When you create an FL Studio project which uses a third party samples, it’s best to export it to a Zipped loop package, so finally, all your samples and the project file will be archived in a Zip file.

Why’s that?

When you export it to a “Zipped loop package”, FL Studio will automatically export all the samples with it.

This is a very handy feature to keep your FL projects and samples in safe as it may happen that you accidentally delete the folder where your samples originally reside or your hard drive may crash, etc.

Also, if you want to share your FL Studio project files with other FL Studio users and you’re using third party samples, they can’t open it properly if they don’t have exactly the samples as you’re using.

But you can solve this problem by exporting your project to .zip.

So how do you export your project to .zip then?

Just go to File then to Export and choose “Zipped loop package…” and you’re done! (see the picture below).

That’s it for now.

The post FL Studio Quick Tip: Export Your Project To Zipped Loop Package appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

In this tutorial I will show you how to create deep house chord stab with Sytrus. I’ll show you how to program the chord straight into the patch.

Here’s an audio example:

Here’s how to replicate that (I’m showing the exact settings for this sound – feel free to apart anytime!):

First, open Sytrus and load the ‘Default’ preset to reset the Sytrus settings.

Go to the Main module and drop the Master Pitch to -24 semitones.

Go to the Operator 1 module and select Square as the oscillator shape (right click on the Shape Preview Window to open the shape selection menu).

Next, we need to apply a low pass filter to the Operator 1 and in order to do that we need to do couple of tweaks in the Modulation Matrix:

First, disable the Operator 1 going to Main Output by right clicking the Mix knob in the row 1, column OUT. Next, in the row F1 (which represents the Filter module 1), column 1, dial the Mix knob all the way to right. This will send the output of Operator 1 to Filter module 1 at full level. And lastly, in the row F1, column OUT, tweak the Mix knob all the way to right to hear the audio again. This will send the Filter 1 output to Main output at full level.

Now, go to the Filter 1 module and select ‘Vanilla Low Pass’ as the Filter type. Use the CUT knob to control the filter cutoff frequency. But for now, tweak it all the way to right. We’ll get back to it soon.

Now, head back to the Operator 1 module and apply a volume envelope. We need an ADSR envelope with a semi-short release. First, select VOL (volume) as the Editor target (from the upper row) and ENV (envelope) as the Articulator (from the lower row) if not already selected. Switch on the envelope using that little radio buttion and in the editor window, edit the envelope curve as shown in the pic:

Done. Next, copy the envelope editor state. This way we can paste the exact same editor settings and envelope curve to other Operator modules as well (in total, there’s going to be four Operators in this patch so this will speed things up). To copy the editor state, left click that little Options button and select ‘Copy state’ from the menu.

Now, go to the Operator 2 and again, select Square as the shape of the Operator. Next, create a same kind of ADSR volume envelope as in Operator 1. All you need to do now is to click on the Options button and select ‘Paste state’ from the menu (and make sure that the Editor target is set to VOL).

Now, as this is going to be a patch where a chord is programmed straight into it, we need to change the pitch of the Operators. We are going to program a Major 7 chord which is pretty common in deep house (alongside with Minor 7) and we need four oscillators (Operators) for that. The Operator 1 is our ‘root note’. The Operator 2 is going to be transposed up by four semitones, Operator 3 by seven semitones and Operator 4 by eleven semitones. After that, we have a root note (OP1), the 3rd (OP2), the 5th (OP3) and the 7th (OP4) in the Major scale. So when you press – for example – a note of C in your MIDI keyboard, you’ll hear a C Major 7 chord (C + E + G + B).

The pitch in Sytrus Operators can be changed in few different ways. I’ll show you how to do it by using the Frequency Ratio (check the end of this tutorial for two other methods).

If you wonder what the Frequency Ratio is, here’s a straight quote from FL Manual explaining it: Frequency Ratio is a multiplication over the base pitch. The default value is 2. To increase the pitch with an octave, multiply by 2 (x2, x4, x8, x16, etc). To decrease with an octave divide by 2 (x1, x0.5, x250, etc).

Now, in order to create a chord patch that sounds musically right, we need to be able to change the pitch of the Operators in semitones. Gladly, there’s a conversion formula available that can convert cents to Frequency Ratios. And 100 cents is 1 semitone. So we can start from there. Here’s a list of all the 12 semitones converted to Frequency Ratios (when default Frequency Ratio is 2.0000):

+1 semitones = 2.1189
+2 semitones = 2.2449
+3 semitones = 2.3784
+4 semitones = 2.5198
+5 semitones = 2.6696
+6 semitones = 2.8284
+7 semitones = 2.9966
+8 semitones = 3.1748
+9 semitones = 3.3635
+10 semitones = 3.5635
+11 semitones = 3.7754
+12 semitones = 4.0000

And here’s a link to the conversion chart website

Note that if you are creating chord patches that you want to sound musically right and you are going to use the Frequency Ratio values I posted above, you need to keep your “root note Operator” Frequency Ratio at its default value (2.0000). If you use other values such as 1.0000 then you need to calculate the correct Frequency Ratios again.

Ok. Lets continue. As we are creating a Major 7 chord, we need to transpose the Operator 2 pitch so that it corresponds 3rd note in the Major scale. That’s 4 semitones (400 cents) up and the correct Frequency Ratio for that is 2.5198.

