Making drums like Noisia with Phase Plant

Welcome to my latest tutorial where we delve into the intricate world of sound design, focusing on kick drums and snares in the style of Noisia, the Dutch electronic music trio comprising Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger from Groningen, Netherlands. Make sure to check out their patreon and learn tips and tricks from Noisia themeselves!
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You can download the patches I made in this video here:
Snare: 1drv.ms/u/s!AonhoPPUFh3siMJJw...
Kick: 1drv.ms/u/s!AonhoPPUFh3siMNAq...
In this video, we meticulously recreate the distinctive kick drums and snares found in Noisia's sample pack, dissecting the elements that contribute to their signature sound. The tutorial aims to guide producers of all levels through the intricacies of sound design, providing insights into achieving similar results with common tools and techniques.
Whether you're an experienced producer or a novice in the world of sound design, this tutorial offers valuable insights into crafting powerful kicks and crisp snares reminiscent of Noisia's iconic beats. I address each component, from the initial attack to subtle nuances, to empower viewers in elevating their productions.
For those lacking Noisia's specific gear, fear not-I am just using Phase Plant which is my weapon of choice -- but the concepts can be applied to most any synth. Join me as we explore the nuances of sound design, providing practical knowledge that can be applied across various production setups.
If you're looking to enhance your sonic palette and gain a deeper understanding of kick and snare design, this tutorial is tailored for you. Like, subscribe for more content on sound design, and share your thoughts in the comments section below, including your favorite Noisia track.
about #Astrobear:
Astrobear is the electronic music project of John Janiczek. This project explores multiple genres with a common theme of blending polar opposites like aggressive electro bass lines with gentle ambient melodies. Astrobear was discovered when his remix of Hyperlandia by Deadmau5 was selected as the winner of the Microsoft Original by Design competition. Now, Astrobear enters 2023 releasing his first track with the Mau5trap label, titled “So Says the Sea”, as a part of the “We Are Friends 11” compilation album. Building off of this momentum, Astrobear is planning to grow the project beyond the bedroom producer gig with an increased focus on releasing and performing his music.
▶︎ Astrobear online:
Find my music and content organized at: fanlink.tv/astrobear
Follow me at: / astrobearmusic
#SoundDesign #ElectronicMusic #ProductionTutorial #KickDrums #Snares #MusicProduction #EDM #ProducerTips #AudioEngineering #MusicTech #BeatMaking #ProducersCommunity #StudioLife #SamplePack #MusicCreators #Synthesis #EDMProduction #NoisiaTutorial #MusicProducers #phaseplant #kilohearts #drumandbass

[@Trentcast]

Quick tip: use a triangle wave instead of a sine and have that’s running through a LPF with a tight filter envelope. Same setup as a sine kick but with that added step. A lot of the harmonics you’re referring to are coming from a triangle. I also find layering a really tight bandpassed pink noise with the nonlinear filter running a drive algorithm can give you a really nice organic click that layers into the kick perfectly. Also, now that Shaper is out try that on your kicks with the Concave shape. Turn DC off and drive it pretty hot. When I launch my YT I’ll do a video on it.

[@niexle5781]

honestly, probably the best video on kick drums i've seen, the 0-crossing processing, lets say, unlocked a lot of gates in my brain

[@astrobearmusic1977]

That’s nice of you to say! I know exactly what you mean, I had a similar realization about 0-crossing when I was watching an ARTFX stream where he was talking about noise sine basses. That feeling of brain gates unlocking is the best. Glad you found it helpful!

[@geop5505]

This is so helpful thank you SO much!😊

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Happy to hear you found it helpful!

[@stuckinmymind2772]

awesome video!

[@benfab2549]

Big up! Great vid.

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Thanks mate!

[@diamondcraftmusic1005]

Pro tip: use the Plugin Kick 2 which was used many times by noisia to create their kick sounds

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Kick 2 is good - but it’s more of a UI difference than a functional difference. Not that UI isn’t important for creativity, but it’s kind of like saying you should use Cubase if you want to sound like Noisia, when really any DAW will do the trick.

