This tutorial was brought to you in part by Plug & Mix
With the overabundance of plugins and FX in everyone DAW’s there is no excuse for having preset sounding tracks. Watch as Ben Lindell transforms a simple saw bass source into a lush, wide, and nasty synth that rocks the mix.
This tutorial demonstrates the subtle addition of simple yet powerful tools given to every pureMix Pro Member by our friends at Plug & Mix. Any producer working with software synthesizers should experience this quick tutorial and reap the benefits of spicing up those synths.
00:00:08 Hey, how is it going?
I'm Ben Lindell
and today I wanna show you
a couple of tricks
that I use while producing and mixing
to add uniqueness and vibe
to my synth tracks.
00:00:16 Let's check this out
as it is right now.
00:00:36 So it's a really cool part,
it's got a very short attack
and release to the sound
but it's pretty much as
a simple saw wave.
00:00:42 So there's a lot that I can do
to the sound
to give it more shape
and just attitude.
00:00:46 Today I'm gonna be using
some of the creative tools from Plug&Mix
to stack up some effects
on my synth bass
that make it more interesting
and add some warmth to the sound.
00:00:54 Let's get started.
00:00:56 To start off with I wanna use
the Plug&Mix Octaplexer.
00:01:18 Let's hear the sound again
without the Octaplexer.
00:01:29 And now with the Octaplexer.
00:01:39 Cool!
Alright it's starting to add
something that adds a little more
bottom end, some width
every once in a while,
it's kinda cool, I like it.
00:01:46 Next I'm gonna add Degradiator
for a little bit of bitcrushing.
00:01:50 Just add a little bit more of nastiness
and cool color.
00:02:14 Let's listen to it
without the bitcrushing.
00:02:26 And with some bitcrushing.
00:02:36 Cool. Now we're starting to
get some uniqueness to the sound.
00:02:39 Next I'm gonna add..
I don't know,
how about.. the Granulizer,
that sounds interesting.
00:03:11 Let's hear this
without the Granulizer.
00:03:21 And with the Granulizer.
00:03:31 I'm just gonna back off
the wet/dry a little bit more
and let's keep moving.
00:03:35 Now I feel that the sound could use a
little bit of space and just 3Dness to it
so I'm gonna use the Dimension 3D
plug-in, see if that does the trick.
00:03:43 This one only has one knob in it,
that's how I like it, here we go!
So I like what this plug-in is doing
to the sound but
I've kind of changed my mind,
I don't think I need
more space to the sound,
I just want some modulation to it.
00:04:11 So I think it'd be better off
using a Flanger effect instead.
00:04:14 Whenever I'm working on
time-based effects
I like to generally have them
being in sync with the beat,
especially for electronic music.
00:04:20 So put this in the sync,
let's try a half note,
we're bringing the depth down
and the feedback up
trying to mix it like 50/50,
see what it sounds like.
00:04:47 Let's check this out again
without the flanger.
00:04:58 And now with some flange.
00:05:09 Yeah, that sounds really cool.
00:05:12 And now for the final touch
to my synth.
00:05:14 I want just a little bit more body,
a little more clarity
so I'm gonna pull out
the Clarisonix plug-in.
00:05:19 add just a little bit of sub,
a little bit of lo focus, some clarity
tweak the output down a little bit,
let's see how this sounds like.
00:05:43 Let's hear it without the Clarisonix.
00:05:54 And with.
00:06:04 Alright, cool.
00:06:06 So for reference,
let's check out what this bass sounded like
before we added all these effects to it.
00:06:29 And so now
at the same level,
let's check out what it sounds like
with all these effects.
00:07:05 And again, without.
00:07:18 And with.
00:07:37 So today I used a combination
of sub-harmonic generation,
distortion
and modulation effects.
00:07:42 to transform a simple synth bass sound
into something much more interesting.
00:07:46 Now as both a producer
and a mixer
it's incredibly important that you have
these creative tools at your disposal
so you can make all of your sounds
unique and stand out.
00:07:55 So until next time,
I'm Ben Lindell.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Ben is a NYC based producer/engineer who has worked with artists from MGMT to Soulja Boy, Bebel Giberto to Lloyd Banks, Ryan Leslie, Olivia, Tony Yayo, Red Cafe, Edie Brickell, Carole Pope and hundreds of other artists from around the world. He grew up in Iowa and then attended the University of Miami.
In addition to being a fantastic musician he is also a tremendous geek when it comes to anything technical, be it software, plug-ins, microphones or outboard gear. It's this marriage of musical creativity and technical know-how that makes him an in demand producer/engineer.
Love the Clarisonix plug! I'm normally a flanger freak, but felt it almost lessened the quality of the sound a touch. Who manufactures these plug ins? I'm not familiar with "P &M" are they stock pro tools plugs? I'm a Logic user. I found Pro Tools to be too much of a blackhole of money and my creative time fighting third party compatibility issues. It's been a few years though, maybe it's improved. With Logic and my UAD plug-ins I have almost nil time spent with updates and ferreting out issues and more time for creativity.
alekvila
2018 Apr 26
I agree with the most of these comments. The title should be "Demo of 5 P&M plug-ins on a Synth Bass." There should be no space or talking between BYPASS and ACTIVE states so we can hear the subtle difference. You've taken a dry sawtooth and added effects to it. A lot of synths do this without additional plug-ins. What is the lesson here? This isn't really a tutorial. The video doesn't entice me to become a member. If your paid videos are anything like this... yeesh. This should be free on YouTube. It's an ad for P&M plug-ins.
djelone
2017 Aug 08
Thx really cool.
Btw have anyone using synth packages from this
guys ?
https://www.lucidsamples.com
Heyclown
2017 May 01
Lost me after adding the 4th P&M plug-in. I enjoy that it's free but the title is heavy misleading. Should have been "How to use only P&M plugs to spice up your synths."
G.MICHAELHALL
2016 Dec 08
Some strange comments left on this video. Personally I walked away from this tutorial appreciating the pursuit of unique enhancement that reflect the producer/engineer' vision. Less instructional and more a lesson to remind all of the value of pursuing unique sounds.
composermikeglaser
2016 May 05
Quick tips and demos of most plugins that P & M offers, spot on educating.
track
2016 Feb 16
Not sure why Ben is referring to the synth bass only while actually treating the master buss, you can clearly hear the drums being effected as well...
Cool video though.
bgrichting
2015 Sep 16
Just a tip: I see this done on several tutorial videos and i don't understand why. I am talking about the A/B-ing of before and after sound, bypassed and not-bypassed. The differences in sound are most of the time rather subtle and therefore there should be no interruption between the sound with the plugin engaged and bypassed. Even a very small interruption of 2-3 seconds (text "and now the plugin bypassed") is enough to make the comparison much harder, because as we all know the brain has nearly no sound memory. Just use the overlaid text as you do in some of your vids to tell bypass on/off.
