Creating Instruments from Found Sounds
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2015
- In this video, we take a look at how you can use unpitched samples like field recordings to create interesting, textured instruments that you can play like a synth by boosting frequencies with an EQ to create notes and then adding the resulting file to a Sampler.
You can download the NT BSTR device from the video here:
elphnt.io/nt-bstr
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Hi 👋🏻 my name is Tom; I’m a music maker and Ableton Certified Trainer. I help people be more creative with Ableton Live. Download instruments and effects and watch tutorial videos at elphnt.io
#ableton #abletonlive #musicproduction
I just want to let you know that by boosting an EQ band very heavily you are inducing artificial resonance, rather than actually "bringing out what is there". What I usually do instead, is look in a frequency analyzer to see which frequencies are naturally there, and then I boost the nearest musical frequency to what is there naturally, and then I change the playback speed of the sample to bring the natural frequency content up or down to that boosted band. Then I tell the sampler that it's THAT frequency. Then I remove the boost and do more careful and slightly wider boosts to make sure I'm not bringing out any artificial ringing.
Yeah pretty much this.
it seems more interesting. Can you make a tutorial about it?
yeah tutorial will be helpful:)))
Exactly, I had the same thought about it
Artificial resonances are not necessarily bad if used as a sound design tool, however your method leads to more coherent results imho, and if the sound is still not tonal enough I think layering gives much more flexibility... Thanks for sharing :)
5 YEARS LATE, THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL MAN, LOVE YOUR SO MUCH ♥️♥️♥️
Wow, super useful, clear and interesting. Can’t wait to give this technique a go!
heavy.. really unique tutorial bro!
This is EXACTLY what I was looking for, I want to make a textured pad sound. Thanks a million.
Beautiful!
I never comment but this is amazing, thank you sir!!!
+strikeee01 thank you :)
How have I just seen this? Love love love
Fantastic video, great job!
Was fun to watch. Thanks and God bless! 😊🙏🏻❤
Absolutely love your channel!
Thank you! :) Please share if you enjoyed it and don't forget to check out more music production stuff at my website: elphnt.io
Just curious, would it not make more sense to boost the c3 frequency, as keyboards are tuned to C and so what you play would make sense musically. If you play a C chord on a keyboard with this instrument, it won't actually be a C chord, am I right?
He actually sets the root note within sampler to avoid this issue
Yes! Great video!
somehow so simple but bang on brilliant cheers mate!!!
Hey Tom! I've just found you on UA-cam and let me tell you,you are already up in the pantheon of the best Ableton instructors in my eyes,I can't wait to buy and try your instruments/effects !!!! Very good, short,to the point videos that are high quality, labelled with a catchy "logo" and your voice and narration is pleasant and contained. Keep up the good work man,you could easily become the next Puremagnetik !!! They are one of the best in terms of content however they have given up making videos and promoting on youtube long time ago..... Thank you!
Thank you! :) I've been a bit lax on getting new videos up (I've been really busy with some other stuff) but I'm gonna get on to doing some more videos very soon! It so reassuring to hear that you're finding them useful. Lets me know that what I'm doing is not wasted time :)
they never stopped they just dont have a regular upload shedule. they upload all the time, just not really consistent. puremagnetik that is.
take a drink every time he say "saumple"
take a drink 48,000 times a second
This is an outstanding video! Thank you very much for the content!!!
Brilliant, thanks. 😊
Ah this is so cool! Thanks a lot.
amazing vid, i exactly what i needed to know but didn't i needed to! thanks :D
Beautiful
Awesome tutorial. Thanks!
Brilliant!
Thanks a lot. This is a very very very good channel to learn, you're making a wonderful job!
Excellent, much thanks
this is creative process thanks
This was great! Thanks!
Amazing!
Really interesting, especially the odd harmonics parameter !
Thanks for the info very helpful to me: )
Really dope!
wow, amazing video , thanks
Dude, you're great!
🙏🏻
omg! it's amazing! thank you!
Always a pleasure 🤓
thanks man, very inspiring, learned a lot
Such a pleasure! 😊 Don't forget to share the vid 😉
I am surprised by the reaction of people to this technique. There is an EQ preset in Ableton called "Singing A". And he's been there for ages.
Great for Ambient music. And with the vibrato, resembles Boards of Canada.
Super cool.
wow, great
holy sampling batman!!
This is genius!
Great video!
awesome, great ideas.
Really good content. Thanks
This is such an ingenious way of finding creating sounds! Definitely going to use!
I feel like I have just woken up! Brilliant ;-)
Thank you! ☺️
Amazing
I love this. Got some great ideas from this.
