by Robert Stevenson

HipHopRally.com
Maschine:
The Hip-Hop
Beat Makers
Missing
Manual
1
Thank you for supporting the Hip Hop Rally community and download-
ing this eBook.
Do me one favor though. If you like this book, let a friend know and
send them over to HipHopRally.com.
Also, I really appreciate you taking the time to ask me questions via the
Hip Hop Rally Facebook Page and send me emails.
Who The Hell Is This Dude?
Since youre reading this, chances are you know me already. Or, at least
you have seen some of my YouTube videos or maybe youve read some
articles on my blog.
If you dont know me yet, Im Rob. If want to learn how to make great hip
hop beats and you use Native Instruments Maschine, you need to get to
know me.
I started Hip Hop Rally in January of 2013 as a resource for my friends
that make beats. In a really short time it has become the Maschine beat
makers #1 most trusted resource for education, inspiration, and enter-
tainment.
And this movement is growing every single day.
My Maschine Story
My Maschine story probably started a lot like yours.
Forward
A LITTLE ABOUT ME
2
I saved up money for an entire summer to buy my Maschine. I found the
place where I could get the best deal (eBay). I watched dozens of vid-
eos on YouTube about making beats. I thought I knew it all.
In my head, I knew that Id be good at making beats. I mean, why
wouldnt I be? I was good with technology, I had great taste in music. I
knew that Id be making some dope beats within a few months.
But, you probably already know how this story turns out.
When my Maschine nally arrived at my front door, I tore open that big
ass box. It felt better than Christmas.
I installed the software on my old Dell computer and tore open all of the
packaging.
I plopped down at my desk, plugged in the hardware and started to
make my rst beat.
As you and I both now know, making music is a lot harder than I thought
it would be. Just like anyone who rst starts out, I didnt know what the
hell I was doing.
I didnt know what music to sample. I didnt know how to chop samples
like the pros do. I didnt how why my drums sounded so crappy. I had
no idea what FX where.
My music sounded like something a 10 year old made.
Making hip hop music is a lot more complicated than I thought it would
be.
The Frustration Continues
It soon became obvious to me that making music was going to be
harder than I thought it would be. No problem, I told myself, Ill just
learn.
The Maschine manual was completely useless. I printed the thing out,
and read it cover to cover. Its lled with a bunch of technical jargon and
photos.
It assumed that I already knew a bunch of stuff about making music.
And it denitely wasnt geared towards making hip hop beats.
It assumed that I already knew how to nd and chop samples. It as-
sumed that I knew what things like a compressor or reverb was. It really
wasnt much help at all.
At that time, there werent very many in-depth Maschine tutorials on You-
Tube. A handful of people, made some very simple videos about using
some of Maschines most basic functions.
Besides a few short tutorials out there on basic things. There was no
one out there that was teaching people step-by-step how to make hip
hop music on Maschine.
I was pretty much stuck trying to gure out how to use this thing on my
own.
This really pissed me off.
Eventually I got stuck, lost, and bored with what I was doing. I thought
about quitting. In fact, I did quit a few times.
3
For a few months, my Maschine sat in my bedroom collecting a ne
coat of dust.
Just like many of you, I was discouraged. The music I was making
sounded freaking terrible and I couldnt gure out how to get any better.
Until one day.
I ran across a friend who had gone to school for audio engineering. We
discussed music for a while. I told him I was trying to learn about mak-
ing music and asked him to point me in the right direction.
He told me he was busy and hed help me out later when he had some
time. He basically blew me off.
Surprisingly, a huge envelope arrived in the mail the very next week with
my buddys name as the return address. It was totally unexpected.
The contents of that package changed my life forever.
The information inside of the package was golden. He sent me his
course syllabus, class notes, lists of required reading, class handouts.
He even included a list of other resources that he used.
He told me about all of the audio blogs he subscribed to, the YouTube
channels of great engineers, the forums with the great information, the
magazines he bought.
Before this moment, I had no clue where to start. But, he really showed
me the light.
He pointed me in the direction towards everything that I needed to know
in order to become a great beat maker.
All I had to do now was gure out how to learn it.
Since I didnt have the $50,000 to spend on an Audio Engineering
school, I had to teach myself.
I broke down all this information into small chunks that I could start to
understand. I bought the books, bookmarked the blogs, and sub-
scribed to the magazines that my buddy recommended.
I literally just started to read about one thing each day, then Id apply
that thing to a beat that I was making.
I devoured a bunch of books, magazines, blog articles, video tutorials,
podcasts, and forum posts about making music. And I made a bunch of
beats.
All of these resources, research, and practice helped me better under-
stand the theory behind how to produce hip-hop music.
Why I Started Hip Hop Rally
A few years ago, I saw a huge void on the web. No one had taken the
time to really break down and explain the theory behind how to make
hip hop music on Maschine.
There were a few channels with a few decent Maschine tutorials.
These guys had a few videos, but they really didnt paint the entire pic-
ture and they really guarded all of the really important secrets to making
beats.
I saw that no one was really taking teaching Maschine seriously.
4
So, I decided to step up to the plate and I created Hip Hop Rally to ll
that void.
I hated that people were so secretive about techniques and tips. Every-
one should be able to know the concepts behind making good music.
And I knew that it could only be a positive thing for the hip hop commu-
nity to teach people how to do things the right way.
Luckily for me, a lot of other people felt the same way.
How To Get The Most Out Of This Book
Youre reading this because you are struggling with some aspects of
beat making and you want to bet better.
Unlike many other Maschine resources, this book is designed to help
you better understand both the technology and artistry behind making
good beats.
So if I were you, Id use this book like a reference manual. Whenever
you need to gure something out, open a session of Maschine and
crack open this book.
I guess you could read this book from the beginning if youd like, but I
think its important to apply these concepts while you are learning them.
For example, you want to gure out how to use reverb. Open a session
of Maschine, insert the reverb plugin, and actually experiment with the
reverb plugin as youre learning about how it works.
We all learn by doing. So the key to really understanding these con-
cepts is to actually apply what you are learning as you are reading
about it.
IMPORTANT: A Word About The Video Tutorials In Each Section
Throughout this book there are links in red text. These links will take you
directly to different sections throughout the book.
In the beginning of each section, in the left hand column, there is a link
in red text that says: Click Here To Watch....
Use those links to watch the video tutorial for that specic section of the
manual
If youre a more visual learner (like me), you should check out these vid-
eos. Watch these n-depth video tutorials. In them I show you exactly
how to apply these concepts to you music.
These videos have more in-depth explanations of the information in
each of the sections. Denitely check them out.
1
This purpose of this chapter
is to inform you of everything
you need to know before you
purchase Maschine.
Getting Started
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click To Watch The Maschine and Macbook Pro
Video
1. Does The Battery Hold a Charge?
2. Is The Macbook Too Heavy For Me to Carry
Around?
3. What About The Screen?
4. How Fast Will This Computer Be When You Run
Maschine, VSTs, your DAW?
5. Storage and Memory
6. How Much Stuff Can You Store On It?
6
I've had the opportunity to use Maschine with a few different laptops.
And I now know from experience that all laptops are not created equal.
Your laptop is the centerpiece of your home studio, so its important to
make an educated decision about which laptop you are going to be us-
ing along with your Maschine.
The experience you have using your Maschine really is dependent on
the laptop you own. Using a slow (and/or older) laptop with your
Maschine is a frustrating as hell. A slow laptop can make Maschine lag,
crash, and glitch.
Buying a good quality laptop is one of the best investments you can
make as far as maximizing the performance of your Maschine. Using a
good laptop actually makes Maschine more fun to use.
If you're looking for a new laptop, nd out why a Macbook Pro is one of
the best laptops to use along with your Maschine.
Does The Battery Hold A Charge? Will I Have To Re-
place It In A Few Years?
