Daw Track - Synthesis and Sampling

This will detail the process of creating my DAW track in ableton for the synthesis and sampling module

Why i chose this artefact

i chose this as my 3rd artefact as it shows my initiative to learn and ability to create and use synth patches i created as well as suitable samples. 

I had only used Ableton as a daw for about 8 weeks prior to creating this track and it isnt usually the type of thing id create, but i love a challenge and had alot of fun creating this project and i learned lots of new skills. Such as MiDi quantisation and how to further learn Ableton.

Criteria i had to achieve

  1. Contain a use of both your Sampler Instrument and 2 of your Synth Patches
  2. Have a minimum of 4 MIDI tracks
  3. Have a minimum of 4 Audio tracks
  4. Make use of compression on either or both of individual tracks or the Master track.
  5. Make use of Reverb / Delay / Echo (either on tracks or as sends and returns)
  6. Be a minimum of 2 minutes long.

As this was one of the first assignments of the HNC sound production the requirements were quite tame in comparison to my later projects. But i still think this is an important thing to include as it shows my progression as a sound engineer even in a short amount of time. Although the criteria was there, That was the bare minimum and i wanted to do so much more, so i did. 

Planning/Preparing

Once i had recieved my creative brief it was time to start thinking of what genre/style i wanted to make. I love all kinds of music from blues to hard electronic music. So i decided i would make a dance tune. Something i had never done before and didn't have the slightest idea how to. So i started to look through some synth patches i had made and decided to start with a nice bass patch.

Bass Synth

To start off my project i dragged in a wavetable synth and made it a square wave with the sub button applied. i applied an auto filter and have it rise as the song starts to kick in

Drums

With this being a dance tune. I needed a thumping kick drum and i achieved this through stacking 3 kick drums on top of each other with different eqs to let them stack nicely and provide that punch i was looking for. i applied a limiter to the main kick as so it wouldnt peak whilst still maintaining its qualities.

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Riser

I then made a riser using the drift synth on Ableton. This was build the tension as the rest of the tracks come in. Its just a drift synth with an auto filter and a spectral resonator to make it sound ''glassy''

Arpeggio Synth

Next up is another synth. This time i found this looking through the presets of the ableton synths and found a sound i really liked it was called ''surface strobe'' and i then added a ping pong delay to make it bounce from ear to ear along with some echo to make it really spacious.

Chopped Vocal Sample

i found a vocal sample of a woman singing on looperman.com and i then took it and chopped it into different parts and started manipulating the audio to be reversed in some places and really crunchy. I took one of the words she sang from the sample and make it the drop transition in the track. i used multiple layers of this vocal with some panned left and right and others reversed and it turned out great! i sent it through a redux to get that crunch and an auto filter to open and close the sound. 

Full Daw Track

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