What makes an organic element emotionally riveting? Something that resonates? I’d argue something that resonates with part of me without needing frills is the idea of taking something naturally human, and making it inorganic. Such is found in the way of Sci-Fi. Movies like Terminator and RoboCop did this. Take something human, make it unfeeling and you have a beautifully questionable character that fits right in the uncanny valley where you wonder about the legitimacy of it’s existence.
In sparkling celebration of this, let’s create something today that resembles that feeling in Ableton. As many of you may or may not know, sound design is a fun little pastime of mine as to me it’s like having an interest drawing. Except the canvas is time and silence and you get to draw on as much as you want and that your speakers will allow.
We take our base ingredients, add some flavour known as audio effects, mess with the method until it ‘tastes good’ and there you have a completed treat ready for consumption. So let’s begin with the base ingredient, a recording of a heartbeat. Find one online, record yours, or if you’re lucky and willing, a piezo mic right on your own ticker.
- Begin Your Instrument Chain: How? With your recording. Bring in a heartbeat sample to a simpler and set to loop. Create one extra chain so that you have a Dry signal, and a Wet signal. One effected by the routing, one not.
- Begin Building Your Wet Signal: Start playing with your effects if you don’t know them already. Know there is always more to learn from just playing around than following strict tutorials. You’ll likely learn more from just playing. In this example we have a Spectral Resonator, Overdrive, a Chorus, Saturator, some Compression, and a Grain Delay.
- Mapping Parameters: Now is the fun part that I will let you in on a secret with. How all the pros make mappings? It’s easy. Fiddle with the knobs that make a clear difference and work your way down to the more subtle. Make note of what changes you enjoyed and then set the parameters that made sense to you. Overdrive sounds good up to 20% but distorts too much above? Set the max parameter to 20%. Note that the Map button is just in the section above the macro controls window, so is the Randomise button which is great for testing your device to see if all parameters are working together.
- Automation Ready: Ableton does a great job at bringing life to your music and sound design. It’s intuitive design allows for tracking your movements to automation lanes that allow real-time changes to be recorded during your sets and designs. Make use of this! Make your chains and macros build into this rather than letting it go by the wayside. It takes an extra 2 minutes to set up but the pay off is that you get to keep your personalised rack for use into the future. Automate!
- Layering and Texturing: Now remember that Dry signal? Bring some of it back in, have it as a layer next to the Wet signal. Play and understand the sound you can make as opposed to the sound you want. Ideally both will occur but if it’s completely out of the ballpark let that be a lesson in what you can make, rather than thinking it’s all over red rover. You’ll get there, just be discovering along the way. It’s simple advice worth saying twice, play with your parameters and you will end up with an device that works to you and your needs. This means that you have a greater understanding of your workspace and what you can truly achieve with it.
- Fine-Tuning: My final point on this topic. Learn how each macro mapping works with each other. Is pitch shifting above 6 steps making your sound too indistinct from what you were hoping to achieve? Reel it back. Is there still room for play with your chorus rate? Increase it. These are subtler decisions that determine how it all works in unison so that you can be the ultimate decision maker of your own Ableton devices. It works, you just have to get inventive and make what’s fun to you.
Now, as a gift, and as an educational tool, I’ve made an Ableton device named Electronic Heartbeat which includes a pre-recorded sample and a variety of mapped parameters that you can push and prod until you like the sound. I understand that it’s a very specific sound but who knows? Maybe you need it now or will into the future. Either way, it’s a gift from the blog and I hope you get some use from it.
Fun fact, use the Random button next to Map. It will randomise the parameters and is a great way of finding what the chain is capable of. It’s also optimised so that all parameters work well together to deliver a distinct and unique sound every time without sounding the bad kind of strange.
Happy travels with your sound design journey.