The range of your laptops battery is important. The battery on my cheap
dell went bad after a few months. I had to constantly keep it plugged in,
or else it died. Which, basically made it a desktop computer.
The battery life on the 13" Macbook Pro is awesome. A good quality bat-
tery comes in handy really often for me. Its great to be able to charge
up the Macbook and not have to worry about having enough battery
power to last the day. Most days I don't even need to bring my charger.
Section 1
The Maschine and the
Macbook Pro, Do You Need
Both?
7
Depending on what you are doing on your computer, the batter can last
quite a long time. If I'm making beats on Maschine, the battery will last
around 4 hours.
If I'm streaming HD video on Netix, I can get around 3 hours of patter
life. If I'm writing blog articles on Evernote, I can get up to 6 hours of bat-
ter life.
Is This Thing Too Heavy or Big
For Me To Carry Around?
There is a reason they call this thing a
MacBOOK. Its pretty much the exact size
and weight of a small text book. Its the per-
fect size and weight to carry around or
throw in your backpack and take with you
wherever.
Its pretty lightweight, weighing in at only
4.5 lbs. Its heavy enough to know that you
have it in your backpack, but compact
enough to map a nice lightweight
computer.
What About The Screen? Is It Nice To Look At, Is It
HD?
13.3" is the ofcial screen size (measured diagonally across the screen).
13.3" doesn't sound like a lot of screen real estate. But its plenty of
space for everything that you need to do.
Coming from an 18" behemoth of a laptop, the 13.3" was small at rst.
But, I got used to it.
The screens resolution is 1280 pixels by 800 pixels. Everything that's dis-
played on it comes in crisp and clear. It makes everything you do
beautiful.
How Fast Will This Computer
Be When You Run Maschine,
VSTs and DAW Software?
If you're not a techie, 2.5 GHz i5 processor
sounds like a bunch of gibberish. Basically,
this means that this computer is plenty fast
to perform almost every task that you throw
at it.
This computer runs Maschine perfectly. No
lag, no latency, no crashing or hiccups.
This is the computer that Native Instru-
ments designed Maschine to be run on.
With my previous cheap Dell laptop, this
was my biggest problem. The processor
couldn't handle running Maschine's software. The software would lag,
which is frustrating when you're trying to make a beat. The was a lag be-
tween the time when you pressed a button and when the software would
respond.
The 13.3 Macbook isnt a huge computer. But its the perfect lap-
top to run Maschine smoothly.
8
In addition to problems with lag, every time I connected my keyboard
controller via USB, the software crashed. That sucks.
How Many Samples, Movies, and Other Files Can
You Store on This Thing?
I have the early 2011 model of the 13.3"
Macbook. This laptop only has 320 GB
of hard drive space. 320 GB goes pretty
quickly, especially if have a lot of music
or movies saved directly on your com-
puter.
The best way I have found to work
around this is by purchasing an external
hard drive. You can get an external drive
with a few hundred GB's of space for
around $70.
If you're considering one of the newer
models of this computer, they have up-
graded hard drive space to upwards of
500 GB's.
This Macbook has 4GB of RAM. Which basically means that it has more
than enough to run multiple apps at once. Most times, I am running
Maschine's software with a dozen web pages open.
Does It Have Enough Places To Hook in Your Gear:
Keyboards, Audio Interfaces, Speakers, etc?
The Macbook Pro comes with two USB ports. Enough to plug your
Maschine in to an audio interface and hook up your Maschine at the
same time.
If you need more than two USB ports, I would recommend that you get a
Firewire audio interface. This would save
you from having to use one of your
USBs. Then you can plugin your inter-
face, Maschine and a keyboard all at
once.
What If The Macbook Breaks,
Will You Be Covered?
If you purchase your Macbook from an
authorized Apple dealer, you get one
year of Apple care. Apple care saves
you from a lot of problems with your com-
puter that are considered the manufactur-
ers fault.
Apple care doesn't cover accidental
breaks, drops, spills, etc. But if you purchase from a big box store like
Micro Computer Center or Best Buy, you can purchase a store warranty
that will cover all accidentals for just a few hundred bucks.
Depending on your history with breaking stuff, you might want to con-
sider a more full-featured warranty.
Made of a really solid aluminum case, this thing is not easy to damage.
9
Final Thoughts About The Macbook
The 2.3 GHz i5 Macbook Pro is a great computer to use for your home
studio. It's fast, easy to use, and beautifully designed. This is the com-
puter that Native Instruments had in mind when they created Maschine.
It handles Macshine awlessly without any latency, hiccups or crashes.
It's the perfect size to take on the go, but still big enough to use right at
home.
If you have the money, I highly recommend purchasing this laptop. Its a
great laptop for the value.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How To Buy A Used
Maschine Without Getting Burned
1. How To Save a Few Hundred Bucks When
Buying Your Maschine
2. How to Not Get Burned When Buying Your
Used Maschine
3. How You Can Purchase a Like New Maschine
and Save a Bunch of Money at the Same Time
10
How to Save a Few Hundred Bucks When Buying
Your Maschine
So have made the nal decision. You've read the comparisons on the
MPC Renaissance vs. Maschine vs Ableton Push. You mad the right de-
cision to go with Maschine. Good choice!
Its nowhere near as expensive as Ableton Live + Push, its like 1/2 the
price of an MPC Renaissance. But that $600 price tag still puts a big
ass dent in your wallet.
No worries though. You can save a few hundred bucks if you follow the
steps Ive outlined for you and buy a used Maschine off of eBay.
But, there are a few things you need to be aware of before shelling out
your hard earned cash. You've probably heard the horror stories of peo-
ple being burned trying to buy used gear.
Knobs missing, the install cds are nowhere to be found, the thing
doesnt work right, there are orange Doritos crumbs all inside of the box.
It would be angry as hell if I bought a Maschine and it was in crappy
condition. or worse - the thing didnt work at all.
Today, I'm going to teach you how to safely purchase a used Maschine,
cover your ass, and save a few hundred bucks at the same damn
time.
For those of you that are a little more thrifty (cheap), you can purchase a
used Maschine MK1 for almost half of the price on eBay.
Section 2
How to Buy A Used
Maschine Without Getting
Burned.
11
The MK1 is essentially the same thing as the new MK2, but without the
steep price tag that comes with buying brand new gear. I've seen used
MK1's go for as cheep as $300 on eBay.
But why are they so cheap? A lot of peo-
ple get discouraged when they rst pick
up a Maschine. They purchase one and
nd that it takes a lot of work (like reading
this manual) and knowledge to make
good beats.
These (lazy) people get discouraged by
how difcult it is. They end up selling their
Maschines once they realize its not as
easy as the guys making beats on You-
Tube make it seem.
But one mans trash is another mans
treasure! This is great for you and me.
Theres a bunch of used Maschines out
there in perfect condition for us to buy up
at a really cheap price.
Keep an eye out for a good used
Maschine on eBay. Chances are, you can
snatch up a used Maschine in great condition for less than $350. Thats
45% off of the price of a new one.
How to Not Get Burned When Buying Your Used
Maschine
Giving up that hard earned cash you saved up is especially tough. Es-
pecially when youre making damn near
minimum wage like I was when I bought
my Maschine. You need to make sure that
you know what youre doing:
First, make sure that you are not purchas-
ing an education version of Maschine.
Why? Native Instruments doesn't allow
people to re-sell and transfer the software
from an education version of Maschine.
Education versions are sold to student's
only. NI give them a deep discount, so
they don't want any slick students trying
to make money buying cheep education
versions and re-selling them for prot.
Make sure and ask the seller if theyre sell-
ing you an education version. If they
sound unsure, dont buy it. If you end up
with an education version, you will be shit
out of luck.
Let me repeat this again, because its very important. Do not purchase a
used education version of Maschine.
