If you need dusty raw analogue percussive sounds for your music productions, this is the pack for you! Analog Coast Kit comes with punchy kicks, claps, snares, hihats, cymbals and crunchy sounds to fill out your percussive section.

The samples are perfectly suitable for Hip Hop, Glitch Hop, Bit Hop and other EDM genres.

Features

• 112 samples in total
• 86 analog samples from the 0-Coast synth
• Punchy analog percussion, Claps, Kicks, Snares, Guitar, Organ and much more.
• Bonus Content +32 vintage vinyl samples
• 24bit 44.1khz .wav format.

Bonus content – Vinyl samples

As a bonus you also get 32 vintage vinyl samples! The bonus samples include vintage kicks, snares, organ, guitar. Importantly, you can give your Lo-Fi track that nostalgic vibe with a bunch of of vinyl crackle sounds and loops. Furthermore, you get some 808 bass samples for the more heavy tracks.

Sound Demo

Listen to the Analog Coast Kit – Lo Fi samples. First half is dry samples (no additional FX), second half has Super VHS & Fakturator effect to make it really gritty. Endless possibilities with this LoFi kit!

0-Coast modular synth Lo-Fi samples

All samples are captured from the 0-Coast synth via Apogee Duet A/D converters with some slight tape saturation for that distinct vintage vibe.

When making the Analog Coast Kit Lo Fi pack we focused on creating a raw & gritty collection of samples from the analog Make Noise 0-Coast modular synth. Thereby providing the perfect launching point for creating LoFi tracks.

What is the 0-Coast?

The 0–COAST music synthesizer is a single voice patchable synthesizer. Its name reflects the fact that it utilizes techniques from both the Moog and Buchla paradigms (aka “East Coast,” and “West Coast,” due to their locations), but is loyal to neither and thus implements “no coast synthesis.”

The 0-COAST is like 7 eurorack modules in one single device.

Creating the Analog Coast Kit

0-Coast was taken to it’s utter limit to craft some really punchy LoFi sounds.
To create the samples we used the onboard oscillators, sent external audio and noise into the 0-Coast synth for some dirty processing.

If you want gritty and bold samples, this is where you find them!

In the Analog Coast Kit there are +110 samples carefully selected to give you everything you need to make some LoFi kits, bass and melodic sampler instruments.

The Analog Coast Kit is a prepared collection of samples that fit perfectly into any LoFi production.

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

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The post Lo Fi sample pack – Analog Coast Kit appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Presets for Alchemy synth

Boost your preset bank for the Alchemy synth and check out – NEPTUNE.

Production Ready Instrument and Synth Presets for ALCHEMY with FREE lifetime updates.

NEPTUNE is a collection of lush granular instruments, organic evolving pads and much more!

Includes Lush Pads, Deep Basses, Beautiful Keys, Soaring Leads, Beautiful Ethnic Instruments (Flute, Kalimba) + much more. The NEPTUNE presets include carefully planned macro (performance) controls to help you sculpt and morph your sound.

The post Alchemy Sound Design Tutorial – Huge Lead Synths appeared first on Morningdew Media.

My 5 best transition techniques

How can we create an awesome transition into that epic chorus drop? These are my top 5 transition techniques in music production!

The small details and spice of a track – transitions and fills, will bring your music to another level.

Your arrangement will flow more natural if you have transitions and varying fills when you introduce new elements in the song. When you move from the chorus back to the verse we need an extra element to glue the parts. Those parts might have a completely different instrumentation and therefore need some sparkle on top. Smoothly leading one part into the next.

Transition techniques in music production – from the 50s into the future.

In the early pop & rock era, commercial music was generally created with a rock band setup (drums, bass, guitar, keyboard and vocals).  The transitions often came in the form of a drum fill. That good old drum fill is still used in today’s electronic music but in an ever-evolving creative way.

Today transitions come in all shapes, sizes and forms and everything goes as long as it “works”.

Importantly we want a natural and smooth transition. Sometimes you might want to go with an abrupt switch without any extra sparkle, but today we are talking transitions to guide the listener from one part into another.

You want the listener to feel as much anticipation and euphoria as possible for that climax.

Maybe you are making a build from the verse going into the chorus drop and want to make an interesting smooth transition.

