Going the Extra Mile for Unique Timbres: Part 2

Continuing from the last post, let’s take a look at some more sound-shaping tools that will aid us in our quest to develop unique timbres.  As usual, I’ll be using Ableton Live to illustrate when needed.

Gate Combined with Effects Automation

Although generally used as a corrective device to remove excess noise between sounds like drum hits or guitar strums, the gate has creative applications that aren’t so immediately obvious.  On the basic side of things, many people will use a gate to create an unnatural, but rhythmic, silence after a drum hit.  This works especially well on acoustic drum loops which include natural room ambience.  Using a Gate in that situation will combine the expected “live recording” feel with a pleasing “swing” created by the abrupt silences.  My favorite use for the Gate is to first employ the above method on an acoustic drum loop, but then to add effects automation which is activated every time the gate silences the audio.  For example, I might create a Simple Delay device in Live that is off by default, has medium feedback, 50% dry/wet, and a very short delay time that is measured in milliseconds rather than note divisions.  Just before the Gate silences the audio, I automate the “Device On” parameter of the delay to the “on” position to make the effect audible.  Just before the next note hit, I set “Device On” to “off” and continue in this fashion for each drum hit.  The audible result, if subtle enough, is an effect that sounds almost like a passing tone between the original sounds.  To preserve this effect, it’s important that the delay is not audibly trailing off over other drums hits; this is meant to be a small timbral change rather than a typical effect.

Frequency Shifter

This device that was included in Ableton Live 8, but I think most DAWs will have their own version of this technique so you should be able to employ it in your software of choice.  The idea with the Frequency Shifter is that you can add a down- or up-tuned version of any incoming audio to the original signal.  While this sounds straightforward at first, the Frequency Shifter is an amazingly complex and sometimes unpredictable tool for creating new timbres.  The first bit of hidden complexity involves beating waveforms and phase:  By making very small tuning adjustments (a few cents), the shifted version and original version of the audio will tend to beat against one another which creates all kinds of interesting phase changes and chorusing effects.  In Live, the Frequency Shifter also includes an built-in LFO that can change the tuning variation so you can morph the beating effect over time.  With a fast enough LFO rate, the timbral shift can be quite striking!

Waveform Micro-Editing

My last recommendation is a technique rather than a device.  All too often we forget the power available from just a basic audio editor coupled with some decent raw waveforms as source material.  Zoom in a bit on the audio so you can see things on the level of milliseconds rather than seconds or minutes.  Now just start chopping away at bits of the audio without listening to the effects of your work.  This is one time where trusting your eyes over your ears can render some amazing results.  Don’t just limit yourself to deleting parts of the waveform either; try mini crossfades, stitching pieces of previously unrelated audio together, random detuning, etc.  The results will be anything but predictable at first because many of us aren’t used to editing on this level of detail, and that’s part of what’s so exciting about this technique.

Regardless of whether you’re doing sound design it’s a great idea to zoom in on different waveforms in order to simply observe what’s happening in the audio.  Patterns will emerge, bits of repetition that don’t necessarily correspond with audible instrument changes.  This is the act of seeing rather than hearing timbre.  Such experimentation was a vital lesson for my development as a sound designer when I first tried it years ago, so I’d be remiss not to recommend it to others!