The MK1 is a good option if youre trying to save a little money. You
get many of the same features as the MK2, but with a much lower
price tag.
12
If they aren't the original owner of the Maschine theyre selling, or if they
cant be 100% sure that its not the education version, do not buy it.
How Can You Purchase a Like New Maschine and
Save a Bunch of Money at the
Same Time
So you nally decide to pull the trigger
and purchase your used Maschine. You
have made sure that you are purchasing
from the original owner. You know its not
an education version. But there is another
thing to be aware of.
There are a lot of pawn shops and third-
party dealers out there selling used
Maschines. Avoid these people at all
costs.
Why? Because you need to be in direct
contact with the original owner of the
Maschine that you are buying. Why?
Because the original owner is going to
have to contact Native Instruments and de-activate their information
from the software license before you can transfer ownership over on the
software license.
You need to be able to tell (or politely ask) the seller contact Native In-
struments customer support. They need to go through the process of
removing their name from the software license.
To be safe, make sure that this process is
underway before you whip out your wallet
and pay for the thing.
Try and look for sellers who have already
mentioned that they have started the proc-
ess of transferring the software license. Or
look for people that are willing to make the
effort to communicate directly with you via
email.
It will make it easier on you in the long
run.
Once your used Maschine arrives at you
door, you'll want to be able to play with it
immediately. It will be frustrating if you
have to chase down the owner and do all
of this after you have the thing your
hands.
You can nd a load of great deals on new or used Maschines by
searching eBay. Buying on eBay offers you a lot more protection than
purchasing on Craigslist.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Why You Should Buy The
New Maschine MK2
1. Pads That Are Easier to Work With Over a Long
Period of Time
2. Simple and Easy to Use Master Control
3. A Hardware Display Thats Much Easier to Look
At
4. Real Customization Options
5. But, Theyre Still Not All That Different
13
So you're checking out that shiny new MK2. But you're asking yourself:
"is this MK2 really worth the extra money?" If you haven't actually used
the MK2 before and you are considering buying one, you're in a tough
situation.
Native Instruments made a bunch of cool upgrades to the MK2. So, in
order to help you make an informed decision about if the MK2 is worth
the extra money, Ive outlined all of the MK2s cool upgrades for you:
Pads That Are Easier to Work With Over a Long Pe-
riod of Time
The Maschine MK2 pads have more give. Theyre more squishy. The sur-
face of the pads are more slick to the touch. Consider that you will be
working with this hardware controller for hundreds (if not thousands) of
hours over the next several years.
The softer pads do make a difference. Pads that are easier to work on
can make it much easier to make beats over an extended period of
time.
When I'm working with my MK1, after a few hours of chopping up sam-
ples and making beats, my ngers can get a bitsore. Softer pads make
it a little easier for you to get through those extended Maschine beat
making sessions.
Theyll make it easier for you both on stage during a live performance
and messing around in your home studio.
Section 3
Why You Should Buy The New
Maschine MK2.
14
Native Instruments also upgraded the LED backlights on the MK2s
pads. I know you've seen the rainbow colored pads. Yes, they look a bit
ridiculous; but they are actually pretty functional.
The colored pads make it ten times easier
for you to organize your sounds and sam-
ples on the hardware controller. If you
plan on performing live in the future, col-
ored pads are a must have.
The pads on the MK1 are all orange. Its
hard to remember which pad you put a
specic sound on when all the pads are
look the same. That's where the colored
pads really come in handy.
For example, you can make all of your
kick drums green, all of your snares yel-
low, and all of your vocal samples red.
That makes it simple to remember that all
of your green pads have kicks on them.
Simple and Easy To Use Mas-
ter Control
The volume, swing and tempo knobs on
the MK1 (also known as the master control section) have been con-
densed into a single master knob with three control buttons.
Instead of adjusting the volume, swing, and tempo using separate
knobs (on the MK1), you press the volume, swing or tempo button and
then adjust it using the single master knob.
The MK2's master knob is a click wheel,
instead of a smooth turning wheel. The
click wheel makes it easier for you to dial
in and precisely control the adjustments
you are making.
The knobs on the MK1 are a little less pre-
cise. Sometimes, I end up turning the
knobs slightly too far in one direction. So,
Its nice to have a little more control on the
MK2 knobs.
The new master control knob also elimi-
nates a problem that I encounter all the
time when I'm making beats with the
Maschine MK1: I accidentally bump and
turn the knobs on my MK1. It happens to
me all the time.
I accidentally rub my hand up against the
tempo knob and changing the tempo of
the beat. Or I accidentally brush up
against the swing knob.
This throws off my workow for a minute or two until I gure out what
BPM or tempo I was working with before. By the time I get the BPM
back dialed in, Im out of my zone and I loose my train of thought.
The MK2 is denitely more colorful than the MK1. If you have the
money ($600), and are serious about making music, I think think the
upgrade is worth it.
15
The MK2's master knob makes it harder to accidentally bump one of
these knobs. This is probably very useful in a live performance setting.
Nudging your tempo knob during a live performance would create a
big problem.
A Hardware Display Thats Much Easier To Look At
The screen color on the MK2 is now in-
verted. The MK2 has white text on a dark
blue background. NI made this change
in order to make the screen sharper and
more visible in darker environments.
Very useful when you're in barely lit night
club or in your bedroom with the lights
turned off.
The MK2's sharper contrast ratio makes
it easier to do things like chop up a sam-
ple directly on the hardware display. It
makes it easier to see the details of the
wav forms and words on the hardware
display.
Didn't really see the point at rst. But I have to admit, I really like the in-
verted screen. It makes it much easier to to work only using Maschine's
hardware.
You'll nd yourself looking at the software (computer screen) less and
less. This makes it easier for you to keep your hands off of the mouse,
allowing you to stay focused and in your creative zone.
Buttons That Actually Work
The buttons on the MK2 click when they're pressed. If you haven't used
the MK1 before, this probably seems insignicant. It makes it easier to
know when you have actually pressed a button on the hardware.
For me, this is a frustrating aspect about the MK1. When trying to turn
on/off the metronome, I'll press the button
four or ve times before it actually works
because I'm not hitting it quite hard
enough.
The buttons on the MK2 click when
pressed. This makes it easy to know
when you have actually pressed a
button.
If you work with Maschine for long
enough, you'll be pressing the buttons
tens of thousands of times. Small things
like this makes the experience of using
the hardware more enjoyable to use in
the long run.
Personalize Your Maschine, The Non-Cheap Way
With the rst version of Maschine, Native Instruments wasn't focused on
allowing users the ability to individually customize their Maschine. Thats
why the MK1 comes in one color, black.
The light text on a darker background make it easier for you to see the
MK2s screen in a darker environment.
16
The only way you can customize an MK1 is by purchasing cheaply
made, third-party stickers and sticking them on the face of your
Maschine. I refuse to put a $10 sticker on my $700 Macshine.
Fortunately, NI made some real customization options for the MK2.
The MK2 comes in two colors:
white and black. The new white
Maschine is beautiful by itself.
But, NI decided to take it a
step further by developing their
own custom color faceplates
and knobs that let you easily
customize the look of your
Maschine.
As musicians, individuality and
creativity is very important.
They took a huge step in the
right direction by making it
very easy for you customize
the appearance of your
Maschine.
The new faceplates are actu-
ally made by Native Instru-
ments, so you know theyre high-quality. They look professional and
they're easy to apply. They feel great and look great. Denitely much bet-
ter than those crappy stickers.
But, The Two Still Arent All That Different.
Even though NI has made a lot of upgrades to the MK2. Its still very simi-
lar to the MK1. No matter what Maschine you buy, both versions come
with: the same Maschine software. the same huge sound library, etc.
With both you get 6.2 GB of
high quality sounds (18,000
samples sounds, 326 drum
kits, 388 instruments). They
have sounds for almost any mu-
sical genre: EDM, Hip Hop,
Dubstep, etc. You'll have
enough sounds and samples
to keep you occupied and mak-
ing beats for a very long time.
