BILLAIN Q&A PART II

Viewing 10 reply threads
  • Author
    Posts
    • #10937
      ,GENIE HQ
      Keymaster

      He’s agreed to take some more questions from you guys 😀
      Keep it brief – think of others, and you can share links to one tune for feedback if you like, but only if it’s finished stuff please.

    • #10939
      ,percydnb@gmailcom
      Participant

      Hi Adis,

      1. I’ve looking how to make fade in and out on audioclips in Fl studio. In your Drum Tutorial video you use these “ableton like” fades ( not precomputed effect).

      screenshot: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5mSYFAetYuGWEJNS3FKR29iNTM4azVEY3NHNlFUS3pkaGRj/view?usp=sharing

      2. In your drum tutorial you show very well how to layer drums, however i would really intrested how u make your own synthetic drums. Do u even prefer to create drums from scratch?

      3.Do you find drum tuning useful?

      4. On your bass tutorial u use a pretty wet reverby bassline for resampling and then chop. Do you find it useful to start with some reverby stuff to get wierd artifacts?

      • #10971
        ,Adis
        Participant

        @percydnb@gmailcom

        1. you have two versions of fade in and fadeout
        the first is locaded on every sample property box here
        http://audiosabre.com/images/FL%20Crossfade.png
        The second option is to create volume automation.
        If you ask me, depending on the task i prefer both, loads of times in the same project, just by following what i choose to hear.

        2. If you stretch and mangle samples to the point of scratch, you are starting from scratch.
        Sinewave, square etcetc those are short samples too if you think about it. and everything around them is a nice pack of effects. So if you undestand that synthesis is actually everything you do, you will come up with snares from kicks, i prefer field recordings, smashing stuff, because my field is that branch of sound design. I tried making some kicks and snares in fm8 before but while i make 10 in fm8 i make 300 with my method that in my case im more satisfied with. fm8, serum and ableton live have great algorythms for creating snares.

        3.I do some drum tuning, but not too much, just to the point that they dont intervene with each other and to make sure the drum is not on a different note. If it is on the different note i try to kill the note and make it noteless so just punch is there in that case i can push bass even more upfront without any conflicts with sub and mids.

        4.Reverbs are a good tonal compliment in filling the emptyness of things when i want something pretty huge sounding, or sometimes it just add that little tunnel harmonics to it. It really depends on the idea as well. You know some very dry basslines are amazing because they are raw as hell and very strong in motion. And then you have a type of bassline you want to describe as a giant waking up 500 meters across the hill, and theres a lot of rever across the hill if you picture that. so thats the thing like “what you imagine” is it a far away giant tripod horn like from war of the worlds movie who is like full of reverbs or an alien psychoacoustic close “allmost in your head” 3osc distorted and flanged stab. I described this thing like this because its more of an idea then a production technical thing.

    • #10946
      ,Evan_DESIGN
      Participant

      Hi,
      Thanks for taking some more time to do something like this. This is a tuNE I did a while ago, I know the sub is a bit too loud and messed with the overall volume. but anything else you may notice would be great help. I have a few others in the works that I’m using headphones on since the environment I did th is one wasn’t ideal.

      • #10968
        ,Adis
        Participant

        @Evan
        Im not able to see the track, can you retry?

    • #10947
      ,Milan
      Participant

      What is your general workflow for sound design?
      Y U NO S-LAYER?

      Any updates on the operatic dnb sci-fi narratives?

      • #10973
        ,Adis
        Participant

        What is your general workflow for sound design?

        Mic recording, multilayering samples. Loads of reaktor usage. tweaking and triggering with kontakt player as well. but i now started to you patcher as well its a very cool thing in combination with peak controller

        Y U NO S-LAYER?
        I made this
        https://www.facebook.com/BillainSystems/videos/946390982049807/
        for this

        Any updates on the operatic dnb sci-fi narratives?
        still writing it 🙂

      • #11679
        ,Milan
        Participant

        Beautiful stuff. Missed some of that, can’t believe I didn’t come across it before.

