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Sound Design / Re: ITT: Post your remakes but be ready to share how you did it if someone asks.
« on: February 11, 2016, 02:28:45 pm »Currently making a Porter Robinson - Spitfire remake, have this so far. Haven't had a chance to hear it on proper speakers so i hope it's translating somewhat
this is definitely one of the cleanest remakes i've heard of spitfire. any chance you'd be willing to share how you made the pluck?
Thanks man,
It's a good example of a classic porter robinson synth, simple with the synth work but proves unique with the processing techniques. It's essentially a simple +1 octave saw wave, slight detune with retrig off (2 voices) and a square wave +0 octave (2 voices), slight detune with retrig on. AMP ADSR all initial default except for sustain which is set to 7.76. Filter type set to low pass, warm drive on and keytrack up around 1. i also put the filter control cutoff down to 120hz, its all up to taste really. Mod ENV 1 has a parameter set to cutoff AB, set that knob to slightly above 9'oclock, A-5 D-0 S-0 R-0. MOD ENV 2 has both parameters set to Pitch AB, Both knobs set to their maximum A-0 D-0.34 S-0 R-0 (this just adds a sharp click to the pluck that makes it a bit more dynamic and gives it some subtle spitting sounds in the stereo field later on once you add delay, reverbs and bitcrushing. Also have a Phase AB parameter set up in LFO 1 set to 0.38, rate 1/8 (make sure sync button at top is on) gain on full (this just adds a bit of movement to the sound, very subtle). as for effects in sylenth, delay is turned on with ping pong setting, both left and right set to 1/8D Dry/Wet set to 70%, width about 67% feedback on 50%, the others parameters can be played around with. also have reverb on with size set to 2'oclock, width full and dry/wet 40%. The sound already is mostly there but the biggest thing missing is the sense of width and space the original sound has (something i still think i havent quite nailed) So straight after sylenth i added Xfer dimension expander, probably a cheap route but it works for the most part, I found a Dry/Wet set to 9 on the clock and size set to 11 was about as good as that tool could push the sound. Now the fun detailed part, I split the sound in to 3 signals after dimension expander, one contains everything above 2.5khz, another everything below 120hz and another one with everything in between. the 2.5k & beyond signal has a decimort bitcrusher on it, i used the 16bit 16khz preset and adjusted it, playing with the dry/wet and frequency knobs, I wanted to introduce a very subtle sparkle in the high end around 17-18khz, it's a tiny detail and very hard to pinpoint in the sound usually due to its pitch but it really adds a difference, if you take spitfire and low pass that very frequency out it loses a lot of its character, very clever use of bitcrushing. the everything below 120hz signal has a kramer tape plugin on it, all its used for is the delay, which i have set to 300ms, slap mode rather than feedback and set to 100%, lowpass fully up, i then added a compressor which is just slightly compressing the low end to give it more presence, its quite a soft sound so compression in the low end drove the sound a bit more towards that angsty feeling of the original i felt.. maybe my ears are just bullshitting me though. last thing was an EQ, compressor and lo-air plugin (waves) on all the combined signals, eq gives a little boost around 150hz that helps with the droning character of the sound, cut to taste in the mid frequencies as the reverbs cause a bit of mud there, also gave a bit of a shelf boost around 700-800hz where a lot of the sounds character resides, and a bell boost in the high end frequencies just leading up to the bitcrusher sparkle. compressor is hardly doing anything, just there to tame the odd click. lo-air is a nice plugin for some power in the low end, it's probably dirty practice but its a guilty pleasure plugin that works if used subtly. thats the main building blocks of the sound. I added sausuage fattener and some room reverbs on some sends for character that weren't essentially meant to imitate the original. Oh and i better add the thing i'd do if i was to work on it again, adding some kind of velocity control to subtly and randomly change cutoff or volume values between the notes. that and the attention to reverbs and space are the two things I'd focus more on if i was to re-do this sound.