Weapons of Choice - part 4 - Sound Sources

Sound Sources i am going to use are: Plug In Synths, Plug In Sampler, Loops and Recordings.

Recordings will obviously be the fun part and will be described when done. Planned are recordings of manipulated guitars, room ambience, guitar amps and percussion including improvised stuff like bottles, cans, boxes, furniture, my belly…

Loops are the boring part and therefore ignored.

Plug In Sampler i constantly use are the Kontakt 3, Battery 3 and the EXS of LOGIC Pro. I also have a great selection of selfmade and/or edited sampled percussion and drums. Gymnastic equipment through a tube eq for example…

Plug In Synths are also often from my Native Instruments Komplete 5 like Absynth 4, FM 8, Massive… But there are others i really love to explore like LOGIC Pros ES2 + Sculpture (Physical Model Synth), the ImpOscar and u-he Zebra 2 <– thats a tip for the interested too !

24 Responses to “Weapons of Choice - part 4 - Sound Sources”

  1. dream28 Says:

    I cant wait to see the result of those all specific instruments!

  2. Timon Says:

    Absynth 4 and ImpOscar…. now there are some words here in this blog which i also understand ;) ive got this 2 too, the absynth has some really awesome sounds…

  3. cris80dr Says:

    “my belly…”
    Funny and interesting to see many bellies in order to have many different sounds and compose a melody only with bellies :-D
    However, an interesting sound, that my cousin sampled, was the sound of an old industrial printer in a typography. Sheets and mechanical devices gave a nice effect to be used.

  4. Martin Says:

    “my belly…”
    Back where I come from we called it “Plautzentrommeln” and we had some pretty good orchestra when going to public pools. There were guys having rather bass bellies and other could play the high hats with there belly, but I ain’t gonna tell what my belly sounds like ;)

  5. Rolf Says:

    …for the summer i´d like mine to go from “mid tom” to “rim shot” ;)

  6. F-André Says:

    On an old Keys CD thar was a great Plugin called Dr. Fusion (Drummachine) but i dont know if it is available for Mac. hm on an :Wumpscut: and Mike Oldfield CD the plugin Credits show always Vanguard and Albino :)

  7. Julian Says:

    Albino 3 ist a nice tool. Mainly used like the Komplete 4 :-)

  8. Rolf Says:

    I own Vanguard as well, but i only remember it having all those trance and rave sounds (detuned-multi-saw with lowpass filter, technically) and therefore i didnt use it for ages… should give it another chance ? for pads maybe ?

  9. Rolf Says:

    So, i gave my Vanguard a second chance (Listen to the Drum´n Bass + Flowerpot snippet - its the scratchy stereo detuned-multi-saw-sound at the end) and just received a criticism for exactly that sound…

  10. talex Says:

    Kontact 3 – is a devil’s stuff – I must have him and if I must sell for it my soul!
    Thank you Rolf, is worthwhile against for something to work

  11. Rolf Says:

    a little upgrade… spectrasonics omnisphere is really great… lots of stuff to explore

  12. sazema Says:

    Albino is best choice for atmospheric pads and etc… Spectrasonics Atmosphere too…
    Tell me Rolf, does Omnisphere have a any vocal included ? like Atmosphere…

  13. Rolf Says:

    vocals? you mean choirs and ahhhhs and mmmmmhs..? yes

    and all atmosphere sounds as well… and there is an upgrade deal for athmosphere owner… so this should be a nobrainer… cheers!

  14. sazema Says:

    I mean vocal samples, like ethno vocal samples etc… on atmosphere there is a small section vocals, and such great samples of female / male samples… not choirs !

  15. sazema Says:

    Generaly, I work with music producing too, and one of the most dificulty for me is to find good vocal sample (ethno, tibetian etc…) I have most of samplers but very small vocal samples are included, same story is with akai cd’s, where you find samples when you can’t find a real singer :)

  16. sazema Says:

    Second question is on drum kit’s, i work (trying) with chill/ambient music, and when i listen other artist i’m very fascinating with drums and drum kits they are using…
    I have a lot of kit’s (battery, drums overkill, …), but when i useit it’s not like that, (per ex. Xerxes, Abakus, and others)
    Where is the mistery ??? Where is the secret ???
    I know, drum + fx + fx + fx + fx ….. but ….
    Which kit is best for electronic music for you ? For classic drums I use EZDrummer and i’m satisfied.

    Best regards from Bosnia

  17. Rolf Says:

    with more than 15 years of collecting i have quite a big library of drumsamples…
    but the most frequently used on this album are still compressed&eqd 909 bassdrums and hihats… on several tracks i also used superior drummer (eZdrummer will work too) and extremly edited the recorded drums/samples…
    dont forget to try a good compressor (plug in) on the drum bus for all drums & percussions (and sometimes the bass) if its the right one with the right setting you can: a) improve the groove b) glue the elements and c) fatten the sound

    my own favourites include my germanium compressors and the 1176 clone but also plug ins like UAD neve 33609, UAD VCA, Waves API 2500…
    some PSP plug ins are also great sounding on the drum bus but their latency is so high that i dont use them on busses anymore…

  18. sazema Says:

    Thanks Rolf

  19. sazema Says:

    Rolf, I ask earlyer for vocal samles - what is your answer ? where you find vocal samples ?

  20. sazema Says:

    Sorry for short delay, i’ve been busy for day two…

  21. Rolf Says:

    i dont use that kind of vocal samples often, but if i was looking for these i´d probably browse the best service sampling cd catalog…

    here is their “vocal & choir” stuff:
    http://www.bestservice.de/group.asp/de/vocal_choir/371944a77p181p15p36

    QL Voices of Passion sound like Hans Zimmer and might be interesting but very expensive as well…

    A real classic is spectrasonics symphony of voices - its 5 cds and even the mercedes benz sound logo was taken from it ;)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGi92yx9DZA

  22. Anton Says:

    Hi, Rolf! I want to ask you what sources do you use for bass? What can you recomend for fat and deep bass?

  23. Rolf Says:

    the most important rule for bass: a good seperation from other sounds - especially from the bass drum… not only in my mixes either the bass drum or the bass is “lo cut” and only ONE of them is allowed to produce sub bass (<60Hz)

    i personally prefer a lo cut “punchy” bass (peak around 70-100Hz) and a 909 style bass drum underneath (50Hz) but thats just a matter of taste :)

    sources for bass used on this album are: the nord modular G2, impOSCar, arturia moog modular, zebra 2 but also simple synth plugs like logics ES1 or NIs Pro53…
    dont forget to use the two best friends for bass sounds: saturation and distortion :) i often use tube saturation or distortion for bass sounds instead of heavy compression… and there is no need for expensive stuff - a simple used guitar pre amp from ebay often does the trick…

  24. Anton Says:

    Promptly! Thanks for the answer! I think using guitar pre-amp will be very nice. .. Thanks again! =))) Have a nices holidays!

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