Full transcript
0:05Hey yo, what's happening boys and girls?
0:07It's your boy Millsy aka Harmonic Rush
0:10aka NVU.
0:13[snorts] And today I'm going to show you
0:16guys how to do a Scitec kick and
0:19baseline. [snorts]
0:20Um, as many of you know, I've been doing
0:25tutorials ages ago. It's been a long
0:28time I haven't done it. Obviously, I
0:30haven't had the right equipment or the
0:32time and I've decided to do this as I
0:36think it will become really handy for
0:38new producers or legends [snorts]
0:41to um use this technique. It's a really
0:44basic minimal technique that I developed
0:47over the years. And um let's get right
0:51into it.
0:53So, for the sake of saving time, I've
0:55already created a group chain with a
0:57kick and bass. And uh I'll be using four
1:03main plugins in this. And um [snorts]
1:05we'll start from the group chain. It's
1:08ocular scope by um Boom Shanka. It's a
1:11free plugin. Highly recommend. It's a
1:14really cool tool to um see a visual
1:17representation of the uh frequency or
1:20the sound that you're working on. Um,
1:23and on the second, uh, in the group
1:26chain, I have kick and bass and kick
1:28plugin that I use is kick 3. [snorts]
1:31Again, another amazing plugin. Highly
1:33recommend it if you don't have it to
1:35definitely buy it. It's builtin to
1:39design kick drum and it already has
1:42effects, EQ, distortion,
1:45compression, multiple layering sounds,
1:49and it's just phenomenal.
1:51And I've been a massive fan ever since
1:53kick kick 2 came out. [snorts] Um, and
1:58for the baseline, we'll be using Serum
2:002. Again, you can use anything. It's
2:03it's a pre preferred choice. Uh, I like
2:06to use Serum cuz it just has amazing
2:10quality and amazing functional like, you
2:12know, u amazing tools to create like,
2:15you know, variations on that.
2:17>> [snorts]
2:17>> Um and um if none of you have any of
2:22this plugin, I will be doing another
2:24video using Ableton stock plugin and how
2:28we can achieve the same sort of
2:30technique with third party application
2:33uh third party plugins rather than using
2:35the Ableton plugins. [snorts] Um and
2:39without further ado, let's just get into
2:41it. So I'm going to start with my kick
2:43drum and I'll give you guys a better
2:45understanding of what kick drum is. So
2:49kick drum initially is a sign frequency
2:51assigned to an amplitude and a pitch
2:54envelope. And the amplitude obviously
2:57shapes your um uh your kick your kick
3:01drum and the pitch envelope it's shaping
3:06the pitch of the sign frequency.
3:08[snorts]
3:09And uh if you guys are familiar with
3:10envelope, envelope usually has um four
3:15and some five points. Attack, decay,
3:17sustain, hold, and release. [snorts]
3:20Um and in kick 3, it what I like about
3:25it is that not only you can create
3:27multiple points of envelope, it also
3:31shows what frequency range you're at and
3:33what the key of that frequency is. So
3:36this helps you to mix your kick and
3:39baseline in key.
3:42Um and obviously when I design my kick
3:46drum I usually use four points attack,
3:48decay, [snorts] sustain and release. And
3:51um the first thing I do is I'll just go
3:54to the release of the of the kick drum
3:57and I'll put it on [snorts]
3:59the root key of the track that I'm going
4:02to use. So let's say most of my tracks
4:04has been produced lately in D minor and
4:06D major. [snorts] So I'll be using D
4:08which is 36 frequency. That should be a
4:11great point to know that your
4:12subfrequency is sitting at 36 hertz.
4:16[snorts]
4:17Um and the second thing, the two main
4:20things I'll be focusing on is basically
4:23this two points and um [snorts] the
4:26attack as well. I can put it at the top.
4:28It really like that comes based on your
4:31taste like you know if you want it to be
4:33more clicky punchy you bring it all the
4:35way up or if you don't want it just
4:37bring it down. [snorts]
4:39And uh speaking of up and down, left and
4:42right uh basically each points as you
4:46can see on on the um on the waveform
4:48here the higher I go the more shorter it
4:52gets the more pitchy it gets which
4:54sounds like a laser. O, that was really
4:57loud. Really loud. My eard drums.
