5 WEIRD MUSIC PRODUCTION TRICKS

[@michellepackman1484]

I love the technique of taking the transients out of the reverb. There's gotta be a way to automatically gate the transients out so you don't have to automate them

[@kabilanbaskaran6813]

Transient processor before the reverb will do the trick

[@davidefant3045]

There’s also a built-in algorithm within Crystalline (Baby Audio) which works really well. Awesome rev. :)

[@Septimopiso]

Some transient plugs is magic

[@michellepackman1484]

Thanks yall for the knowledge!! 🤯

[@enoodle]

could also try sidechaining the reverb to the audio source itself? I haven't tried/figured it out yet but it's a tip I picked up from Alice Yalcin Efe from this vid, Vocal Throws part kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4C0lGp4ba2FrpI

[@morgan0]

for field recording as mod source (or any noisy but inconsistent audio), try pitching it down. i did that once as fm, and it would morph between noise and timbre change and pitch bend, and made it feel very organic

[@AziDoesQuestionableThings]

0:37 Vital has stereo modulation built in, and is free, so it's a great option for making unique stereo patches!

[@Elriri]

thx for letting us know

[@Comet_Coyote]

Honestly, I'm still fairly new to producing and Vital is probably the best tool I've found

[@ScottsSynthStuff]

I absolutely love Vital. I don't use many soft synths, but Vital is one of them.

[@samthesupreme5752]

I was just about to comment this haha well done

[@Mr.Meowgical]

Indeed. Vital has easily become my go-to soft synth, it's pretty amazing.

[@kritischparken]

wow honestly the thing that i thought was the coolest is turning the reverb up after the attack from the rimshots, it just sounds a lot less impactful but keeps the atmosphere going, its perfect for calm tracks that dont want to overexaggerate the attacks of percussion yet still need some room

[@into.cassette]

you can get a similar effect by automating a delay throw on the tail end of a drum strike - like, instead of getting all the attack of a snare hit, you could echo out a whooosh - much more subtle but allows things to trail off nicely - great for using it on the last snare of a measure before going into a breakdown where the drums drop out

[@purplepeople950]

You could also sidechain the reverb to the send, can control attack and release/ threshold, works great on a busy mix

[@coltonweaver1101]

Sometimes I like to double track a melody and then have each one pan left and right in opposite positions, so they line up and spread out as they play, it creates quite an interesting effect

[@andycordy5190]

The placement of the spot-on reverb is really inspired. The difference you demonstrate with that is startling. It opens up so many possibilities. Thank you.

[@martmakesmusic]

i sometimes put trem control (basically a tremolo with a LOT of stuff to control) after a reverb to, for example give the reverb an effect similar to a sidechain! awesome ideas as always!

[@ARTISTIC-WORDPLAY_dotcom]

I might try that trick - I never felt the need to use tremolo effect before.

[@nicolasjonasson4820]

Man, Andrew has mastered many genres. I would like to hear him do classical, maybe on the modular...Classular?

[@theneonpact9496]

Wendy Carlos style!

[@SlightlyNasty]

Chopping off the transient before the reverb is such a great idea! I love my vintage algo verbs but they often handle transients really badly. Another fun pre-treating trick is aggressively EQing before a colourful compressor, and then putting an inverse EQ after. like cranking the bass so that it really smacks the compressor hard, then pulling it all back out again afterward.

[@KnzoVortex]

10:00 If anyone wants a good sounding envelope follower without using analog modules, Kilohearts actually made a really awesome update to their Snap Heap plugin, which is basically a digital effect rack thing with modulators, but like what was happening in Live, and they have many different effects to modulate with an envelope follower that way.

[@Nae_Ayy]

I've been having a rough go of it lately, haven't made anything for months. This video gave me the inspirations I apparently needed to go and make music. Thanks, man.

[@Eklipsemedia]

Keep at it my dude!!

[@Nae_Ayy]

@@Eklipsemedia thanks mate I will :D

[@roblewis5044]

I just love the tech you have in your studio, so much nice stuff, great tips also, will definitely be trying these out, fab

[@kritischparken]

i like automating the time of the delay, it sounds sort of like format shifting an echo, and every delay plugin has a unique sound to it, when you turn the time knob, just sounds super cool to me

[@MilesAwayOfficial]

Great tips Andrew! The stereo filter is one of my faves, using slow lfos on each side is so nice for width for atmospheric stuff too.

