IDM Breakcore Tutorial in Reason 4 part 3

so far I we have covered most of it from it when it comes to the basic idea of drumming of Breakcore. Lets take a look at some other factors that come to play. Basslines, leads, effects... the works!

Basslines IDM'ish

When it comes to basslines, one could use a lot of stuff that is comming from the Drum and Bass scene. Since IDM Breakcore is an offspring of Drum and Bass, yet most of the difference lies within the breaking of the drums, the glitched out sounds and the effects. If you really want to go 'hardcore' IDM'ish, you even want to make some really 'weird' kind of like "hey look I am on LSD" kind of sound effects. This is probably not for the masses, and that is probably why the hardcore IDM tracks are most often found "annoying" to say the least. However, some of its production capabilities can be quite usefull, if you are into it.

Bassline 1

Just take something like that as a reference. The basic idea of 'basslines' inside breakcore is simply this: you want to keep them simple as is! Because Breakcore gets most of the power from all the 'glitched' out drums, the short bursts that take place. With having to much "bassline" madness going on, it will most likely mean that the over production is becomming overclogged by the basslines. So, that is why you most likely want to keep them 'clean' and simple. Offcourse there are ways to play around with the basslines that is. Once in a while, it can have a nice effect to do something 'drastic' for a change.

Bassline 2

Bassline 3

And with the last one, it probably already gets more "LSD tripping" like ;)

Bassline 4

Glitched sound effects

While we have covered mostly the 'glitched' effects made so far using drums or percussions. It is also an option to create glitched out sounds using the synth modules (subtractor, malstrom, thor), or samplers (nn-xt and nn19). When it comes to the subtractor, this one will most likely be usefull in combination with a little bit FM or the Ring Modulation. Since those to can make a sound turn into something 'unreal'. If you are going for the FM or Ring modulation approach, make sure you always use 2 different oscillators inside the subtractor to get most of it. Since FM and Ring modulation uses 2 different signals that are being blend through to eachother (kind of like a carrier wave and a modulation signal from the vocoder unit). Also, another thing that you might want to keep as your friend is the noise oscillator in times. Since again, these noise oscillator can have a nice impact creating something 'noizy' and weird. And that is the name of the game...

sound effects glitched

The Malstrom Graintable synth is GOD!

As it comes to the mystical wonders of creating glitched kind of sounds, my guess would be that the Malstrom will kick some serious butt on this one! Not only because of the ability to use granual synthesis, but also because of its unique way to shape the complete instrument as a whole (eg: modulation, comb filter, the works...). One common setup to use is to route the signal from the malstrom gate to a Redrum computer (a trick that I have probably showed before).

sound effects glitched 2

In this example I am using a second malstrom for the "outerspace" malstrom. Where the output is being blended through a noise shaper and AM filter. Another thing I have been doing with the last example is using the modulation A and modulation B to make something rather "random".

The random feature is the one inside Modulation A, where it randomly goes through the Index, or the Shift in this case. While the filter (modulator B) has a more 'tempo' related look and feel (so it does not feel like something totally random but there is a pattern inside it).

Thor is the second glitch master

Besides the malstrom, thor can be another piece of interesting software to look into.Since it has a really awesome noize oscillator. Which are able to create 'strange' shaped percussions really well. Just as a simple idea: add on oscillator 1 a noize oscillator, throw in a state veriable filter set on high pass (HP), put the decay and sustain very low. Et voila: electronic hihat... But since thor also has its build in chorus effect, combined with a stereo delay effect, it has enough stuff in here to create these really glitched like sounds from. Again, with the case of the malstrom, the shaper is probably going to be your friend in this case. Since the shaper has the tention to make something more 'noize' from something existing. The only problem with the shaper is that is basicly hard to understand what the shaper actually does inside thor. It is in most cases a bit 'trial on error'

sound effects glitched 3

Another interesting concept inside Thor, is using the step sequencer. But make it 'randomish' like. In some cases, glitch patterns are based on a randomizer. Eg, it does not alway have to go along with the tempo that well. As long if there is a pattern in it which can be recognized, one might find eventually that it becomes tempo syncronized in the long run. While on the short run it goes like "wtf is this random noiz?!". One method is using the method of "Pendulum 2", since this one will make the pattern 2 notes shorter in length, rather then having it on 2 bars. Another option would be screwing around with the steps (thats the most right knob on the step sequencer).

sound effects glitched 4

This last example may sound like a total mess, but that is the name of the game right now ;) But then again, one can make it a bit more 'organized' by removing the lfo 2 which is connected to the S.Rate (speed rate) of the step sequencer.

These are the basic things which comes to mind when it comes to the usage of the synths modules. The basic idea about 'glitched' sounds is probably a more or less "out of the box" way of thinking. You don't want to go for a specific 'instrument', you want to take a more 'computerized', 'unreal', or 'noizy' kind of sound. Screwing around with the filter attack rate, or amplitude attack to make it slide it more, or go for something short bursting with a low decay and a low sustain. Just go wild on the LFO settings or modulators, noiz oscillators and jazz around with FM.

NN19 Sampler Glitching

Glitching with the NN19 sampler becomes a whole different story. Since it is a sampler. And samplers are usually "dull" when it comes to controlling the sound output (ok, with the exception of the NN-XT that is, since it has more to control). The most common ways to "glitch" around inside the NN19 sampler is most likely using something as a short gated note thing (such as the matrix pattern sequencer or Arpeggiator). With longer notes, it becomes lesser interesting in a way. It is kind of like what I basicly explained about the drum in parts 1 and part 2. But in this case we are not using drums, but 'real' instruments instead, making them sound more glitched.

Most commonly what you probably will be using to create these kind of sound effects is what I have marked with blue squares. Which are the Sample Start point, the Envelop amount (to control the pitch), the filter envelope, the modulation wheel and the pitch wheel. The spread knob could be usefull in this case as well, but I personally want to point out that it may lead to a more 'chaotic' sound effect, which is in most cases not a desired thing. However, with glitch sounds you might ask yourself: aren't we already making it sound 'chaotic' in a way?

NN 19 Sampler Glitched

This first example sounds a bit 'dull' in a way. But its just to show what kind of trick lie ahead when we take a simple bassline sound and totally mess around with it. Since the sample start button changes the starting point of the sample, it can basicly re-shape an existing sample just a little bit differently. Just like the next one, which is based on a Dentist sound from the Other sample section:

NN 19 Sampler Glitched 2

Can you recognize it? Yet, it is based on the same 'algorhythm' as the previous example. Only things I have added here are a bit of pitch control and modulation (connected to the filter).

In a way, if you are going to use samplers, and you want to get most out of the glitch effects, I would definitly choose the method of using long end samples which are based on ambient kind of sounds (driving cars,factory noise sounds, airfield noise just to name a few). These can have a real nice impact when for instance using an arpegiated kind of technique and change the sample start point while it is playing.

NN XT Sampler Glitched

Anyways, I think I have written down a couple of techniques you might want to 'screw around' with. Happy glitching!