Now, in the Modulation Matrix, turn the ‘Operator 2 to filter 1’ mix level to 100% to route it’s signal to the Filter 1 module and to hear its sound.

Ok. Now, when you play – for example – a note of C, you’ll hear C (root note) and E (which is the 3rd note from C in the C Major scale).

Next, head to the Operator 3 and again, select Square as the oscillator type and paste the volume envelope state. Set the Operator 3 Frequency Ratio to 2.9966. This transposes the pitch up by 7 semitones and corresponds the 5th note in the Major scale. In the Modulation Matrix, turn the ‘Operator 3 to filter 1’ mix level to 100% to route it’s signal to the Filter 1 module.

At this point you may want to drop the master volume a little in the Main module as three oscillators mixed together naturally increases the amplitude of the patch.

Ok. Now go to the Operator 4, select Square as the shape and paste the envelope state. Set the Operator 4 Frequency Ratio to 3.7754. This transposes the pitch up by 11 semitones and corresponds the 7th note in the Major scale. And once again, in the Modulation Matrix, turn the ‘Operator 4 to filter 1’ mix level to 100% to route it’s signal to the Filter 1 module.

Ok. Next, head to the Filter 1 module for couple of tweaks.

Now, in order to make this patch sound ‘stabby’ or ‘staccato’ or whatever it’s called, we need a filter envelope. First, decrease the filter cutoff frequency value to make the patch sound a bit softer as it is a kind of harsh right now. Next, select CUT (Filter cutoff frequency) as the Editor target (and Envelope as the articulator if not already selected) and enable the envelope. (You can also enable the tempo-based time to sync the envelope with your project tempo. It’s not necessity for a this kind of ‘stab’ sound though, but for rhythmic filter sequences and such it’s handy to keep on.) Edit the envelope as shown in the image below. Also, drop the cutoff Envelope amount (ENV) value a bit. This will kind of soften the attack part of the filter envelope as the Envelope amount controls how much the filter envelope actually have an influence on the cutoff. And lastly, increase the Resonance amount for some ‘bite’.

Done. Next we need some basic effects: delay and reverb so head to the FX module and in the Modulation Matrix, row F1, column FX, tweak the ‘Filter 1 to effects’ mix level knob to around 100%. This will define how much of the signal from the Filter 1 module will be send to the FX module. It’s actually a way to control the wet/dry effect level of the whole FX module.

The Chorus effect is active in the FX module by default. We don’t need it in this example so disable it (left click and drag down).

Next, enable the Delay Unit 1. Set the Delay Mode to Ping-Pong, Delay Time to 5:00 and Delay Time stereo offset to around 12 ms right (or left) for a wider stereo panorama of the delay effect.

Next, activate the Reverb and set the Reverb Color to Warmer (W+). Use the Reverb Low Cut to avoid unnecessary rumble appearing in the reverberation (Reverb Low Cut removes low frequencies from the input signal before reverb is added). When I was making this patch I set the Low Cut value by ear and ended up to around 750-800Hz so that some of the mid frequencies got rolled off as well and it sounded pretty nice. Set the Decay to around 5 seconds. Bypass the Reverb High Damping to hear those high frequencies in the reverb signal. And maybe drop the Reverb Wet Level a bit.

Now, go to the Main module to EQ the sound using Sytrus internal EQ.

There’s a Scheme Selection section where you can set how the equalizer is processed in the synth mixing chain. Select ‘OUT+FX’ to apply EQ to both, the effects module and the main output signal. Use the EQ band 1 (which default setting is low shelf filter at 90Hz and below) to attenuate the low frequencies. Use the EQ band 3 (which default is high shelf filter at 8kHz and above) to add a bit of brightness to the sound.

Ok. As a final touch, activate the portamento and monophonic modes in the Sytrus Channel Settings box.

Portamento mode slides the pitch from note to note. Monophonic mode restricts the instrument to play only one note at a time. Now, even though it’s not mandatory to switch on to replicate this sound, it’s handy to keep on because those ‘slidey’ sounds works better in monophonic mode as the notes bend in to each other perfectly – especially if you play live with your MIDI keyboard. You’ll avoid those overlapping notes appearing which is particularly handy with chord patches as the overlapping may cause some ‘cacophony’. But it’s not a biggie though, just a minor tweak. Also, use the Slide knob to set the slide length (effective when portamento is turned on). It’s also used for overlapping notes in monophonic mode. Set it to around 0:06-0:07.

Alright! The sound is now ready.

In case you’re interested, here’s the sequence I used in the audio example.

Just an idea: for developing the sound a bit further, set loop points to the filter envelope (in the Filter 1 module) and edit the envelope into all kinds of different shapes.

One more thing: if you want to create the chords in the Piano Roll instead, just disable Portamento and Monophonic modes and disable Operators 2, 3 and 4 in the Modulation Matrix leaving only the root note Operator (OP1) enabled.

Now you can go and create your chords ‘manually’ in the Piano Roll.

There’s also two other methods to change the pitch of an Operator.

