How to make these synthesized Hi hats in Flying lotus' Zodiac Shit at 0:25

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pranavakazack
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18 May 2019

Did he do that in Reason, anyways it just a sample or is it crazy modulation & routings from noise oscillators?

https://youtu.be/0ScYz9sNaQk

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diminished
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18 May 2019

You could make them in Kong..
... and then compress and distort and pump the living shit out of everything and add 3 audiomatic retro transformers on top. That's incredibly painful to listen to. 4 million views, jesus.
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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diminished
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18 May 2019

Whatever you're trying to learn, you'll learn it the wrong way from this track - because what you like about it is the artifacts from distortion and overcompression. I get it, flashy video, lofi style chill shuffle anti-hqsound production.. but what you're hearing is the result of "whatever" after the track was finished. You can't really reproduce "whatever".

Try the synth hihat module of Kong like so
synthhihat.jpg
synthhihat.jpg (5.35 KiB) Viewed 3889 times
and add ART, a clipping limiter and another ART and see where this gets you.
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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MarkTarlton
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18 May 2019

Flying Lotus knows what he is doing and is not doing "whatever"... that made me laugh. Apparently you have been in a cave for the past 10 years because he is one of the most popular producers in the world of hip hop and experimental jazz, and if you ever watch Adult Swim you hear him everyday. He is the grand nephew of Alice Coltrane, which a lot of musicians don't get either, but if you know, you are hip and into music that the mainstream might not get.

He is into doing things differently and I personally dig it, thank god not everyone does things the same. He also happens to work with the most genius musicians who respect him a lot, like Thundercat, check it out and give it a chance without judging based of your bias.

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diminished
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18 May 2019

MarkTarlton wrote:
18 May 2019
Flying Lotus knows what he is doing and is not doing "whatever"... that made me laugh. Apparently you have been in a cave for the past 10 years because he is one of the most popular producers in the world of hip hop and experimental jazz, and if you ever watch Adult Swim you hear him everyday. He is the grand nephew of Alice Coltrane, which a lot of musicians don't get either, but if you know, you are hip and into music that the mainstream might not get.

He is into doing things differently and I personally dig it, thank god not everyone does things the same. He also happens to work with the most genius musicians who respect him a lot, like Thundercat, check it out and give it a chance without judging based of your bias.
* Thundercat is one of my favorite musicians
* I know that Flying Lotus knows what he's doing, but this track's production is definitely dadaistic and one thing to learn from it is to not learn anything from it, productionwise. Everything is set to eleven, literally. It's anti-sounddesign. So laugh all you want and in the meantime try my hihat with 2 audiomatics and two limiters driven hard..
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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Loque
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18 May 2019

Sounds to me like more or less a standard hihat (take whatever fits quite good and has enough high energy), and dial in a HPF very steep. You may also increase the highs even more. It has a lower attack and is more sustained with low release, which could be achieved with the right highat, compression or a saturation effect.
Reason12, Win10

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MarkTarlton
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18 May 2019

diminished wrote:
18 May 2019
MarkTarlton wrote:
18 May 2019
Flying Lotus knows what he is doing and is not doing "whatever"... that made me laugh. Apparently you have been in a cave for the past 10 years because he is one of the most popular producers in the world of hip hop and experimental jazz, and if you ever watch Adult Swim you hear him everyday. He is the grand nephew of Alice Coltrane, which a lot of musicians don't get either, but if you know, you are hip and into music that the mainstream might not get.

He is into doing things differently and I personally dig it, thank god not everyone does things the same. He also happens to work with the most genius musicians who respect him a lot, like Thundercat, check it out and give it a chance without judging based of your bias.
* Thundercat is one of my favorite musicians
* I know that Flying Lotus knows what he's doing, but this track's production is definitely dadaistic and one thing to learn from it is to not learn anything from it, productionwise. Everything is set to eleven, literally. It's anti-sounddesign. So laugh all you want and in the meantime try my hihat with 2 audiomatics and two limiters driven hard..
I usually will use something with a lot more destructive qualities like a devil loc or even rough rider and a FET on crushing settings, so doubling up just like you mention with audiomatic. I haven't tried your recipe yet but will give it a go later today when I have some creative time. Thanks!

