>Step by step

Processing samples for a pro sound

1 To follow along with my tutorial, it’s important to pick the right source material. Look for a loop or a sample that you’d normally skip past – for example, you may like a sound’s composition or groove, but not its character or timbre. This could even be a loop that you’ve created yourself. Here’s a basic house loop I’ve created in NI’s Maschine. 4 Now for some processing. I send my loop’s signal to an aux return track containing SSL’s Native V6 Saturator, which adds third-order harmonics for a warmer, thicker sound. My settings are extreme, but that’s fine, as this duplicate signal is being mixed in tandem with the untouched source sound. 2 I want to give the loop more life in the most efficient way possible, giving me a solid source sample that will slot straight into a track. To do this, I’ll be using a combination of parallel compression and parallel saturation. Taking advantage of Maschine’s drag and drop feature, I export the premade loop by throwing it on my Pro Tools arrange page. 5 As your dry sound is already in the mix, remember to keep the parallel effect’s mix control (if it has one) at 100% fully wet. At this point, I recommend you try out different settings and balance those level faders. There are no ‘standard’ settings here, so use your ears and experiment. 3 It’s time to prepare my loop for processing. After chopping the sample to the tempo of your choosing, make sure your sample’s level isn’t too ‘hot’ – if it’s already hitting 0dB on the meter, just turn it down a bit. I like to try to level the sample so it’s peaking at no more than -3dBFS, giving me headroom to play with at a later processing stage. 6 I now add another parallel effect on a second aux return, and send the original loop’s signal to it. This time, I’m using parallel compression from IK’s Black 76. I dial in extreme compression until I find the flavour I’m looking for – in this case, I want a spikey, pokey characteristic to complement the parallel saturation’s thickness and density.

7 Again, you can be more extreme with settings when compressing in parallel. I switch Black 76 to the 1176’s famous ‘all buttons in’ mode, which increases compression ratio, boosts input signal and changes attack and release times, giving the compression a thrashy, ‘sucking’ character. This is why 1176 compression is a go-to for parallel dynamics-shaping. 8 This is where things get a little more interesting. By employing clever routing within my DAW’s mixer, I send my parallel compression aux signal into the parallel saturation aux, which saturates some of the spiky, compressed signal. I’m effectively ‘paralleling the parallel’! 9 From here, balance your busses to achieve the desired tone and weight. This final fader-juggling act is completely subjective and personal to you – but that’s the beauty of it! Here, a louder saturation signal gives my loop a trashier sound, while increasing the level of the 1176 signal adds more transient punch. 10 Doing things this way gives you the most flexible workflow in the least time, using the least CPU resources. And working in a dedicated project lets you experiment away from a multitrack session, so you can focus on making that sample sound as good as it can without distraction. After refining your level balances, try different plugin settings. 11 Keep checking your master fader’s volume while you work. You can easily breach the digital 0dBFS limit when mixing multiple parallel signals, so always balance each fader and reduce channel levels to leave headroom. My final peak volume is extremely close to the preprocessed sample’s original peak level. 12 Many ready-made samples are heavily limited. You may enjoy this increase in perceived level on first listen, but it doesn’t help if you want a more dynamic sound. This is another reason to maintain proper gain staging when creating or customising samples – your sounds will be less dominating, and have more chance of slotting into a mix.