Analysis of S5E01: Disprove – FRQNCS Tutorial

I wanted to get this one done ASAP so I could try and keep current with the S5 videos as they are released. Next one I should have posted is S1E04: FD – Bass Sequencing, possibly this week. Anyways, now for my notes from this episode.
 
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WATCH NOTES
The tune is an attempt at mixing jump-up & neurofunk. It was written in F minor. Also there is a lot going on in the video, at times I found it challenging to understand what is going on. Actually hoping some others can explain bits, or articulate questions a bit better.

DAW used: Ableton Live – most of this can be replicated in other DAWs, although there were some native plug-ins that I’m not sure of alternatives for, namely Erosion, Amp (a Softube logo on it though?), and Saturator
 
00:55 – Buses

• Drums bus is several sub folders that route to the drum bus:
  • Kick
  • K. Splash
  • Snare
  • Hats
  • Percs
  • Percs VA
• Bass is one bus, sub on a separate bus
• Synths/FX is the next bus
• Up/Downs – these are uplifters & downlifters/impacts
• Intro bus – this is a new idea to me, having a bus dedicated to just the intro sounds
• Vocal bus

 
02:00 – Drum bus

• Signal chain is: compressor (stock Ableton compressor) → EQ (Fabfilter Pro-Q) → Inflator (Sonnox Oxford Inflator) → Transient shaper (Sonnox Oxford TransMod)
  • Info on inflator here: https://www.sonnox.com/plugin/oxford-inflator-v3
• 03:00 – Kick group goes to drum bus, has following chain: compressor (stock) →  EQ (stock EQ-8) → transient shaper (Oxford TransMod) →  spectrum analyzer (stock plug-in)
  • Two kick layers, one a clean kick from a sample pack, the other sampled from a hip-hop track, has some EQ’ing done to it
• 04:30 – the K. Splash group, likes to have some splash in his tunes to give an energetic sound
  • Two layers of splashy drum hits
• 05:50 – snare group, two layers of snare sounds
  • 06:00 – shows how he made the first layer, is actually three samples layered
  • FX chain: compressor (stock) → EQ (EQ-8) → 2nd EQ (FF Pro-Q) →  Saturator (stock Saturator) →  transient shaper (TransMod) →  reverb
  • 07:20 – main snare layer actually has more FX on it: comp →  EQ-8 →  saturator
  • 08:00 – something snare related, with three EQ’s doing precise work
• Why are there multiple copies of the same plug-ins? Is this the idea that the next in the chain catches any extra work?
  • 08:50 – he thinks high peaks in higher frequencies sound harsh, does not like how they sound
• 09:25 – hats group: glue compressor → compressor → compressor
  • I think compressor #1 is sidechained to kicks, and compressor #2 is sidechained to snares
  • Hats comprised of loops & one-hits, to give rhythm to the track
  • Also a ride cymbal in this group
• 11:00 – percussion group, looks like it just has a compressor on it
  • Shuffles, various percussive hits, mix of one-shots & chops of loops, shakers
• 12:25 – percussion VA gorup
  • Drum fills & cowbells

12:40 – bassline group

• Much longer FX chain
• The bassline is made up of resampled basses, uses audio files
• 13:30 – the FX chain: EQ-8 →  Frequency Splitter (explained below) →  EQ-8 → Saturator → EQ-8 → FF Pro-Q → Limiter
  • Frequency split is as follows:
• Highs: EQ-3 →  Vinyl Distortion
• Mids: EQ-3 → LFO → Erosion → Amp
• Sub: EQ-3 → Utility (to make the signal mono)
• 14:45 – demonstrating how the FX chain changes bass samples
• 15:50 – seems like the bassline is comprised of different bass samples, but all of them are processed through the same chain
  • Folder of resampled basses had over 80 sounds
• 6:15 – starts going in to individual bass tracks and explains the different processing on each
  • So a big folder of resampled basses to pull from, then in the track these start to get unique processing
  • I think the key to all this is not the exact FX chains & processing, but how & why he does this
• 17:00 – little triplet bass attack stab
• 17:55 – talking bassline
  • Three Erosion plug-ins on this
  • Seemed fairly complex processing to me
• 19:30 – another bassline sound
• 20:20 – another bass stab
• 21:00 – explaining the bass group’s FX chain
• 22:00 – sub bass, basically just a sine wave with a little processing

 
22:30 – synths/FX group

• This group is for short samples, stabs and vocals hits

 
24:05 – Up/Downs group for up lifters and down lifters

• Usually just use random samples, stretching and/or pitching them
• Says he likes to us “EDM or really cheesy sample packs” for these sounds
• Doesn’t feel there is a need to make your own

 
25:10 – intro sounds group

• Says he’s not really a big intro guy, goes for a simple intro
• Uses Omnisphere, picks a random sound and adjusts parameters
• 26:15 – adding an arpeggiator from Albino 3
• Uses a different up lifter than in the Up/Downs group
• Says you can make good intros without over doing things

 
30:00 – vocals group

• Did a sampling session processing the main vocal sample in different ways, sort of like the bass resampling from earlier
• 31:30 – trying random patches in NI Guitar Rig, for sound design

 
31:45 – looking at mixdown

• Actually turns down volume for the groups, likes to saturate rather than use a limiter
• 33:00 – recommends working with mono bassline samples, then layer in stereo copies

 
33:15 – looking at master channel

• Does not really care about clipping, mastering chain takes care of that
• Likes a slight touch of distortion (CamelPhat), then Ozone at end
• In Ozone, uses EQ, Stereo Imager, and Maximizer modules

 
34:45 – looking at return tracks

• First return track is for transients, with kick and snare sent to it, then processing with NI’s Transient Master, then TransMod
• Next track is a reverb return, just using Ableton’s stock reverb

 
36:00 – explains how he utilizes the spectrum analyzer
 
36:30 – explaining  his take on sound design

• Bass made in Virust TI, but says he will show how to make  a similar bass in Massive
  • Chord based with distortion
  • “The magic comes from the distortion.”
  • After the Virus, he uses the same FX chain used earlier within his bass group
• 39:20 – Massive version
  • Key is checking the overtones and then trying to replicate in Massive
  • Focus on sub and low mid range
• 42:00 – trying a distortion plug-in inserted after Massive

 
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Thoughts & Questions:

Erosion is an “effect degrades the input signal by modulating a short delay with filtered noise or a sine wave. This adds noisy artifacts or aliasing/downsampling-like distortions that sound very ”digital.”” There is some interesting info about non-Ableton alternatives in these threads:

• https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6200582
• https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/636264-can-anyone-recommend-equivalent-abletons-saturator-erosion-audio-unit-plugs.html

How often does Disprove use the same bass FX chain? Is this something I would want to try? It could create a tailored sound, at least for however long that particular chain is used for, e.g. 3~4 months of sketches and tracks that used the chain. The rates & amounts would be different in each project, I imagine. Also makes me think I should create more FX containers in Bitwig, and channel strips in Logic.

What are the jump-up elements of the track? Can’t say I am super familiar with current trends, so maybe it’s how the drums were designed, and the bassline?