If money is an issue for you,
save yourself a few hundred
bucks and purchase a used
MK1 on eBay. You will not be
disappointed.
You get pretty much the same
functionality of an MK2 but for
a fraction of the price. But if you have the cash and youre serious about
making music, the MK2 is the best music making tool out there. Either
way, you wont regret your decision.
With a simple faceplate and some knob changes, you can completely customize the look of
your Maschine. Damn that is a sexy piece of gear.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Maschines Building Blocks:
Sounds, Groups, Patterns and Scenes
1. How Do You Use Sounds?
2. How Do You Use Patterns?
3. What Are Groups Used For?
4. What are Scenes?
17
If you are coming to Maschine from a DAW with a linear-style recording
process: Logic, Pro Tools, or Cubase. Maschine's recording process is
probably a bit foreign to you.
The words scene, group, patterns, and sounds all might as well be a for-
eign language to you.
Scenes, groups, patterns and sounds make up the Maschine recording
process. Find out how you can use them to start recording full songs in
Maschine.
How Do You Use Sounds?
Maschine "Sounds" represent the 16 samples that make up a group.
Each sound has its own pad on the Maschine controller.
On Maschine, you can manipulate sounds by adding up to three in-
serted FX. Sounds can also be manipulated with multiple parameters:
envelope, pitch, etc. To make put it simply:
1) Each sound has its own corresponding pad on Maschine: Sound one
translates to pad 1.
2) Each sound can be used in Piano Roll/Keyboard mode which allows
you to play sounds like a melody. Very simple to use if you have a key-
board controller.
How Do You Use Patterns?
Patterns are a sequence of sounds within a group. With patterns you
can create variations to the way you play a group of sounds.
Section 4
Maschines Building
Blocks: Sounds, Groups,
Patterns and Scenes
18
You can have up to 64 different pattern variations for each group. Each
different pattern can also have a different lengths. So, you could create
some patterns that are two bars or some that are eight bars.
You can also use different com-
binations of the sounds within
your group to make your pat-
terns. Maschine lets you save
your patterns individually. This
is useful if you want to use the
same pattern later on and just
plug in different sounds.
For example, I might save a pat-
tern so that later on I can use
the same pattern and just insert
different drum sounds.
What are Groups For?
Your groups are a collection of
up to 16 individual sounds. I
normally organize my groups
by the types of sounds that I
put inside of them. Heres a few
examples of what I mean:
1) A "drums" group: Within my drums group Ill put all of my kicks,
snares, hi hats, toms, etc.
2) A "bass" group: In this group Ill put a couple of different bass
sounds.
3) A "sample" group: My sample group contains all of my sample chops.
Why should you organize your sounds into groups like this? It makes it a
lot easier to mix your tracks, perform live, and add your FX later.
What are Scenes?
Scenes make creating songs
with Maschine really
straightforward. They basically
represent a vertically stacked
combination of the different pat-
terns you have selected from
different groups.
Scenes are used to build ar-
rangements within Maschine.
Basically, a combination of sev-
eral clips stacked vertically is
called a scene.
Scenes make it useful to trigger
different portions of your song
independently. It allows you to
easily trigger your intro, chorus
or verse at any time. This really
comes in handy during a live performance.
For me, scenes allow me to be a lot more creative when working in the
studio, because I can just focus on stacking different grooves on top of
each other.
Maschines home screen appears complicated at rst, but once you understand how every-
thing works, its actually really simple.
19
But scenes, groups, and sounds all mean nothing if you dont have the
skills to sample on Maschine.
In the next (and maybe most important) chapter, were going to discuss
the process of sampling music in Maschine.
2
Sampling is the foundation of
Hip Hop music. Knowing
how to properly sample with
your Maschine is the only
way you can make good
beats. In this chapter, Ill go
over the basics of how to cre-
ate a sample based beat in
Maschine.
Sampling
What Youll Learn In This Section:
1. How to Figure out What Music to Sample
2. How to Recognize the Elements of a Great Sample.
3. Save Yourself From Hours of Unnecessary
Headache: Why Crate Digging is So Overrated
4. The Secretes to Assembling a Digital Crate of
Samples
5. How to Choose The Right Samples
6. How to Develop Your Sampling Ear
7. Jumpstart: Heres A Few Of My Favorite Sampling
Playlists
21
How to Figure Out What Music to Sample
For the beginner producer and anyone who hasn't checked out
my Maschine 101 course, learning the ins and outs of sampling can be
a difcult. "What the F#ck am I supposed to be sampling? What genres
am I supposed to be listening to? This sample sounds so cheesy"
Knowing what songs to sample, what portions of those songs to sam-
ple, then being able to re-arrange the original melody takes a bit of time.
Fortunately, I'm here to give you a head start. Luckily, you don't have to
suffer through years of trial and error. Don't make the same mistakes I
have made.
How to Recognize the Elements of a Great Sam-
ple.
When sampling a song, you are taking over that songs style and emo-
tion. The goal is to nd a portion of a song that moves you, then take
that song and create your own original melody using Maschine.
You are you are borrowing that songs instrumentation, the key, and the
harmony. It is important to recognize this early on. Sampling something
that sounds cheesy, will only render cheesy results. Sample songs that
really move you emotionally.
Sample music that you actually enjoy listening to. Take from songs that
evoke the sonic texture that you are trying to reproduce. Don't just grab
anything, 90% of the work is having a discerning ear.
It will take years of time to develop your sampling ear. Its a skill to be
able to listen to a song and immediately tell what is worth sampling for
Section 1
How to Develop Your
Sampling Ear. Help Yourself
Make Better Beats.
22
you. Start listening to music with the specic mindset of: "would this
sound good if I sampled it?" Over time, you will start to be able to recog-
nize what will sound good and what won't.
As you sample more often on Maschine, you'll be able to hear a song
and immediately recognize how
you can ip that sample into some-
thing hot. But the only way to g-
ure this out is by actually making
beats (and A LOT of them for that
matter).
Save Yourself From
Hours of Unnecessary
Headache: Why Crate
Digging is Overrated
I covered this topic briey in my
eDigging tutorial from a while
back. Hip hop purists will hate me
for saying this. We're in the 21st
century: If you aren't eDigging,
you are LOSING.
I understand the nostalgia of dig-
ging in crates. I recognize that
some purists love hunting for a
gem record in a thrift store. But in the words of Sweet Brown: aint no-
body got time for that. When I eDig, I have access to millions of songs.
As I've shown you before, Its so easy for me to sample in Maschine.
I can sample a song off of YouTube and chop it up in Maschine within a
matter of a few minutes. Why spend so much time going to record
stores and sift through records? Especially considering you could be us-
ing that time to make more beats. It doesn't make sense to me.
YouTube is a goldmine of music.
Any and every song that you can
nd at a record store can be
found on YouTube and down-
loaded for free in a matter of sec-
onds.
The difculty in sampling on the
net is knowing what artist to sam-
ple. The solution is to treat sam-
pling online the same way hip hop
purists have treated sampling vi-
nyl.
The Secret to Assem-
bling a Digital Crate of
Samples
You should tread eDigging just
like people treat crate digging.
Set aside a dedicated folder (or
crate) on your computer specically for your sample songs.
I recommend putting these songs on an external hard drive, not scat-
tered around different folders on your computer or on your desktop.
Why? To save yourself from headaches.
Traditional crate digging can be a super rewarding experience. You can nd some rare
gems of records that your probably wouldnt run across online.
23
As soon as you move your sample les on your computer, Maschine
will loose track of that le's location and youll have to re-locate it before
you can play your les. It creates a lot of headache for you down the
road. Having to manually search for les on your computer is a pain.