In a Operator module, leave the Frequency Ratio to its default (2.0000). Set the Editor target to PITCH, Articulator as Envelope and activate the envelope. Also make sure the Snap-to-grid is enabled.

In the editor grid, leave only one envelope point and delete the rest. Now, move the remaining envelope point up or down. Each horizontal line in the editor grid corresponds one semitone.

The downside of this method is that the pitch envelope of the Operator is in use now so you cant use it for other pitch envelope tasks. But gladly, there’s a third method:

In the Operator module, make sure the Editor target is set to PITCH again and set the Articulator as KEY M (Key Mapping). Also make sure that the SNAP is on. Now, in the editor grid, drag that horizontal line up or down. And as the SNAP is on, each step up or down corresponds one semitone.

When you are creating your deep house chord patches, try those Minor 7 chords as well. Just like the Major 7 chord, the Minor 7 chord consists of the root note, the 3rd, the 5th and the 7th, but in the minor scale. So you will need to use these Frequency Ratio values (assuming you are using Frequency Ratio to change the pitch):

OP1 = 2.0000 (root note – assuming you are using Operator 1 as your root note)
OP2 = 2.3784 (up by 3 semitones)
OP3 = 2.9966 (up by 7 semitones)
OP4 = 3.5635 (up by 10 semitones)

So now, when you play C for example, you’ll hear C Minor 7 which consists of notes C, D#, G and A#.

The end!

Watch the video version below and download the Sytrus patch:

Download Deep House Sytrus Chord Stab Preset Here (.FST file)

The post How To Create Deep House Chord Stab With Sytrus appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Harmor is one of the most versatile and features rich soft synths existing today and in this tutorial, I will show you how you can easily create rhythmic sequences in Harmor.

Download The Harmor Sequence Preset File (.fst file) below to follow along:

Here’s an audio example (dressed with drum loop):

Ok. To create something like that, first, open Harmor. You may also want to draw some note to the Harmor’s Piano Roll for a quick preview and audition purposes.

Alright! Creating sequences in Harmor is very easy: it’s all about drawing a rhythmical and (preferably) tempo synced modulations targeting one or more of the many Harmor’s parameters using the envelope editor window. First, you need to select the TARGET parameter you want to modulate. Next, define HOW you want to modulate it by choosing the articulator (Envelope or LFO).

The envelope is a good choice as the editor lets you freely draw all kinds of curves and shapes and allows you to have precise control how the modulation should behave. In this tutorial example, I’m modulating the pitch with the envelope as an articulator. So all I have to do is I select the pitch as a target:

Next, I enable the envelope and switch on the tempo-based time to sync the envelope to tempo. Also, the SNAP is handy to keep ON if you want to snap your curve editing to the editor grid. It’s particularly handy when editing pitch envelope as it lets you move and draw in 100 cent steps (100 cents is one semitone and one octave is twelve semitones = 1200 cents). This way it’s easier to create melodic sequences that are in tune.

Ok. Now I add a new envelope point to the grid. I’m also going to loop it (the length of my sequence is going to be only two beats – that’s half a bar). To loop the sequence, define loop start and end points. In this example, loop start point is going to be the envelope point 1. To set the loop points, right click an envelope point to open a menu and select ‘Loop start’. To set the loop end point, right click another envelope point and select ‘Sustain / loop end’ from the menu.

And now, I’ll just start to draw the sequence. I don’t have anything specific in mind so I’ll just randomly create a different kind of curves

Next, I’ll draw a modulation sequence for the Filter 1 cutoff frequency.

First, I’ll set the editor target as Filter 1 frequency and again, I’ll switch on the envelope and sync it with the tempo. I’m going to draw some rhythmic sequence that is the same length as the pitch sequence. I’m also going to loop it so I’ll set the loop start and end points the same way as I did with the pitch envelope. And again, I’ll just draw something random.

Basically, that’s it!

There are lots of different parameters you can use for creating sequences in Harmor. For example, try modulating Filter Resonance Amount and Prism Amount alongside with the Pitch and Filter Frequency.

The more parameters you modulate and the longer you make your sequences, the more complex stuff you are able to come up with.

Remember, that you can also use different curves in the envelope editor window: just right click any envelope point to open a menu and choose a different curve. Such as ‘Hold’.

You can also use the ‘Envelope sequencer’ which you can find under the ‘Options’ menu:

But that’s not all. To further develop your sequences, add some effects. I’ll show you what kind of effects I used in the audio example you heard at the beginning of this video.

In the FX section of Harmor, I used Ribbon distortion. There’s no particular reason why I picked the Ribbon. It just sounded ok to my ears. The distortion low pass (or high cut) filter value I set to maximum because to my taste the distortion didn’t require any cuts in the higher frequency area. The distortion amount I set to fairly high. Again, based on my taste.

I also used a bit of Harmor’s compression. The compression unit in Harmor is based on Maximus engine and the way it has been set up (think of Soundgoodizer) adds a nice ‘final touch’ to most of the sounds you are creating with Harmor.

I also used Reverb. I wanted to add that ‘roomy’ ambiance as a special effect so I used a short decay time. The reverb wet level I set to fairly high. And once again, based on my taste.

In the filter section of Harmor, I also increased the Filter 1 Resonance level to make the sound scream and creak a bit.