[@joelharris4572]

nice one!

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Thank you!

[@shakesum_mo]

U got a great channel mate keep goin

[@astrobearmusic1977]

I appreciate the support! Trying to keep up with weekly tutorials - and honestly having a lot of fun doing it.

[@Peter-rh1zl]

Hey man, brilliant tutorial. Please can you share the phase plant preset, the posted link is stale. Thanks again!

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Will update the description, thanks for letting me know Peter! Snare: 1drv.ms/u/s!AonhoPPUFh3siMJJwbmQ5Z2GR8EpHg?e=aAw3NT Kick: 1drv.ms/u/s!AonhoPPUFh3siMNAqxyzLMDqCf8N0Q?e=YhSXPy Sorry for the broken links. I am currently just linking my cloud backup for my preset library which I guess can change when I re-organize. I'll need to figure out something more permanent for future videos.

[@Peter-rh1zl]

Thanks for the updated links, however when I load the presets into a new updated install of phase plant they are empty, not sure why?

[@lbruce3411]

elite tutorial!!

[@daniel-jerrehian]

By the way you can turn off the fades on clip edges in preferences if you want

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Thank you so much!!! That will save me a lot of time

[@daniel-jerrehian]

@@astrobearmusic1977 Anytime man, sick video :)

[@F4xP4s]

Man, the trick where you isolated the harmonics to just the rising/falling sections of the waveform, and kept them away from the crests, do you know how to do this outside of Phase Plant using effects?

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Yes it's doable outside Phase Plant - although since it requires parallel processing you might need to use your DAW to do the routing as I don't know of many synths outside of Phase Plant that offer this type of parallel processing. But there are (at least) two ways to do it. The first way is by saturation the harmonics with the fundamental and then removing the fundamental. Chain 1: Fundamental Chain 2: Copy of Fundamental + Harmonics -> distortion -> high pass filter Chain 1 and chain 2 get added together in parallel and then processed as desired. The other way is with amplitude modulation. I haven't done this outside ableton, but I've heard of ring modulators with a side chain input that can do this. Essentially when the crest of the wave is high you want the AM/RM to lower the volume of the harmonic. And when the crest of the wave is low the AM/RM lets the full harmonic pass through. I'm not sure if I am able to be very helpful with these replies since I don't know what tools you would be using. Let me know if it works or if you get stuck, I am curious about how this would be implemented outside Phase Plant.

[@F4xP4s]

@@astrobearmusic1977 I've been messing around with the Melda MAmp and MRingModulator plugins as they have sidechain input, no luck yet. In fact I am getting the opposite, the harmonics are more prominent on the wavforms peaks!

[@astrobearmusic1977]

@@F4xP4s sounds like you are halfway there though! I think the sidechain input needs to be processed so that it’s peak occurs during the zero crossing of the fundamental. In the video I made a separate oscillator for this which is 1 - absolute_value(fundamental). Or in audio engineering terms it is rectified and then dc offset is added. It seems like it could be a bit of a pain if the ring mod doesn’t have this built in. I’ve been getting into building custom effects with Max4Live and am thinking of trying to implement this effect so you just put the fundamental as the sidechain input and it automatically works (rectifier and dc offset is built in). If I get it working I’ll let you know. Do you use Ableton by any chance?

[@F4xP4s]

@@astrobearmusic1977 Yes, I use Ableton, not dug much into M4L but I do want to! I like the sound of what you are describing. I've been doing a bit of research and I'm wondering if some sort of window function could work? i.e., the window occurs at every zero crossing and allows a certain amount of the waveform through up to a certain amplitude threshold either side - no idea how to implement this though! Just a thought, but I'm doodling a few ideas of how I'd want the processed sidechain signal to look like and some hypothetical parameters that can adjust the resultant form. Parameters could include a lower and upper threshold, and some sort of graphical representation would be handy too! I think it would be useful to have an oscillator modulator with adjustable frequency etc. (perhaps even go as far as a full blown synthesis engine for wacky sound design, like different waveforms and FM etc.) and an audio sidechain input to.