+EliOceans yay! Please send through anything you might make that's inspired by this, always keen to hear what people are doing! :)
+ELPHNT of course :D
very interesting ! thank you
thx ELPHNT!
First TAPE, now this?
Haha, it was actually this first and TAPE came way later 🙃 But yay! So glad you're enjoying the content ☺️🤓🙏🏻
This is just crazy cool! Brilliant job!
🙌🏻
this is genius
This is the coolest video I’ve seen in years. I have a few portable recorders and have captured so many field recordings and never thought to do this or even sought it out. Much obliged
Awesome! What recorders are you using? I've got a Zoom H5 myself, but mostly end up using my iPhone 'cause I've always got it with me 😅
wow, really helpful. Can't wait to try this out!
great man:))
This is pure gold. ELPHNT, thank you, you're a great guy!
whoop! thank you :)
🔥🔥🔥
Really creative stuff, looooooved it!
This is amazing!
🙌🏻
Heyy this is a really cool idea, gotta test it out!
and great tutorial as well 🔥
Cool
Thumbnail is so clean I first thought it was an Ad
Lol 😂
cool man
Please, do more tutorial of creative ideas in Ableton like this!!
There are a few more at elphnt.co.za/learn/ - more on the way soon as well.
This is probably the best Ableton tutorial on the internet.
Wow, thanks! 🙌🏻
This is a very interesting technique but I can't help noticing the spectral profiles of your first two samples had a way richer harmonic content in higher pitches. Instead of setting the eq at A3, maybe you could get clearer results with less eqs in A5 for exemple. Also letting the Q be a tiny bit wider than just a sinewave can let some texture slip into the notes, so its always worth tweaking your q settings a bit to see if any additional character comes out.
Totally agree. There's definitely a lot more that you can do with this - I'd always intended this to be a simple introduction to the concept and then I'd follow up with more advanced videos, I just never got round to it 😭 Great tips though!
this was really cool and really helpful
This is soooo amazing thank you
PRO!
That was wicked. Thanks
Thanks :) If you want to see more stuff please check out my website at elphnt.co.za
Brilliant! Thanks a million for the tips. Field recording just got a whole lot more interesting.
btw, having a macro that changes the fundamental and partials to a particular key would be nice. Or are we going into Resonator territory then?
Always a pleasure 🙂
Yeah, you could probably achieve the same thing with Resonator. I did want to go too far down the wormhole in this video, just a basic start. Might do a more advanced follow up at some stage.
That's absolutely fair enough and I am more than grateful for the tutorial. Just thinking out loud. Thank you!
Please keep thinking! It's always good to hear people's thoughts 'cause I've had a number of people express the same thing, so I think there's definitely an advanced tutorial in my future 😁 If you're already familiar with Resonantor though then I'm sure you've already probs figured most of it out anyway 😎
Very useful technique, thanks for sharing.
Even harmonics: more square-like
Odd: more triangle-like
Both: more saw-like
dude ur cool
this completely blow my mind!
wow. very inspiring, creative and so well explained that i was able follow ( which is not always the case). the elephant is doing an excellent job ;-) subscribed directly.
Thank you! 😊
You could probably do all this with the resonator effect or have operator play a 440 note in the same channel. I pick a sample with good frequency content, pitch it down to see the root better, align it to sampler notewise, pitch it back up if need be and maybe layer it with an operator an octave lower.
I see you watched Gravez's the Crate episode
I actually haven't, it seems to be a hip-hop video and I make different kind of music. It's just tips I've picked up in my 15 years of making music. As a last effect you can always throw the autotune on and set the type to instrument.
15 years! I salute you. Wish I had your passion. I recently bought an Alesis Vi25 to learn how to play keys and make beats but I've barely had any time to use it as I'm a software developer by day
Thx, it's been a ride.
If you have a good sense of rhythm, you can then use the pads on your controller for playing unique drum patterns and quantize them after recording. It's easier to get a groove going by hitting stuff with your fingers than clicking with a mouse. And when you have a break at work you can just practice by hitting your desk, record it and have your DAW turn it into a drum pattern at home.
Yeah, agreed. TBH I hadn't really used the Resonator much when I made this video 😂 I also don't usually just go for 440Hz - I'll rather set the bell of the EQ to the most resonant natural frequency of the sound source and then tune that but I wanted to keep it simple for this video. I've been meaning to do an updated, more advanced one for a while! 😩 But yes, this is probably the most basic form of this technique and there's so much more that you can do with it.
Why limit yourself with A3 ? You could try to guess a more fitting overhaul tone for your sample and use that instead...
You definitely could and I often do but for the purposes of the tutorial I wanted to keep it simple. Going into finding specific overtones and frequencies that work well in a given sound is a bit advanced for some users.