5:00[snorts] Um, [laughter]
5:02I actually forgot I missed a step. So,
5:07let's have my kick drum sitting at minus
5:106. And [snorts] I usually do that cuz my
5:13kick drum is the loudest sound in my in
5:16my tracks. And minus 6 is the loudest
5:19point. Anything that goes beyond uh
5:21minus 6, I'll compress it and I'll be
5:24mixing the amplitude so it's all level.
5:26[snorts] That's a mixing tip. If when
5:30you want to mix something, that's the
5:32way I've learned it. So, let's see if
5:35this is loud. Oh, it's still loud.
5:38[laughter]
5:39Um, all right. So, as you can see, it's
5:42really punchy with with an attack like,
5:44you know, just lasery. [snorts] And if I
5:46bring it down lower, you can see the
5:49frequency starts to expand and gets
5:51lower and boomier.
5:53[snorts] Let me remove the click so we
5:55don't hear it.
5:59And [snorts] higher [music]
6:02punch laser booming. [snorts]
6:06All right. So, what I like to do is to
6:09find a happy medium. Not too high, not
6:12too low. right here. [music]
6:15Just gives me that nice punch there. And
6:20a really cool tip when it comes to
6:23shaping and designing kick drum, the
6:25curvier it gets, the harder it looks.
6:31[music]
6:34I really like that.
6:35>> [snorts]
6:36>> Um,
6:38oh, let me focus on the sustain part and
6:41have it probably that's pretty low and
6:43deep. Sounds like a nice housey kick.
6:48[music]
6:49I want to have a bit of stretch on it.
6:52So, the more right I go, the more
6:54stretchy my kick drum becomes. The
6:58shorter I the more left I go, it becomes
7:02[music]
7:03more acy and subby.
7:07[music]
7:08So again, I'll find a happy medium
7:11between the two points. Preferably, the
7:14lower I get to the last point, it will
7:16become more bassy and it helps out my
7:19bass to transition nicely smoothly after
7:24the uh release of the kick.
7:27So, I really like how this sounds to be
7:29honest. Let me just add a bit of curve
7:31in here as well and see how it sounds.
7:33That's too [music]
7:34boommy.
7:37It has a nice punch to it.
7:41All right. Cool.
7:43All right. Now, you may say, "Hey,
7:45Melie, the kick drum has a slope right
7:48here. [snorts] Why is that?" And for me
7:52to explain that, let me before playing
7:54it on the keyboard, just loop a kick
7:58drum.
7:59Command L or control L for looping.
8:02[snorts] And I'll press play. Let me
8:05bring it down low. So while I speak, you
8:07guys can hear the kick drum and myself.
8:11All right. So that slop is initially
8:13created because of this EQ point. Right.
8:15So when you load kick 3, it already has
8:17an initial preset, but it's not the
8:19initial preset. something they designed
8:21and it sounds pretty good. But this
8:23slope initially is how I used to create
8:27these points here. So
8:30if I bring it here, as you can see, I
8:32can manage to have this cut. If this is
8:36up all the way, has nice it has a nice
8:39[music] punch towards the attack, which
8:41it was pretty uh useful for trans kick
8:44uh trans uh kick drums [snorts] cuz you
8:47need the full body of the kick and uh
8:50the baseline is basically was shattered
8:52with highs, mids, and lows. And it it it
8:56just com uh basically has a nice mixture
9:00when when you don't have the slope down
9:03[snorts] in side in particular. The more
9:05headroom you give here, the nicer it
9:08sounds with the bass. And I'll explain
9:11what I mean by that.
9:15So, let's say I have my slope
9:18[music]
9:19here
9:23right there. [music]
9:31[music]
9:33You already start to hear the changes
9:36between the balance of the attack
9:40and the sustain.
