How to use MIDI "key spikes" to trigger gates, compressors, samples & more! w/ Machine the producer

Machine shows his unique technique of using MIDI "key spikes" to trigger gates, compressors, samples and all kinds of other things in a mix for ultimate control over everything (without relying on the dynamics of the actual sounds themselves).
He starts by creating a phase-accurate MIDI notes for EVERY drum hit in the session, then prints that to audio and uses the audio as the input to the various plugins. He demonstrates the key spikes technique using Logic Pro X, but the same general approach should work in any DAW.
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[@DarkRattlehead]

That dude has an attitude I like, he feels like someone who drives people forward, and he just seems like an enthusiat in general. He makes me wanna do stuff. I like this midi trick a lot more than Andrew Wade's trick, simply because it's more flexible, it has more control. However, discovering the object mode was a HUGE time saver for complicated editing tasks.

[@goatsurgeon]

I'm so GRATEFUL for this channel and I'm absolutely EXCITED! You've helped the music on my channel hit the next level and I'm excited to get more of my content up! I'm going to love this lesson. As if you haven't taught me enough about drums. My drums sound amazing after your tips! Totally has that punch I'm looking for. lamb of God is PERFECT for teaching that bass bunch, they've rocked my speakers more than once! BOOM!. I hope I get more subs, cause I can't NOT share these results!

[@URMAcademy]

Thanks for watching!

[@blendernoob64]

Will Putney does the same thing, being a student of Machine. This man is incredible

[@evellish184]

Thank you for this, Machine is a legend and this trick is making my drums sound so so much better.

[@connorbuckinghamstudios6227]

I like the attitude about using your DAWs stock plugins. I use the noise gate on every session as well as their Tube EQ for mastering.

[@VigilSerus]

Definitely. The Logic plugins, especially the compressors, are really fucking tasty. They really wanted to make a system where you don't really NEED 3rd party. Like he said, its 2018, haha.

[@yannickloyer8896]

great stuff. i love the way machine explain things.makes it easy to understand.

[@leftofzeroofficial]

i absolutely love this guy. Machine is amazing.

[@cmd_f5]

Super advanced nerdy fun here. I luckily don't need to do this but man it could be so useful. Dig it. And LOG is awesome.

[@ZedChuva]

P.Terry's shout-out. Nice shirt, great food.

[@dylanwerle1870]

What’s the song in the end? And also, brilliant mixing technique. Amazing to see so many lanes to achieving sounds. The innovation to develop a technique to capture the “mental image” of the song and also the extremely logical use. I’m excited to see where recordings will be in 10 years. As a mixer of 10 years. I can’t help but indulge all this great content the URM boys are posting. Thanks guys.

[@QuincyKane]

Really cool trick; I just hope he got that fly!

[@HPC469]

he did!

[@TLAudioMixingMastering]

I missed this but did Machine grid the drums before this or is he working off Adler's natural groove off a metronome?

[@ddsrecording]

Saweeet! Thanks for the cool vid! Very useful! MACHINE!....if you're listening...I am a massive fan! What you've done with Clutch has been a huge influence on my production tastes. Anyways, curious...what are you using that pair of DBX 163's for I see in your rack back there? I have a single dbx 163x and I have used it on a mono drum room a few times with success, however other comps I have usually beat it out on pretty much any application...

[@danthemanmillan]

the signal sour was so clean you barely even needed a gate LOL

[@Metalweasel]

Is this technique still helpful if I'm only using sampled drums without recorded drums?

[@g.o.9513]

How the drums are recorded is not relevant. From the control key spikes can give you; it enables you to control parameters such as sound envelope shaping or design, attack, release, and hold. And this also enables you to generate different variations of a track such as those which secondary tracks solely influence transient - high attack articulation of the primary track, or other creative use cases.

[@Willigrow]

I use the same technique in Logic to trigger gates. Thanks for this free lesson, my only critique would be the length. This can literally be 5-10 min video

[@musicdude1540]

This could be a one sentence comment.

[@Willigrow]

@@musicdude1540 I use the same technique in Logic to trigger gates and this could be a 5 min video. - there, fixed it

[@musicdude1540]

@@Willigrow still pointless.

[@Willigrow]

@@musicdude1540 well you asked for it

[@TrevorOkonuk]

anyone know how he jumps to transient at 11:11? what key command?

