Kronos Programming Tutorial: My thoughts

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 3:06 am

Okay, this is longer than I wanted but it is a two parter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHNZn-EoPWA

This is part 1. I go over some of the basics of creating a sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmIRfEneq5I

This is the finishing up part.

What I've come to develop is actually an alteration of where I left off:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/490 ... -TUTOR.PCG

This is WAY more accurate than the original sound I finished up with in the video. I went back and edited the filter, resonance, sync and effects. There may have been other things I touched on, but I took a few minutes break *As I discuss in one of my videos* and after re-approaching I was able to hear things more clearly.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I'm not an expert programmer, however I can do some neat things and have a process that I was asked to share and am doing so. I do generally seem to get things mostly accurate, but figured if either:
A: I can help someone else, awesome.
B: If I'm doing something wrong, someone could correct me on how to be better.

Thanks in advance generally for your feedback.

Pedja · Post by **Pedja** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:11 am

Thanks for tutorial and for sample pcg and all your effort. I have to say you that second file is not available, do you know this? Thanks for all.

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:22 am

Pedja wrote:Thanks for tutorial and for sample pcg and all your effort. I have to say you that second file is not available, do you know this? Thanks for all.

Oh weird. I'll look into it - I started the upload to Youtube last night, apparently it must not have published.

I'll upload again when I get home and update the link this evening. Thanks for letting me know!

80salife · Post by **80salife** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 7:14 pm

Thank you enigma, I'm just to view the first lesson

IN german we say Zack Zack Zack... So fast making to change something

Hearing something and do it... WOW...

So much inspiration for me, and I think slowly I understand what you mean by beginning with nothing ( INIT)

With my 45 years I begin to understand what sound means

Thats your guilt

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:20 pm

Thanks for letting me know the link was broken.

I uploaded the video again, this time without errors.

Here's part two:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmIRfEneq5I

Please let me know if you have questions after watching, etc.

John_O · Post by **John_O** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:29 pm

Great video series, just a quick question. Is there a tutorial for us stupid people when it comes to selecting which synth to start with? I am trying to figure out Katy Perry's Dark Horse, and I can't get anywhere close. I figured that it was some kind of "Airy" sounding one. I would like to do this myself, so any direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

holdsg · Post by **holdsg** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:29 pm

just an FYI, we only get 5 minutes in Part II, and you are clearly not "done" yet.

I can't wait to see how this ends.

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:40 pm

holdsg wrote:just an FYI, we only get 5 minutes in Part II, and you are clearly not "done" yet.

I can't wait to see how this ends.

AHHH!!! I suck with video editing!

Okay, let me try this one more time. What a pain in my butt. 4 times I've uploaded this, and it plays perfectly fine on my PC. I wonder if it's a youtube thing perhaps? Either way, let me try this again and I'll make sure it's the right length this time too.

I thought this internet stuff was supposed to be easy

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Tue Mar 17, 2015 11:45 pm

John_O wrote:Great video series, just a quick question. Is there a tutorial for us stupid people when it comes to selecting which synth to start with? I am trying to figure out Katy Perry's Dark Horse, and I can't get anywhere close. I figured that it was some kind of "Airy" sounding one. I would like to do this myself, so any direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks John.

Tutorial? Not that I'm aware of. I mean, it really comes down to knowing how something sounds after you filter it, and then even before that knowing what a Saw sounds like compared to a Sine, Square, Pulse (Not at 50%) and so on.

That said... Katy Perry's Dark Horse - Which part are you having a hard time with? I'll try and help if I can, at least give you some potential direction anyway.

John_O · Post by **John_O** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:24 am

Thanks enigmahack! The high part that plays through the whole song. I've got the bass line stuff I think. Of course you have some other stuff to do on the other post for sounds, so please take your time.

John.

enigmahack · Post by **enigmahack** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 12:28 am

Okay, I have it all figured out, and can give you direction John_O

The *BEST* approach to take really is to get the isloated tracks if possible. Rock music is pretty easy depending on how old or obscure it is, but pop music especially since lots of people want to remix them.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/490 ... eKeys1.wav
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/490 ... eKeys2.wav

These are the keyboard STEM files (Which are basically isolated tracks meant for mixing)

These are the *ACTUAL* sounds from the album. Keep in mind, these came from pre-mixing and pre-mastering which means EQ's, Filters, Effects, compression, the whole works are applied to the production version you hear in public.

Long story short, what that means is that you still have work to do. The sounds here are going to be similar if not exactly the same, however I noticed in Katy's album release there are lots of resonant filters applied to the sound.

Your first step is to take these isolated tracks and reproduce the two main sounds. There's the faster one which is the Db, C and Bb notes descending. While it sounds similar to the slower version of that later on, they're actually different sounds.

