In this Maschine Studio / Maschine 2.0 roundup, we gain insights from Dubspot instructor Matt Cellitti, along with other useful lessons from renowned Detroit DJ/producer Mike Huckaby.
Maschine Studio / 2.0 Tutorial: Customizing Drum Sounds w/ Matt Cellitti
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The drum synths are efficient and inspiring because they are simple, monophonic synthesizers, optimized for a specific function. Sure, you could make synthetic drum sounds out from any synthesizer on the market, but having only a small set of focused parameters helps you make quick, intelligent decisions without over-thinking things. In most cases, the only adjustments you can make are to important parameters like attack, body, tuning, and decay. The different synth engines often don’t tell you what kind of waveform the oscillator is generating, which is great because you simply rely on your ears to choose properly.
The drum synths can’t really be pigeonholed into specific genre uses either. They can create a wide variety of sounds, from classic old school drum machine sounds, to ultra-realistic acoustic kits, to trippy glitch. Add on the extensive effects from Maschine to process the drum synths, and things get really interesting in a hurry. Don’t forget to utilize the drum synths for melodic parts too–you can get some great results and happy accidents! – Matt Cellitti
Maschine Studio / 2.0 Tutorial: Sidechain Compression w/ Matt Cellitti
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In electronic music production, sidechain compression is particularly helpful for controlling low frequency issues caused by competing kick drum and bass instruments fighting for the same space. This is a technique referred to as “ducking the bass” wherein the kick drum signal is sent to trigger a compressor on the bass, allowing the gain reduction on the bass to activate at the same time the kick hits. This way the bass essentially gets out of the way of the kick by attenuating only when the kick comes through. There is only so much low frequency information to go around and we don’t want these two ever important instruments piling up on each other.
The other main use for sidechain compression is to create a “pumping sound” by routing your four on the floor kick drum to a pad, cymbal, or noise burst. With this more exaggerated compression technique, the compressor forces a sound to rhythmically swell and pump to the beat, creating a pleasing effect that works well in dance music. We can easily change boring, sterile pads into more lively, moving soundscapes. – Matt Cellitti
Maschine Video Tutorial: How to Create Drum Variations w/ Mike Huckaby
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Generating creative ideas on a regular basis is a problem for many electronic producers, across the board. Often an individual can’t get motivated enough to start or finish a track, find or create compatible sounds concerning a project, or more importantly, can’t find the creative spark for days, weeks or even longer periods of time. In this tutorial I would like to demonstrate a creative workflow which will enable a Maschine user to find several, or even hundreds of ideas from within a single Maschine session. – Mike Huckaby
Maschine MK2 Tutorial: Time Stretching Audio w/ Matt Cellitti
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Perhaps the single most requested feature from Maschine users has made its way into the recent 1.8 update: Time Stretching. An incredibly useful tool for remixing, sampling, and sound design, time stretching ultimately allows the user to work with audio samples at whatever bpm they wish, all the while retaining the sound’s inherent pitch and timbre. Slow audio down or speed it up, pitch it up or pitch it down–anything goes. In this tutorial, we will take a look at several common uses for time stretching, and consider a brief history of how sampling worked before this powerful tool existed. - Matt Cellitti
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