There are many different ways to create interesting transitions. In this article, I compiled a batch of tips and tricks you can use to enhance your own tracks.

Let’s take the music to another level. Time to level up those transitions!

Top 5 Transition Techniques in music production!

First out we have a favourite of mine. And that is to take a vocal sample and pitch it ever so slowly upwards. The vocal riser transition effect!

1. The Vocal Riser Transition Effect

A riser is a sound that is gradually increasing in volume, pitch or another modulation parameter. I usually add these to slowly grow the anticipation and lead right into the drop (chorus). Secondly, we can add them right before some other important part within our song. It might be at the end of a section that is supposed to repeat another round.

But most often I add these vocal risers before the drop. It’s not uncommon that this vocal riser is increasing both in volume AND in pitch at the same time. I think this is more unique and interesting than an instrument riser since the sound of a voice is often very rich and familiar to our ears. 

We could argue all day about what transition effects are overused and those who are not. But that’s not the point of this article. We just want to learn all the juicy possibilities of how to create different transition effects. Then we can use them in whatever way we like, and create new unique effects.

Record a short word or phrase for your vocal riser

In the following example, I’ve recorded the word “day” as an audio clip.
We put the audio clip in a sampler and put the sampler into “forward loop mode”. Importantly adjust the looping so it’s smooth in the crossing-point and does not introduce too many artificial clicks.

Listen to the short sample of the Vocal Riser:

It does not matter if this word is in key with your song since the pitch will be rising continuously, and ever so slightly. Just record a fun word or phrase, or grab a sample from your favourite vocal library.

We add a long note in the midi clip for say 4 bars and add automation for the volume and pitch of the sampler. You might have recorded the word in sync with the project tempo but as soon as the pitch goes up the sample looping will get faster (if you are in a regular sample playback mode).

Be careful with the type of reverb you choose for the transition effect track.

Don’t drench this track in reverb or delay since it takes away the impact and definition of the vocal. Instead, use a very short room reverb (below 0.3s) to place the sound in the depth field of your mix if you want it to sit in the background. Also cut some of the lows below say 120hz in the reverb EQ if you have other instruments going to prevent a muddy mix.

It’s absolutely OK to add an LFO modulating the volume or a filter (hello – LFO Tool) if you want even more movement to the sound.

I recently wrote an article on the excellent delay Colour Copy from u-he which is one of the best delay for vocals I’ve heard.

The finished vocal riser transition effect in a song context.

In the example below I am automating the volume and pitch to rise for 4 bars. The track has an LFO modulating the volume which adds even more choppy movement. We gradually increased the reverb decay towards the very end to make the sound splash out just before the transition point.

Listen to a short sample of the Vocal Riser in context of a Future Bass track:

Boost Your Productions – Pristine Sound Packs

2. Noise Sweep Transition Effect

A new section in a song often begins with some kind of impact sound with a sharp transient. The impact emphasises that this is a start of something new. This impact often comes in the form of a sizzling crash cymbal sitting on top of a kick drum. We hit it on the first beat of bar one in a music section. The high pitched ring makes us wake up and feel the fresh start of something new.

Furthermore, we can reverse this cymbal and re-use it as a sweeping transition effect into the next section, or at the end of a loop to glue two music sections.

Listen to the reversed cymbal sweep with some chorus and EQ modulation:

The reversed cymbal in a song context with panning modulation.

Different songs require different impacts.

Be sure to try different impact samples from your library to see what kind of cymbal or hit that fits your song and genre. In an EDM-track you might want a really defined crash cymbal that cuts through the other sounds. While in a delicate ballad you might go for a chill sweeping wind-chime.

In an epic, orchestral song you will probably want to use one of those big Asian gongs to give the piece a bombastic epic flavour.

The sweeping cymbal might seem “old and overly used” so if you feel you want something fresh, try a different kind of metallic or found sounds sample. I created a Found Sounds Pack #1 with some unique samples you can use as a foundation for interesting transition sounds.

You will be surprised how well some metallic objects tumbling around in a box will sound with a good reverb, and in reverse playback. Don’t be shy, try it out!

Listen to a sample of a found sound riser transition effect:

You can also spread out some sparkle in your track and use a reversed sound leading into your snare or kick like in this example:

The traditional sweeping noise effect.

