Learn How to Bend Your Sounds
Last Edited: Nov 28, 2023
Altering the sound characteristics with the help of distortion-like effects has been present in music production for a long time. Consequently, over the past three decades, we got introduced to some pretty exciting sound processing units that alter the sound in soft or crazy extreme ways. It is so fun to use distortion effects and explore their limits in terms of creative signal processing.
Crush Pack by Native Instruments
In the following tutorial, I will present you a set of 3 impressive plug-in units from the Crush Pack by Native instruments designed to bend the audio from mild to harsh and even crazy-sounding results. BITE, DIRT, and FREAK breathe creative life into iconic effects. They are introducing a modern twist on the prized tone of early samplers, the timeless shred of a sophisticated stomp box, dynamic ring-modulated sci-fi sounds, futuristic timbres, other-worldly radio broadcasts, and more.
Bite
It's all about precision bit-crushing. Therefore, with this plug-in unit, you will be able to recreate the prized sonic imperfections that defined hip-hop and dance music's first golden era or dial the bits right down to depth-charged extremes. Also, it offers the organic crunch of 80s digital sample rate reduction, from character-adding bite to bit-reduced oblivion, auto-input/output compensation, for controlled chaos, and the ability to generate curious and noisy artifacts at low sample rates.
Dirt
This is an organic-sounding distortion crafted by sound designers. Therefore, flexible signal routing, blending, and other carefully crafted parameters allow a level of control not usually associated with distortion units. Moreover, a rich and broad spectrum of distortion adds presence to synths, glue drum busses, and decimate guitars. Additionally, it allows wave folding, introducing complex, dynamic timbres from simple sources like sine waves.
Freak
Three sound-bending modulation types offer retro radio lo-fi and wild side-chain ability alongside classic AM, ring mod, and frequency-shifting techniques. Therefore, it creates detuned horror-style vocals, rich metallic timbres, rhythmic side-chain, and more. Furthermore, it adds a whole universe of noise and inharmonic content to harmonic signals. It possesses radio mode, which allows demodulation of signals and offers the sound of vintage broadcasts or alien transmissions. The stereo modulation feature is particularly useful in percussion.
Practical Examples
So, after the initial introduction of these unique effects, let's move on to some practical sound audio examples on different sound sources within SoundBridge.
Here is a simple drum loop. First, we will hear it unprocessed and then processed with the Bite effect with some additional automation of its parameters.
~Drum Loop - Unprocessed
~Drum Loop - Processed with Bite
Next, we have a baseline sequence. Again, we will first hear it unprocessed and then processed with the Dirt effect.
~Bassline - Unprocessed
~Bassline - Processed with Dirt
An excellent example of altering the tonal characteristics of Synth Arp. could be expressed by using the Freak effect. Let's hear the difference before and after the use of this effect gain with some additional parameter automation.
~Synth Arp. - Unprocessed
~Synth Arp. - Processed with Freak
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