I also utilized the Prism. Prism is a special processing unit that affects to the harmonics of a sound. When used only a little it kind of detunes the sound. It adds a cool flavor to a distorted saw wave so I used it.

I also used Harmonizer. Harmonizer clones and transposes the existing harmonics. In this example, I set the Harmonizer mix level to maximum to make the sound kind of scream even more.

Next, back to the Filter section again.

Few words about the Filter Envelope Amount: filter envelope amount controls the filter envelope modulation amount – i.e how intense you want the modulation to be. In Harmor, it’s bi-directional meaning you can use negative values as well. So, to quickly add variation to the filter envelope (sequence) turn it all the way to left (negative) and it kind of turns your current envelope upside down.

Okay. What I did next I created automation clips for the Filter 1 frequency and Filter 1 envelope amount knobs and edited the automation curves like shown below:

The end!

Watch the video version below:

The post How To Create Sequences In Harmor appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

In this tutorial I will show you how to use Round Robin in FL Studio.

If you wonder what Round Robin is, in audio production it’s a sampling method and performance feature of a sample player which allows you to play back a different sample of a same sampled instrument sound each time you trigger the playback. This is an awesome way for adding realism and variation to sampled instruments.

Think of acoustic instruments for example: most (if not all) of them produce a slightly different sound each time you play or hit the same note.

In order to emulate this realism with a sampler software, you need to record multiple hits of that instrument and then let your sample player play back the samples randomly. Round Robin feature helps you here as it will automatically randomize the sample playback.

Round Robin sampling is a way to add more variation to your sampled instruments and to avoid that ‘machine gun’ effect which happens when you rapidly repeat the same sound. It works great with all kinds of sampled instruments and especially well with percussion samples.

In FL Studio, you have at least two different methods to use Round Robin technique. Here’s the first method:

For this tutorial, I’ve recorded couple of keystrokes from my typing keyboard (yeah, everything that produces a sound can be used as a instrument!). And now I just drag and drop all the samples to the Step Sequencer.

Next, I add Fruity Layer channel to the Step Sequencer.

Now, I select all the Sampler channels by right clicking their channel selectors and in the Layer channel, I click on the ‘Set children’ -button to assign all the selected channels as children of this Layer channel.

And lastly and most importantly, I enable the ‘Random’ feature in the Fruity Layer channel. This makes the Layer channel to randomly play back the samples when I trigger a note.

Ok. This was the first method for Round Robin in FL Studio. However, while this is a pretty ok method and the Layer channel does play the samples randomly, it can still cause a same sample to be played repeatedly, defeating the purpose. So with that said, here’s the second (and probably better) method:

The second method for Round Robin is using the DirectWave. DirectWave offers a bit more control than the Fruity Layer over how it triggers the random sample playback.

First, I drop the keystroke samples to DirectWave.

Next, I assign all the samples to a same key zone. This is done by dragging the zone control points horizontally (pitch range). I only need to do this for one sample and then I just copy paste it’s settings to other samples.

Copying the pitch range settings to all the samples is done by selecting the sample which values you want to copy and then right click and choose ‘Copy to all zones -> Low Key’ (and ‘High Key’) from the menu.

All the samples are now assigned to a same key and when I hit it, they all play at once.

Now, in order to play the samples randomly and not all at once, I need to go to the Zone -tab and edit the sample playback Trigger settings. Under the Trigger I select the Group which is ‘1’ in this case. Next, I select the Trigger Type. There’s various types to choose from, but I recommend using the ‘Avoid prev.’.This tells the DirectWave to play samples randomly, with the restriction that the same sample will never be played twice in a row. If you use the ‘Random’ -type, it does play the samples randomly yeah, but it can still sometimes cause them to be played repeatedly as well. ‘Avoid prev.’ -type can help to avoid those repeated hits.

As you can see, Round Robin is a powerful technique if you want to add more variation to sample based stuff. And it can be used for all kinds of special tricks as well. Just be creative with it!

The end.

Watch the video version below:

Also, if you want, you can download the keystroke samples here.

The post How To Use Round Robin In FL Studio appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Velocity mapping is a great way to add more life and variation to your synth sounds. In this video tutorial I will show you how to activate velocity mapping in Harmor.

Watch below!

The post How To Use Velocity Mapping In Harmor appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

There’s lots of ways to achieve that sidechain compression style pumping in FL Studio. One of the fastest ways is to use the volume envelope pattern in Fruity Love Philter and in this short tutorial I will show you how.

Article Assets

Download Fruity Love Philter Sidechain Preset (.fst) (just drag and drop the .fst file to any Mixer track effect slot and you’are all set)

First you need to route the sound you want to ‘pump’ into a Mixer track and drop a Fruity Love Philter into that Mixer track’s effect slot and reset it’s settings by loading the Default preset.

Now, in the filter unit 1 (you should be there by default), under the Filter section, disable filter by clicking the OFF switch (we don’t need any filter effects in this example).

Next, above the editor grid, click the VOL to set the Editor target as volume and underneath it, PAT to set the Articulator part as pattern envelope. Under the editor grid, enable the envelope by checking the enable box. Also, make sure that the Tempo-based time is enabled to make the envelope sync with your project tempo (check the TEMPO box). And lastly, enable the Snap to grid by checking the SNAP box.