If you want a more traditional sweeping noise effect you can bring your favourite synth to the table. Most synths have a noise generator so let it shine with white noise (pink noise works too). You can use the amplitude envelope in the synth to get the gradual volume increase, but that is a bit harder to control and sync with the transition. Therefore we use the track automation lane to draw a gradual increase in volume over time.

Splash the transition sound with reverb and delay before reversing it.

Add tons of reverb and delay to the sample and bounce the audio. Reverse the bounced audio and you have a new transition sound to use in your songs.

Draw some volume automation in the track lane to give the sound a gradually increase in gain up to the transition point.

Furthermore, it can also be effective to add a filter with a beat-synced LFO to give the sweep even more movement. Chrous, flangers and modulation effects in general sound very good in transition sounds. Experimentation is always key to achieve interesting new transition sounds.

Listen to a sample of a traditional noise riser sound with some chorus and modulation:

3. The Downer / Pitch Drop Transition Effect

The downer or pitch drop transition sound is effectively used in the first beat, of the first bar, in your breakdown section. This sound effect brings down the dynamics of your track. Downer effects are great when you are going from a chorus drop into a more gentle breakdown or bridge section.

If you want your song to sound alive you probably already know that you should have dynamics in your track. Make your chorus big and juicy! Let a balanced portion of your track breathe with fewer sounds.

I think the most common downer effect is the sine wave with a falling pitch. You can effectively add some tube distortion to bring a few more harmonics into the sine wave to give it a little bit more body. 

Your listener might playback your track on Spotify via small phone speakers. Therefore make sure that all your important sounds have body, mids and high-frequency content to come through on the devices.

Listen to a sample of a downer transition effect right at the beginning of the breakdown to help bring down the dynamics of our track:

The isolated downer transition sound effect:

4. Snare Rolls and Fills

Snare rolls leading into a chorus is another effective way to build anticipation towards the climax of your song. Begin with some quarter note snares in the first bar. Switch to 8th notes in the second bar. Thereafter you go full throttle with 16th notes for the final bar before the chorus section.

Try variations with triplets and other rhythmic formulas to give your track some spice. Replace the snare with a tiny clap and see how that sounds in your track.

If you are producing Trap, Future Bass etc. you are probably familiar with 16th snare repetitions with pitch modulation. Be creative, don’t let the norm stop you from going overboard and try new things!

Listen to a clap roll leading into the chorus drop:

5. Selective Muting In Transitions

How about muting some audio clips or midi events right before a new section begins. This is very effective and in pop music, you could typically hear this at the beginning of the second verse. Right after the chorus the drums were often left out for a few bars (Max Martin arrangement style) to give the song some dynamic air to breathe.

In modern EDM you can hear this all over the place where we take out clips right before a section change. Maybe mute a few kick hits and snares to let the listener feel the excitement of something happening in the track.

Use sparingly and your track will fell more alive!

Listen closely to this music snippet where I take out some of the percussive elements right at the end of a section:

So there you have my favourite Transition Techniques in Music Production. They are all over the place in my productions.

I have a new article out where I talk about how to find your own artistic voice.

I hope you found this article useful in your own music adventures.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me via the contact page.

AUTHOR – Mattias Holmgren / Creative Director 
@ Morningdew Media

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

Be sure to sign up to our newsletter for new exciting articles in design, music production and sound design.

The post Transition Techniques in Music Production appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Watch the video and learn all about how to create cinematic sounds.
If you want some more meat on how to create cinematic sounds, and also listen to the isolated sounds, please read the full blog post. Thanks!

Bitwig Studio 2.4 update is here with a brand new feature filled Sampler.

Welcome back to another episode where we take a look at some of the new features of Bitwig Studio 2.4. Let’s explore the exciting new playback modes of the sampler in Bitwig. Can we create some big cinematic sounds for a music cue? Dive right in with me to check out the sampler and what lurks under the boiling hood.

What is Bitwig – Do we really need another DAW?

There are so many superlatives about Bitwig that pop up when I get asked this question. Besides that Bitwig has started to gain a lot of attention in the music world the past two years, it is still a little in the shadows of the other Digital Audio Workstations like Logic and Cubase. Because Bitwig is a brand new modular DAW developed by key engineers from the Ableton Live (another popular DAW) team. I have tested both DAWs extensively and I must say that Bitwig really is the future.

