the output of the lfo will be audio rate. Gives whatever you put into the pwm input a nasty buzz cut. You can adjust the square wave lfo's rate to get the kind of movement you want.
Love the video man, some great tips and tricks! I've been a fan of yours for awhile and I fully believe that You is one of the best songs you've ever made, now I have a new excuse to listen to it on repeat!!
Hey Andrew! I just wanted to say thank you for all you've taught me. I'm a Disabled Vet from the US and was going in the wrong direction til I came across your videos. They helped put music back into my life and videos like this one allowed me to make the best of my newest song "Leaking" on here. I would love it if you could give it a listen. It would mean a lot. Thank you again for all you do!
I couldn't make sense of your weird chord from last month. Every time I tried to play with it, it turned from a jazz chord into "Grateful Dead mode", whichever mode that is. The one that Dark Star is in, and Birdsong and so on... it always turned into that mode. Trying to smush that into a chord with a different root, I think it was? I couldn't do it. I got a weird jam out of it, so it was worth it to try, even if the result didn't fit the assignment🙃
I think I've heard the 'formant shift echos' method on Kanye West's Wolves before. The difference there is that the main vocal has a effect on it and the delay part dosen't. Anyway now I know how to call this tecnique. Thank You!!!
honestly i also like stacking effects AFTER reverb for some interesting sounds. putting a crunchy distortion on a reverbed synth makes some really interesting textures, for instance
I love the technique of taking the transients out of the reverb. There's gotta be a way to automatically gate the transients out so you don't have to automate them
Transient processor before the reverb will do the trick
There’s also a built-in algorithm within Crystalline (Baby Audio) which works really well. Awesome rev. :)
Some transient plugs is magic
Thanks yall for the knowledge!! 🤯
could also try sidechaining the reverb to the audio source itself? I haven't tried/figured it out yet but it's a tip I picked up from Alice Yalcin Efe
from this vid, Vocal Throws part
th-cam.com/video/aOQc7B8HRx0/w-d-xo.html
0:37 Vital has stereo modulation built in, and is free, so it's a great option for making unique stereo patches!
thx for letting us know
Honestly, I'm still fairly new to producing and Vital is probably the best tool I've found
I absolutely love Vital. I don't use many soft synths, but Vital is one of them.
I was just about to comment this haha well done
Indeed. Vital has easily become my go-to soft synth, it's pretty amazing.
I agree that the simple panning of elements draws unwanted attention as a "production gimmick." That's why I use things like the (excellent, and free!) Ambeo Orbit from Sennheiser that models a room, and allows you to place the sound in the room (and move it around), similar to Atmos mixing techniques. It lets you place and move sounds organically in the mix, without it sounding like you were sitting there twisting the pan knob.
The placement of the spot-on reverb is really inspired. The difference you demonstrate with that is startling. It opens up so many possibilities. Thank you.
for field recording as mod source (or any noisy but inconsistent audio), try pitching it down. i did that once as fm, and it would morph between noise and timbre change and pitch bend, and made it feel very organic
Sometimes I like to double track a melody and then have each one pan left and right in opposite positions, so they line up and spread out as they play, it creates quite an interesting effect
that field recording as modulation thing is really cool!
Man, Andrew has mastered many genres.
I would like to hear him do classical, maybe on the modular...Classular?
Wendy Carlos style!
The kick of the little demo at the end is amazing
i sometimes put trem control (basically a tremolo with a LOT of stuff to control) after a reverb to, for example give the reverb an effect similar to a sidechain!
awesome ideas as always!
I might try that trick - I never felt the need to use tremolo effect before.
I don't know where on my music journey I'd be without you and the slew of great content you share with us, Andrew. GOAT music youtuber right here.
Andrew lives in another world - even aliens envy him...