[@kevinmoseni]

I don't know where on my music journey I'd be without you and the slew of great content you share with us, Andrew. GOAT music youtuber right here.

[@ARTISTIC-WORDPLAY_dotcom]

Andrew lives in another world - even aliens envy him...

[@wellurban]

I love the field recording as modulation trick. One patch that worked very well for me was taking a recording of ocean waves and feeding it through a fixed filter bank with an envelope follower per band (essentially the analysis half of a vocoder: Frap Tools Fumana in this case), then using different bands to affect different parts of the patch. As well as modulating timbral parameters, I used the CV outputs through quantisers to create generative melodies. Then at the end of a performance I could fade in the actual recording to reveal the relationship between the wave sounds and the patch it was controlling.

[@macronencer]

This sounds like an AWESOME idea. I'd love to hear it!

[@wellurban]

@@macronencer Sure! Here it is: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sHPTe395e9KbhsU

[@macronencer]

@@wellurban Oh yeah, that works really well! Love the concept, and your performance was perfect. Thanks :)

[@maxcolet1200]

The kick of the little demo at the end is amazing

[@Reeceline]

Youre a never ending fountain of creativity! After all these years your channel still inspires me. The only down side is if I'm not able to access my DAW im itching to have a go afterwards 😅

[@davidwave4]

I'm always so excited when Andrew goes to the spaceship to demonstrate an idea.

[@JACKSONPRYORBENNETT]

I always learn something new from your videos Andrew, your creativity is hugely inspiring. You’re a total badass 🤘

[@seth4766]

that last tip fkin genius omg

[@aaiieenn]

that field recording as modulation thing is really cool!

[@RandNMusic]

ayyy you finally your back with awesome production tips so excited to watch

[@aidanmurray8283]

Inspiring as always! Thanks for all the great motivation over the years

[@theteenagedrummer952]

Love the video man, some great tips and tricks! I've been a fan of yours for awhile and I fully believe that You is one of the best songs you've ever made, now I have a new excuse to listen to it on repeat!!

[@shardsofmusic.]

Love how you got straight to the point. You just keep delivering time and time again :D

[@LateNightCity]

Really great and inspiring video Andrew!! Keep up with the great content :)))

[@samson4272]

Love these quick tip videos. Thanks for the inspiration!!

[@THEELECTRONCREEPER]

I love the bird modulation idea! I did something similar but used keys jingling through the khs convolver on some pad sounds to give it a twinkly effect

[@JoshHumble]

Fantastic video, Andrew - great tips!

[@largeDUMBASS]

that reverb trick is genius

[@Flashraize]

So inspiring and well explained! Thanks ❤️

[@Nogrim]

The Bird thing was INSANE! man! WOW!

[@MELOD]

A very simple trick I've found for some really thick and piercing supersaws, is layering a lush unison saw with a normal single waveform saw, and then giving that single waveform saw a slight vibrato. Works wonders for leads, with chords it can work too but you gotta make sure that the single waveform saw isn't causing phasing issues.

[@cowboi459]

Great stuff, Andrew!

[@hleet]

wow ! never heard of theses tips ! I love it

[@luisnsueondo1291]

Thanx Andrew! So helpful as always!

[@lordlemmingman]

That very first tip is EXACTLY what I was looking for! Thank you!

[@amansingh-lj3tg]

Love you Andrew. These are so inspiring ☺️

[@PedroPetracco]

Ayy. Very very cool stuff! Many thanks.

[@DanPerezSax]

I've seen the envelope follower section in various synths but never used it. Thanks for that tip! For stereo modulation I love Volcano 3!

[@sb84e]

love your music tricks

[@falazarte]

This is nothing short of amazing!

[@truedanbo]

The last sound demonstration was gold! Feels like Aphex twin in peace.

[@OrangeVision]

Thanks a lot!!! Out of nowhere this answered a question that's been bugging me for years and I didn't have to vocabulary to even ask. So helpful.