The modular future is here

It’s a rock solid 64 bit environment and can be described as one big modular device. Yes, you can almost modulate anything! Therefore it’s very easy to create complex sounds with minimal effort. And if one plugin crashes, you can just reload that plugin. No need to reboot the whole application. Trust me, it will save you a lot of time and headache.

The Sampler – Re-sampled with three new play modes

The new playback modes give you plenty of features to shape and form your sound in various ways. If you are familiar with other plugins with granular capabilities like Omnisphere, Kontakt or The Mangle you feel right at home. It’s very inspiring to try all your sounds with each playback mode and see how your sound can evolve. There are so much to discover in even the simplest of foley sounds.

* Re-pitch – Represents a traditional sampler mode so its Speed control dynamically changes the playback time and pitch, even allowing negative speeds for record-scratch effects and more.

* Cycles – Preserves note pitches while using Speed changes to warp the sample

* Textures – Uses a granular synthesis approach, preserving the samples’ original pitch while allowing for independent controls for Speed, Grain size, and grain Motion.

How to create cinematic sounds. Cinematic sound creation with the Bitwig sampler.

First I show you a great way of how to sound design a organic evolving pad from a loop. The texture mode combined with the freeze play head makes us able to control the play head like a tape machine. An LFO modulator (sine wave) is added to move the play head slowly back and forth in a smooth loop. A great technique to make the sound morph and never feel static.

Let’s listen to the isolated pad patch we just created:

Let’s sample a chinese wind instrument – The Bawu

When the cinematic pad is finished we sample my chinese woodwind instrument called Bawu. It has a very haunting tone and sounds almost like a bass clarinet. I have used it in multiple film scores and game scores (like Luminati etc.). The sound has quite the character and is a great instrument to sample. Rather than just adding the sample and call it a day, we can add some granular synthesis and dive in to the waveform and find new exciting material.

Let’s have a listen to the raw sound of the Bawu flute:

The Texture mode is selected with a very slow speed. Most importantly we increase the grain size and add a bit of motion. Because we want a organic evolving sound which does not feel static. From the raw Bawu sample we now have an organic sounding bass patch. In the bass we add the arpeggiator to get even more movement and tighten the sound up a bit with the filter and some eq.

Listen to the processed sound where we have transformed the smooth Bawu sound into a pulsing bass patch:

Can we do cinematic percussion from wood foley sounds?

Now we layer in some organic percussive samples from my latest sound pack – Wood Sounds Pack #1.  This sound pack is filled with all types of wood related sounds. From dropping logs into a pile, to bark rips, chop, drop and much more.

Again, I want to point out how great foley samples work in cinematic sound design. They will help you paint a more interesting picture which also relates to the nature around us.

Listen to a short snippet of the isolated foley beat, interesting enough?

How about adding a melody, or a piano improvised solo to the composition?

To close it all up and finish the track we add a improvised piano solo on top of the chill music. The piano is compressed with a multi band compressor. Because we want to prevent certain frequencies poking out. We want to make the piano big and lush in the mix. Therefore we add some delay and a wash of filtered hall reverb to splash out the sound and make it more epic.

Always remember to put the delay before the reverb. In most cases this works better since delays works best with sharp transient sounds rather than a wash of sound. You can try both, but my recommendation is to put the delay first. You can of course put a small room / small hall reverb before a delay. But that is usually when you are shaping the actual sound of the piano, in what type of room it sits. Wash reverbs works best at the end of your chain. =)

Always remember to put the delay before the reverb.

The finished cinematic music cue

Take a listen to the finished music cue:

I hope you found this article useful and that you can take with you some insight into the thought process of creating cinematic sounds. Let me know what you think of the article and video format and I would love to hear what you make with these tips and tricks in the new Sampler of Bitwig Studio.

Happy sound designing friends and thanks for watching,

/ Mattias Holmgren / Creative Director
Morningdew Media AB

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

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The post How to create cinematic sounds in Bitwig Studio appeared first on Morningdew Media.