Chopping off the transient before the reverb is such a great idea! I love my vintage algo verbs but they often handle transients really badly. Another fun pre-treating trick is aggressively EQing before a colourful compressor, and then putting an inverse EQ after. like cranking the bass so that it really smacks the compressor hard, then pulling it all back out again afterward.
that last tip fkin genius omg
I love the field recording as modulation trick. One patch that worked very well for me was taking a recording of ocean waves and feeding it through a fixed filter bank with an envelope follower per band (essentially the analysis half of a vocoder: Frap Tools Fumana in this case), then using different bands to affect different parts of the patch. As well as modulating timbral parameters, I used the CV outputs through quantisers to create generative melodies. Then at the end of a performance I could fade in the actual recording to reveal the relationship between the wave sounds and the patch it was controlling.
This sounds like an AWESOME idea. I'd love to hear it!
@@macronencer Sure! Here it is: th-cam.com/video/zBpJLCFmhPc/w-d-xo.html
@@wellurban Oh yeah, that works really well! Love the concept, and your performance was perfect. Thanks :)
The Bird thing was INSANE! man! WOW!
10:00 If anyone wants a good sounding envelope follower without using analog modules, Kilohearts actually made a really awesome update to their Snap Heap plugin, which is basically a digital effect rack thing with modulators, but like what was happening in Live, and they have many different effects to modulate with an envelope follower that way.
my random production input: put your unfinished tune missing an intro as one audio clip (or any vocal or whatever) into granulator, assign some knobs and add some knobs for reverb and delay amounts/drywet and have some fun recording the madness
I've been having a rough go of it lately, haven't made anything for months. This video gave me the inspirations I apparently needed to go and make music. Thanks, man.
Keep at it my dude!!
@@Eklipsemedia thanks mate I will :D
A very simple trick I've found for some really thick and piercing supersaws, is layering a lush unison saw with a normal single waveform saw, and then giving that single waveform saw a slight vibrato. Works wonders for leads, with chords it can work too but you gotta make sure that the single waveform saw isn't causing phasing issues.
great to see the RND STEP in that first patch, glad to see you get good results from it.
3:40 this is like an inverted gated reverb... cool idea!
i like automating the time of the delay, it sounds sort of like format shifting an echo, and every delay plugin has a unique sound to it, when you turn the time knob, just sounds super cool to me
The last sound demonstration was gold! Feels like Aphex twin in peace.
Great tips Andrew!
The stereo filter is one of my faves, using slow lfos on each side is so nice for width for atmospheric stuff too.
Would love to hear the bird modulation from the end again but with the bird noises mixed back in a little bit. Get to really hear the cause/effect in play that way.
Speaking of being creative with reverb, one of the tastier FX that I've played with is a downsample distortion AFTER the reverb. If you dial it to taste, it almost breaks up into this gnarly glitchy/cyber sounding fade rather than the smooth release you're typically accustomed to on reverb trails.
Youre a never ending fountain of creativity! After all these years your channel still inspires me. The only down side is if I'm not able to access my DAW im itching to have a go afterwards 😅
My favorite tip/little hacky thing to do is have some sort of quadraphonic setup. Planar2 makes for a great 4 channel panner/mixer. I randomly choose two outputs, pan them hard left and hard right, and then the other two I mid/side decode and then mix together with the first two outputs. It can do some wacky stereo stuff, depending on which quadrant goes where. And, best of all, you can run a mono or stereo signal as the input. The Planar 2 really shines in polar mode for this, with a smooth random lfo or two thrown at it.
My other related trick or to use a mid/side encoder going into an autofilter, ringmodulating the side output, and then having all that in the send/return loop of a stereo delay. It’s wild
The hints on reverb killed me. So easy but effective.
I'm always so excited when Andrew goes to the spaceship to demonstrate an idea.
This is a trick I found when i was trying to recreate some NIN sounds: record a distorted guitar into ableton, take that dry mono recording and put a tal chorus lx on it to throw it into the stereo field, put another distortion on that like soundtoys devilloc deluxe, and put the tiniest amount of reverb on that. This give you an AGGRESSIVE industrial rock guitar lead sound that is reminiscent of NIN.
Obviously you need to EQ, tweak, and clean the sound as you like. But, otherwise, it really adds that intensity i love in rock and metal.
Thanks a lot!!! Out of nowhere this answered a question that's been bugging me for years and I didn't have to vocabulary to even ask. So helpful.