Organize your digital crate categori-
cally by month and date so that as
your sampling ear progresses, you
can separate your newer sample
choices from your older samples.
Your new sample choices will get bet-
ter as you listen to more and more
sample music and make more beats.
In the beginning , make it your goal
to spend just15 minutes each day on-
line looking for and listening to new
samples. When you hear something
you think you could sample, down-
load and archive it for a time where
you can actually sit down and make
a beat.
For instructions on how to actually
download tracks off of YouTube,
check out the eDigging tutorial in the next chapter.
How To Choose The Right Samples
I think digging on the net is great. But, it does have some downsides.
Because music is readily available today (YouTube, torrents, Spotify)
people have become impatient when listening to music. You have to be
patient in order to nd the true sample gems.
Don't be so quick to skip songs when eDigging. The ability to just sit
back, enjoy yourself and just listen is important to get into it the mindset
of a true digger.
That is why it is important to start sam-
pling from music that you actually en-
joy listening to. If you sample from
the music you enjoy, you wont mind
spending 5 minutes listening through
and old song.
It might help to imagine that you just
paid $10 to buy a record at a record
store. I guarantee that you'd listen to
every second of that record, just to
make sure that you getting your mon-
eys worth.
When you are used free and readily
available music, you arent really in-
vested in it. And it becomes easy to
just go nd something else to listen
to.
Develop some patience! Take the time to listen to an entire song, espe-
cially with older music. The best parts of good samples are often em-
bedded into random parts of the song. If you cant focus through an en-
All of the features of Maschines sampler can be accessed when you press the
SAMPLING button.
24
tire song, turn some Netix and listen to samples in the background. Itll
make it easier to sit through an entire song.
f you judge a song by the 15 second intro, you'll miss a lot of good op-
portunities to sample. Older musical arrangements are structured differ-
ently than songs of today. Be patient, sit back and enjoy yourself. With
old records, it takes some
time for the song to develop
and actually get good.
How to Develop
Your Sampling Ear.
The process that all of the
greats have used to develop
their sampling ear is really
freaking simple. Begin by g-
uring out your taste in music.
What type of music do you en-
joy?
Next, sit down and listen to
some songs with the mindset
of: what sounds, melodies, loops, can I sample from this song? Then,
ip that sample into your own song.
What music can you sit down an listen to daily with the specic inten-
tions of nding good samples. Other questions to consider:
What artists do I like?
What genres do I like? Funk, Soul, Jazz?
What time period has a sound that I like? (ex. late
1970's, mid 80's)
What record label is responsible for this sound?
Does this label have
more songs/artists similar to
this?
What instruments am I
looking for in a sample?
What artists do the pro-
ducers I admire sample from?
How do my favorite pro-
ducers ip these samples?
Wash, rinse and repeat a few
hundred times and you'll start
to progress as a beat maker.
For any art form (painting,
beat making, writing, etc.) quantity leads to quality. Artist like Dilla,
Kanye, or Pete Rock made 2,000 songs in order to 200 that were clas-
sics.
But, in order to get to that point, you have to get really good at the funda-
mentals. Oftentimes, people will have already put together extensive
playlists with exactly what you're looking for on YouTube tting your crite-
ria.
Hands down, YouTube is the best place to nd great samples on the internet.
25
For example, I enjoy sampling a lot of Bobby Womack. Someone was
cool enough to assemble an extensive Bobby Womack Playlist on You-
tube lled with hundreds of songs that I have sampled from in the past.
Jumpstart: Heres a Few of My Favorite Sam-
pling Playlists.
My Personal Crate - This is a playlist created by another You-
Tube digger from a while ago. It has hundreds of quality samples.
Aphrodite's Child - A Greek progressive rock band from the
early 70's. They produce a lot of very trippy music. A$AP Rocky pro-
ducer Clams Casino has sampled from them a lot.
B.T. Express - A funk group from the 1970's. Every major artist
you can think of has rapped over songs sampled by them: Common,
Jay-Z, Flying Lotus, Dr. Dre, etc.
Led Zeppelin - An English rock band popular during the 70's.
Zeppelin has some of the most amazing drum breaks.
The Sylvers - A soul group from the 70's. Dilla has sampled them
a few times.
Sub Pop Records - An alternative record label from Seattle.
How to Become a Successful Producer
Its really simple. This is a game of numbers. The more music you listen
to, the more you sample, the more songs you make - the better you will
become as a producer.
The difference between guys like Timbaland, Pharrell, Kanye, Dilla, Mad-
lib and you -- years of practicing, knowledge of the tools theyre working
with, and a bit of luck.
Think about it. The Neptunes were banging out tracks everyday for
seven years before they reached a level of consistent commercial suc-
cess. Producers are craftsmen. And just like any other craft, it takes
time to master the tools of your trade.
Get to practicing, go make some beats!
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How eDigging Can Help You
Create Better Beats
1. The Super Simple Secrets To Dig For Records Online
2. How You Can Create Your Own Digital Crate of
Samples
3. The Simple Way To Download Records From The
Internet And Save Yourself A Lot Of Time
4. How To Get Your Songs From Your Digital Crate And
Into Your Maschine
26
No offense, but no one samples from dusty vinyl records anymore. You-
Tube is a GOLDMINE for nding old records.
If you dont already know, Ill explain it to you simply: YouTube allows
you to have instant access to millions of old records, all without having
to rundown to your local record shop and spend $100s on a collection.
The main issue is weeding through all of the songs you don't like and
nding those gems that catch your ear. Luckily, I have done most of the
hardest work for you.
The Super Simple Secrets To Dig For Records On-
line
The trick to eDigging: dig for music online like you would dig for records
at a record store. Try and simulate the experience of digging for records
when you search for music online.
Take notice of the album artwork, artists, producer of the album, instru-
ments used in the music, the year the record was made, etc. By taking
all of this stuff into account each time you dig for songs, you'll begin to
notice patterns in the music you choose.
You will begin to form your own tastes. If you do it often enough, youll
start to be able to recognize the songs and type of music that you are
looking for.
Another trick to digging online is to follow the YouTube channel and
blogs of crate diggers who's taste in music matches yours.
Section 2
How eDigging Can Help
You Create Better Beats
27
If you nd someone who has a similar taste in music, bookmark their
channel in your web browser. Come back later when you need some-
thing good to sample. This pretty much eliminates all the hard work on
your part.
How You Can Create
Your Own Digital
Crate of Samples.
I'm kind of a nut about keep-
ing myself organized. But or-
ganization is really important
when you're downloading a
bunch of samples from the
net everyday.
If you don't organize your
sample library properly, you
can run into a lot of issues
down the road. Files will be
lost, you won't know what
songs you have sampled al-
ready, and that sucks.
Do yourself a favor right now. Create a folder on your computer (or exter-
nal hard drive) just for the samples you download off of the net.
Within your big sample folder, have sub folders for each month of the
year. Within those monthly folders, have folders for each date of that
month (at least the dates you download samples). This system will help
you to keep all of your samples organized.
Within your each of your individual dates folder, have tw folders . One
forlder for mp3's and the other wav les. Store the mp3's you download
directly from the net in the
mp3 folder.
And after you convert your
mp3 les to .wav (the format
Maschine reads), store your
new wav les in the wav
folder of that particular date.
By following this process,
youll keep things organized
and save yourself from a lot
of headache down the road.
Do yourself another favor and
never move the location of the
samples or your samples
folder.
When you use a sample in one of your Mashcine beats, Maschine will
keep track of where that sample was saved o your computer.
If you move that le by putting it in a different folder or moving it some-
where else on your computer, Maschine will not be able to nd the le
and you wont be able to play your songs.
Use a permanent folder on your computer to organize your samples. Never move this folder. It
will create problems for you down the road.
28
Avoid this problem in the future by just saving your les properly in the
beginning.