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Loque
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18 May 2019

After checking again, i think it sounds more like a shaker. Here i tried it with Thor. adjust settings to taste and feel free for aditional processing.
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ShakerLike.zip
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Reason12, Win10

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MannequinRaces
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18 May 2019

diminished wrote:
18 May 2019
but what you're hearing is the result of "whatever" after the track was finished. You can't really reproduce "whatever".
This is awful advice, lol. A great way to learn is to reverse engineer what people are doing. I don’t think the same processing that’s applied to the hihats is applied to the whole track.

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diminished
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18 May 2019

MannequinRaces wrote:
18 May 2019
diminished wrote:
18 May 2019
but what you're hearing is the result of "whatever" after the track was finished. You can't really reproduce "whatever".
This is awful advice, lol. A great way to learn is to reverse engineer what people are doing. I don’t think the same processing that’s applied to the hihats is applied to the whole track.
No but in this case the global compression plays a huge part in how the hats sound because it's so over the top. Which kind of nullifies any sound design approach - would you want hihats like that on an otherwise clean track?
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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MannequinRaces
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18 May 2019

diminished wrote:
18 May 2019
MannequinRaces wrote:
18 May 2019

This is awful advice, lol. A great way to learn is to reverse engineer what people are doing. I don’t think the same processing that’s applied to the hihats is applied to the whole track.
No but in this case the global compression plays a huge part in how the hats sound because it's so over the top. Which kind of nullifies any sound design approach - would you want hihats like that on an otherwise clean track?
From Flying Lotus’s mastering engineer for this album:

“I mastered Los Angeles and Cosmogramma, as well as the Reset and L.A. 1 x 3 EPS. Basically, all of his classic Warp material.

No Cranesong here, and very little use of compression during mastering. Maximum 0.5 db of gain reduction on any given track.

The Flying Lotus "sound signature" comes from his compositional process more than anything else.”

Source: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/rap-hip ... ums-2.html

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diminished
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18 May 2019

MannequinRaces wrote:
18 May 2019
diminished wrote:
18 May 2019


No but in this case the global compression plays a huge part in how the hats sound because it's so over the top. Which kind of nullifies any sound design approach - would you want hihats like that on an otherwise clean track?
From Flying Lotus’s mastering engineer for this album:

“I mastered Los Angeles and Cosmogramma, as well as the Reset and L.A. 1 x 3 EPS. Basically, all of his classic Warp material.

No Cranesong here, and very little use of compression during mastering. Maximum 0.5 db of gain reduction on any given track.

The Flying Lotus "sound signature" comes from his compositional process more than anything else.”

Source: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/rap-hip ... ums-2.html
Haha, if you max out and overdo loudness during mixing, there is very little mastering can do, so this is basically validating my point.
Also, from the very same thread on page two:
~~~
+1 someone actually researches! I got a chance to look at a few Reason files from dude, (A while back, this was probably when 1983 first came out) he's strictly smashing the hell outta everything w/ multiple Scream distortions in Reason... Dude's definitely NOT a engineering/mixing head...

...and don't get me wrong- I like a good portion of his music, but his mixes suck. Pretty much one global distortion, (tape simulation usually) then multiple distortions on other things. If people just knew how to use their software more, they'd get more mileage out of it then simply buying the "new piece of super-ultra-efx-vst" then applying a preset, then buying the next "super-ultra-efx-vst" when they can't get the sound they want. (in response to "what gear does he use)
~~~
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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MannequinRaces
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18 May 2019

To my ears only the drums sound really compressed and not an overall ‘whatever’ on the entire track. I’d be interesting to see the waveform of the stereo file to see what the dynamic range is etc..

It doesn’t matter if his mixes ‘suck’ because people like his music. So if it works, who cares how he got the sound.

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diminished
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18 May 2019

MannequinRaces wrote:
18 May 2019
To my ears only the drums sound really compressed and not an overall ‘whatever’ on the entire track. I’d be interesting to see the waveform of the stereo file to see what the dynamic range is etc..

