Yeah, I made plenty of tracks only using ableton back in 2014-15 and people would often ask me what gear I use. “How do you get that sound man???” That’s back when I put an amp sim on everything.
1 Like
thanks for that reference, I watched that episode and there’s so much useful info there! most of the hangouts are nice but this one was very useful as well!
Sure. Btw, he uses mostly Unfiltered Audio plugins for the resampling (stuff like Dent 2, Sandman Pro, SpecOps) with some filtering here and there. He started with two sine waves, modulating each other (sounded like some PM and FM going on between them), so most of the actual timbre came from those plugins and carefully searching for loopable parts in the resampled audio.
At the mixing stage he used a de-esser to balance out harsh frequencies in the hi hats and later somewhere in the mids on the whole mix, too.
He was beeing kinda sneaky, though, when he changed the 808 kick he used in the first module to one of his own kicks without showing anything. Just said "I didn´t like it, I took one of my own kicks, don´t wann show it. 
4 Likes
*Edit
When the other thread was split, the software caused a little hiccup. This post was actually a reply to this one.
I’d say VCV Rack, because it has modules Blawan uses/used, there’s a free version to get you started/check it out which even has the Mutable Instrument’s modules included and it’s probably the nearest to an actual modular without having a rack in front of you.
If you have an Octatrack, you can sequence it from the OT, use midi lfos, p-locks etc. to get more of a hands on feeling.
They really hit it with the digital MI modules, but even the analog modules are modelled pretty well, imho. I used to have a few MI modules in my rack so I had the chance to compare them. With the digital ones, there‘s not really a difference aside from the converters, but that‘s not something one could even hear I‘d say. With the analog modules, they did a pretty good job, but the extremes are where it‘s lacking a bit, but that’s typical with analog modeling, imho.
When you like it, I’d recommend getting the pro version as it offers vst plugins (both instrument and effect), which will make sampling/resampling in the DAW much easier.
*Edit: But like he mentioned in his course, it’s about starting with simple waves and transforming them. For two modulated sine waves and a couple of filters+saturation, the DAW will do.
2 Likes
I’ve seen Mr. Bill take a similar approach. He basically just randomly turns knobs on instruments and FX and then wades through the resulting audio looking for interesting sounds. I guess the benefit of such an approach is that there is no ‘sound design’ as such as that often leads to sounds you’ve heard before. Blawan definitely has a unique sound and that probably comes from this approach. I’ve been having a go myself this morning. Most of it sounds like turd but I suppose the skill comes in having the ear to spot the nuggets and then develop them into a track.
3 Likes
It’s an interesting approach indeed!
Yeah, or you end up trying to push even more and end up with unusable sounds, several hours later. At least that happens to me and I basically spent the last year trying to get better at learning how to distinguish between sounds that might work and sounds that probably won’t.
This resampling approach builds in part on the bits and pieces underneath the knob twiddling so it‘s very much an intuitive process and if one try doesn’t go anywhere - just start all over again. If you‘re doing it in the DAW entirely, you could of course record your knob twiddling and try to correct certain steps, but that transforms a very enjoyable intuitive process into working on a drawing table again.
I plan to dedicate at least half an hour to this each day, we’ll see where this goes…maybe we can share our results, tipps and tricks etc.?
2 Likes
Sounds like a good idea. Shall we hijack this thread or start another?
2 Likes
I already changed the thread title to reflect both topics, but I can ask a moderator to split that thread, so that the part about the production course and resampling methods becomes its own thread. Sounding good?
2 Likes
Sounds good.
1 Like
True, but it’s always a goal to get cool pieces of gear here and there.
1 Like
What modular vst would people recommend for replicating such an approach to sound design?
Oh that’s awesome to hear. “Under Belly” was one of my most played tracks last year.
1 Like
So, how would people go about using the ‘mudpie’ approach to finding interesting kick drum sounds?
Similar approach? Press record, tweak and or modulate EQ, filter, saturators and maybe transient shapers, compressors?
Have to say I gave up hunting for interesting kicks some time ago. Too many variables for me…but what I noticed in Blawans production course, he loaded an 808 kick into battery (which he later secretly replaced with one of his own), he also had an Tiptop 808 in his modular case when he did the Thoman jam/interview. 808 is basically a sine kick - again coming back to the modulating and mangling simple waves into more complex sounds.
So, might be coincidence, maybe he likes 808s, but there‘s something in there that makes sense, doesn’t it?
Btw, I think I might have managed to build a half-decent droney-noise-bass thingie, yesterday.
Again I started with two modulating sine waves, one fm-ing the other and then added a tad of pm from a third sine osc. I watched my analyser to mostly stay in the low mids. Recorded and then played with Eventide‘s Instant Flanger and filters/filter modulation.
I divided the tempo /2 with Ableton‘s beat algo (Blawan did that at one point in his course as well) and looped 1/2 bar.
The various timestretch algos and modulating it´s parameters are probably worth exploring further as well.
1 Like
Had a play around this morning with this resampling approach for half an hour. Finally got a loop that isn’t fantastic but isn’t completely turd either.
6 Likes
That´s pretty cool! I like it! What was your starting point and what type of did you use?
Everything was done inside Ableton. Kick was an 808 sample layered with another distorted 808 with some volume fades to blend them. The main bass thing was a random bass tone from Pigments with some filter modulation envelopes in an Ableton clip and then some shaper midi FX applied to some of the parameters inside pigments including the filter cutoff. After twiddling some knobs and recording I found a new loop within the carnage and then applied some chorus, delay and filter Fx and again twiddled whilst recording. Found a second loop in that carnage. Quick hat pattern on top. The ride loop came from resampling a hat whilst twiddling the knobs on some Fx (can’t remember which). I only had 30 mins so I’m happy I finally got something usable. It is a fun approach.
2 Likes
I thought a bit about Blawan’s use of the Sonnox SuprEsser during the mixing/balancing stage. At one point he pulled out the SuprEsser to tackle the hi hats. He really smoothed out pretty much all of the metallic harshness of the hats (and I think he also used it later on the whole mix again to smooth out some high-mids harshness). I think this kind of smoothening certain elements probably plays a huge role in the final sound, much more so than I initially thought.
The SuprEsser is essentially a dynamic EQ tuned for de-essing, so something like the TDR Nova can be used if you don’t have that Sonnox plugin. Pro-Q3 is highly program dependent (attack, release and knee are all adjusted automatically), so Nova offers more control there like on the SuprEsser, but whatever works, works, right?
I bought Vcvrack2 directly influenced of the Woke up right handed Ep. I felt stuck in the same old sounddesigns and wanted to make the retarded modular basses as B does but im poor. It was very effective and smart of me.
Any tipps you want to share? 
I bought some of the Unfiltered Audio plugins Blawan used. Plugin Alliance still has some on sale (two days left).
He used Bass-Mint on the low end, Dent 2 for distortion for resampling, SpecOps and Sandman Pro for textures. Some I already had, bought Bass-Mint and SpecOps. SpecOps in particular seems to be such a gem! Endless possibilites there.
I spent some time building sounds with that resampling approach, maybe I´ll post something in the next couple of days. Kinda hard to judge if what I did might be enjoyable by others^.
1 Like