chrisj
May 30th, 2008, 06:30 AM
So, a while back, I put out a plugin called Kicks, which was designed to blend with a kickdrum track to break it up. It wasn't exactly what I was after, but I hadn't got what I was really wanting.
What I wanted was, to trigger a sine- or Roland style syn kick- or drumheadlike resonance- that was NOT a sample but was more along the lines of analog modeling.
Well- I got it! I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of this one. Two, actually, as it's two related plugs for the price of one top-of-the-line Airwindows plug.
There's SynKick, where you get to drive any combination of basic sine, low overtones and high overtones in the distinctive rolandy voicing, plus you get to define a high and low note and the speed with which it drops from the one to the other- so you can do an exaggerated 'chirp kick' that still sustains a low tone.
Then there's SkinKick, which is a little more demanding as it's got more components to it, where the harmonics are voiced akin to a drumhead and you get the center-hit resonances, the more sustaining 'drum body' resonances, and then a batch of rim harmonics, to blend as you see fit- with the same high and low notes and drop speed. That one's more tribal and less trancey, and might be better for reinforcing a pop/rock kickdrum track (or you could use just a sine on SynKick to do it- or throw a bit of SynKick at a higher pitch to beef up thin snares with a synthetic drum note.)
All of the harmonics are run independently, and triggered independently, so you get the total purity of a synthetic kick, but with no repetitiveness like you get with a triggered sample. You can hear in the example, as dual-mono SynKick or SkinKick gets triggered by a stereo drum mix (!) that the synth output always feels a bit different with every beat, even if the source is a sequenced drum sample track. That's because the beats hit the SynKick resonators differently each time.
You'll get a great synth kick attack, because part of this timing involves pausing until the resonator is at rest, and then ramping it up very fast to make the most solid attack possible without an obvious click. Since the resonators are hit differently each time, that means the attack of SynKick (especially when used with full harmonics) adapts itself to the groove coming in. That means that using it on a live drum track gives you a syn-kick sound that tracks the playing of the original source and mimics it... something which I think is unique so far, and doesn't happen with just triggering a sample.
Here's the original recording for SynKick- http://www.mediafire.com/?dzbm1mnmmtt
And here's SynKick on that recording- http://www.mediafire.com/?johjurxx5tm
To avoid weird stereo stuff, simply put it on a mono track and not on a drum submix in stereo...
Here's the original recording for SkinKick- http://www.mediafire.com/?721wxyhrqz2
And here's SkinKick on that recording- http://www.mediafire.com/?jmzymmiz2bu
SkinKick is a lot more vague and busy because of the number of resonators on it... again, you get it free with SynKick, in case it comes in handy. I would use it to reinforce any huge tribal drum effect, tuning it to drop a fair bit and to sound a sub-harmonic of the real drum. This would produce a way more convincing huge tribal drum sound than other methods like octave dividing or triggering an ordinary sample- you can sense the resonations are less predictable than a repeating sample, but since there are so many resonators the attack is blurry and SkinKick is probably best for reinforcing something more distinct.
These are Universal Binary Audio Unit plugins for the Mac, typically used on Logic and on some other hosts that use AUs or can host them through things like Plogue Bidule or the Bias Peak AU wrapper. You get both of them from buying SynKick for $59.99 :)
I don't know what I'll come up with next, but I hope it's as good as this one turned out to be :)
What I wanted was, to trigger a sine- or Roland style syn kick- or drumheadlike resonance- that was NOT a sample but was more along the lines of analog modeling.
Well- I got it! I'm going to get a lot of mileage out of this one. Two, actually, as it's two related plugs for the price of one top-of-the-line Airwindows plug.
There's SynKick, where you get to drive any combination of basic sine, low overtones and high overtones in the distinctive rolandy voicing, plus you get to define a high and low note and the speed with which it drops from the one to the other- so you can do an exaggerated 'chirp kick' that still sustains a low tone.
Then there's SkinKick, which is a little more demanding as it's got more components to it, where the harmonics are voiced akin to a drumhead and you get the center-hit resonances, the more sustaining 'drum body' resonances, and then a batch of rim harmonics, to blend as you see fit- with the same high and low notes and drop speed. That one's more tribal and less trancey, and might be better for reinforcing a pop/rock kickdrum track (or you could use just a sine on SynKick to do it- or throw a bit of SynKick at a higher pitch to beef up thin snares with a synthetic drum note.)
All of the harmonics are run independently, and triggered independently, so you get the total purity of a synthetic kick, but with no repetitiveness like you get with a triggered sample. You can hear in the example, as dual-mono SynKick or SkinKick gets triggered by a stereo drum mix (!) that the synth output always feels a bit different with every beat, even if the source is a sequenced drum sample track. That's because the beats hit the SynKick resonators differently each time.
You'll get a great synth kick attack, because part of this timing involves pausing until the resonator is at rest, and then ramping it up very fast to make the most solid attack possible without an obvious click. Since the resonators are hit differently each time, that means the attack of SynKick (especially when used with full harmonics) adapts itself to the groove coming in. That means that using it on a live drum track gives you a syn-kick sound that tracks the playing of the original source and mimics it... something which I think is unique so far, and doesn't happen with just triggering a sample.
Here's the original recording for SynKick- http://www.mediafire.com/?dzbm1mnmmtt
And here's SynKick on that recording- http://www.mediafire.com/?johjurxx5tm
To avoid weird stereo stuff, simply put it on a mono track and not on a drum submix in stereo...
Here's the original recording for SkinKick- http://www.mediafire.com/?721wxyhrqz2
And here's SkinKick on that recording- http://www.mediafire.com/?jmzymmiz2bu
SkinKick is a lot more vague and busy because of the number of resonators on it... again, you get it free with SynKick, in case it comes in handy. I would use it to reinforce any huge tribal drum effect, tuning it to drop a fair bit and to sound a sub-harmonic of the real drum. This would produce a way more convincing huge tribal drum sound than other methods like octave dividing or triggering an ordinary sample- you can sense the resonations are less predictable than a repeating sample, but since there are so many resonators the attack is blurry and SkinKick is probably best for reinforcing something more distinct.
These are Universal Binary Audio Unit plugins for the Mac, typically used on Logic and on some other hosts that use AUs or can host them through things like Plogue Bidule or the Bias Peak AU wrapper. You get both of them from buying SynKick for $59.99 :)
I don't know what I'll come up with next, but I hope it's as good as this one turned out to be :)