Analysis of S1E03: Hybris – Creative Percussion

DAW used: Cubase – can follow this tutorial in any DAW though

Essentially this video is Hybris demonstrating drum processing techniques as a method of sound design, utilizing field / found sound recordings for the audio, then various tools to shape the sounds.

• Initially working with a field recording he made of people loading up an idling truck.
• First sound he is drawn to is a big peak near the beginning of the recording, begins working on making it a kick sound, and a sound soon after the kick, he uses to create a snare, almost a sidestick or rim sound.
  • 03:20 – Using Cubase’s Stereo Flip Process (Process -> Stereo Flip) to convert the sound, using the better side of the stereo
    • Left To Stereo
• For the snare sound
  • 05:28 – Fade in (0.0.0.1) on audio file for snare, to prevent a click or pop at the beginning of play
    • “Sometimes you do want that little pop, but I prefer to keep it cleaner.”
  • 05:40 – Pitch shifting the audio files with another Cubase process (Process -> Pitch Shift), to give a little more snap in the snares
• 07:00 – looking for a hi-hat & percussion sounds
  • For the sounds used, he puts a filter on it to remove low end, make it more hi-hat sounding
  • For the percussion sounds, he also applies a ring modulator
    • On percussion, he demonstrates using PSP N20, a mulit-fx unit.
      • Assigns an LFO to modulate a bandpass filter, adding movement to the percussion
  • 08:00 – For some variation he has the percussion sounds going through one set of FX on the first bar of the loop, then a different set of FX on the second bar
  • 19:00 – Using Alloy 2 to EQ a snare layer, goes in the different modules and their functions
    • 24:00 – Reinforces found sound “drums” with sampled and/or synthesized drum hits
      • Demonstrates using FM8 to create a chirpy drum hit
    • 31:00 – Gives his thoughts on his process, wanted to show how to make something from very little, and without using too many plug-ins. Says it comes down to “finding a logical way to use pieces of sound”.

    Thoughts & Questions:

    • The info in this tutorial could be applied to many genres, it’s just a matter of trying it out, experimenting, and listening for what works versus what doesn’t work.
    • What other tools are comparable to Cubase’s Stereo Flip Process? Is this just converting to mono? Or picking one side of the stereo, then converting that to mono? I’m pretty confident I could do this within Logic X’s audio editor, and in Adobe Audition.
    • Is there a point where a drum loop sounds too busy? I thought this loop sounded good, not sure how much more could be added, or if it was just at the point of “enough”.
    • How much of a synthesized drum sound depends on the synth used, versus the processing chain?
    • How important is it as an artist to have a philosophy behind your work? To create techniques, methods, and/or processes of your own? In the past couple of years I have started to think it is very important, and I definitely have a few processes that are very much my own, probably would not make sense to most, but they work for me & what I want to do with my music.