And now, draw a following envelope:

So what does this do? This kind of volume envelope will make the volume of the signal quickly rise from silence to a full level over a time of one beat thus creating a pumping effect (one beat is 1/4 of bar – note that in the Love Philter editor grid, four of those dim vertical lines equals a one beat).

And finally, set the first envelope point as Loop start point (to make the envelope loop) by right clicking it and choosing ‘Loop start’ from the menu:

Edit the envelope point positions, levels and their tension levels to make the pumping sound the way you want (listen it with your kick drum to make it sit well to the rhythm).

Remember that you can also save the settings as a preset and then re-load it quickly anytime you need it from the Love Philter preset menu.

That’s about it. Watch the video version below and download the preset:

The post How To Sidechain With Fruity Love Philter appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Image-Line’s Harmor is a five-star synth plugin practically for any type of sound or sound effect and in this tutorial I will show you how to make a mega uplifter with it quickly and easily.

Here’s a sound example:

Article Assets

Download Massive Harmor Uplifter .FST (This is just the Harmor preset file for the uplifter sound. Just drag and drop it on to Step Sequencer or Harmor and it should open.)

Download Massive Harmor Uplifter .FLP (This is FL Studio 11 project file. It contains the Harmor preset as well as the Piano Roll score for the uplifter.)

Ok. To replicate that, open the Harmor and first draw an 8 bar long C3 note to the Harmor’s Piano Roll. (NOTE that you’re free to stray from ANY of the settings I’m showing in this tutorial to create more interesting sounding uplifters!)

Now, first task is to thicken and stereoize the default Harmor sound which is just a standard saw wave and we are going to use the Unison effect for that.

So, under the Unison section set the Unison distribution (type) to Hz and Unison order to 6. (The unison types are different variations of pitch and panning spread and there’s five types to choose from. Order sets the number of unison voices.)

If you wonder how one can know what values to use and when I would say that Unison is a kind of effect you set by ear. At least that’s how I usually set it.

Next, go to the part B of the Harmor and activate it by clicking the switch. (There’s two parts in Harmor, A and B and both parts have an identical but independent synthesis options. The output of both parts are mixed together if the parts are activated.)

Now, under the Unison section (of the part B of course), leave the Unison type to Blurred (default), set the Unison order to 6 and raise the Pitch to 100%. (That’s the Unison pitch thickness and it sets the detuning across the unison voices.)

Next, strengthen the harmonics of the sound of the part B using the Harmonizer.

So, under the Harmonizer section, set the AMT (Harmonizer mix level) to 74%. (According to FL Studio manual, the Harmonizer clones and transposes the existing harmonics using various methods. So in this example, raising the Harmonizer mix level and leaving the other settings as is, it emphasises a higher pitch tone in the sound.)

Next, a bit of a distortion.

Go to the FX tab and enable Distortion by first choosing Classic as the Distortion type and set the Filter (it’s a highcut/lowpass filter) to all the way to top to let all the high frequencies pass through.

Next, compression.

Under the Compression section, choose Burning as the Compression type, drop the AMT (Compression amount) to 44% and increase the Low band (L) to 52% and High band (H) to 62%. Or set them according to your taste.

Next, reverb.

Under the Reverb section, first enable the reverb from the switch. Under the Options menu you’ll find some classic reverb presets. Choose Cathedral. Increase the Decay time to something like 7000-8000ms. And finally, set the highcut filter to around 10000Hz to let it pass through higher frequencies from the input signal (to make the reverb brighter).

The sound itself is ready. Final step is to make the pitch of the sound rise and that is done using slide notes in the Piano Roll.

So, open the Piano Roll view of the Harmor and draw an 8 bars long slide note of C7. This’ll create a slide from a note C3 to C7 over a time of 8 bars.

And finally, to make the uplifter rise higher and faster towards the end (like in my audio example), draw a two bars long slide note of C8 starting from bar 7.

That’s it!

Watch the video version below:

The post How To Make A Massive Uplifter With Harmor Synth Plugin appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a pretty cool, kind of pulsating bass sound patch with Sytrus.

Download the Pulsating Bass Sound For Sytrus below to follow along. NOTE: It’s an .fst file. It should open in Sytrus automatically when you double click it or drag and drop it to Step Sequencer in FL Studio.

Here’s an audio example:

Ok. To replicate that, first, open the FL Studio’s Sytrus and reset it by choosing ‘Default’ preset from the preset library.

At this point, it’s a good idea to drop the Master volume level a little to avoid distortion because things will get quite loud as we move on.

Now, go to the OP1 (Operator 1) tab.

In Sytrus and other FM synth VSTs (like TAL Noisemaker for example), the modules that produce or control the sound are called ‘Operators’. In this default preset, the Operator 1 is generating a pure sine wave.

So first, set the Frequency ratio to 1.0000. This drops the base pitch of the operator down by one octave.

Each operator module in Sytrus contains a set of tools that can be used to modify the shape of the oscillator.

Use the SH (Shape) fader to morph the shape closer to a triangle wave. This’ll make the base sound of this patch a bit more ‘sharper’.