        Are there any supplementary expositions on your sci-fi perspective?
        Curious if it’s man vs machines, or machines vs machines.
        Or maybe Maschine vs VSTs?

        Good stuff here for those who ain’t seen:
        Billain bass from trebles

    • #10950
      ,SGAG
      Participant

      Hi Billain,

      Huge fan here, honestly you’re probably my favorite drum and bass artist, so it’s great to be able to see your tutorials and ask you some questions.

      1.) Do you have any particular workflow when it comes to intros/drones? Even though you seem well known for your complex drum/snare/bass design, the pads that you make and the journey of your intros/drones seem to lead so effortlessly into the groove/drop. I sometimes struggle to make intros and soundscapes which are vague and interesting but also match up with the groove/drop; sometimes it seems like it’s too vague such that the intro and drop are completely separate, and sometimes when I try to make the intro more groovy and fitting (by giving it some of the qualities of the groove/drop) it ends up losing some of that interesting vagueness/soundscape-esqu qualities. Do you have any tips for finding the balance? Any types of pads/synths/instruments you like in particular?

      2.) Do you prefer to side chain your kicks/snares hard or is it subtle? It almost seems like your basses act as like a reverse clap or something into the kick/snare and it gives it a really cool swinging effect. If you understand what I’m saying, do you have any particular tips as to how you achieve that effect?

      Again, huge fan of your work.
      And thank you for your time.

      -Tyler

      • #11892
        ,Adis
        Participant

        Cheers man, i appreciate it 🙂

        1: Well i dont have except really using my imagination, i guess it take a bit of practice with mind to imagine certain melodies. But from the technical side, it is interesting what can be accomplished with layered synths instead of using just one. They all seem to glue together with very wet reverb and then exported as a long sample note only to be imported again as a processed meat for piano roll and there we go to 3 channel split a bit of distortion maybe and openings with filters to move it or pehaps a chorus / flanger. infinite possibilities. you always leave the roughest part of the synth part for the uplifting naturally. Also best way to find inspiration, buy some synths! real ones, not vsti’s. I got Juno and i literally have around 500 hours of sessions recorded, with no particular goal its just wonderful to express ideas for no reason at all. Drop is not that hard, instead of listening the tunes dissect them into properties, any tune you have either me or noisia or just dissect it into individual screws, now you see its just screws and metal and plastic. You have all those materials at your possesion already on your hard drive right there. its just hard to construct a machine without manual, but eventually its a matter of numbers of trials. Also buy access virus ti snow. you wont regret it.

        While some people and old chaps think that sidechain shouldnt be pushed too much, i think opposite. Sidechain has its sounddesign quality and its not a technical thing anymore, its a signature, theres numerous ways to play with it, either multibanded or pure volume. I think sidechain is a good effect when it comes to big soundsystems it allmost creates this vacuum science fiction atmosphere in loads of tracks. And even more, try sidechaining stuff that should not be sidechained 😉 because its just automated volume. How do you think they put so much sound effects into transformers movie in one scene? Even old chaps should look wider.

    • #10952
      ,Geordie
      Participant

      Hey Adis,

      Im a huge fan!

      awesome to get some insights via samplegnie, big respect for devoting time to showing others interesting pieces of technique and general insight.

      Would you gve your thoughts on a track i have in progress??

      Thanks again, big ups!

      -Geordie

      https://soundcloud.com/user-193141544-369720126/saiph-space-wreck-rough-draft/s-kdbiR

      • #11893
        ,Adis
        Participant

        Dont reveal too much at the start, its good to save power for drops remember that, so start with softer snares and kick and no bass or just mids, because it makes a big difference in the game how intro is just a preparation for bracing of impact so to say. Also play with different hats, change them from time to time, sidechain some rides. overall idea is good, i think your next fifth tune is going to be even better. Thats how i calculate my own progress, because we all kinda love every new stuff and dislike old ones.

      • #12629
        ,Geordie
        Participant

        Thanks for the tips!