This one was OUTSTANDING. I mean, all of your content is great, but this one was EXACTLY the kind of content that I seek out lately. Just quickie tips and tricks with really unique sounds that can be sprinkled in whenever for flavoring. Thank you so much Andrew. Keep up the great work!
The first trick reminds me of the stereo phase trickery video Dan Worrall did with the all-pass filter. I re-created that setup using FF Volcano recently to randomize based on LFO, and it's a similar effect, but with a phase shift gap that moves around rather than a bandpass bump.
I actually stumbled across the delay + formant shift effect the other day as well, its amazing
:) splendid video
8:20 I've never seen that reverb feedback trick before, I love how it sounds. Really gives Imogen Heap vibes
It's an analog delay thing! You can do it with any non-digital delay guitar pedal too
Imogen Heap - your musical taste is on point if you listen to her stuff...
This is nothing short of amazing!
Field recording modulation is very interesting. I have a guess that recording machinery would provide a strange and usable source. Sort of regular, but with real world variance.
So glad I was wearing headphones listening to this. This panning is wild 🤯
damn i loved the patch at the outro, really had just the right balance of rynthm and craziness
Andrew Huang's videos always hit right
I often put Native Instruments' Transient Master before the reverb to help "soften" the inital attack going into the reverb. Now I'm going to try Andrew's approach...
I'm glad Andrew's got through his no-mojo phase and gone back to this style of video. Just straight up production advice and ideas, which in my opinion is what Andrew is best at.
The Filter tip and shaping the reverb are some things that are going into my next song. And I don’t care if they don’t fit! (in reality I care immensely and am hoping they work well so that when you hear my song you don’t call me out anxiety is fun)
That very first tip is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!
On your field recording modulation sources, use a multiband gate with a heckin fast atk/rel (microseconds are best) and then throw on an OTT or two with high attack and low release with boosts at each stage... with a limiter on the master just in case. Get that 30dB dynamic range for great justice
I always learn something new from your videos Andrew, your creativity is hugely inspiring. You’re a total badass 🤘
I love the nuance of having only *part* of the signal modulate between the stereo.
Oooh, "weird percussion". I like that.
Andrew. Andrew. I have a challenge for you. You have stated in the past that you are not the biggest fan of your voice. I want you to make song were you love your voice. I think with the right backing, you will never deny how amazing it is.
One tip I've been meaning to try after hearing Steven Wilson talk about it for the new Porcupine Tree record is adding some distortion after reverb in the guitar FX chain to make it sound a bit dirtier and grittier. It sounded really great, gonna have to see how well I can recreate it.
One thing I love to do in Ableton is to slice a loop to a new midi track in Sampler, then group the sampler, create a bunch of different chains with different effects on them, then use the Velocity midi effect to randomly switch between all the chains. Great for glitching up breaks and drum loops!
7:30 impressive.
Thanks for being education-oriented, Andrew!
For FL Studio users, the envelope follower is instead referred to as a peak controller -- using input peaks as automation. Same thing, same parameters!
How turn 4/4 sample into 3/4 samples, I love you Andrew
Love these quick tip videos. Thanks for the inspiration!!
2:30 Can't believe you missed an opportunity to say "duplicate this chain so we got TWO CHAINZ UP IN HERE!"
I really enjoy the trick where you tune/detune 4osc in that 5note pattern -- seems like you could get a lot of random variation while still keeping the feeling of "playing" something, rather than automating/generating/or shifting midi notes around in the piano roll
8:43 - me standing on my balcony once a year, thinking...
wtf am I doing here? xD
Seeing his wall confirms my decision to never go modular...
The de-esser tip is my favorite I think. Such a small one but for some reason I never considered using it in anything but vocals. Edit: ok the round robin one too. And the field recording one... Damn this video was full of great tips!
I recently loaded some recordings as IR's into Cubase's Reverence reverb and that created some cool and some very interesting effects.
That reverb trick will help a lot😊
For the first tip, try using sync'd LFOs with an inverted signal for one channel or tying it directly to an envelope of the signal. You're basically recreating the classic Mutronics Mutator at that point.
