the production thread

Amps Anyone got any tutorials or info on making giant fuck off laser noises? Preferably in Ableton or using a nice free VST. I can’t see much, so my assumption is that ‘laser noises’ are called something else in the world of proper production. Think Chemical Bros etc.

You just need something with snappy and fast envelopes and modulate the pitch (which can be done with LFO). This is all easily done in the stock synths Ableton has like Analog. I’d start there. Google ‘how to make risers in Ableton’ or something similar.

I’d show you myself but that will get you there quicker. Unless of course you’d truly like me to teach you how to produce… Hehe.

303abuser i need to stop looking at black friday sales. does anyone have experience with arturia’s pigments software? looks really interesting, especially with the modulation options, and it’s on sale for $90 CAD.

Meh. I don’t think it’s any better or worse than the Wavetable synth in Ableton. Mind you, I don’t have much love for wavetable synthesis.

Amps Excellent, any suggestions on what I should buy chaps? I have no plug ins of any sort at the moment. Just using the in built stuff with Ableton.

Get the Softubes bundle Ia… Err, Amps. You’ll actually use those plugins and they’re really good quality. They don’t discount their stuff often and it’s all very good. Worth the price.

303abuser and there you go, $29.99 for any plugin until the 26th, with 2 more sales to follow. now’s the time to look as synths or the more expensive stuff if you’re inclined.

BFD1-2999 is the code for anyone interested.

Is that a Plugin Alliance code? If so, score! I have a few things I want to go legit on that are too pricey otherwise.

loopdokter how to make risers in Ableton

Fuckin yes Jay!!! I knew they would be called something other than ‘lasers’ Damo’s link was spot on, but hard to emulate in the newer version of Ableton for a noob like me. ‘Risers’ seems to get me some more recent results. Big thank you peeps!

loopdokter Get the Softubes bundle Ia… Err, Amps

Spoken like a native!

303abuser the nuances of laser sounds.

Lay them on me! Using Ableton 10 intro… but willing to buy laser orientated plugins as long as my Tesla stock continues to blow up.

303abuser yeah there are some nice to haves in the new update, but i’m sure my money is better spent in other places. this should’ve been a 10.5 upgrade, not a new version. i waited to upgrade to 10, i’ll likely wait on this one too.

Agreed. It doesn’t feel like an entire 1 point leap forward in terms of typical software upgrades. Outside of 10, Ableton’s upgrade cycle has been kind of weak. They’re starting to lag behind on other DAWs on certain things that I would consider to be industry standard - for instance, having to stem/bounce out entire tracks manually instead of having a queue and automating it. Cubase has had this option for so long and their recent update further improves upon that.

I love Ableton for their ease of use in terms of audio manipulation and being able to write creatively from the offset, but as an over DAW it kind of sucks. It feels to me as though they’re relying too heavily upon their large userbase and not innovating as much as they once did. When Ableton first came out it was blowing people away with the innovative ways that one could create. No longer.

Amps Fuckin yes Jay!!! I knew they would be called something other than ‘lasers’ Damo’s link was spot on, but hard to emulate in the newer version of Ableton for a noob like me. ‘Risers’ seems to get me some more recent results. Big thank you peeps!

Filter automation is also your friend on this. The easiest one to do is take a white noise sound, use a low pass filter and automate Ableton to open up the filter so it slowly progresses.

Another term is ‘sweeps’. Lots of tutorials out there on this. Why’d you settle on Ableton instead of Cubase after all those years of poking my brain about Cubase? Hehe.

As far as sound design goes, this is a good one to get stuck into because it allows you to understand basic concepts in synthesis and audio sample manipulation. That sort of stuff will give you a foundation in doing other things later down the line, so you picked a good lesson to learn, young padawan.

Amps Spoken like a native!

I’m probably one of only 3 people on here who knows who you actually are. Haha.

Is Amps really Prince Andrew?

Amps Lay them on me! Using Ableton 10 intro… but willing to buy laser orientated plugins as long as my Tesla stock continues to blow up.

As far as actual ‘pew pew’ laser/Star Wars noises, this is all very easy to do. Much of this is down to the ADSR (AKA envelopes) and the settings you have. Set the resonance to pretty much maximum and cutoff to just above naught so some signal comes through. Draw or play a MIDI note. Make sure your attack is down to naught, release is set to naught and the same for your decay. Sustain settings you’ll have to play with a bit. If you’re doing this in Ableton, I’d recommend using Analog as the device for this setting and a saw wave or square wave as the default. You only need one oscillator turned on for this.

So basically tweak your settings in these areas until you get that zappy kind of feel you’re looking for by tweaking the filter cutoff, resonance and ADSR settings. To throw a bit of a wrench into the Matrix for extra pew, add in some LFO and modulation that effects the filter cutoff frequency. Play around with the rate of the LFO for rapid fire ‘pew pew’ sounds or ease it back for slower, more evolving sounds.

This is making me think I really should do a YouTube channel on sound design.