9:43So that's because of the EQ. But let's
9:47say let's not use the EQ at all. Let's
9:49go back to main. Let's go to sub and
9:52actually apply that same effect on the
9:56shape of the uh amplitude. [snorts] And
9:59again,
10:00that's it. That's all it is.
10:03is to do bring the point down. [music]
10:09This is such a long kick. Let me shorten
10:12it. As usually sidekicks, it's around
10:17the eight bar right there. [music]
10:26[music]
10:32>> [music]
10:36[music]
10:40>> Now, if I got a help off this EQ [music]
10:49[music]
10:54and then clean it up a little bit
10:58>> [music]
11:02[music]
11:06[snorts]
11:06>> Sounds like a nice kick already.
11:09I'm going to go to the pitch and just
11:11play around with this point a little bit
11:13more. [music]
11:21[music]
11:31There's a bit of attack on the
11:33transient. Let me just fade that out.
11:36[music]
11:45[music]
11:51Beautiful. [music]
12:01[snorts]
12:03[music]
12:06Nice punch. [snorts]
12:10[music]
12:13I'll just come here. [music]
12:19>> [music]
12:22>> right there. [snorts] Let's have a click
12:24on it, too. And let's have the click
12:26really short. Just [music]
12:29short as it gets.
12:33[music]
12:41[music]
12:44And I believe on the effects as well,
12:46it's a fair bit of distortion happening.
12:48Not too much as you can see. Uh it's
12:51just a little bit of drive. And yeah,
12:54without it, [music]
13:01[music]
13:02this two I don't think they do much.
13:04It's just the 20% drive, but the main
13:07thing is under drive mode, which is just
13:09distortion. [snorts]
13:12So, I'm pretty happy with my kick drum.
13:14And uh let's move on. That's that's
13:18that's what I'll do. Like I don't need
13:20to do anything else. It has, as I said,
13:23kick 3 has built-in EQ effects and all
13:27of that. And you have a limiter at the
13:29end as well. So, the best part from here
13:31on point is to export it and save it.
13:34[snorts] And uh this is how you do it.
13:36it just renders it and you just drag and
13:39drop and you have your kick drum right
13:41here. [snorts] And what I like to do,
13:43every kick drum I design, I just save it
13:45and I have it in the sample pack that I
13:48use daily and instead of going through
13:51designs again, I just use that. Um, but
13:55there are times when I produce, I like
13:57to design kick drums because every time
14:00you design every point slight different,
14:02the kick drum sounds different. [snorts]
14:05So, I'm pretty happy with this. So, I'll
14:08just delete that for now. I'll keep this
14:10for the sake of video. Let's just move
14:12on to the baseline. So, [snorts]
14:14baseline is initially the most important
14:16part of the track, right? And the kick
14:18and baseline relationship has to be on
14:21point. If it's slightly out, it's just
14:24not going to work. [snorts]
14:26And for my baseline technique, it's I
14:29use such a simple um technique as well.
14:32It's basically just um one frequency,
14:37soft frequency, and we're going to use
14:39the default shape. Nothing too fancy. Um
14:43it just comes depending on your taste.
14:45Um what type of other soft frequencies
14:48you want to use, [snorts] but I'll be
14:49using one frequency and just a filter.
14:52That's all all I'll be using. [snorts]
14:54But what I'll do is um I'll have my
14:58octave lower. So that's what I used to
15:02do all the time, [laughter]
15:04but it really doesn't matter. You can
15:05just go short like lower keys. Um, and I
15:09like to um have my phase on zero and
15:12have the randomization of phase to zero.
15:15That initially means every time I press
15:17the key, it starts from that point and
15:20this point only. If I [snorts] have the
15:23randomization on, every key that I play,
15:26it just picks randomly here or here or
15:28here or here, which I don't need for my
15:30mono baseline. I just wanted to keep the
15:34phase to zero and randomization to zero.
15:37Um, and nothing too fancy here as well.
