Hey everyone, I thought with the number of threads we have and get with "how do you make it sound like this, or how did they make this sound" we should get a thread here which brings everyones collective genius on solving the most troublesome inspired sounds we hear.

With a large assortment of libraries and techniques among ourselves we should be able to help each other out as much as we can. I've seen some great advice elsewhere for making specific sounds and audio similarities.
So the rules are simple!
> Have an audio clip or video clip to let us hear the sound you're looking for and share it.
> Make a short and clear description of the sound you are trying to isolate.

> The thread could get busy, so if you are answering in relation to a specific sound make sure people know whose sound you are replying to. You could do this by replying to the original poster, or suggestively could write @petersatera to flag whose problem your helping with. That and then they know they have had help when revisiting NG's!

and that's it!

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So I'm going to start as this one has been bugging me, and I can't seem to recreate it very well without creating a ridiculous amount of reverb and it end up sounding like a piston.

http://www.filz.us/view/2b06937e-d83/
This is the sound. It's not the orchestra, or kick/percussion that is heard. It's the noise that gradually fades out. Like a distant digital cricket, or cymbol/hi-hat which has been distorted. It's like the bit rate has been dropped on it or something.

Any advice/thoughts?

Really good idea for a thread.

At 1/24/14 06:37 PM, PeterSatera wrote: http://www.filz.us/view/2b06937e-d83/
This is the sound. It's not the orchestra, or kick/percussion that is heard. It's the noise that gradually fades out. Like a distant digital cricket, or cymbol/hi-hat which has been distorted. It's like the bit rate has been dropped on it or something.

Any advice/thoughts?

Yeah. Take some sort of hit, put a TON of reverb on it (like 10+ seconds decay time, crank up the wet, blabla). Then apply some sort of slight bitcrush. Ableton has a builtin "Redux" filter that I was able to create the same sound with by applying a subtle crush onto the reverb tail.

It sounds to me like the bitcrush is fading out, but you can't just automate the bitcrush down to get that effect (because that will change the pitch of the bitcrush). Instead you should make two parallel tracks, one for the normal reverb with no bitcrush, and one with the bitcrush on it. Then you could automate the bitcrushed one's volume down while the other one stays normal.

I was able to get pretty close that way :)

Awesome freaking thread idea.

I REALLY want to know how to make this synth/piano sound at the beginning of this song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNv5g_9EliQ

This is like my 3rd week of using a DAW. I am very unfamiliar with mixing... I mean, I followed tutorials on how to make certain sounds, so i'm used to the interface and know how it works.... I have never really been successful at all with getting my own sounds. You guys should really hear the sound I got from trying to follow your guys' instructions...

P.S. It sounds nothing like it at all... lol

At 1/26/14 09:55 PM, icyflamez96 wrote: This is like my 3rd week of using a DAW. I am very unfamiliar with mixing... I mean, I followed tutorials on how to make certain sounds, so i'm used to the interface and know how it works.... I have never really been successful at all with getting my own sounds. You guys should really hear the sound I got from trying to follow your guys' instructions...

P.S. It sounds nothing like it at all... lol

Hm - maybe you should work with presets first. Most of the synths have got hundreds of them (omnisphere, absynth, massive, fm8 really got an incredible amount of those included). I would recommend to learn to handle the daw´s basics first so you can really focus on your effects / stuff later without getting confused by the daw itself. This wont take much time, but i think it would be the better way.

I'm not sure if you were directing this at just music sounds, but this could absolutely be used towards sound effect design as well, if the thread will allow it anyway

I actually feel like that's the only thing I really have left to learn. I feel pretty fluent in everything else.

At 1/24/14 07:27 PM, johnfn wrote: Yeah. Take some sort of hit, put a TON of reverb on it (like 10+ seconds decay time, crank up the wet, blabla). Then apply some sort of slight bitcrush. Ableton has a builtin "Redux" filter that I was able to create the same sound with by applying a subtle crush onto the reverb tail.

It sounds to me like the bitcrush is fading out, but you can't just automate the bitcrush down to get that effect (because that will change the pitch of the bitcrush). Instead you should make two parallel tracks, one for the normal reverb with no bitcrush, and one with the bitcrush on it. Then you could automate the bitcrushed one's volume down while the other one stays normal.

I was able to get pretty close that way :)

Thanks, i spent an hour trying to get something similar, i got close, but it sounded pretty poor compared to the original. Thanks though, i'll keep trying!

At 1/28/14 04:41 PM, Bspendlove wrote: It would make sense that this thread would be suitable for this xD

I dont see why not, :) If it helps you out then i see no harm

How can I recreate this sound?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sJ80joz_eI

At 1/28/14 05:25 PM, JacobCadmus wrote: How can I recreate this sound?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sJ80joz_eI

My "Ectopic beat" for halloween was somewhat inspired by Alien, but mostly because Samulis's free library had a whistle that reminded me of this sound. Miscellania I:Horror had a whistle on C6 of the piano roll, and I only used a snippet of when the whistle began to sound. At 2:12 of the piece, I then added a distortion plug-in with a longer reverb. I didn't attempt to go further with it as I was just trying to keep it close to the library of his, but I imagine if one wanted to get as close as possible to it, sounds like this whistle, as an example, would be layered with other sounds, of course, as you would typically do in sound design.
I assume you're asking merely for learning purposes which is a good exercise I think.
Probably is more fun just to create your own variation of the sound with a similar vibe.