Every time the wind chime sample plays I want 'over and over' by Hot Chip to kick in
I had the realization while watching this... I’m not losing my mind when I hear music when I’m by bodies of water. Especially when riding boats in video games. I always ask other people, is there music playing? And I get the look like I’m losing it...
So excited to try this right NOW!
Music is everywhere 😃 Don't worry, you're definitely not insane; I hear the noises too 🙃 One of my favourite things to do (just in general, in life, not specifically relating to music production) is to just be in nature and listen; there are some many sounds that we don't even notice without paying attention, and so many of those have great musical potential. I am forever fascinated by sound 🎶🎧
You can use 3 EQ bands ontop of each other, you don't have to duplicate the effect three times.
... Holy fukken FUUUUk.
You just blew my mind, I needed this technique so much
😂🤣
Tight
Flippen' kiff.
Mike Scott You're flippen' kiff ;)
So these are the tricks Lone uses, interesting.
Enrique Acosta this is a very popular technique - I can remember doing this with hardware samplers after reading an orbital interview in the 90s!
Hi Tum!
So just another person here to say, I really like your tutes!
thank you so much! :)
Interesting approach. Cant help but wonder that you may be missing out on the richest frequencies in these samples by just resonating A notes. Why note find the sweetest harmonic region and tune the closest note or notes from there?
You're dead right there - I actually do that when I'm working with this technique myself but it's slightly more advanced so I chose not to do it in this video. I'm definitely planning on doing a part 2 sometime though.
you should make that part 2 sometime ;)
I second that. We are going to remind you every 5 to 6 months until you do haha. We're not afraid to make this monthly. :)
Here to do just that
BarryTheElephant Agreed! And actually the tone here is more likely the effect of the “filter” i.e. the EQ band self-oscillating, and could this be created by layering a sine wave over the original sound, or even as a separate, complimentary part of the overall track. Or, as you say, pick an octave of A, or any note, in the richer part of the spectrum and pitch down, which would be more abstract, but definitely interesting, if the sample rate of the audio is high enough (or even if not!). But yeah, that’s all getting more advanced maybe.
ummmmm.......this is genius!!
+Little Katie thanks :D please share if you haven't already! :)
Believe it or not I was driving the other day and thinking of who I might possibly know that would appreciate the value of your channel :D
+Little Katie you are amazing! thank you! :D
Who knows how to solve this issue - when you play different notes on MIDI with Sampler, the tempo of sample's playback changes with the pitch. How to make the tempo the same for all the notes?
Thank you for the awesome tutorial!
It's A4 at 440 Hz, not A3: pages.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html
A3 is at 220 Hz.
First, thanks for making these videos. Very helpful. Second, can this be done with Simpler? I'm not seeing a "RootKey" parameter in Simpler.
Simpler is slightly different - there's no Root Key - Simpler just assumes that whatever you put into it is a C3, but there are Semi and Detune controls, so you just have to use those + Ableton's built-in tuner to tune it to the pitch it's supposed to be.
ELPHNT I see. Thanks.
Nice! Although, that effect file you did, it would've been way more informative to have an EQ8 open inside the rack and then see what's going on in the EQ8 itself when you move the macro knobs. While aware of this technique of sharp-Q+maxgain EQing to result in resonant frequencies, I hadn't thought of using it like how you laid out in this tutorial. I appreciate it quite a bit, especially since I've got tons of found sounds lying around and should probably figure out how to replicate this tutorial for Renoise as then I could simply turn this into a LUA script and just press a shortcut key and emerge with a foundsound EQ'd to become a melodic instrument + rendered.
+LacklusterOfficial LUA script sounds interesting! I've never really explored Renoise, maybe I'll give it a look sometime! :)
Also, what's going on inside the rack is basically exactly what I had just show in the first part of the video. You can also always download the rack and take a look :)
gumroad.com/l/ntbstr
Lo-fI heads rejoice!
Use frz grains !! ;)
A3 =440 HZ
boost eq of 440hz
-boost scale to 200
-Double your eq
-Flatten
-Add a sampler
-Tell sampler root key is A3
now you have too much texture and not enought note.
Try the same with 880hz.
*Play with amount of eq and eq gain to get texture/tone balance.
harmonics= multiples. Overtones
odd and even.
Adjust attack
Hi, Tom, what was the tool for harmonics control inside the EQ effect (Odd, even, #nr of Harmonics)? One cannot download it, the link doesn't exist.
Does any other sampler even come close to Live’s? Holy shit!
When is a part 2 coming out?
Sometime 😅 Eventually... maybe 😬 I've got quite a backlog of other videos to do, but I've got some ideas for an update/continuation of this one which will make it out at some point.