        I ws also wondering how you go about organising your BASS low frequeicies.

        Are you using bass expand on focusrite compounder on all basses to give back some of the sub weight?

    • #11763
      ,Milan
      Participant

      Pivo
      What are some bottlenecks in your workflow?

      Tarkovski
      You have excellent space and clarity in your mixes, with a cinematic touch.
      Are you cognizant of the frequency space while mixing? How do you eq hair dryers and industrial fan turbines? What are the magic compressor settings for kamilica recorded in fields?

      • #11894
        ,Adis
        Participant

        XD
        in terms of frequency space, im limited only by monitors and headphones which by all ryles are a constant necessity to improve. But i spent most of my years with dynaudio acoustics so i know them pretty well, the rest is knowing your room acoustic properties. I like to do unecessary things, sometimes keeping track very dirty or very clean (rarely clean but depends on a job). Some big labels were trying to get a hold of my tracks under condition to polish the samples and i said how would flying lotus sound if you polish his samples, or jdilla? frequencies are also personal opinion. and music standard is just there for business. i dont believe that music should be business in that direction so when it comes to mixing i do it my way and noone elses. So those hair dryers need to be lucifer’s sons and turbines should be their hellhounds, riding on 16th sub sidechained to a dry limbo.

    • #11846
      ,laserrain
      Participant

      What’s a day in the studio like with Billain? ..How do you allocate time to chopping .wavs which must become quite tedious after your marathon sound design sessions?

      What do you like to record for achieving that plastic drum percussion sound?

      Most significant thing(s) to have changed in your approach since Breed 12”’s ‘Intrusion’?

      In your tutorial you say you aren’t a percussionist but your fills sound alright to me. 🙂

      Thank you again Adis.

      • #11895
        ,Adis
        Participant

        I think im a little bit mad, surely something does happen after extensive listening to uncontrolled sounds and eerie places, but these experiences are one of a kind and priceless, there is just obsession and nothing else. once you get to know that routine, you’re not really on earth mentally.

        i think its a fl studio kinda thing, sometimes even put kick layer in harmor and layer it with the original, sometimes a bit of vocodex on one of layer, to bring the harmonics and then glue them with preffered compression. usually works best. that plastic comes out. i love it because that plastic kinda reminds you of something profoundly AI / robotic /. you mix that with dirt and you got yourself a real cyberpunk thing.

        lots of things changed after intrusion, well to be honest intrusion was even a bit under creative control, to please the label. a sacrifice for greater releases, i had horus and probes and red surface even before intrusion, but yeah. creativity vs industry. even now i changed loads of ways of sample manipulation and approach, and still people are sometimes afraid to release it, therefor now ill definitelly put those tracks on methlab label and my own label called metnem.

    • #11990
      ,Omar
      Participant

      Hey Adis. I am really inspired by your sound design. You were pretty much the reason I subscribed to this service in the first place, so I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to learn from your videos and ask you questions. 1. I was wondering how many hours you put into the studio a day/week.

    • #12018
      ,Neologix
      Participant

      Hey Billain,

      I must say congratulations for having the balls to be quite different in d&b and being able to back it up with good composition and production. Big ups!

      My question is, how are you able to work on your tracks for sometimes years? I hate my tunes after a week or two of working on them, so I just keep starting new ones and never really finishing any of them.

      I’ll admit, this is getting a little better as I my sample library is growing and gets filled with better drums and basslines though. Could be that I don’t like the tracks because they’re simply not good :v

    • #12646
      ,rollin
      Participant

      where can I find video BILLAIN PART II? Please

      • #12651
        ,GENIE HQ
        Keymaster

        Hey there,

        We’ll be making this available again soon, it will be in the vault area of the site, we’ll let you know when it’s up 🙂

      • #12658
        ,rollin
        Participant

        Ok

Viewing 10 reply threads
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Sign In

Sign into your account below and get your hands on March's amazing content.

Forgot Password?

Find out more about our service:

Free Membership Full Membership Your Basket (0 items - $0.00)