15:40I don't want to do anything about it. I
15:43just want to have a filter on and just
15:46bring my filter around let's say 153
15:49hertz [snorts] and
15:52uh where I assign this [music]
15:58[music]
15:59cool [snorts]
16:01um with this particular one I'm going to
16:03use uh scope again and I'll put it here
16:07so you guys can see that and I'll have
16:10serum here so you can see both. [snorts]
16:14Cool. Um, so let's create a note.
16:20Uh,
16:25[snorts]
16:33[snorts]
16:36[music]
16:38there we go.
16:40>> [snorts]
16:41>> I'll put you here. Maybe I'll resize you
16:44to there. And uh let's bring serum.
16:50Where did go? Oops. [snorts]
16:55All right. Cool.
17:00[snorts]
17:06All right. So, as you can see, um, it
17:09already sounds pretty cool. And this
17:12does not move. And if I move this, you
17:15can see I'm moving with the phasing. And
17:17I'll show you what this phasing
17:19initially is good for when you're
17:21playing the kick and baseline together.
17:24But [snorts] before that, I want to show
17:25you my processing what I'll do. So, let
17:27me just go to all here and search for
17:29Saturn. [snorts]
17:31And I will open up Saturn 2.
17:37And um if you're not familiar with
17:39Saturn, again, this is my main um
17:43plugin. Any fab filter plugin I love to
17:46use. They're just great. Brilliant br uh
17:51amazingly designed and um Saturn in
17:54particular is just a combination of few
17:57things all at one. And uh that's
18:00multiband distortion built in with
18:03compression. And inside that
18:07multi-chain, you have another
18:09multi-chain. And it's it's beautifully
18:12designed. And just like um u basically
18:16any multiband um you're not limited into
18:20how many bands you can create. So I can
18:21create as many bands as I want by just
18:24pressing those plus points over there.
18:26And the best part of it is when you're
18:28mixing, you can actually solo and mute
18:30those parts and see the changes in the
18:33differences. [snorts]
18:34Um, for this instance, um, especially
18:37this baseline, I only need to use
18:40[snorts] three points. Um, the last
18:42point I won't really touch. It's mainly
18:45if I want to sweep up the filter to use
18:47some of the higher frequencies. I just
18:49keep it as that. But my main focus is on
18:52the subfrequency on the sub uh chain and
18:56on the mid chain. So on the low chain
18:59and the mid chain. [snorts]
19:01Um instantly as soon as I create these
19:05points um you can start to see the shape
19:08of the frequency changes
19:11becomes this amazing harmony
19:16without [music]
19:21And you heard the difference as well. It
19:23just instantly becomes louder, warmer,
19:27and nice. [snorts] And with that being
19:29said, obviously I'm using clean tube.
19:31That's the initial.
19:34As I mentioned, warm, it gets warmer. I
19:36like to use warm tube. [snorts]
19:38And warm tube, it's as good as clean,
19:42but it's just warmer as it sounds.
19:44[snorts]
19:45All right. Now with this point uh what I
19:47like to do so obviously this is your
19:49amplitude level of how much sub you want
19:51to give, how much mid you want to give,
19:52how much high [snorts] and um inside
19:55them it's already has the dynamic band
19:58and frequencies that I basically play
20:00around with. [snorts] And this one I
20:03don't use the panning a lot. I keep the
20:05panning monotonic. I'll use a drive a
20:07little bit more just to get more um
20:11fundamentals out. And I like to use
20:14bands um uh EQ bands inside each channel
20:18as well, mainly on the mids and lows
20:21because because we're working on bass.
20:23[snorts] So I'll start with the met.
20:24I'll keep playing. And what I like to do
20:27when I'm designing is I like to have it
20:29in loop and as it loops, I just keep
20:31playing until I hear like, you know,
20:33that part. It's nice. It's [snorts]
20:36really good when you're designing sound
20:37instead of just doing your work and then
20:39keep pressing play, listening to it, and
20:41then stop doing it. It just saves you
20:43time and it's much easier way and a
20:46better way to do it. [snorts]
20:48So, let's just play that. I'll put the
20:50volume down a little bit as well so when
20:52I talk you can hear me. [snorts]
20:55Um, I'll put that there. Yeah. All
20:58right. I'll select that. Just boost this
21:01up a little bit and bring the sub out as
21:05well. Nice harmony. Bring this back.
