How to Be a DJ: Layering Audio Sounds Part 1



Posted: Sunday, October 04, 2009

by
Dance Midi Samples

Slapping a whole load of sounds on top of each other usually results in a muddy incoherent mess so what are the secrets of creating a rich, full sounding, thick mix? In this 2 part article, We'll explore a few of the tips and tricks that you can use to clean up that mix.

1) Kick Drums: choose your sounds carefully, layering several kick drums with the qualities that you like can result in a thunderous speaker flapping kick, so flick through you sample collection and choose some favourites. Load them up into your sampler of choice - NI Battery is especially good for this since it gives you easy access to individual controls for each drum hit.

Now comes the fun part: try tuning each kick separately as well as filtering (high pass filters work great for cutting unwanted low frequencies from kicks) and balancing the volumes of each. You may want to shorten some of the samples down so you only get the portion of the sound that you like too. Compression with a high attack and fast release may also help to give your layered kick extra 'smack'. Layering a closed high-hat on top may also help you get some serious impact here. Once you've achieved the sound your after it makes sense to re-sample (render, bounce or what ever your DAW software calls it) your kick layers down to a single drum hit so you're only dealing with one sound, then re-import them into a single sampler instrument.

2) Bass: This can be tricky, since low frequency sounds have a nasty habit of clashing creating phasing effects, while this can be pleasing in some cases many dance genres require a constant driving bass sound.

Start off with a low frequency bass that you like the sound of, something warm and fat. Then try adding a higher mid-range layer to thicken it up - you may find that they phase, to cut this out try using a high pass or low cut filter on your mid frequency sound. Try adjusting the oscillator settings of the synths your using - this may really help to gel them together. A Little detune on the mid-range stab may help too. This really is a black art and even seasoned pro's can have difficulty getting it right so experiment! You can try using multi band distortion on some of your layers, this can really add some grit so your sound if it's needed. Another trick some producers use if they make a bass sound that they like which phases is to sample it - just sample a long note of the layered sound and use it in your favourite sampler - voila!

Mark is a avid DJ who likes to remix and produce tracks with various producer packs and reason refills. Mark works for DMS in the UK who sell various DJ MIDI Sample packs. Click for more information, here.
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