Incidental
introsounds
10.15
AmajorelementofJim’s
productionethosistheuseof
one-offincidentalsamples,whichare
pepperedthroughoutthetracktokeepit
constantlyinteresting.“Iwastoldby
somebodytheotherdaythattheyreally
admiremeforthat,becauseI puta lotof
detailintothosesounds.You’llonlyhear
themonceortwiceinthearrangement,
buttheyfillthatgap.”
Thefirstoftheseincidentalsappearsin
theintro.“It’sactuallymadeinMassiveas
well,”Jimexplains.“Itwasonlyusedvery
brieflyasa one-shot,justtofilla space,
really.There’salsoa littlereversedhi-hat,I
believe.It’sjustthereattheendofthebar
witha tinybitofsaturationonit.It’s
makingitlouder,butthere’salso
colourisationgoingonintherethatisn’t
partoftheoriginalsound.AndallI’vedone
hereisusethebasicCubaseChannelstrip,
justwiththeTubeSaturationon.”01.09
MiseryGutskicksoffwitha padsoundmadein Massive,
and some light, hi-hat-based percussion. “I always like to
keep it quite minimal but with some sort of element that lets the DJ mix it,”
Jim says of his approach to intros in general. “Some people might disagree
with that, but as a DJ myself, I’ve always kind of remembered that.
“[Thepadsound]is called‘FizzyHighs’.It’sjusta simpleMassivepreset
usingreallybasicalgorithmsforthewavetable–Square-saw and Square-
saw 2. Then you’re using filters. If I turn the filter off here, it’s actually more
fizzy, so that Daft filter there is just dampening the top-end harmonics.
The patch is then brought to life using Massive’s onboard effects
processors. “If I turn all those off, you see how it’s just dead, really, and
dry. That’s mainly to do with the reverb and the delay. The delay’s on first,
doing a left/right independent delay. Then add to that a reverb, which just
sets it in space a little bit more. And finally, at the end, some EQ, not really
doing much – just a little bit of high-mid boost, but nothing big on there,
really. It’s really subtle.”
A handful of plugins further embellish
the pad, including EQ, LFO Tool, UAD’s
Little Labs Voice of God, and automated
delay and filter effects that come to life
later on in the track. “That sound is what
forms the tension, if you will, for the
intro,” Jim explains.
massive atmosphere/pad intro sound
Universalaudio’s Little Labs Voice Of God plugin brings
weight to Jim’s Massive pad element44 / ComputermusiC / July 2019
make music now / producer masterclass