What I re-discovered when doing the Omnisphere 2.5 first look video

After trying Omnisphere 2.5 for a few days I rediscovered Omnisphere as a plugin instrument and it feels like a fresh re-invention of this excellent Power Synth.

Yes, Spectrasonics called it Power Synth when releasing the initial version of Omnisphere.

I would rather call it – The most used synth in modern film scoring. Because that is true, everyone uses it. In Hollywood movies you will find Omnisphere patches all over the place.

It’s not so weird that you find presets from Danny Elfman himself within the core library of Omnisphere. Great!

It’s time to go back to this wonderful synth that really changed the world for many composers out there. I know it changed mine!

New features of Omnisphere 2.5:

Firstly, there are several new additions to Omnisphere in this update that will give you new tools for sound design. Here is a quick description on the new features.

Hardware Synth Integration

This really is the big news of Omnisphere 2.5 update. This means that Omnisphere is now fully integrated and supports 30 hardware synths. With unique “Hardware Profiles” for each supported synth.

The hardware synth integration bridges the physical experience gap between software and hardware, giving us intuitive control of Omnisphere by using the familiar layout of our supported synths.

You will find “Hardware Profiles” for some familiar synths like; Moog®, Dave Smith Instruments®, Roland®, Korg®, Novation®, Nord, Access, Studiologic, Sequential®. And more will be supported in the future.

The hardware synths cover a wide range of types and price ranges for different types of users.

Boost Your Productions – Pristine Sound Packs

Expanded Synthesis Capabilities

Each patch can now utilize up to 12 envelopes, 8 LFOs and the Modulation Matrix has been increased to 48 modulation routings. Newly designed State Variable Filters are included which makes it easy to go from LP to HP filter with just one filter! You can achieve some pretty amazing sound design with the amazing envelopes of Omnisphere.

New Hardware Sound Library

You get a increased patch library with over 1,000 new patches created by Eric Persing and the Spectrasonics team.

New High Resolution Interface

Omnisphere 2.5 features a brand new GUI (graphical user interface). The update includes Retina/hi res graphics for 4K monitors. The design gives the plugin a nice facelift that feels modern and fresh. Making it easier than ever to scale and resize.

New Granular Layout

The new granular page now shows how the grains (sample playbacks) behave. Thus making it easier to control and design your sounds the way you want. I’ve seen this live view and granular layout before in a plugin called “The Mangler”. Therefore I am glad Spectrasonics included this kind of view in the interface of Omnisphere 2.5. Use the granular synthesis engine to find exciting material deep within your sound files.

Windows Multitouch Support

Omnisphere 2.5 now fully supports Windows X Multitouch computers and tablets. This means that the new Live Mode page can function as a deep functional stage interface when used fullscreen on a Windows computer.

Thanks for watching the Omnisphere 2.5 First Look and sound design video.

Transition techniques in music production

I recently did a thoroughly video and article giving multiple tips on how to create transitions in music production. Read more about Transition Techniques in music production here.

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

Be sure to sign up to our newsletter for new exciting articles in design, music production and sound design.

The post Omnisphere 2.5 first look granular sound design tips appeared first on Morningdew Media.

Electrical engine audio sampling & custom bicycle ramps

During the recording sessions we built a 9 feet high plywood ramp in the backyard to record authentic bikedrops with different bikes to find the perfect sound for the start drop. For the game we recorded a brand new sound library with everything from bikes with various wheel settings to 15 different electronic engines (Thanks Anton).

VST Instruments used in Mad Skills BMX 2

We also did some deeper synthesis with Omnisphere, Diva and Zebra 2 to create start horns, finishline confetti sounds and of course some custom patches for the music.

Composing the music for Mad Skills BMX 2

For the music we went wild and created some really tight and groovy cues suitable to the fun gameplay with a blend of organic and electronic instrument sounds.
Some of the instrument plugins we used to compose the music are Omnisphere and Zebra 2 which are close to our hearts for all kinds of sound design purposes.

The music was written and arranged in Logic Pro X and Bitwig Studio. They are my primary DAWs of choice for game composing and sound design.

If you don”t have Mad Skill BMX 2 yet, download it for free at https://www.turborilla.com/getbmx2!

The post The sound of Mad Skills BMX 2 appeared first on Morningdew Media.