To control the amplitude of the oscillator in a given time, it needs a volume envelope. You can enable it by setting the Editor target to Volume (click the VOL tab) and Articulator part as Envelope (click the ENV tab) and clicking the Enable envelope check box underneath the editor grid.

Now, edit the envelope points: set a short Attack time (the section between first two envelope points), high Sustain level (set it to the point 3/4) and fairly short Release time ( the section between last two envelope points).

Next, frequency modulation.

Frequency modulation is the core of the FM synthesis (FM stands for Frequency Modulation). Basically, what this means is that you use a waveform such as a sine wave to modulate (modify) the frequency (pitch) of another waveform. The modulated operator is called a ‘carrier’ and the modulating operator is known as the ‘modulator’. Frequency modulation makes it possible to create complex and tonally rich waveforms.

In Sytrus, you set up the modulation in the Modulation Matrix. Each row represents an Operator and defines which Operator will modulate it and by what amount. The modulation amount is set with the knob. Either positive or negative values can be used. If you leave the knob to the middle position (ALT+left click) no modulation will happen.

What’s the difference between using negative or positive values in the Modulation Matrix? Using negative values will invert the modulation phase, but if you ask me what that means in practice I have to say that I’m not quite sure…

When I was creating this patch, I tried both values and the negative just sounded better. So that is my approach – go by the ear.

So now, make the Operator 2 modulate Operator 1 by turning the knob in row 1, column 2 to left.

Set the Frequency Ratio in the Operator 2 to 1.0000. Using lower frequency ratio values in the modulating operator makes the modulation go slower thus producing timbres that MAY be more suitable for a bass sound (I say ‘may’ because sound designing is so subjective art).

Next, edit the shape of the modulating waveform (in Operator 2) via the harmonics editor (you’ll find it under the OSC -tab).

Basically, harmonics editor is a tool to make the waveforms sound richer. You can also use it to create ANY type of waveform.

Without going too much in detail “what’s happening under the hood” (and I don’t understand it fully myself either), there are 128 harmonics in total which amplitude level (see those upper facing bars) and phase (downward facing bars) you can set (draw) with your mouse. The harmonics will then be mixed with the current waveform making it possible to create a wide range of waveforms with different tonal quality.

Before we move on, note this: we are now in the harmonics editor of an operator module (Operator 2) that is MODULATING the Operator 1 so every change we make to the waveform harmonics or shape affects on how it MODULATES the waveform of Operator 1.

So now, use left mouse button to draw some harmonics to the harmonic editor.

Click the ‘smooth’ button few times to apply smoothing to the harmonics amplitude levels. This’ll average the levels with their neighbors.

Now, use the shape modifier sliders to modify the waveform more radically.

With the SH (shape) slider you can morph the shape between sine, triangle, and pulse. Closer to pulse is our target (though it’s not pure pulse anymore as we made changes to the shape in the harmonics editor).

With the TN (tension) slider, you can set the tension (distortion) of the base shape. In this example, only a little amount of it is required to add that extra ‘bite’ there.

With the SK (skew) you can skew the shape. Setting it around halfway is enough in this example.

Done. Again, remember that the changes we made to this waveform affect to how it MODULATES the waveform in Operator 1. Using the modulation and shape modifiers/harmonics editor, allows you to create an endless amount of different timbres.

Next, enable the volume envelope.

Few words here before we proceed: editing the volume envelope of the modulating operator actually controls the amplitude of the modulation level (in a given time) you defined in the Modulation Matrix. So with the volume envelope, it’s possible to create all kinds of shapes and sequences to the modulation level.

Now, click the tempo box to make the envelope length relative to the project tempo (enabling the tempo-based time is useful when you have movements in your envelope that you would like to keep in time with your tempo if/when you decide to change it).

Drop the tension level between point 1 and 2 (that’s the attack section).

When you play a note, this kind of attack shape creates a sudden rise to how/when the modulation kicks in at fullest level – of course, relative to the level you set in the Modulation Matrix (when a section in envelope editor is set to 0%, no modulation happens at all and when it’s set to 100%, it equals the level you defined in the Modulation Matrix).

Now, raise the point 3/4 to 100%.

Point 3/4 is a start of the Sustain section. The point 2/4 (which is the beginning of the Decay section) is set to 100% as well so this means that when you play a note and hold it, modulation happens at maximum level (of course, relative to the level you set in the Modulation Matrix) until you release the note.

Now, create a sudden drop in the release part by raising the point 3 to 4 tension level.

Done.

Next, make Operator 3 to modulate Operator 1 as well. The aim is to add a sort of ‘metallic’ timbre to the higher frequency area so go to the OP3 tab and raise the frequency ratio to 12.0000.

Now, in the Modulation Matrix, increase the Operator 3 to 1 modulation level a bit – either to positive or negative side. I’m using a negative value in this example because it gives a slightly different timbre (which I liked better, but that’s just a matter of taste).

The patch sounds too high pitched so go to the Main module and drop the Master pitch to -24 semitones.

Now, to enhance the modulation, add a couple of harmonics to the Operator 3.

Use the shape modifiers to add even more flavor to the modulation.

Okay. Next step is to filter the sound so go to the Filter 1 module (FILT1 tab).