What that tells me is that the same filter was applied to both the first and second sounds which gives them similar characteristics. If you can make these sounds on your Kronos, and then figure out a filter that gets those newly-created sounds even closer to the album, then awesome. That's how I personally would go about it.

You could be lazy or if you're in a pinch, and simply rip the samples directly from the STEM and sample it into the Kronos, and the only apply the filter to get the sound to match the album. I would only do this in the case that I was really in a time crunch. I hate loading samples, I'm more of a fan of just having the AL-1 synth make it so it's just "there" and you have more control and flexibility (Say you wanted more portamento for example)

Anyway, that's what I would do.

General direction for the sample recreation below...

Key Track 1:
This is your faster synth. There is a very fast portamento, and it's going through a cabinet simulator. It actually sounds very characteristically like a Kronos / Triton cabinet sim and wouldn't at all be surprised if that's what was used.

So what do you make it with?
Well it sounds buzzy, so I could say with a bit of certainty that there's Saw and probably some Pulse in there. The attack and decay are both very fast for your ADSR. There's very light reverb as well (This is before the heavy filter that applies to both the faster synth as well as the slower synth)

That's honestly probably all there is to it. Make it monophonic, no legato, very fast portamento. Use Saw and Pulse (Maybe between 15% and 40%) and then try adding sync. Adjust to flavor but I think the majority of the sound will come from being routed through the cabinet sim/amp sim and then some o-verb that is really light.

Key Track 2:
This is VERY buzzy. There's a tapped delay, and honestly I'm almost going to say Saw and Pulse again. High-pass filter, with the lower end rolloff being around maybe 400-600hz. Also monophonic, with portamento that is much slower than before.

I would also recommend adding sync to this, and adjusting until you get it close.

The delay sounds like a multi-tap stereo delay, though you can probably get away with using the "tape echo" to get some control over the left and right channel delay control. The majority of the delay sounds like it bounces once on the right, and the rest on the left channel.

The sound itself is centered, it's just the delay that does the stereo bouncing.

I'd make a Combi, put one sound in one hand, one sound in the other.

(Program EE-000 and Program EE-001)

Maybe around Db3 I'd have the slower sound, the Db4 I'd have the faster sound. I'd import my effects from the individual programs and route them as necessary, like this:

Program 1 - IFX1 - Cabinet/Amp Sim routing into
- IFX2 - O-verb out to MFX/TFX
Program 2 - IFX3 - Tape Echo out to MFX/TFX

In your TFX, this is where I would put that huge resonant filter. I don't know which one since I'm more or less just writing away from my Kronos. I mean it's beside me but since I haven't made the sounds, I'm talking as though this is what I'd do.

Anyway, make this resonant filter, and control it via a knob or slider (Up to you) which controls both the resonance as well as how open or closed the filter is.

Since you're only ever playing one note at a time, it's no harm to use the other hand to control the sweeping sounds.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Just listening to the sounds and such, that's exactly what I'd do, and I would simply tweak as necessary.

Good luck!

**edit**
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmIRfEneq5I

I uploaded the FULL part 2, it's 23 minutes like it should have been. Looks like it's finally ready to go now. Sorry for the screw ups!

Dniss · Post by **Dniss** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:30 pm

Back on topic:

Great tutorials!

We have some amazing tutorials on many other features but none on how to create a sound, what is the actual thought process and what are all these settings do, in AL-1 in this instance. For example, I didn't know this is how ADSR works in AL-1. I know, it's silly, but I couldn't figure it out.

I wish we had more tutorials like this, I could watch for hours. If you want to make more while you're working, know that it wouldn't be a waiste of time.

How do you think the swishing or vacum sound is ceated? Is it an effect, or is it a question of tweaking some settings somewhere in AL-1?

Thanks Dave!

ThunderKeys · Post by **ThunderKeys** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 2:46 pm

I think we need to elect enigmahack as a forum MVP. Appreciate everything you do. Thanks.

holdsg · Post by **holdsg** » Wed Mar 18, 2015 5:31 pm

I second the nomination!

Taking something from the voodoo/behind the scenes level and bringing it to us novices is an art all to itself.

Arizona Sage · Post by **Arizona Sage** » Fri Mar 20, 2015 1:57 pm

David,

Thanks so much for the effort you've put into this forum. I followed along with your video and it has helped me immensely in terms of really understanding what goes on under the hood of the Kronos when it comes to sound design logic.

I found myself reaching for the L/C/R BPM delay vs your reverse delay and Multi tap choices. To my ears I heard the reverse effect for a while, then started to feel like the LCR got me a bit closer. Did you ever consider that delay as a candidate? I'd be curious to know whether you tried that one and your thoughts on it.

Moving on to your YES video tutorial next. Thanks again.