The Simple Way To Download Records From The
Internet And Save Yourself A Lot of Time
Once you have a good folder
structure set up, its time to nd
something great to sample. Check
out the previous section to nd out
how to pick good samples.
But once you have gured some-
thing good to sample, youll need
a way to get it off of YouTube and
onto your computer. The easiest
way to do this is using a YouTube
downloader like HD Transform
(hdtransform.com) to download a
high quality audio le.
To do this, copy the YouTube
video's url into the download bar
on HD Transform, click the 256
button, and press the "process"
button.
Then, youll see a menu asking you where to want to save the audio le.
Using the folder that you organized (*cough cough*), download your
song to the mp3 folder within the proper month and dates.
Once you have your le downloaded in mp3 format, you'll need to con-
vert it into a format that Maschine can read (.wav).
How To Get Files From Your Digital Crate And Into
Your Maschine
My favorite program to convert
audio les is Audacity
(audacity.sourceforge.net). Go
download this program right now.
If you sample off the net, youll be
using it a lot in the future.
Using Audacity, open the MP3 le
that you just saved in your MP3
folder. Once the MP3 is loaded in
Audacity, youll need to convert it
to wav.
To do this, go to "File" and select
the export button. A new menu
will come up asking what format
to convert the le to. Select wav
and save your new wav le into
your "wav" folder. Simple as that.
Now, you can open up Maschine and click the disk button to nd your
new wav le. Using your mouse, navigate to where you saved the wav
le.
I use Audacity to convert les from .mp3 to .wav format. Its free, simple, easy to use,
and available on both Mac and PC.
29
Click on your your newly saved sample and the le will load up in
Maschine. Now that the song is loaded in your Maschine, it time for the
fun part. Chop up the song so that you can create your own original mel-
ody with Machine.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How To Create Original Melodies Using Just
A Maschine
1. Choosing Your Sampling Format: Its More Important Than You
Think
2. Choosing A Quality Sample: The ONLY Way to Make a Good
Beat. Chop That Sample up With Maschine
3. Making Your Chops: Time To Get Creative
4. Why Drums Arent As Important As You Thought (At Least Right
Now)
5. Either Be Creative With Your Chops or Bore Your Listeners
6. The Most Important Step: Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
30
Sampling is the foundation of most modern musical genres. Hip-Hop,
House Music, R&B, Pop-music - are all genres based off of sampling.
Your ability to take a sample, chop it up, ip it and create something
completely new determines your eventual success as a producer. Find
out how you can create your own original melodies just your Maschine.
Choosing Your Sampling Format: Its More Important
Than You Think
The rst, and probably the most important step of the process is to nd
a great song to sample. Now, this can be done in a bunch of different
ways. If you have a turntable, a DJ mixer and an audio interface, you
can sample into Maschine using old vinyl records.
The advantage of sampling with vinyl is nding unique records that
probably aren't online + vinyl records will have a distinct quality that you
cant nd online most times.
The second, and my favorite way to discover samples is by nding
song that you'd like to sample on YouTube and then download it using a
YouTube to mp3 service.
This is the easiest way for me to nd songs to sample. Its easy to dis-
cover a bunch of different songs and les at one time by following a few
people who upload their personal collection of vinyl on YouTue.
Section 3
How To Create Original
Melodies Using Just A
Maschine
31
Choosing A Quality Sample: The ONLY Way to Make
a Good Beat.
Taking the time to choose a quality sample is the most important part of
the sampling process.
Dont be lazy when sampling. Move be-
yond just sampling the fteen second
intro of the rst song that you hear. Try
to be patient.
Sometimes you need to dig deeper, lit-
erally. Find something unique, outland-
ish, nd something that hasn't been
done before. And, if it has been done
before, no problem, do it differently.
Making Your Chops: Time
To Get Creative
Now for the actual sampling. To do
this, you'll need to jump into sampling
mode on Maschine. Then navigate to
the edit tab (its easier to see what I'm talking about if you watch the
video above). Next, you're going to slice up your sample into pieces
(called chops).
If you don't feel comfortable chopping samples by hand yet, you can
use Mashine's auto-detect feature and have Maschine automatically
choose your chops for you based upon the peaks of your audio wave-
form.
This is the most simple (and quickest) way to chop your sample.
Chopping by hand is an entire skill upon itself. But you won't be very
good at this to start off.
Recognizing what pieces of the sam-
ple to chop up takes time and a good
ear to recognize. Overtime, you'll be-
come better at choosing your chops.
The only way to get better at chopping:
practice, practice, practice.
Why Drums Arent As Impor-
tant As You Thought (At
Least Right Now)
This step can be somewhat time con-
suming. It takes time to nd the drums
that t your track perfectly. In order to
reduce the amount of time I spend look-
ing for drum sounds and deciding on a good pattern, I load the same
practice drum track in so that I can just focus on my sample chops
(more on practice drum tracks later).
The practice drum track let's me come back at a later time and nd
some better drums for the pattern I created. Using this practice drum
tracks prevents me from getting distracted.
Hip Hop producer duo, Tha Bizness, making Sherane for Kendrick Lamar
on a Maschine Mk2.
32
Before using this technique, I'd waste 20 minutes deciding on the best
sounding drums that t my track. Then I'd waste another 10 minutes de-
ciding on a good drum pattern to use. After taking 25 minutes to gure
out my drums, I'd lose my train of thought. Its easier to just come back
and gure out the drums later.
Normally, Id nd a drum break
from one of my own drum librar-
ies. Id then take this break and
timestretch it to match the BPM
(beats per minute) I previously
set the song to.
I could have also taken this proc-
ess a step further and chopped
up my drum break and then g-
ured out a different drum pattern.
But for sake of this tutorial, I
thought I'd save you some time.
Either Be Creative With
Your Chops or Bore Your Listeners
After you have decided on your drums (or just loaded your practice kit),
its time to ip your sample. Flipping a sample is simple, but sometimes
time consuming.
Your goal is just to experiment with your different chops. Play them back
in a different order, pitch them up or down, change the key, timestrech
them, add some Maschine FX, etc.
Your only goal during this phase is to experiment with a new sequence
for your sample that sounds good to your ears. There is only one simple
rule to this process: make it sound good.
The easiest way to do this is to play your drum sequence in a loop, and
then just mash the buttons. This is where you can let your creative ear
shine through! Its kind of like gur-
ing out a puzzle, or painting a pic-
ture.
There's no one right way to do it,
only thousands of different inter-
pretations. Its really all about
where you decide to take the
song.
I tend to work with four bar loops,
but this really isn't a rule. If you
think 2 bars, 3 bars, even 8 bar
loops work better for you, go for
it. Normally, I create a few differ-
ent sequences from this one sam-
ple.
At the very least one sequence for the verse, one sequence for the cho-
rus (this isn't a rule, just how I tend to work). Don't be worried if a good
sequence doesn't gome to you immediately.
It can take a good amount of time to gure out the different patterns for
the verse, chorus and (maybe) interlude for the song. Some ips come
Chopping up a sample in Maschine is relatively easy once you get the hang of it.
33
instantly, while others may take twenty minutes to gure out. So just be
patient.
The Most Important Step: Wash, Rinse, Repeat.
This one really doesn't count as a step, but I had to throw it in there for
good measure. The only way to ge t good at sampling is to do it thou-
sands upon thousands of times. Don't get frustrated when it doesn't
come to you easily at the beginning. Because that's the way it was for
most of us.
But the difference between those that never become good beat makers
and those that become great is simple: they keep doing it. Stick to it
and you'll progress.
3
Using your FX properly is the
only way to create a profes-
sional sounding beat in
Maschine. Maschines stock
FX are a super powerful way
that you can increase the
sonic quality of your mix and
make your beats sound
much more polished.
Maschine FX
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: The Secret To Banging
Drums: Audio Compression
1. What is Compression and Why Should You Use
it?
