Test 6: my intention for this track is to discover how versatile the sound stones samples can be when using them for sound design. Stylistically I’m going to make a Mark Pritchard/Odd Futures style broken beat track, concentrating on a Dub Step style lead line, a fractured beat pattern with addition sub bass, strings and noise effects.
The Lead Line: was created using sound stone tip 8 (melodyne) which has been pitched corrected and imported into Kontakt.
In order to create a lead line that had some presence and movement, I moved through the sample until I found a strong peak with some modulations. I pitched the sound down 1one octave to give it more body in the 100 to 300 Hz range.
Next: I applied the effects:
In Kontakt: saturation, stereo image, distortion, flanger, phaser and chorus.
In Cubase: EQ (to boast the mid-range between 500 to 3k) chopper (for the gated type effect) morph filter (to give it some top end fizz) and sent it all to the Waves R Verb
(plate 1) for some reverb.
I found Kontakt a little limiting and a bit clunky in regards to the actual sound designing and opted to use Cubase’s insert effects as well.
The Lead Line: Processed with Effects.
Effects added:
In Kontakt: tape saturation, flanger, reverb, and phaser.
In Cubase: extreme panning.
Once again this sample wasn’t tempo matched so its modulations had some really interesting movement when the extreme panning was added.
String Sound: Processed with Effects.
Effects added:
In Cubase: quadra fuzz (to dirty it up) compressor (to add punch) and EQ (boosted at 60 Hz to give it more bass).
The Bass: Processed with Effects.
Blip 1: I used the sound stone tip 1 (melodyne) sample again, it has a sine wave like tone and is very versatile. My idea was to create two blip noises that would play off each other.
Effects added:
In Kontakt: saturation, compressor, lo-fi.
In Cubase: mod delay and send effect to the Waves R Verb.
Blip 1: Processed with Effects.
The String Sound: is sound stone tip 12 (melodyne) pitched one octave higher and looped.
The Bass: is sound stone tip 1 (melodyne) pitched down three octaves in the Cubase sampler. I wrote in a short midi note to emulate a 808 style sub kick used on Rap productions. I loosened the attack of the sample to avoid any pops or clicks.
Blip 2: used sound stone tip 4 (melodyne) spread across the keys and played at F4 instead of its note original D4.
Effects added:
In Kontakt: tape distortion, guitar cab distortion and a phaser.
In Cubase: chopper, quadra fuzz, delay and send effect to Waves R Verb.
Blip 2: Processed with Effects.
Conclusions: On the whole the sound stone samples proved themselves to be quite versatile and allowed me to get a good range of elements. I particularly liked the way the lead line moved around within itself and the vibrancy of the string. I had to work very hard on the effects chain to get things to where I wanted them to be and in many ways this negated the actual sound source. You could definitely use the stone samples to
design a sound pack of unusual dub step, drum and bass and hip hop sounds.