Analysis of S1E11: Hybris – Ideas From Samples

Topics: Compression, iZotope Alloy 2, Multi-Band Compression, Samples, Sample Manipulation, Sample Packs

For this demonstration, Hybris makes a sketch with samples from Sample Genie’s first season, pulling from the other artists’ samples. He usually does a bit of sound design to make his own sounds, for his own tracks. Also, the Hybris samples for Sample Genie were made specifically for season one.

01:30 – folder tracks to stay organized and “sane”
– For examples, basses go to Bass Folder, drums to Drum Folder, all other sounds go to SFX Folder
– SFX can be broken down later, if needed

02:30 – starting with drums
– At 03:00 he talks about weighty vs. micro drums, and grungy/dirty breaks

04:00 – touches on why he works at 172 BPM, not that it is the best tempo in his opinion, just that his work and a lot of music he plays by other producers is at that tempo

06:00 – slicing a breakbeat in Cubase, and puts in little fades to prevent pops & clicks from the audio file not ending at a zero crossing
– Splits the break in to three layers (kick, snare, percussion), for more control of the slices

09:45 – touches on the importance of lining up transients from all of the drum hits. Prevents clashing attacks, finds clashing & clanging sounds “trashy”

11:50 – using Alloy 2 to look at clashing kicks

14:00 – utilizes multi-band compression instead of an EQ to adjust a kick
– Main kick triggers a sidechain of the low end compression of a layered kick

17:45 – thoughts on group tracks, and when he does it during the writing process
– Waits to group drums, does it based on whether he feels the drums need it. Waits because he feels if you get in to habits and compulsively group things to process them, you might not be doing yourself a favor. Think about why you are using the tools.

18:30 – working with bass samples

20:30 – lettings sounds do their jobs, avoiding sonic clutter

28:15 – moving on to the sound FX folder
– Hybris uses a lot of key commands and shortcuts in Cubase, knows them well and this helps his workflow

31:50 – using PaulStretch on atmospheric sounds

34:30 – creating a bus to process atmosphere sounds together and tie them together with some stereo movement
– PSP N2O with an LFO on a notch filter, followed by a delay, and then a hi-pass to control the output, utilizing the cutoff just before the drop

38:15 – final thoughts:
You want sounds to server their purpose, and not have too many sounds trying to serve the same purpose, explaining how the basses don’t overlap, and how the kicks utilized sidechain
– Nothing too dirty, or too clean, but a balance between; example being clean one-hit drums, layered with a dirty break
– Get atmospheric sounds moving together

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THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS

– Older video, but similar ideas on sketching and using samples as a starting point.

– PaulStretch (v3) has been updated recently, and there is even a VST version now (PaulXStretch), but I haven’t messed with that at all.