[@K1tteh]

you can do more or less the same thing by running your fundamental and your harmonics into a clipper and optionally taking out some of the fundamental with a low shelf

[@mylittleheartscar]

What's the name of the spectrum at the top?

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Check out minimeters. It does all the metering at the top bar and is only 10 bucks! My only complaint with it is that you can’t freeze/zoom in.

[@rbw9692]

Psyscope by fx23 is also very sick, it has freeze and all that and you can vieuw layers

[@astrobearmusic1977]

@@rbw9692 oh wow this tool looks super useful. Thanks for the rec!

[@daniel-jerrehian]

How come the transient of the two kick channels sounded different each time during the demo at 1:30?

[@astrobearmusic1977]

It could possibly have to do with dithering/KZbin’s compression especially since those kicks are basically redlining. But honestly I am not sure - nothing is intentionally random in the phase plant patches including the oscillator phase start. And of course the two kick channels have different variation - but I think you are noticing differences each time it hits?

[@daniel-jerrehian]

@@astrobearmusic1977 Yeah I noticed a slight difference in the transient each time it hit (for both channels individually). Do you hear it too? I was curious if you're random phase wasn't set to 0 or something, thanks for clarifying that

[@astrobearmusic1977]

@@daniel-jerrehianI do notice it although it is subtle - you have keen ears I rendered out the audio and the samples phase cancel so seems it’s definitely something downstream. Now you have me very curious to chase down the cause.

[@daniel-jerrehian]

@@astrobearmusic1977 heheh I’m on my personal account but I’m an artist and sound engineer too. That’s good you tested that they cancel, I wonder what it is then? Playing normal songs on KZbin doesn’t cause that so it’s something with your video

[@CtrlZMusic]

@@daniel-jerrehian have the same reaction, it's like there is a randomisation of the phase (a bit like in serum random phase) where sometimes the samples doesn't start at zero

[@Alckemy]

No link to their patreon? They have tutorials on how they do everything.

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Will add the link!

[@Alckemy]

Good man

[@like-icecream]

if only this plugin could load all the presets other people made and shared, you'd have thousands of kick drums and snares

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Yeah it would be great if we could share more easily. Minimal audios platform looks like they might be headed that way although I haven’t tried it. Happy to send you the preset if you are interested though.

[@F4xP4s]

The clipping most probably occurs on the master bus

[@astrobearmusic1977]

Yeah clipping on the master bus could cause some subtle differences, especially if there were any reverb sends, EQs, or limiters in the chain on a drum bus or master bus. I would say there is potentially good things and bad things for clipping pre-limiter, pre-EQ, and pre-reverb-send, so it’s good to have both methods in your toolkit and use them as suits the sample / song. Since I was trying to make a patch I can just drop in without rendering, I just clipped on the patch itself for convenience.

[@F4xP4s]

@@astrobearmusic1977 Fair point. But, what I mean is that I think it's more effective to have an unclipped Kick/Snare mixed with the rest of the track, possibly a bit too hot, then clip it at the end during mastering. I think that results in a more cohesive alround track. There are no rules though, each to their own!

[@astrobearmusic1977]

@@F4xP4s Yeah good point, clipping with a full mix will give a different result as well and you could say it is a more “cohesive” way to clip. Since I was looking at snares from Noisia’s sample pack rather than from a mastered song , it would seem they clip their samples at some stage unmixed from the master. But whatever gives you the best results! For another point of reference I remember watching an AHEE video where he analyzed a skrillex project in excruciating detail and found that skrillex clips at several stages, like track level - bus level - master level. And I think there were even several stages of busses that each got clipped.

[@DNBENTHUSIAST]

I recall Nik saying in a tutorial they barely clip the master

[@Trentcast]

@@F4xP4sissue with this method is you introduce intermodulation distortion on the peaks, and you’ll cause a sort of pumping even with clipping. Follow the clip-to-zero method by Baphometrix. Solid approach.