To enable the filtering, the signal needs to be sent to the filter module first and from there to main output. That is done in the Modulation Matrix.

So first, disable the Operator 1 going straight to the main out by inactivating its output. That is done by holding down ALT and left clicking the Out knob in row 1.

In the row F1 (that represents the filter module 1), column 1, set the mix level to 100%. This will send the Operator 1 signal to Filter module 1 at full level.

To hear the signal again, send the Filter module 1 to the main output. So in the row F1, column ‘out’, set the level to 100%. Now the signal of the Operator 1 goes to main output through the Filter module 1.

Now, set the filter type to Vanilla low pass.

Ok. Next step is to add that pulsating movement to the sound and one way to do it is to use the filter envelope so go to the CUT and ENV tabs, enable the envelope and tempo-based time to make it sync with the tempo.

The aim is to make the filter pulsate so edit the envelope as follows: first, move the point 2/4 to all the way to left. This gives us ultra-short/non-existant attack time.

Next, set the point 1/4 to 0%.

To make the pulsation continuous, we need to loop the envelope so right click the point 1/4 and choose ‘Loop start’ from the menu to set it as loop start point (the loop end point is already set by default).

Move the loop end point (3/4) to 001:01:072. This’ll make the loop repeat 6 times per bar.

Raise the Point 2 to 3 tension level a bit…

Done.

Next, a bit of EQ’ing – go to the main module and use the built-in equalizer to boost the low end. Boost the top end as well.

Ok. The last step is to enable monophonic and portamento modes (Monophonic mode allows to play maximum one note at a time and Portamento mode makes the pitch slide from note to note – set the slide time via the Slide -knob). You can enable them in the Sytrus Miscellaneous channel settings -box.

Here’s how the bass sequence you heard at the top of this post sounds WITHOUT the portamento:

And here’s WITH the portamento:

That’s about it. Here are a couple of quick tips to take this patch a bit further:

Tip 1. Shorten (or extend) the Decay time in the filter envelope to make the pulsation go faster (or slower).

Tip 2. Play with the Cutoff and Resonance levels (and remember that you can automate them as well).

Tip 3. Map the Operator 2 to 1 modulation level (or Operator 3 to 1 modulation level) to the integrated X/Y controller. Proceed as follows: First, set the Operator 2 to 1 modulation level either full left or full right (this way, the maximum value of the X/Y controller equals the full modulation level once we have mapped it).

Next, go to the modulated Operator (OP1) and set the Editor target as MOD (input modulation in this case) and Articulator as MOD X (MOD X is the Modulation X controller knob in the Main module). Leave the envelope point 1/2 to 100% and drop the point 2/2 to 0% (or vice versa). This way, when the Modulation X knob is turned full left, the modulation happens at full level – relative to the level we just defined in the Modulation Matrix – and when it’s turned right, no modulation happens at all.

Now, go to the Main module and tweak the Modulation X knob to control the modulation level. And feel free to automate it.

Tip 4. Experiment with the Harmonics editor of the modulating operator for different timbres.

Tip 5. Experiment with the shape of the modulated operator using shape modifiers for even more interesting timbres.

The end.

Watch the video version below:

The post How To Make A Pulsating Bass Sound With Sytrus Synth appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

In this tutorial I will show you an idea/method how you can make your own glitch sounds in FL Studio using Edison.

Here’s an audio example:

(Tutorial for the beat I used in this audio example will follow soon)

Ok. Let’s get on to making those glitch sounds.

First, open the Mixer and drop two instances of Edison’s into any empty mixer track. First Edison will be used for producing the glitch sounds and the second will be used for recording them to audio.

Open the Browser and drop ANY sample material to the first instance of Edison (I’m using single hit drum samples taken from Loopmasters “Ableton AS 100” -pack.

Now, in the second instance of Edison, enable the recording by clicking on the Record button and make sure the ‘On Input’ is enabled (should be enabled by default).

In the first instance of Edison, make a short selection somewhere in the sample, hit the ‘Loop’ button and start changing the length of the selection at live by holding your left mouse button and ‘scratching’ from left to right. Everything will be recorded to audio (Also: watch your ears, things may get pretty loud). After you’re satisfied with the end results, hit the stop button on both Edisons.

Now, in the second instance of Edison, place the playback position marker after the recorded audio (double click to place it) and in the first instance of Edison, make another selection on some other place in the sample and record again. Also, try out different samples for more variation.

Moreover, try adding effects to the fx chain (after first instance of Edison) for even more complex sounds – Love Philter for example. Check what the preset ‘LP into HP with panning’ does.

Now, there’s various ways to use the recorded material. For example, you can manually select bits and pieces, then drag & drop them to Step Sequencer (use the drag tool in Edison to drag & drop the selections to Step Sequencer).

And start making a sequence:

Another method is to dump the whole recording to Slicex and let it slice it automatically.

First, clean up the recording a bit by deleting all the silence parts and similar sounding/looking parts to keep the audio as varied as possible. Doing this prevents silence parts (and unnecessary repetition of similar sounds) ending up into Slicex slices.

Dumping audio material from Edison to Slicex is easy: first (in the Edison), select all. Next, open the Slicex and use the drag tool to drop it to Slicex. Slicex will automatically slice it for you and you can proceed to Piano Roll and create your sequence (In the Slicex, switch off the ‘Auto-dump’ if you don’t want Slicex to dump the slices to Piano Roll automatically).

