May 21st, 2008 by niwa | posted in download, electronic, info, niwa's audio corner |

Since Skidz is droppin’ knowledge on his favourite part of music (records and originals), I have decided to share some stuff about my production methods, tools and views. It will be mainly based on software equipment, since it is easy to download and understand.

First of all I want to make it clear that this is my _own_ vision on things, and that it’s not something that is an universal truth. Most of the production discussions on the net are useless rants on tastes and methods, and in my opinion there is no standard approach on making music or (post) production. You use what suits you, you decide your own rules, and you use it to make the best product possible.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start with a free VST effect I regularly use: Cyanide 2.0 by Bram of Smartelectronix:

Cyanide is a waveshaper plugin which delivers some awesome distorted effects to your sound, either subtle or heavy. One of the most striking features is that it has both pre- and post-gain filtering options, where most waveshapers only have post-gain filtering. This means you can tweak your sound twice while using 1 instance of the plug-in. It doesn’t weigh heavy on your CPU so you can load multiple instances of it.

The interface makes it clear that Cyanide is easy to use: you’ve got an amplitude, filter-type and filter-frequency on both pre- and post-sides, and in the center is a window where you can manually draw the shape that you want your input to become. The drawing part is pretty down to earth, just click anywhere to add more points in the graph (which work as notches) or click-and-hold on a pre-existant point to drag it around. In the bottom there’s a graphical preview of what your input will look like, and it changes instantly when you play with the points.

The oversampling function aids in getting more smooth sounds (anti-aliasing) and less unwanted noise.

So it looks nice and easy to use.. but what can you do with it? Basically everything you want if you’re looking for a dirty sound. The filter options add the possibility to make a tiny high-end crunching sound, or a low bass-driven boost. When applied just a little bit it can (for example) boost your beat on the kickdrum, and when you go all out it simply destroys everything into noise.

Here are some simple examples of heavy Cyanide use on a beat:

clean

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

low-end

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

hi-end

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.