I love the bird modulation idea! I did something similar but used keys jingling through the khs convolver on some pad sounds to give it a twinkly effect
Fun little thing for LittleAlterBoy, automating the formants when using a distorted signal (guitar or vocal chop) can create a cool "wow" guitar effect
"You" is such an underrated track, I love it
LFOs²!! Modulate LFO parameters with other LFOs. Still predictable to a degree, but much more complex.
Fantastic video, Andrew - great tips!
Lately I have been doing the surround panning thing, because it solved a problem, of when I have more thna one guitar part, if one of them is moving around, the two of them don't clash and become like a washing machine of sound.
I just love the tech you have in your studio, so much nice stuff, great tips also, will definitely be trying these out, fab
Love how you got straight to the point. You just keep delivering time and time again :D
Thanx Andrew! So helpful as always!
So inspiring and well explained! Thanks ❤️
Some day I will return to music making and start using your tricks
I always love putting field recordings in as the convolution samples for convolution reverbs! Fun to play around with!
Definitely! They take some tweaking or getting used to, though, since it can fairly easily lead to some surprising tones being amplified through the reverb/feedback. But one of my favorites is a rainy day with bird song that I recorded - works wonderfully on piano!
Removing transients pre reverb using a transient processor can also help with the harsh reverb on percussive sounds
Dang, my new album has a guitar solo that pans left and right. I wish I would have seen this
I just released a song that does that too rip
I do this with my lil sparkle arps all the time 😭 just put one out too rippp
If you don’t have any regrets about your old music it means you aren’t growing as an artist
Jimi Hendrix liked to hard pan his guitar back and forth and I love it
It might be interesting to use field recordings as one of the two signals in a vocoder. Maybe on a drum track? Or possibly with a drone of some sort.
Hi andrew i love ur work
Run your delay send signal through a copy of the reverb in the reverb send, and set the reverb dry wet to 100%, it adds a more realistic delay at times in my opinion which can also be great for more ambient music.
That field recording trick is rad. Not sure if this has been covered on this channel, but I like to do audio rate pwm on a square wave lfo. You can throw all kinds of audio rate waveforms into a pwm input and the output of the lfo will be audio rate. Gives whatever you put into the pwm input a nasty buzz cut. You can adjust the square wave lfo's rate to get the kind of movement you want.
Love the video man, some great tips and tricks! I've been a fan of yours for awhile and I fully believe that You is one of the best songs you've ever made, now I have a new excuse to listen to it on repeat!!
Oh snap this video slaps!!!
that reverb trick is genius
Hey Andrew! I just wanted to say thank you for all you've taught me. I'm a Disabled Vet from the US and was going in the wrong direction til I came across your videos. They helped put music back into my life and videos like this one allowed me to make the best of my newest song "Leaking" on here. I would love it if you could give it a listen. It would mean a lot. Thank you again for all you do!
wow ! never heard of theses tips ! I love it
I couldn't make sense of your weird chord from last month. Every time I tried to play with it, it turned from a jazz chord into "Grateful Dead mode", whichever mode that is. The one that Dark Star is in, and Birdsong and so on... it always turned into that mode. Trying to smush that into a chord with a different root, I think it was? I couldn't do it. I got a weird jam out of it, so it was worth it to try, even if the result didn't fit the assignment🙃
I've seen the envelope follower section in various synths but never used it. Thanks for that tip! For stereo modulation I love Volcano 3!
I think I've heard the 'formant shift echos' method on Kanye West's Wolves before. The difference there is that the main vocal has a effect on it and the delay part dosen't. Anyway now I know how to call this tecnique.
Thank You!!!
honestly i also like stacking effects AFTER reverb for some interesting sounds. putting a crunchy distortion on a reverbed synth makes some really interesting textures, for instance
can you maybe have like a synth session where you make some nice stuff from the synth i love that thing it looks cool
Wish I didn't have just one IEM right now, but regardless of that, this are some cool and amazing tricks!
Great tips. Love the 5 step sequence round Robin on matriarch. Effective 🙌🏼
6:01 , a feature built-in to Image-Lines new pitch shifter actually
that matriarch round robin sequence :0 !!
ayyy you finally your back with awesome production tips
so excited to watch
excellent tips enjoyed your work well done indeed:)
Great stuff, Andrew!