How I Did It
Dark Comedyby Djaii (as "Kyro")
Uses samples from:
more...Tools I Used
Primarily Nuendo 2 and Reason 2.5 (via rewire), Absynth for the big synth parts. Free VST effect plugins (Kjearhaus and Tweakbench). My Roland MC-307 makes its usual appearance providing some of the nifty lead/arppegiated bits.
Samples I Used
This song contains lots of bits and samples from ccMixter (and was inspired by the looney Antialias bit). Also - there are some standard Reason FSB samples in here, but they are not used as packaged, I usually cut them up and warp them a bit.
Original Samples
The low fuzzy distortion and noise that sits underneath the whole track was done seperately before hand by taking a super fast drum 'n bass loop and really overdriving it with a limiter.
On top of the overdrive/distortion, I used the SIR_1008.dll and used a rich noise impulse to to "reflect" against to give it "hugeness".
I rendered the noise into a track that I could then import into the actual song. I gave it structure by using a step filter (included with Nuendo) which I programed with some rhythmic change to provide a stepping noise sound.
The intro and outro fades the structure of the noise in and out by using the mix control of the plugin to go from raw noise (as it slides in/out) to filtered rhythm (which is used throughout the various movements of the song).
Process
First I took the "Killa Beat" from tachyon869 and sliced it up in a beat slicer so I could re-arrange the sounds/samples in it - I was particularily after the dynamic play between the regular clap and the reverse clap that slides back in before the bass drum hits. The strong bass drum throughout is also isolated from this loop and used in a sampler in Reason.
Some pretty basic hardcore drum samples interleaved with the slices from "Killa Beat" supplied the core of the drum lines. Then I took small bits from the "bubblehead_source" (which was sorta the inspiration for this whole tune - cause it was humorous, but in a creepy sorta way, at least to me) and made them into perc sounds which are used throughout the entire track (whoshes, clicks, vocal dropouts, etc..).
The weight of the track is carried by the use of pads and drones (what can I say, I love 'em) supplied from various bits from Gurdonark's Drone Sample Pack 1, I really felt like the chimes fit in with the notion of this uncomfortable laughing. The full synths at the end are supplied by Absynth, which I love.
"Raspy Pipe Drone" from PorchCat got some pretty heavy slicing using the aforementioned Tweakbench plugins. Part of a bassline in the minimal second movement is supplied by taking a bassy drone ("Degree33" by BOO) and recording the action of the lowest EQ cutoff sliding the frequency up and down to provide a background fading in/out bass effect behind the chimes, subtle.
My voice features in this track in the beginning and then throughout when it seemed appropriate - usually I'm just humming or vocalizing and letting my pitch sway up or down. I tried not to concentrate too much on hitting a certain key with anything in this track, letting the tone of the whole thing sorta set itself out until it gets focused for the final few bars.
Other Notes
I'm not sure what kind of music this is - experimental I guess, but I think I would like to coin it as Industrial Trance or maybe Meditative Tech-Grunge.
I make extensive use of the free VST plugins available from Kjearhaus and Tweakbench. Also - I highly recommend people into experimentation look at the SIR_1008.dll, which is also free and really cool.
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