Analysis of S6E06: Gridlok – Production Approach

Gridlok’s first tutorial video ever, a 2-part set of videos released in December 2018.

Part 1 (37:17)
01:00 – looking at “Vaultdweller” (with Black Sun Empire)

04:30 – starting with the beats folder, wrote with Milan from BSE, says that Milan does good rock style beats

05:45 – lower timbre and higher timbre layers of kick and snare
– EQs by ear, starts with channel strip EQs
– Looks like he uses SPL Transient Designer on these main hits

09:30 – layered in Addictive Drums underneath to add to dry hits

10:30 – Addictive Drums hats

11:30 – also re-uses hats from his track “Steady”
– Explains his ethos on sonic identity and re-using sound; it’s good, can help create a unique identity as an artist

12:30 – goes in to extra “flairs”, like reverse bongo layer
– Soundtoys’ Echoboy to dub it out, mixed with D16 Decimort distortion

14:00 – a trick from Optiv, kick & ride bussed together, distorted, and then the low frequency is cut out, likes the distortion created
– Describes as similar to ringmod, but the distortion technique sounds more unique

17:00 – likes delay on his crashes

17:45 – looking at bass, used ARP Odyssey to create bass sounds, just processed differently per track to create variations
– Sub, mid, and highs (a.k.a. “sizzle”)

18:40 – for sub, used original bass recording, put Soundtoys FilterFreak1 on it with a 2-pole lowpass filter

19:50 – mid bass insert chain: The Drop (filter) -> FabFilter Pro-Q2 -> Camelphat (for distortion, bandpass filter, and main filter) -> a second Camelphat (I think just for the inherent limiting) -> Waves MetaFilter -> D16 Decimort (bitcrushing)

21:20 – explains the bass turnaround at bar 79-81, a bass fill and the FX’s are heavily wet, to differentiate from the dry sections
– Giving sounds a sense of a different space than the rest of the track
– Recommends trying wet vs. dry versions of drums too

23:00 – touches on BSE using Surge (soft synth) to create another bass layer, comes in at bar 97

24:00 – looking at Decimort2 and how it can add subtle bitcrushing

25:15 – the vibes section, “the three most important things in dnb: the beats, the bass, the vibes”

25:30 – Virus influenced pad I think he mainly processed in the EMU sampler, but then some tone control from insert effects

29:00 – takes a quick look at Wavesfactory Trackspacer, a dynamic EQ plug-in

30:40 – explains the BSE folder in the track

32:00 – sweeping stab, has FabFilter Pro-L on it to bring out the tail & reverb
– Sometimes you need to use a mastering limiter on individual sounds

33:25 – busses
– Kick & snare
– Metals -> cymbals sidechained to the main kick & snare
– Drums -> has The Glue compressor
– Bass -> sidechained to the Drums bus, but doesn’t always do this to the entire bass

35:30 – explains use & need of a second drum bus, when you don’t want all the drums triggering sidechains

Part 2 (30:36)
– Looking at Gridlok’s latest finished track “Opera”

00:45 – quick look at Oxford Limiter, on his master bus

05:00 – explains the analog mix track, digital outs of his sound card going to his analog set-up, which has no mixer

07:15 – vibes section
– Intro strings, a chord played with Cubase VST instrument, probably Retrologe

10:00 – Opera vibe bounced, going over how each slice is processed differently to create variety
– Flanges, bitcrushing, etc.

12:30 – bass section, the acid arpeggiator that comes in

13:30 – Retrologue to make an arp
– This technique was used in “Insecticide”
– ARPache SX MIDI tool, and adjusting parameters on it and the synth

15:00 – reece bass build up

19:45 – a Serum bass part
– LFO shape that is like an offset sine wave
– Noise OSC with key tracking and tuned, so the bass has some more variation

22:40 – back to thoughts on re-using a signature sound
– In this case, a reece bass that he processed differently each time he uses it in a project

23:20 – sub from Serum

24:30 – a sample layered on top of bass, to give a different texture

26:10 – 8-bar drum transitions and unconventional sequencing

27:00 – “false drop” for the first drop
– Sounds with short 2-bar variations, including different drums, to contrast with the main parts of the track