The Toecutter said:
What tools/software are you using to generate these sounds? I'd like to learn how.
In case you were specifically wondering about this song (Just Give Me a Voice)
I started with just the bass guitar (an Ibanez basic 6-string electric bass guitar), which like all my externally-generated audio is recorded in dry, using realtime effects in the track bins (and the bus bins those feed into) to create the specific sound I'm after, so I can alter it if necessary to better fit a mix, or even to completely change the character of the sound, etc., played to a drumtrack generated by SONAR's included Session Drummer 2 or 3 drumkit, played with Sonic Reality's brit kit.
The guitar is actually split between two tracks, which I cut and fade between for various parts; one is stereo and the other mono, but both fed with mono recorded guitar audio. Stereo version effects are, in order:
--Shred1.06 (free vst) Lainee Custom FrankenAmp with some tweaks to make the delay fit the song tempo (600ms left 450ms right) and lowering the feedback, etc.
--VX64 Vocal Strip (incl with some version of SONAR at some point), on Telephone preset, controlled via envelope to cut in and out and change amount of effects, for various sections of the song.
--Sonitus FX multiband EQ (incl wiht SONAR), with only a couple bands active as shelving low and high, to do a more extreme version of the telephone effect, also automated over parts of the song, primarily the fadeout at the end.
--CakewalkFX Reverb (incl with SONAR), automated to help with the fadeout.
Mono version effects are the same except no reverb (track not present at end)
The bass guitar track started as a copy of the last section of the guitar track, copied over and over, but later I created one from scratch using hand-drawn MIDI note control of the included Cakewalk Session Instruments Bass Guitar with the Blown Speaker preset for sound, not using any patterns though. Same Shred effect/preset as teh main guitar, then the FX EQ, differetn bands and different automation timing/etc. One short section of the bassline is actually the guitar track of that same section copied and pitchshifted a couple octaves down, then pitchshifted up or down a few notes to complement the guitar notes at that time instead of matching them.
The piano part is Cakewalk TruePiano (incl with SONAR, but avialable as a VST from 4Front as well), with the Bright Amber module, and reverb off. FX chain is VX-64 Vocal Strip with hip hop vocals preset, then Channel Tools (free VST) set to widen the track, then Cakewalk SonitusFX Delay (incl with SONAR) set to 1:3/4 with "host sync" to match song tempo (of 99BPM), then SonitusFX Reverb as a slightly modified "short and sweet" preset, then the Sonitus FX EQ with a few active bands, automated as needed thru the song. The actual piano part was played in by hand, modified thru the built-in arpeggiator using settings that create a "round", whcih modifies itself as I played the part. This I tehn commited to a "hard" midi track without the arp and then edited the clips to what you hear. Some bits of this I then matched some of the bassline's MIDI notes to at the end of various bars.
The string part is Cakewalk Session Instruments Strings (incl with SONAR) whcih emulates a string section using a distict bass, cello, and violin section, in this case using the FastAttack program for sounds (but not using any of the patterns). There's two independent copies of this synth in the song, with the same effects chains, driven by separate sets of MIDI tracks. One of them just plays some copies of the piano's MIDI notes, and one of them is some extra stuff I played in as MIDI and a few bits I drew in by hand. FX chain is VX64 with Backing Vox Silky Smash preset with some of the Compander and EQ parameters tweaked to fit the rest of the sounds, the same Sonitus FX Delay as the Piano, and the same Sonitus FX Reverb as well. Some of the notes of the played-in strings are copied to the bassline to have the bassline match and fatten the strings, and some of the guitar notes were figured out using a tuner (because I don't know what notes I'm playing, I just go by sound), and copied as MIDI to the strings to fatten the guitar in certain spots.
The drum track is the Cakewalk Session Drummer 3 using the Sonic Reality Brit Rock Kit sound preset, and started out as a set of patterns (loops) of MIDI notes including with Cakewalk, by Groove Monkee, in the Soft Rock section, the "072" series. I actually just imported a bunch of the series and then began placing them not exactly randomly, but not with much care for which type of loop it was for which part of the song it would be for, but when I was done they somehow nearly just fit and worked as they were (sometimes this just happens to me, where things work out the way I want them without a bunch of faffing around). I ended up doing a fair bit of trimming to remove extraneous notes and then moving various bits of the loops around, trimming stuff off, adding some bits, to fit it all better to the actual music, most of this done late in the editing process. This synth has independent outputs for each drum if you want them, but in this case I routed most of the stuff to a dry track, but the kick and snare go to an FX chain with PX-64 Percussion strip (incl with SONAR) with The Heat preset, and the cymbals and crashes to a chain with that same Sonitus FX Reverb as the strings and piano.
The piano and strings are routed to a bus that has another VX-64 using the Tracking Doubler preset, which then routes to the Master bus.
The two guitar tracks are routed to a bus that has the VX-64 using the Female Cleanup and Presence preset, then the Sonitus FX EQ with the bands set to notch around where the kick and snare are frequency-wise, as well as where some of the sparklier piano sound is. This then goes to the master bus.
The bass track is routed to a bus that has the VX-64 Warm and Fuzzy preset, then it goes to the Rhythm Comp bus.
The drums go to a bus that has the LP64 Multiband compressor (incl with SONAR), set to the Mastering (lighter) preset, then to the Rhythm Comp Bus.
That RC bus has just the Sonitus FX Mulitiband Compressor (incl with SONAR), with the Smooth preset, and the output limiter at 0dB, then out to the Master Bus.
The Master bus uses the Vintage Master Hard preset of that Sonitus FX Multiband Compressor, also with output limiter at 0dB, then out ot the speakers.
Most of the "mastering" and bussing stuff I've learned from various websites found via google that discuss this sort of thing, and then just experimenting with my mixes using those ideas and the tools I have already (many of the sites talk about using multi-hundred-dollar or even multi-thousand-dollar mastering plugins which I will never have, so I adapt their techniques as best I can to the stuff I do have).
(Side note: I actually recorded the original track guitar track using the bass guitar a few years ago (2019?) and didn't have anywhere to go with it then, so it sat just like that until a couple months or so ago when I was listening to old unused stuff and got an inspiration. I use the bass guitar to play a lot of the lead guitar parts because my regular electric guitar is not very good and the bass has a much better sound for almost anything I need to play with a real guitar--the First Act frankenlectric guitar is alright for using with MIDIGuitar program to create MIDi tracks that then control various synths, though).
(i crossposted this to the studio thread for future reference as well)