21:09[music]
21:19I like that. All [snorts] right. So, let
21:21me bring the mid up a little bit so I
21:23have nice mids going on. That's maybe
21:26too much mid right there. [music]
21:36>> [music]
21:41[music]
21:48[snorts]
21:48[music]
21:49>> I like the sound of that to be honest.
21:57[music]
21:58Cool. Now
22:02that's my baseline done, I believe. All
22:05right, let me add an LFO tool.
22:09for side chaining. [snorts]
22:13Again, I like using LFO tool because I
22:15can create manual points, compression,
22:18side chaining, it's great. But this
22:20anything with amplitude, it's the best
22:22in my opinion. [snorts]
22:32Let's play our kick with it. [music]
22:38too loud maybe. [music]
22:45All right. Now, you can see the kick
22:47right in here specifically. There is
22:50some weird thing going on and that's the
22:53phasing of the kick and baseline. It's
22:56silencing some of those frequencies. And
22:59how I can fix that? There is two ways I
23:01do it. One, well, three ways. One is to
23:05phase a line in the uh in serum with the
23:08bass that we created. The second one is
23:11changing the slope uh cross fade in the
23:14multiband. And the third one is the um
23:18decay part of my kick drum. So when I'm
23:23designing this two before I save the
23:26kick drum, I will have it like a line.
23:29And once it's a line, then I'll render
23:31it as an audio.
23:32>> [snorts]
23:33>> So for this point, let's start with
23:35serum first and let's see if we can
23:37align it with serum before we go into
23:39those second and the third step.
23:41[snorts]
23:42Um
23:44just bring the kick down a bit more and
23:46bring the bass up to here. Another
23:49thing, uh, I like my kick and baselines
23:53headroom to sit. Let's say if my kick
23:55drum is at minus 6, I I would like to
23:58have my baseline either at minus 4.5 or
24:02minus 5 at some stage. But two decibels
24:06lower than the kick drum is best. But
24:08based on taste and like you know the the
24:11the tone of your uh key that you're
24:14using just it's good that you just play
24:17with the mixture a little bit up and
24:18down and see which one sounds full and
24:20nice.
24:22All
24:23>> [music]
24:23>> right, let's move the phase and just
24:26focus on this part. And [music]
24:29once you see like they're all align and
24:32it's like a nice harmonious frequency,
24:34then you know you're phasing it's
24:36aligned. And you'll start to see what I
24:38mean. As soon as I move this phasing,
24:41you start to see when I get closer to
24:43here, [music]
24:46everything just sat perfectly.
24:53>> [music]
24:54>> right here.
24:57So that means I don't need to go to my
24:58kick drum and change anything.
25:01[music]
25:09[music]
25:15Cool.
25:17Um, so that's how you do the kick and
25:20baseline. Really simple. Nothing too
25:23fancy EQing and that. Just a simple kick
25:26three and a simple serum and Saturn and
25:30[snorts] LFO tool for shaping it and
25:33side chaining it. Sorry. [snorts] And um
25:37that's it. Really easy. So the main
25:42point of this video was Scitec. Okay.
25:45can base. So this is normal groove
25:49everyone use. [snorts]
25:51Let's create multiple grooves so I can
25:53show you multiple grooves of baseline.
25:55And this is what I like to do um is to
25:57create different patterns of baseline
25:59for any track and see which one gives me
26:01the uh movement. And usually starts when
26:04I just stand up instead of sitting down
26:06and I just shake my booty and I'm like
26:08that's it. That's the right.
26:10So for this one, we use the same thing,
26:13but I'm going to use the pitchbend uh
26:16modulation here all the way to 24 and
26:19[snorts] minus 24. As much as I can go
26:21up high and as much as I can go up down.
26:25So one of the first groove I want to
26:29show you guys, it's basically
26:32um let's actually bring this to 12. So
26:35it goes up to 12 point up. [snorts]
26:39All right. and this one minus 12.
26:43So I want to show you this.