Also, if you want to tune your glitch sequence to a certain key, you can record it to audio using Edison’s loop recording mode and use Newtone to pitch shift it. To do this, proceed as follows: First, assign the Slicex to a free Mixer track (assuming you are using Slicex of course). In the Mixer – While the Slicex Mixer track is selected – press SHIFT+E. This loads Edison in the first empty FX slot ready to record with ‘Slave playback to host’ and Record ‘On play’ enabled. Press play from the FL’s main Transport panel and Edison will start recording the glitch sequence material into audio loop(s).

The audio material between the ‘Song jump’ markers is the loop.

At this point, you might want to disable the ‘Slave playback to host’ mode in Edison. Otherwise, Edison will play the recorded audio material alongside with the stuff you have in your Playlist everytime you play back your project.

Now, open the Newtone (Newtone is a pitch-correction and time manipulation editor. It’s actually an ‘effect’ so you need to drop it to an effect slot to open it) and drag and drop the loop into it from Edison (in the Edison, select a section between ‘Song jump’ markers – TIP: use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to select a different takes. Each left/Right-click will jump to the next/previous section and drag the selection to Newtone).

Drag the blocks/samples/notes (or whatever they are) to the key(s) you want their pitch to be in (and to quickly fine tune the pitch, right-click the notes and they will snap to the nearest semitone).

Lastly, use the ‘Send to playlist’ button to dump the sequence to Playlist (as a audio).

That’s about it. Use different samples for more interesting glitches – try vocals for example.

And have fun!

Watch the video version of this tutorial below and download the free sample pack.

The post How To Make Glitch Sounds Using FL Studio’s Edison appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Parallel compression is a compression technique where a dry (non-compressed) signal is mixed with an over-compressed copy of the the same signal. What’s so cool in this technique is that this way you can increase the volume level of the quieter parts of the signal (i.e. the body or tail of a kick or snare) while preserving the transients (or attack phase or whatever they’re called) of the original signal underneath it.

With that said, in this tutorial I will show you how to easily apply parallel compression (or NY compression) to your audio using Maximus.

So let’s begin. I’m using a simple drum loop as example audio here. Check preview below:

What I do first is I route the drum loop to a free mixer track and drop the Maximus to it’s effect slot.

I reset the Maximus settings by loading the ‘Default’ preset (note that there’s also a preset in Maximus for NY compression, but I’ll set it up from the ground up – based on the preset – so you can see what’s happening “under the hood”).

Maximus has three compression bands (LOW, MID and HIGH), but I need only one band so I turn off the LOW and HIGH bands leaving only the MID band active.

As you can see from the display, the MID compression band now covers the full frequency bandwidth so all the tweaks made to the MID band will be applied to the whole frequency spectrum.

Next, I set a heavy compression by editing the MID band compression curve.

Basically, editing the compression curve in Maximus is like tweaking a threshold and ratio level controllers in a traditional compressor (like Fruity Limiter for example) though it’s MUCH more flexible as you can create infinitely variable curves with it.

So, first thing I do is I drop the envelope point 2/3 a little. This envelope point represents the compression threshold level which is the level at where the compression starts to kick in (once the input signal reaches it) and it needs to be dropped below the level where the input signal is peaking. Otherwise the compression doesn’t do anything.

I’ll press the playback so I can see at what level the input signal is peaking (also turning on the Monitor Display) and drop the envelope point below those peaks while keeping it in line with that 45 degree dim line you can see in the graph.

The envelope point 3/3 represents the compression ratio. The more closer you drop it to the level of the envelope point 2/3, the more harder the compression. I’ll drop it few dB’s.

With the point tension handle, you can soften the compression knee. ‘Soft Knee’ is preferred so I increase the tension level a bit.

With the Pre Gain, you can boost the input signal level. The more you increase it, the more input signal will reach the threshold level point (the envelope point 2/3) and the more audible the compression effect will be. I’ll just turn it up to the max.

Attack time should be set to short (2-10 ms). I’m using something like 2.60 ms. Release time should be set to quite long (100-300 ms). I’ll set it to around 130 ms.

With the LMH Mix -knob (LOW, MID, HIGH Mix) you set the balance between the uncompressed and compressed signal. First, I turn it full left to allow only the uncompressed signal to pass and then turn it right until I find a nice balance between the signals.

Sounds quite nice. Compare the drum loop before and after the parallel compression:

As you probably heard, the parallel compression boosted the volume level of the quieter parts of the drum loop making it sound more fatter. Let me show it visually:

As you can see, in the compressed material (the bottom audio loop), the quieter parts are louder compared to uncompressed and the original transients of the drum loop are pretty much still there.

That’s it. This tutorial is based on the FL Studio manual and the ‘NY Compression’ preset included in Maximus.

Few words about the ‘NY Compression’ preset: if you play with the preset, note that the MID band Post-Gain knob is set to +10dB so you might want to set it to 0dB if you don’t want a post compression volume boost.

The end.

Check the video version of this tutorial below:

The post How To Use Maximus For Parallel Compression appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.