At 1/28/14 05:25 PM, JacobCadmus wrote: How can I recreate this sound?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sJ80joz_eI

Here is the basic principle. I also wanted to know this some time ago :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS_eXQN8Z5o

Ok well I made a sound that sounds a lot like the one I was trying to get. The only problem with it is that there is a clicking noise along with it. How would I get rid of that? I tried EQing, but I couldn't fix it that way.

Check releases on enveloppe. No release often leads to clicks and pops.
You could also try noise gating.

How can I make the bass that plays at the beginning of this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEQMkzjcLEA

At 2/1/14 06:58 PM, Lethal-Input wrote: How can I make the bass that plays at the beginning of this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEQMkzjcLEA

Basically, it's just a distorted + lowpassed sawtooth, I made something pretty close to it in harmor. Channel A and B had unison pitch, only somewhat on, and used a pretty good amount of harmonizer on channel B, put the cube distortion on it, put the distortion filter all the way up/off, and then automated a lowpass externally, with very little resonance. I'm sure that other synths can achieve a very similar sound, too. (The distortion is what gives some of the notes their distinctive warble)

At 2/1/14 10:57 PM, lantaren wrote:

At 2/1/14 06:58 PM, Lethal-Input wrote: How can I make the bass that plays at the beginning of this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEQMkzjcLEA

Basically, it's just a distorted + lowpassed sawtooth, I made something pretty close to it in harmor. Channel A and B had unison pitch, only somewhat on, and used a pretty good amount of harmonizer on channel B, put the cube distortion on it, put the distortion filter all the way up/off, and then automated a lowpass externally, with very little resonance. I'm sure that other synths can achieve a very similar sound, too. (The distortion is what gives some of the notes their distinctive warble)

Wait, so I didn't use unison actually, though it sounds pretty good with it (no sharp warble on the notes, if you're looking for that) :P and the distortion, after a bit of playing around, is most likely a bit-crusher (if anything). What actually gives it the warble, more than anything, is the harmonics being all weird as the way that the chord is played.. hope that this was somewhat useful

At 2/1/14 06:58 PM, Lethal-Input wrote: How can I make the bass that plays at the beginning of this song? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEQMkzjcLEA

I believe Deadmau5 used a lowpassed saw wave and just added a little bit of distortion to it.

Alright I got something that sounds exactly like it.... Nice (I did not watch a youtube video 0_0)

So... How could I go about making the synth that starts this off?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgEKLhvCCVA

How would I go about re-creating the synth in this track?
burial - night bus

How do I make something like this transition sfx?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW95OaAdoJ0&t=1m45s

fast forward to 1:45

At 2/8/14 02:36 AM, Bspendlove wrote:

At 2/7/14 06:13 PM, Mophead367 wrote: How would I go about re-creating the synth in this track?

:and maybe a tad of vibrato

How do I add vibrato?

At 2/9/14 02:32 PM, Bspendlove wrote:

At 2/9/14 02:21 PM, Mophead367 wrote:

At 2/8/14 02:36 AM, Bspendlove wrote:

At 2/7/14 06:13 PM, Mophead367 wrote: How would I go about re-creating the synth in this track?

and maybe a tad of vibrato

How do I add vibrato?

What you using to re-create the synth?

Toxic Biohazard. Also, are you sure it's a Triangle or Square wave. After fiddling around with the Attack and Release, I can't get it to sound right. The original sounds more organic and sine-wave like.

How do I made a bass sound deep and powerful like it does in this song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vois0RMtPHE

jump to 1:41

At 2/11/14 01:55 AM, Lethal-Input wrote: How do I made a bass sound deep and powerful like it does in this song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vois0RMtPHE

jump to 1:41

Try layering several synths together, use a sine wave as the sub bass and then use sidechain compression routed to the kick for that pumping affect

So I've been stumped for a while on this sound at 0:31. Any ideas, guys?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kevdt1T9daA

At 3/7/14 10:03 AM, JoshuaHughes wrote: So I've been stumped for a while on this sound at 0:31. Any ideas, guys?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kevdt1T9daA

The big dubsteppy vocoder transformer sound?

At 3/7/14 11:54 AM, PeterSatera wrote:

At 3/7/14 10:03 AM, JoshuaHughes wrote: So I've been stumped for a while on this sound at 0:31. Any ideas, guys?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kevdt1T9daA

The big dubsteppy vocoder transformer sound?

Yes! Sorry for not clarifying. I feel like I've tried everything under the sun to get something like it.