[@PaulEubanks]

The first trick reminds me of the stereo phase trickery video Dan Worrall did with the all-pass filter. I re-created that setup using FF Volcano recently to randomize based on LFO, and it's a similar effect, but with a phase shift gap that moves around rather than a bandpass bump.

[@SLATER_M]

The hints on reverb killed me. So easy but effective.

[@DivKid]

great to see the RND STEP in that first patch, glad to see you get good results from it.

[@DEADLINETV]

I recently loaded some recordings as IR's into Cubase's Reverence reverb and that created some cool and some very interesting effects.

[@georgereasonproductions]

excellent tips enjoyed your work well done indeed:)

[@into.cassette]

I really enjoy the trick where you tune/detune 4osc in that 5note pattern -- seems like you could get a lot of random variation while still keeping the feeling of "playing" something, rather than automating/generating/or shifting midi notes around in the piano roll

[@mistersimeeec]

Would love to hear the bird modulation from the end again but with the bird noises mixed back in a little bit. Get to really hear the cause/effect in play that way.

[@hennings7026]

my random production input: put your unfinished tune missing an intro as one audio clip (or any vocal or whatever) into granulator, assign some knobs and add some knobs for reverb and delay amounts/drywet and have some fun recording the madness

[@thetylersherman]

Speaking of being creative with reverb, one of the tastier FX that I've played with is a downsample distortion AFTER the reverb. If you dial it to taste, it almost breaks up into this gnarly glitchy/cyber sounding fade rather than the smooth release you're typically accustomed to on reverb trails.

[@peterptchronic9696]

One tip I've been meaning to try after hearing Steven Wilson talk about it for the new Porcupine Tree record is adding some distortion after reverb in the guitar FX chain to make it sound a bit dirtier and grittier. It sounded really great, gonna have to see how well I can recreate it.

[@emilyjane7027]

One thing I love to do in Ableton is to slice a loop to a new midi track in Sampler, then group the sampler, create a bunch of different chains with different effects on them, then use the Velocity midi effect to randomly switch between all the chains. Great for glitching up breaks and drum loops!

[@Taavi.A]

Hi andrew i love ur work

[@frankwalders]

Great tips, as always, thanks! (and a good laugh :-)

[@AxiomTheory]

That end result production is brilliant. I had no idea I could envelope follow. Something new to to experiment with 😁

[@CranberryDave]

I actually stumbled across the delay + formant shift effect the other day as well, its amazing :) splendid video

[@JamesRamboPearce]

I've been using Rift Filter Lite for the first tip on breaks and it's so much more interesting than the usual autofilter effect

[@itskadhrohtime5465]

I always love putting field recordings in as the convolution samples for convolution reverbs! Fun to play around with!

[@bricelory9534]

Definitely! They take some tweaking or getting used to, though, since it can fairly easily lead to some surprising tones being amplified through the reverb/feedback. But one of my favorites is a rainy day with bird song that I recorded - works wonderfully on piano!

[@carywang7713]

3:40 this is like an inverted gated reverb... cool idea!

[@johnhricko8212]

Excellent!

[@hood.dynamite]

Amazing video 💣💣💣

[@evanbelcher]

8:20 I've never seen that reverb feedback trick before, I love how it sounds. Really gives Imogen Heap vibes

[@perpetualgrimace]

It's an analog delay thing! You can do it with any non-digital delay guitar pedal too

[@ARTISTIC-WORDPLAY_dotcom]

Imogen Heap - your musical taste is on point if you listen to her stuff...

[@iamsushi1056]

My favorite tip/little hacky thing to do is have some sort of quadraphonic setup. Planar2 makes for a great 4 channel panner/mixer. I randomly choose two outputs, pan them hard left and hard right, and then the other two I mid/side decode and then mix together with the first two outputs. It can do some wacky stereo stuff, depending on which quadrant goes where. And, best of all, you can run a mono or stereo signal as the input. The Planar 2 really shines in polar mode for this, with a smooth random lfo or two thrown at it. My other related trick or to use a mid/side encoder going into an autofilter, ringmodulating the side output, and then having all that in the send/return loop of a stereo delay. It’s wild

