Boom Boom, Bang Bang, Click Click

By Dusty DiMercurio

Sounds like an electronic potpourri a la Aphex Twin, Autechre, Boards of Canada, etc. If you're anything like me and enjoy partaking in the art of analyzing (in the most non-clinical sense of the term) those artists whose music makes you wonder what the heck they were doing to "get that sound," you're gonna dig what's coming in the next several months of LE Boot Camp.

First and foremost, you may be pondering over what happened to Joe Gore. Well, to answer your question: nothing. I have simply taken the reigns for this month's column to lay down the groundwork (no pun…check out David Franz' new Groundwork column in this month's DigiZine) for what to expect in the coming year for LE Boot Camp.

Over the past year, Joe has done an amazing job of breaking down some of the essential know-how required to get up and running quickly with Pro Tools LE — and he'll be continuing this trend before you can say Pro Too…. In this vein, over the next several months of the LE Boot Camp column, Joe and I are going to attempt to consolidate and unify those separate bits of knowledge you've accrued (yep, it's budget time around here…how could you tell? ;-) while reading LE Boot Camp over the past year. So how are we going to do this, you ask?

Joe and I will be divulging some of our favorite tricks as we show you the ins and outs of putting together a hybrid electronic tune of the IDM ilk. In so doing, we're going to be drawing upon a diverse number of sonic elements and tools in our respective studios to accomplish this.

	One of my favorite tools for composition and playing live

So by now you get my drift (or not). That's right, we're going to be throwing down beats and such using a number of different sources. On the software side, I happen to be an advocate of Native Instruments' Reaktor program, Ableton's Live, Propellerhead Software's Reason, and of course Pro Tools. Each of these programs work in its own unique ways with Pro Tools, and as the column progresses, we're going to show you just how we like to use them in that context.

Before I go any further, I'd like to mention that, in my studio, Pro Tools is the mother ship — i.e., Pro Tools has naturally taken on the role of the hub. It's the perfect place where all of my instruments can take refuge and discuss politics with one another. The down side: they don't always cooperate. On the other hand, their peace negotiations seem to be leading somewhere. In fact, I foresee a resolution evolving in the very near future that will bring them closer together than ever.

Some Boom in Your Beats
In an attempt to get things started, I'm going to give you a brief tutorial on a little trick I use to really beef up my beats. Explaining this can be a little confusing, so I've included a session that you can download here which should be quite helpful in getting yourself a grip.

Download the session
PC | Mac

So here's what I did:

Open the session you just downloaded and launch it. Hit the spacebar to listen to the drum loop play back; it should be looping. It's a decent loop — definitely worth working with — but it could sound a little fuller. You'll notice that the LOOP 1 track is soloed; hit the Solo button to turn off Solo and you should start to hear what's being bussed to the aux tracks, KICK BOOM and SNARE GRIT. It is a little subtle, but you'll notice a boom added to the kick track and a little more grit added to the snare. Keep hitting the Solo button on the LOOP 1 track to compare the track with and without the boom and grit added to the loop. Keep in mind that the changes are subtle. If you're monitoring through headphones it may be more difficult to hear because of the limited frequency response. If you're having trouble hearing it, try monitoring with your speakers.

How I Did It
First, make sure you've got a drum loop that you want to work with. For this exercise, try using the loop in the Audio Files folder (separated as individual left and right members of a single stereo file) included with the session you just downloaded. To import the loop into a new session, simply use the key command, Shift + Command/Ctrl + I, navigate to the aforementioned audio files (named beat 1-GAIN_01.L and beat 1-GAIN_01.R), double-click on them and hit Done. Both audio files should show up as one stereo file in the audio regions bin in the right side of the Edit window in Pro Tools.

Next, make sure that you've got a stereo audio track in Pro Tools and then drag the stereo audio file from the audio regions bin on the right of the Edit window to the stereo track. If you don't have a stereo audio track in Pro Tools, use the cool key command you learned a while back from Joe: Shift + Command/Ctrl + N; while still holding down the Shift and Command/Ctrl keys, use the right arrow key to select Stereo. Finally, hit Create.

	Digidesign Signal Generator plug-in

Next, open up the plug-ins for the session. To do this, simply click on the small up/down arrows in the first insert slot at the top of the Mix window on the Kick aux track, and select the Signal Generator plug-in. In the second insert slot on that same track, open the Expander/Gate plug-in. Now, while holding down the Option/Alt key, click on the Signal Generator plug-in in the KICK track insert slot and drag it over to the corresponding insert slot on the SNARE track. This is a quick way to copy that plug-in (and its settings) over to another track. Do the same for the Expander/Gate plug-in.

Digidesign's Expander/Gate plug-in

Next, you'll want to create two sends on the original LOOP 1 track. Simply click on one of the arrows in the Mix window under the inserts section to select a send. For the first send, select Bus 1; for the second, Bus 2. Don't forget to turn up the volume on the send to 0 dB (try clicking on the volume fader of the send while holding down Option/Alt; this makes the volume default to 0 dB). In so doing, you're sending an audio signal from the LOOP 1 track over to another track. Of course, now we have to select a destination to receive that signal.

	Click image to enlarge

Next, dial in the settings shown on the screen shot to the right.

Tips for Dialing in the Plug-in Settings
You may be wondering how I came up with those settings. Well, I pretty much played with the dials and listened back until I found the settings I liked. That said, there are a few tips to keep in mind when attempting to dial in the right settings in this situation.

First, in the Signal Generator plug-in, the sine wave setting works best for adding some sub bass boom to the kick drum; for the snare, both the white and pink noise work. It just depends on what sound you're looking for.

Another thing to keep in mind — especially with the sine wave on the kick track — is to make sure the frequency of the sine wave is in tune with the kick. The easiest way to do this is to hit the Bypass button on the Expander/Gate plug-in so you can constantly hear the sine wave. While the sine wave is humming, tweak with the frequency knob until it sounds like it is in tune with the bass drum.

Dialing in the right settings for the Key HPF and Key LPF (High and Low Pass Filters, respectively) is definitely the trickiest part of this exercise. First, try by setting the volume on the Signal Generator plug-ins louder than you'll actually want them. The reason for this is that, in tweaking the settings — which, by the way, essentially tell the plug-in which frequencies should open and close the gate — it makes it easier to hear the Signal Generator and dial in the settings. Overall, this makes it much simpler to make sure the right parts of the drum beat (kick and snare parts in this example) are opening the gate. The main trick here involves nailing the frequencies such that the kick sound of the original loop opens the gate when you want the sine wave to embellish the kick — same idea for the snare. Do some experimenting and play around with the knobs; you're sure to find the right settings.

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