It doesn’t matter if his mixes ‘suck’ because people like his music. So if it works, who cares how he got the sound.
Ok we're going circles now and at least I am done with this thread, so apologies if I offended anyone's idol and also because some things might have gone lost in translation.
OP asked how to make the sound, I tried my best to explain what's going on, and I provided, despite my opinion not to copy this "style", an approximation to the open hihat and the overall sound. Got criticized for my opinion, defended my point of view, and now you say "It doesn’t matter if his mixes ‘suck’ because people like his music. So if it works, who cares how he got the sound" - his music and wether it's good or not is not the topic here, it's the sound of those god damn hihats and in my opinion they are more connected to (an intentional - for all I care) bad mixing technique than fans would like to admit. Over and out and peace! :)
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

pranavakazack
Posts: 12
Joined: 17 May 2019

18 May 2019

diminished wrote:
18 May 2019
MannequinRaces wrote:
18 May 2019
To my ears only the drums sound really compressed and not an overall ‘whatever’ on the entire track. I’d be interesting to see the waveform of the stereo file to see what the dynamic range is etc..

It doesn’t matter if his mixes ‘suck’ because people like his music. So if it works, who cares how he got the sound.
Ok we're going circles now and at least I am done with this thread, so apologies if I offended anyone's idol and also because some things might have gone lost in translation.
OP asked how to make the sound, I tried my best to explain what's going on, and I provided, despite my opinion not to copy this "style", an approximation to the open hihat and the overall sound. Got criticized for my opinion, defended my point of view, and now you say "It doesn’t matter if his mixes ‘suck’ because people like his music. So if it works, who cares how he got the sound" - his music and wether it's good or not is not the topic here, it's the sound of those god damn hihats and in my opinion they are more connected to (an intentional - for all I care) bad mixing technique than fans would like to admit. Over and out and peace! :)
Hey, sorry man, everything is subjective in music right?

I love 1 more track Jasmine by Jai Paul https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RWQMg56ZVZY

which happens to be badly mixed too but do check it out & let me know your thoughts; won't take no hard feeling if it's negative, it would only benefit me,

I just gave this song/idea as an example because the cymbals & percussion technique he uses is very upfront in this one & he uses this method often in many of his other famous tracks

I agree this is not a track by any chance but since the technique he uses is prominent I suggested this example. What attracted me were the cymbals and percussion

I should've probably corrected the title fromt 'track' to an 'unfinished cool idea' or something

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Noplan
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19 May 2019

it sounds like the song ist just clipping. Whenever the deep loud bass comes in, the hihat is sawed off by the sine waves. just make your song so loud that it clips or make a bus for the kick, bass and hihat and put a distortion on it.

pranavakazack
Posts: 12
Joined: 17 May 2019

19 May 2019

Noplan wrote:
19 May 2019
it sounds like the song ist just clipping. Whenever the deep loud bass comes in, the hihat is sawed off by the sine waves. just make your song so loud that it clips or make a bus for the kick, bass and hihat and put a distortion on it.
Instead of making the bass loud I could just sidechain the hi hat with kick/bass audio as the side-chain signal source, & then turn up the detector input's bass frequency much higher than the original so that hi hat/cymbals instantly reacts & ducks on even a less amplitude bass frequencies. This way I dont have to turn up the bass & let the bass just overpower the whole track & let the cymbals instantly react & duck down to high amplitude signal. This it creates an illusion of clipped signal which is basically distortion, right? Thanks for the help man.

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Noplan
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19 May 2019

Instead of making the bass loud I could just sidechain the hi hat with kick/bass audio as the side-chain signal source, & then turn up the detector input's bass frequency much higher than the original so that hi hat/cymbals instantly reacts & ducks on even a less amplitude bass frequencies.
yes, but then you have not the same effect.

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nooomy
Posts: 543
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20 May 2019

pranavakazack wrote:
18 May 2019
Did he do that in Reason, anyways it just a sample or is it crazy modulation & routings from noise oscillators?

https://youtu.be/0ScYz9sNaQk
Here is my try of recreating them ;)
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Flying Lotus - Zodiac Shit.rar
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QVprod
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20 May 2019

More discussion about how the song is mixed than actual answering of the question...smh... It's both a shaker and an open hi hat (likely samples) that are distorted and compressed heavy, Id say with a medium-slow attack, which is giving it it's upfront character.

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Boombastix
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21 May 2019

If it is about the long hh, he has some fast modulation on it. Ring, filter or both at probably around 30Hz (+/-10Hz). It can also be a modulation artifact from extreme time stretching or fast distortion modulation, or both. The rest is just LP/HP filtering + narrow band saturation. The lack of envelope is done in a sample editor where you just apply an volume envelope so that the natural sound decay is nullified. At least that is how i would approach it if I wanted that sound.
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Oquasec
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22 May 2019

If you mean timestretching without artifacts you just have to do the transient repeat thing.
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