2. How Do You Use a Compressor?
3. How Does Maschines Compressor Work?
4. Always Test Your Results
5. General Rules of Thumb For Compression
35
What Is Compression, Why Should You Use it?
Do your tracks sound out of control? Having trouble making your drums
to sound punchy? Want to increase the tighten your bass line?
Compression is an effective tool to help you solve a lot of problems with
your mix. First, what does compression do?
Compression controls the distance between the loudest and softest
sounds in you mix (otherwise known as the dynamic range). It makes
your softest sounds louder and your loudest sounds, or peaks, more
quiet
The goal of using a compressor is to be able to turn up the overall vol-
ume of a particular track without making it clip. Simply put, compression
is automatic volume control, used to make things louder.
When used properly, compression can increase the "fatness" of a thin
baseline. In turn, if used incorrectly compression can make your base-
line sound abby and out of place.
Compressors automatically turn down the loudest parts (peaks) of your
mix, allowing you to turn up the volume of that sound.
The goal is to Make the overall sound levels more consistent, fuller,
richer, more controlled, punchier, and most of all louder.
Section 1
The Secret to Banging
Drums: Audio
Compression
36
How do you use a Compressor?
The most important thing to keep in mind when using compression is to
have a clear goal in mind from the start. Before inserting the compres-
sor onto an FX chain, ask yourself - "what is the desired effect I am try-
ing to achieve?"
By starting with a goal in mind,
you'll be able to come back later
and determine if using the com-
pressor is really added value to
your mix.
How Does Maschines
Compressor Work?
Threshold:
Basically, once the audio signal
crosses this set point, the com-
pressor will start working. The
threshold is measured in Decibels
(DB's). The compressor has no effect on the signal above the threshold.
Once the threshold is reached, the compressor will reduce the audio sig-
nal. The amount the audio signal is reduced is determined by a simple
equation: the amount of DBs the audio signal exceeds the threshold
times the ratio you set (ratio explained next)
For example, if the signal goes over the threshold by 4 db's and your ra-
tio is 3:1, your compressor will reduce the audio signal by 12db's ( 4 x 3
= 12).
Ratio:
With a 3:1 (low) ratio, with a signal 4 db's above the threshold, the com-
pressor will turn down the signal 12
db's. With a 7:1 (high) ratio, with a
signal 4 db's above the threshold,
the compressor will reduce the
sound by 28 db's.
I like to keep my compression set-
tings pretty low. It makes the com-
pression more subtle and more natu-
ral. The higher you set your ratio, the
more extreme your compressor will
reduce the audio signal. I normally
use a low ratio 2:1 or less. But you
can play it by ear.
Attack:
The attack determines the time it takes (in milliseconds) for the compres-
sor to start turning down the audio signal once it has crossed the thresh-
old.
The lower you set the attack settings, the faster the signal starts getting
compressed. Fast attacks are useful for softening very peaky sounds.
Fortunately for us, we dont need to own this huge and expensive compressor to get
the job done.
37
If more punch is what you want, use a slow attack. Why? Because a fast
attack will remove life and impact from a sound. A fast attack will start to
compress the sound before the initial punch of the drum sound passes
through.
If you put an attack that is a little too fast on a kick drum, it will make
your kick more mufed and a lot less punchy.
A slower attack allows the initial punch of the drum to pass through be-
fore the compressor kicks in and starts to work on the end of the kicks
sound.
This is exactly what you want
in most cases. The initial hit of
a kick or snare needs to come
through, while the rest of the
sound gets compressed.
This technique allows you to
hear the snap of the drum or
snare as well as the fullness of
the body of the sound.
Be careful not to set the attack too long though. If set too long, the entire
drum hit will pass through the compressor before the compressor kicks
in, so you basically don't compress anything. Thats no good either.
Release:
The release determines how quickly the compressor stops working on
your audio signal.
So once your sound drops below the set threshold, the compressor
starts working. Once it starts working, the release time determines how
long the compressor will go to work on your audio signal.
With a longer release time, the compression is applied longer.
Play around with your release settings to get your desired effect. Too
fast of a release time can result in "pumping." Too slow of a release time
and the compressor might not have a chance to stop compressing be-
fore the next drum hit.
I air on the side of a release
thats too short rather than too
long.
Gain:
The gain is pretty simple. Be-
cause using a compressor will
lower the volume of your audio signal, gain provides a way for you to
raise the volume back to its original level.
Knee:
The knee effects how smoothly the transition into compression takes
place. Increasing the knee will allow the compression to slowly kick in.
A lower knee setting(aka hard knee) would create an immediate transi-
tion into compression. A higher knee setting (aka soft knee) is useful if
you wanted the compression to slowly kick in
38
The soft knee only compresses the signal a small amount when it rst
crosses the threshold and then gradually compresses the signal a bit
more later on.
With drums, I use no knee. For instruments and vocals, youll have to ex-
periment and see what sort of knee settings sound best for that particu-
lar situation.
Always Test Your Results:
It tempting to add compression, just because you think you should.
Avoid this urge. After you add compression you should always compare
your sound before and after compression (do this by clicking on the FX
tab).
Ask yourself: Does this actually sound better? Did I just make my mix
more mushy? Does this sound like the songs I'm trying to emu-
late? Does my compressed version sound punchier, fuller, and/or more
exciting?
If not, don't be afraid to scrap it.
General Rules of Thumb For Compression:
The rst rule: there are no set rules. For every hard rule that there is out
there, there have been countless people that have gone against the
grain and gotten great results.
Music is mostly about creative experimentation. As your skills progress
and as you spend more time working with effects you will develop your
own personal tastes.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How Equalization (EQ) Can
Save Your Mix
1. Why Is Equalization So Important?
2. How Does The Equalizer in Maschine Work
Compared To Other EQs?
3. What Is The Best Way To Use Maschines EQ To
Make Your Tracks Better?
39
Learning how to properly equalize can be an absolute life saver for your
mix. EQ is one of the most important tools at your disposal for creating a
quality mix in Maschine.
EQ is used to boost or reduce the volume of a selected frequency or fre-
quency ranges. It is great for sculpting out frequencies in your tracks to
allow different elements of your mix to shine through.
Why Is Equalization So Important?
Your beats are made up of a bunch of different digital information that
extends a frequency range of about 20 hz-20,000 hz.
The more information in your mix, the more cluttered and muddy your
track ultimately becomes. The more information in your mix the more dif-
ferent sounds are competing to be heard over one another.
A cluttered mix is no good. Your goal should be to cut away all the bad
stuff and slightly boost the good stuff.
EQ will help you to carve out extra frequencies in your mix to make your
beats sound more clear.
Subtracting the frequencies that muck up your mix does two things for
you:
1) EQ helps you to remove the sounds competing to be heard within
your mix. Two sounds that are in the same frequency range cant
both be heard at once.
Section 2
How Equalization (EQ)
Can Save Your Mix.
40
2) By eliminating the bad frequencies, it automatically enhances those
frequencies that you want to be heard in your track.
How Does The Equalizer Work In Maschine Com-
pared to Other EQs?
Maschine's EQ is parametric. Parametric EQs allow you to decide
which frequencies you are boosting or cutting.
Parametric EQ's are different than a xed frequency equalizer that you
might see on on your iTunes
EQ display. Fixed frequency
equalizers don't allow you to
adjust the frequencies that
you are enhancing and sub-
tracting from.
Maschine's EQ has four dif-
ferent bands. Four bands
means that you can adjust
up to 4 different frequency ranges at one time.
Theres the low, low-mid, high-mid, and high bands. These four different
bands make it easy for you to specically adjust common frequencies
within your mix:
Low band: best used for adjusting bass sounds and things like 808 kick
drums. Frequency range (20hz- 100hz).
Low-mid band: commonly used to adjust kick drums. Frequency range
(100hz- 220hz).