[@josephparry]

Usually it's tab, and known as tab to transient. I know this comment is 3 years old but the answer may help someone else someday :D

[@ВячеславЗайцев-ш5ж]

Wow! Superb!!!

[@wojo5ciec]

It is very similiar to Andrew Wade dream gate technique, but Andrew Works on audio files, and machine works on midi

[@URMAcademy]

Yep, same basic idea!

[@pullthereins]

Where can I find these initial videos of Machine?

[@lordmarco]

Holy shit whatttttttt

[@theaustindude]

Why not make the audio files mono?

[@Jayrawk]

Fucking brilliant.

[@yurimurillo]

Very cool, but did he kill the fly in the end?

[@jobelewis6416]

I’m surprised he doesn’t put a trigger on each drum to accurately print the MIDI in tracking🤔

[@URMAcademy]

Still might not be phase accurate

[@THYARTisJORDAN]

Hey guys @ 4:12 there's a derp with the video editing

[@URMAcademy]

Incorrect. There was a glitch in the live stream and this is what was recorded on the way in. Doesn’t affect the information in the clip at all either so no real reason to point it out.

[@goatsurgeon]

THYARTisJORDAN I’m willing to persevere a few minor glitches to get knowledge from guys that mix bands like Lamb of God and Machine Head 👍🏻

[@THYARTisJORDAN]

@@URMAcademy The reason i pointed it out was to let you guys know it was there, i doubt you guys knew before i told you!

[@THYARTisJORDAN]

@@goatsurgeon yes. this session brought my mixes to another level, fireworks in the mind the entire session haha.

[@pusanghalaw]

didn't robin guthrie pioneer this technique more than 2 decades ago?

[@JUNK_ZONE]

Probably. People come across the same ideas on their own all the time. If it works, it works.

[@AntonFranzon]

wtf, how did they track that snare?!

[@BrandonWhalen]

One pass that is cymbals only, one pass that is shells only.

[@pratherbby]

@@BrandonWhalen It was one pass of each individual shell

[@ancientzalien]

RIP DAFT PUNK

[@emilianosg8385]

COCHAIN........

[@SheaRecordmetal]

“Top Snare is god” 😆

[@russbradshawmusic]

Did the video glitch for anyone else around 4 minutes 10 seconds

[@URMAcademy]

See comments below. There was a glitch in the stream and this is how it was recorded on the way in

[@russbradshawmusic]

@@URMAcademy gotcha. I know that pain. OBS glitches during my Twitch streams a lot.

[@pellemoltke4414]

world classs-

[@distortion_plus]

There is literally no such thing as Phase-accurate MIDI, that term is nonsense. Midi is a control signal so how can it be “in-phase” with the audio? The phase relationship with the audio will depend on what you’re using to make a sound FROM the midi message. Phase relationships only occur with similar sounds so if you’re talking about the blip sound and a kick drum I’d be surprised if there was any phase correlation between the two - they’re in entirely different frequency ranges. It’s definitely helpful to sidechain a gate off a consistent signal, but gating itself cannot be “phase-accurate” because, like midi, gating is just a control signal. I know this is semantics but if you’re trying to educate people surely it’s got to be a bit more than just “how to sick drumz dude”?

[@musicdude1540]

Who is going to tell this nobody about clock?

[@OleVinny]

I think it's obvious that he means that when the kick transient goes up, the key signal goes up. To be fair it doesn't make any different for a sidechain what the orientation of the waveform is as it just opens on signal, no matter whether in phase or out of phase with the drums, but we all know what he means in the context of what he's trying to achieve; Precise placement of a key signal on every single hit for optimal control

[@themattmcclellan]

😂

[@apoplexiamusic]

it's not really a unique technique by any stretch... I've been producing Drum & Bass seriously since 2013 or so and I've been using this technique for about 3 years or so. in electronic music production we call key spikes "side chain triggers", and it's pretty much the same thing, used for engaging a gate or a compressor or any other side-chainable plugin with a blip or a short hi-hat or white noise sound. The question is... who thought of it first?

[@musicdude1540]

2013? Three years? Dude, what the fuck. Grow up. This has been around for ages in all genres.

[@pellemoltke4414]

now thats a mixer' samlles , flys .

[@pellemoltke4414]

not log mixer i didnt se you