S1E02: State Of Mind – Workflow & Arrangements

Tutorial done by Stu from the duo State Of Mind.
DAW used: Cubase – easy to follow along in any other DAW
Third Party Plug-Ins used:

• Superior Drummer – drum ROMpler
• ReFX Vanguard – discontinued VST
• D16 Decimort
• Fab Filter Pro-Q
• A lot more glanced at throughout the tutorial

Originally watched this in August 2013, then rewatched in July 2017. Notes are a combination of the two viewings.

Tune used for this tutorial is State Of Mind – “Spastic Audio“:

Notes & Observations:
Introduction to the tutorial, Stu states that they are fans of folder tracks, and have theirs set up as follows:

• Drums
• Bass
• FX
• Pads
• Vocals

Also like using folders for their auxiliary channels:

li>FX channels
• Group tracks
• VST instruments

Stu says having a consistent approach to production helps improve workflow

02:45 – looking at drums first.

• Delays & FX used on the cymbals in the intro are different from what is used for the rest of the track. Makes the cymbals unique for that section.
• SOM like to combine clean one-hit drums and old break samples, using both audio and MIDI (i.e. samplers)
• Kick is created out of three layers:
  • Main kick
  • A high frequency kind of crunch, something that sounds good layered with the main kick
  • An off-beat accent kick
• 04:45 – explaining using a kick with now mixer output being used as a sidechain trigger. Devices can read the input of the kick without the kick being audible through a mixer. Kind of a standard technique nowadays I think.
• 05:50 – talking about Superior Drummer

08:20 – next is bass

• For this track, SOM used audio files to create the bass sounds, using a resampling approach
• Feels there is a need for melody in the bassline
• At the time of this tutorial, SOM liked using the ReFX Vanguard to create their sub basses
  • The patch used seems to be a super square patch
  • Vanguard is now a discontinued VST, plenty of other soft synth options available.
• Mid range basses are slices of a longer bass sample, with different distortion chains on different slices and/or loops.

15:30 – FX and short sounds section, basically short sounds, stabs, one-shots, sweeps and swells

• The hook for the tune is in this section, the glitchy modem type sound
• Tend to use two reverb busses for the track, one a room reverb (the bigger, longer sounding reverb), and one drum reverb (the short, “sound of the room” reverb)

18:30 – discussion of the riser in the introduction, feels the need for rising movement in intros, that it makes the intro more interesting.

• Feels that a droning pad on its own sounds dull
• Likes using FX such as frequency modulation and bit crushing, automating them over 16 bars
• Feels that 16 bars should have a point for reason to be there, rather just a synth drone plodding along

22:25 – further examination of the folder of FX tracks

Thoughts & Questions:
• The clip join type tool Stu uses in Cubase, was originally trying to figure out if you can do that in Logic. I can do it in Bitwig, basically you “join” audio files, and it creates a clip containing those files.

• In Cubase, is there any real difference between Folders and Group tracks? I know in Logic X, which finally added a decent folder system, there are actually two types of folders, the first just being tracks packed together, the second being a summing folder that is essentially a bus. In Bitwig the folders are basically busses, although you can probably set up routing a few different ways.

• What are some creative ways of moving away from the droning pad intro section? Especially ways that fit different types of tracks?

• What is State Of Mind’s workflow like now in 2017? What about other processes? Any particular plug-ins mentioned that are still in their “go to” tool box now? What seems to be their preferred plug-ins currently? How do they start tracks, as sketches usually?

—–
I was trying to think of something from the tutorial to demo. If there are any requests, I’ll give it a shot. If anything, I do have templates made for Logic X and Bitwig that follow the folder structure mentioned in the tutorial. Also, next week I will post an analysis of S1E03: Hybris – Creative Percussion, and will try to post an analysis of S5E01: Disprove, as I’d like to get the S5 videos caught up & updated throughout the current season.