FOUND SOUNDS
Get a tune out of just about anything with this huge guide
Producers have never had it so easy. Just about every kind of sound can be eeasily sourced from commercial sample packs, or downloaded for free online. Heck, we even give away hundreds of samples with this very magazine! But while it might seem like all this choice is a good thing, there is a definite downside. Easy access to synths and sample libraries has bred laziness and homogeneity. We might have every sound under the sun sitting on our hard drives, but we often head straight for the most impressive ones that come bundled with our favourite sampler, or we grab the same old sounds captured from popular 80s synthesisers, and drum machines. The fact that we possess thousands of pro-quality samples and presets can acutally be a hindrance where individuality is concerned, making it harder than ever to make your own tunes stand out from the crowd. The solution? Find and design your own sounds using recordings of real-world objects and locations! The universe is full of fascinating noises, and seeing as almost everybody has a high-quality digital recording device in their pocket, it's never been easier to record and mangle sounds to give your tracks a unique vibe. Whether you're a purist using condenser mics to meticulously source each and every sound, or a hobbyist experimenting with basic smartphone recordings, field recordings can instantly inject an organic and unconventional edge that can give compositions a unique character. Don't worry if you don't own a decent mic, either - the term 'found sounds' can be applied to any real-world sound source sampled from unusual sources such as video games, movies, YouTube and even other tracks.
Over the next few pages, then, we're going to look at a variety of different ways to capture cool noises, as well as show you how to program and process them to produce a track with absolutely no additional samples or synthesisers. We've even created a unique library of found sounds for you to use in your own tracks - find then in Tutorial Files. It's time to grab a mic and get creative!