[@wernersempels7255]

Very inspiring, yes thank you

[@paulalex6452]

So glad I was wearing headphones listening to this. This panning is wild 🤯

[@chaseaveta1175]

This is a trick I found when i was trying to recreate some NIN sounds: record a distorted guitar into ableton, take that dry mono recording and put a tal chorus lx on it to throw it into the stereo field, put another distortion on that like soundtoys devilloc deluxe, and put the tiniest amount of reverb on that. This give you an AGGRESSIVE industrial rock guitar lead sound that is reminiscent of NIN. Obviously you need to EQ, tweak, and clean the sound as you like. But, otherwise, it really adds that intensity i love in rock and metal.

[@handbookofmagic]

Brilliant!

[@ThomasDeJoenge]

Thx for the tips.

[@RobertCorrington]

I often put Native Instruments' Transient Master before the reverb to help "soften" the inital attack going into the reverb. Now I'm going to try Andrew's approach...

[@soundtrackproduction4164]

Great video 🙋

[@donit.]

damn i loved the patch at the outro, really had just the right balance of rynthm and craziness

[@rickysld]

Would definitely use them on the music for my next video, pretty cool and useful

[@RiverBoyBeats]

Oh snap this video slaps!!!

[@fzxfzxfzx]

straight to the point

[@peach_total]

honestly i also like stacking effects AFTER reverb for some interesting sounds. putting a crunchy distortion on a reverbed synth makes some really interesting textures, for instance

[@4rtclass]

so into this

[@baronvonbeandip]

On your field recording modulation sources, use a multiband gate with a heckin fast atk/rel (microseconds are best) and then throw on an OTT or two with high attack and low release with boosts at each stage... with a limiter on the master just in case. Get that 30dB dynamic range for great justice

[@ManCalledMif]

Great tips. Love the 5 step sequence round Robin on matriarch. Effective 🙌🏼

[@joelkulesha8284]

The de-esser tip is my favorite I think. Such a small one but for some reason I never considered using it in anything but vocals. Edit: ok the round robin one too. And the field recording one... Damn this video was full of great tips!

[@DCBMusic]

That 4th trick almost reminds me of what Qubit Bloom does for its branches aside from it completes a sequence once before moving to a branch

[@neaituppi7306]

Lately I have been doing the surround panning thing, because it solved a problem, of when I have more thna one guitar part, if one of them is moving around, the two of them don't clash and become like a washing machine of sound.

[@claudius3124]

Really great tips and tricks! We never have enough, lol! Thanks a lot! ;-)

[@jmiddleb]

I love the nuance of having only *part* of the signal modulate between the stereo.

[@nickewermusic]

you are the best maaan!

[@hcps2576]

Andrew Huang's videos always hit right

[@unclemick-synths]

Cool ideas 😎

[@PRODBYFRSST]

How turn 4/4 sample into 3/4 samples, I love you Andrew

[@FlipOfficial]

The Filter tip and shaping the reverb are some things that are going into my next song. And I don’t care if they don’t fit! (in reality I care immensely and am hoping they work well so that when you hear my song you don’t call me out anxiety is fun)

[@lockedinfaded]

Some day I will return to music making and start using your tricks

[@NoProblemoStudio]

Yessir. Just getting my ass pumped up b4 going to work. Thanks Andrew.

[@GoCreateSomething]

It might be interesting to use field recordings as one of the two signals in a vocoder. Maybe on a drum track? Or possibly with a drone of some sort.

[@duncanmaclennan9624]

Love the reverb tips! 👍 4:15 ... Instead of shifting the send automation forward, I would just have a side chain compressor on the send, before the reverb, being (heavily) ducked from the dry rimshot. No automation required

[@KiddsockTV]

Neat what you can find while experimenting

[@Krunal-Music]

That reverb trick will help a lot😊

[@balamb_gardens]

Very nice tips ! I would love, if that interest you, for you to analyse the fm synth solo from Kozmic flush by skee mask at 4:10 and try to find out how he manage to morph the sound of his solo synth into so many different textures in the smoothest way i've ever heard. Keep up the good work bro !

[@Gotblade]

I could listen to that result for a few hours ❤