26:46I'll create point
26:50point point and point [snorts] and I'll
26:54have this one like a square shape and
26:57this one like a square shape too. Let's
27:01hear it. [music]
27:08I love this groove. It's just one of the
27:10best. [music]
27:12Maybe if I put this at 136.
27:16[music]
27:26[music]
27:31Cool. [snorts]
27:32That's one groove, right? Um, let's do
27:37the
27:39famous pitch bend inside that everyone
27:42does.
27:45Uh, that's here. We only need a few
27:48points. One here, one there, one there.
27:50[snorts]
27:53Uh, let's bring back our tempo to 128.
27:57[snorts] And by random, let's just bring
27:59this up here. [music]
28:05Let's keep playing. [music]
28:16[music] Let's give some curves.
28:24[music]
28:33I like that already. [snorts] Um, all
28:36right. Let's open up Serum again and
28:39let's just create a nice baseline groove
28:42that's focused on the mid-range
28:45on top. [snorts]
28:49Um,
28:55[snorts]
28:57let's loop this. Solo this boy.
29:03Let's shorten the note. [music]
29:07And
29:09[music]
29:10let's do that. Let's give a lot of
29:12unison.
29:16And let's give filter.
29:18And then let's shape the filter.
29:23[music]
29:29[music]
29:35[music]
29:50Let's just give an a to this. Have it on
29:53free. Take this out. So it has nice
29:56movement.
29:59[music]
30:09>> [music]
30:16[music]
30:22[music]
30:27[music]
30:32[snorts]
30:32>> So, obviously this needs to be focused
30:34on the mid. Let's just EQ it. I'm going
30:36to use normal EQ and Ableton.
30:39Nothing too fancy.
30:43[music]
30:51[music]
30:57[music]
31:04>> [music]
31:11[music]
31:15[music]
31:21>> Now let me just create another point
31:23like this
31:26and have this assigned. to the pitch.
31:29And I go to my matrix pattern and have
31:31it from zero to there.
31:34[music]
31:36Nice.
31:41[music]
31:45I'm going to assign this macro to here.
31:48[snorts] And then assign this macro to
31:50release to bring it up higher. And then
31:53assign this macro to release again to
31:55bring it up higher. [snorts] And then
31:57I'll just put uh
32:01re
32:03combo reverb. Let's give a long ass
32:07reverb to it. [snorts]
32:10And bring your decay up. Yeah. Size up.
32:16Do that. And then give a nice mix
32:19towards here.
32:21And then when I play them together,
32:23let's just have
32:26>> [music]
32:37[music]
32:46[music]
32:53[music]
32:59[music]
33:01>> So cool. [snorts] And then I can use
33:03this probably the same pattern,
33:06same pitch going on. Or actually, you
33:08know what? Instead of the pitch, why
33:11don't I just remove the pitch and have a
33:15nice
33:18sort of filter modulation going on with
33:21movement. Right. So, let's go one up
33:23here and then the other one up here.
33:27And let's see how that sounds. [music]
33:38[music]
33:42[music]
33:45Let's
33:51[music]
33:57[music]
34:00While we do that, let's just have
34:03pitch from up here to down. [music]
34:10Heat. Heat.
34:16[music]
34:25[music]
34:33>> [music]
34:39[music]
34:43>> This is just too much fun. Anyway, guys,
34:46that's how you do it. I hope uh this
34:49video was pretty helpful and uh showed
34:53show showed you guys that you don't have
34:55to go too crazy in processing. The
34:58simpler it gets, the better it sounds.
35:01And
35:01>> [music]
35:01>> um and yeah, hope the fundamental of
35:04creating kick and bass was
35:06straightforward [snorts]
35:07and easy. And if you guys need to see
35:09more of cool like this, um let me
35:13know in the comment sections. And I'll
35:15be doing more tutorials like this
35:17showing you guys cool creative way of
35:19sound design and a bit of mixing
35:21technique um or even doing start to
35:25finish projects. Um,
35:28yeah. Thank you guys for watching this
35:30and um I'll see you guys next time.