Try modulated reverb on pads in Stutter Edit 2 Both are exciting new ways to add flourishes of sound design to existing percussive sounds, no matter the genre.
MIDI Mode, on the other hand, can be much more forceful and expressive. Use Auto Mode for subtler effects, parameters that you want to change gradually, or repeating gestures and phrases. This tip goes beyond hi-hats: any percussive element can benefit from this kind of sculpting.
My original hi-hat patch sounds like this: Let’s explore two ways to delay an electric hi-hat: one in Auto Mode, the other in MIDI Mode. It also lets you take your next level to an even higher level with its two avenues of approach. However, Stutter Edit 2 lets you take the groove to the next level by giving you the ability to be dynamic in your choices. Electric hi-hats often benefit from delay to reinforce the feel. We often delay percussive elements in time to make a groove feel more expansive. Create a sense of movement with processed delays on hi-hat patches Now that we’ve covered some of the basics, let’s move on to concrete, instrument-based sound design tips. “Oh,” your brain will say, “that’s what an eighth-note rise with a saw sounds like!” Over time, try narrowing down to one or two Gestures at a time, and study what’s happening within them. The combination of looking at the screen and hearing what you’re doing will instill key concepts of the synths. You’ll find this cuts the learning time of the plug-in down significantly. This will help you associate what your ear notices with what your eye sees. As you’re playing, turn on Stutter and Buffer on some of the presets, and you’ll begin to hear the distinct differences between these effects. Open up the Curve Editor and watch the action as it happens.īy default, Jitter parameters are pretty much the only controls switched on in this bank of presets. It displays two key bits of information: the note value of the effect you’ve selected (eighth note, sixteenth, etc), and the modulation shape (saw, square, etc). Pay close attention at first to the name of the Gesture you’re triggering at any one time.
Here’s the most important part, which I can’t really show you in a screenshot: Keep the GUI open as you’re playing your keyboard, and watch what’s happening on the screen.
This tip involves presets-specifically, the AMPLITUDE FX BASIC bank of presets.įirst, load up that preset bank, which you can find here. But it’s still learnable, especially when you follow tips I covered in this article if you browse around presets, tweak them, and try to recreate them from scratch, you can find yourself creating effects from the ground up quite quickly-especially in Auto Mode.īut as MIDI Mode works differently, here’s another tip to super-charge your quest for a Stutter Edit education.
Stutter Edit 2 can be overwhelming at first glance. Use Stutter Edit 2 presets as teaching tools in MIDI mode Here’s a tip that will help speed up the learning process: 3.
With each effect being highly customizable, and with two completely different ways to utilize the engine, it’s going to take a minute to learn how to design synth sounds with this plug-in. I found MIDI Mode quite reminiscent of these traditional keyswitches. If you’ve ever composed with a sampled string orchestra, you’ve come across keyswitches, individual keys that change the articulation of the instrument. In effect, you’re now performing brand-new, glitched-out sounds on the fly. How did we make this sound? Well, after routing MIDI data to trigger Stutter Edit 2 via MIDI Mode, you then play your MIDI controller, switching among individual Gestures with each key.