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Re: Filter or Phasing effect in dance music



On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 8:06 PM, Kris Hartung <krispen.hartung@gmail.com> 
wrote:
>
> Intro of this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFR3k0xMtc

Great sound! But that's not a specific effect. It is an instant
tweaking (by host automation) of five to seven simultaneous parameters
in the instruments. Stuff like cut-off filter in synths but maybe also
mixer channel levels and equalization. On first listening I also hear
one of the rhythmically dominating synths being tweaked along a
progressive curve in the ADSR department.

It doesn't make sense to teach details here, just wrap your brain
around the main production technique in this genre: gently adjusting
timbre of the instruments while the same instruments keep pumping
driven by looping MIDI sequences. I mean, a simple thing like
flattening out the Attack and increasing Sustain a little (in the ADSR
section) of a synth will instantly morph the heaviest pounding into a
lush pad. etc, etc...  Think about such "timbre sweeps" as the long
bows the drummer adds to normal boys-in-the-band music. If doing a
fade-in sweep it is also common to add a quantized 32ths note snare
drum roll along with the timbre sweeps of the synths (and/or mixer EQ
tweakage). But then you should not just raise the level of the snare
drum but also brighten it by a raising curve of filter cut-off
(preferably also with some resonance) in the snare drum sound.

> Intro of this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xo8At6XEqE

For the sweep in this intro Deadmaou5 uses three components:
1. Track level curves fading up instruments.
2. Synth cut-off increased in the instruments.
3. A self-feedbacking delay where a filter set to a peak around 2khz
is part of the feedback chain. At the moment where the intro almost
stops, just before the verse starts, this delay line routing is at the
verge of going into self oscillation, but he brings the feedback level
down just in time.

All three aspects grow as one big sweep into Brighter & Louder up to
that "stop". A school example! :-)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen