MUSICAL SOUND DESIGN
TURN ANY SOUND INTO MUSIC
Online course. Lifetime access.
SHAPE AUDIO INTO NEW SOUNDS AND INSTRUMENTS
Musical sound design is about experimenting with audio to make new sounds, textures and effects for your own music. This course takes you from reversing, stretching and pitch shifting audio, through plugins used as sound design tools, to building playable instruments in a sampler and composing a new track from the sounds you've made.
Work alongside producer and remixer James Rockhill (Kove; remixes for Bastille, Rag'n'Bone Man and Pendulum), remix and compose along with him, and get step-by-step help for Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, and Reaper.
COURSE STRUCTURE
WELCOME TO YOUR COURSE
Meet James Rockhill and Bradley Jordan, download the two course tracks and the Foley bank, and set up the free plugins we use throughout.
MODULE 1: AUDIO MANIPULATION FUNDAMENTALS
Hear what a single snippet of audio can become, then learn to reverse, time stretch and pitch shift it, and choose the right approach for the source and the result you want.
MODULE 2: USING PLUGINS CREATIVELY
Use EQ, reverb, delay, distortion, modulation and compression as sound design tools, not just mixing tools. Then turn non-musical recordings into musical sound sources.
MODULE 3: BUILDING INSTRUMENTS WITH SAMPLERS
Learn how the sampler in your DAW works, then build playable percussion, bass and pad instruments from musical and non-musical sounds.
MODULE 4: GETTING CREATIVE
Watch James remix Picking Up The Pieces from the lead vocal up: percussion, harmony and bass, hooks, textures and transitions. Then compose a finished track of your own.
CONGRATULATIONS
Look back at how far a few simple sources can go, and share your finished track on Discord for feedback from other students.
PICKING UP THE PIECES BY WILDES
FRACTURED WORLDS BY BRADLEY JORDAN
GUIDANCE FOR YOUR DAW
LOGIC PRO · CUBASE · ABLETON LIVE · REAPER
Just for you
“Which DAW do you use?” You answeredLogic Pro
Logic can reverse a region without touching the original file.
- Select the region, then tick Reverse in the Region inspector (click More if you can't see it).
- Reverse isn't available on tracks with Flex Time on, so turn Flex off first or bounce the region.
- Functions > Reverse in the Audio File Editor (Ctrl + Shift + R) changes the file itself, so work on a copy.
- To line the reversed slice up exactly, hold Ctrl while dragging for a finer grid, or Ctrl + Shift to drag in ticks or samples.
DOWNLOADABLE FOLEY SFX
55 FOLEY RECORDINGS · WAV · ROYALTY FREE
FOLEY HIT
Synth and Bass
LEARN FROM PRODUCER AND REMIXER JAMES ROCKHILL
JAMES ROCKHILL
Listen to Kove
James Rockhill is a songwriter, producer and sound designer. Since 2012 he has made drum and bass and house as Kove, with over 80 million streams and releases on Viper Recordings, Andy C's Program and Chase & Status's MTA Records.
His 2014 single "Way We Are", featuring Melissa Steel, reached number 30 on the UK Singles Chart, and he has remixed artists including Bastille, John Newman, Ella Eyre, Rag'n'Bone Man, Emeli Sandé and Pendulum.
Today he works mostly in the studio with other artists, writing, producing and designing sounds for their records.
A PROFESSIONAL REMIX WALKTHROUGH
ROUTE 1
REMIX A COURSE TRACK
ROUTE 2
REMIX YOUR OWN MATERIAL
ROUTE 3
COMPOSE FROM SCRATCH
JOIN THE COMMUNITY ON DISCORD
Gain access to our ever-growing community of music makers on Discord. You can chat to other people taking the course, pick up fresh tips, share your music, and grow your network.
Don’t worry if you’ve never used Discord before, it’s simple to get set up, and totally free.
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