High-mid band: I use the high-mid band to adjust snare drums. Also
can be used to adjust different instruments (or samples) within your
tracks - guitars, pianos, etc.
High band: used to adjust sounds that reside in highest frequencies --
hi-hats, claps, shakers, high-pitched instruments and the upper frequen-
cies of your samples.
What Is The Best Way To Use Maschines EQ To
Make Your Tracks
Better?
Before you break out your
EQ and start adjusting
things, you should ask your-
self these two questions:
1) What frequencies make
this track sound great?
2) What frequencies are the hidden gems of this track?
A mistake that most beginners make (including me) when using EQ is
boosting more frequencies than they subtract.
For beginners this makes the most sense, and sometimes is the easiest
thing to do. But this habit of boosting more than you cut will come back
to bite you.
41
For example, you listen to a kick drum and you hear that the kick drum
is lacking on the bottom end. So you grab an EQ plugin and you boost
the frequencies around 90hz, and everything is all good right? Wrong...
If you follow this same logic across every track in your mix, you're going
to end up with a mufed and muddy mess of a nal mix.
If all you do is boost frequencies without cutting other frequencies, all
you have essentially done is add more volume (and muddy noise) to
your beat overall. This will make the quality of your mix suffer in the
end.
Instead of adding frequencies to your mix, begin to start thinking in
terms of what frequencies can I remove in my mix to bring out the good
frequencies I already have to the forefront.
This tip alone will do wonders to cleaning up your mixes on Maschine.
From the previous kick drum example, instead of adding volume to the
90hz frequencies, you could instead subtract some DB's from frequen-
cies in the 150-240hz range.
By removing these upper frequencies, you would automatically highlight
the 90hz range of your kick drum. Youd get the result youre looking for
without muddying up your mix.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Audio Delay, The Reason
Your Tracks Dont Sound Professional
1. Why Do I Need To Use Delay?
2. How Does Audio Delay Work?
3. How Can You Use Maschines Delay To Make
Better Beats?
42
Why Do I Need To Use Delay?
If you aren't using delay, your tracks aren't going to sound like your fa-
vorite hip hop tracks. Why? Because the vast majority of hip hop music
(and music in general), contains some form of audio delay.
But, what is delay? To put it simply, delay does exactly what the name
implies: it delays the incoming audio signal for a set amount of time.
The studios that we record our music in today are very clean and sterile.
But in the real world, each space that were in has its own "sound" to it.
Each enclosed room has certain reective properties. The walls,
oors, and ceilings all reect sound causing it to bounce around and
come back to your ears. This is sometimes known as an echo.
So think of delay as an attempt to emulate the echoes that we hear in
the real world. Using it will add a level of complexity to your beats, mak-
ing them sound less sterile.
How Does Audio Delay Work?
Delay simply emulates the effect of recording an audio signal in a space
that reects sound. For example, shouting your name inside of a cave
and hearing it repeat over and over again is delay at work.
The audio signal occurs (a hand clap), the audio signal travels and hits
a wall and bounces back to your ears before you hear it again.
Section 3
Audio Delay, The Reason
Your Tracks Dont Sound
Professional...
43
The audio delay in your Maschine works by sampling an audio signal,
holding onto it for a set period of time and then it replays the sound
back to you.
Most delay plugins have a parameter that allows you to control the
length of time that it holds on to the audio signal before playing it back
to you.
After you specify a length of delay time, the effect will spit back the
audio signal to you after the
specied length of time.
How Can You Use
Maschines Delay To
Make Better Beats
The delay in Maschine is di-
vided between three distinct
sections: delay, feedback
and output. I'll quickly go over how to use these parameters to get the
effects you are looking for in your music.
The Delay Section
The "delay" section controls the amount of time Maschine samples your
audio signal and holds it before it bounces the signal back to you.
You can also control the delay time even further, by fractions of a beat.
You can adjust the delay into beat divisions (1/32, 1/16, 5/16, etc.)
which is determined by your songs tempo.
Choosing the right delay time is important in order to achieve the de-
sired effect your after. A short delay (1/32) can be used to simulate a
double tracking effect. Much longer delay times like 5/16 make for
really odd bounce back effects.
Just play around with this section to get a better understanding of what
youre working with.
The Feedback Section
The 'feedback" section con-
trols sound of the signal once
it is bounced back to you.
The rst parameter "amount"
determines how much of the
originally sampled signal is
bounced back to you. For
each repetition of the delay, it
decreases the new audio sig-
nal by your set amount percentage.
For example: set your feedback amount to 75%. The rst hit of the sam-
ple will be 100% volume, the rst delayed repetition will be at 75% vol-
ume, the second will bounce back at 56.3% volume, etc.
If you set your feedback to 100%, the signal will keep compounding on
itself and be a never-ending blob of sound.
Delay is often used to fatten up a sound through a process called dou-
bling. Doubling is simply the perceived duplicating of an audio signal
by using a very short delay time (1/32 or 1/16). Our brains cannot proc-
44
ess the two sounds so close together, so it perceives them as one dis-
tinct Phat sound.
The Output Section
In the output section there are two different parameters that you can ad-
just. Stereo controls stereo image of your delayed audio signal. The mix
controls dryness/wetness of your delayed audio signal.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How To Get That 90s Feel
Using Saturation
1. What Is Analog Warmth? Why Is It So
Important?
2. Why Should You Use Saturation On Your
Tracks?
45
Get a group of hip hop heads together, and you are sure to hear conver-
sation (probably turn into a heated argument) about the good old days
of 'analog warmth' - and why thing sounded so much better back in the
day.
By using Maschine's stock saturation effect, you can get that warm 'ana-
log feel' of 90's era hip hop without huge tape machine.
Im going to show you how to use saturation to add more punch, grit,
and griminess to your drums in a few simple steps.
What Is Analog Warmth? Why Is It So Important?
Tape saturation is an audio effect that emulates the built in aws of the
magnetic tape recording process.
Back in the day (1950-1990's), albums were recorded on reel-to-reel
analog tape recorders. The technical limitations and imperfections built
into these machines caused the audio signals passed through them to
sound very unique.
Different variables (machine type, circuitry, tape width) of the tape ma-
chine determined how the audio signal is manipulated and distorted by
the tape machine.
These old tape machines add a bit of compression, limiter, colorization
and equalization to the audio signal. This gave the audio signal more
grit, color, and energy. So without even realizing it, this is the sound that
many of us are used to hearing in professional recordings.
Section 4
How to Get That 90s
Feel Using Saturation
46
You can recognize a tape recorders warm sonic texture instantly, just
because this effect has been used on pretty much every one of your fa-
vorite recordings.
Tape saturation naturally glued together your mix. It added warmth, vi-
brancy, and presence to your tracks.
Today, digital versions of this tape saturation effect have been created
to emulate the sounds of the old tape record.
These effects allow you to get
a similar effect of a passing
your audio through a tape re-
corder. But instead of big,
heavy, and expensive tape ma-
chines - you can get a similar
sound digitally with your
plugin.
Why Should You Use
Saturation On Your Tracks?
Digital audio signals are naturally very clean. Meaning that because of
the way digital sound works, there are no built in aws or odd circuitry
like on a tape machine.
Its nice to bring in some of this analog sound into your mixes to create
that grimy, fat, imperfect sound.
I use saturation to add punch and heaviness to my drum tracks. With
saturation you can turn otherwise average sounding drums into heavy,
grimy, gritty and generally more interesting sounding drums.
So start to play around with different levels of compression in your
Maschines stock saturation plugin. Tube, classic and tape saturation all
have various uses.
Use some tube saturation on your kick drums and experiment with the
levels. Tape saturation is also great on your drum group to glue together
the overall sound. Add some
grit to your synths by adding
classic saturation.
Combine this with other tech-
niques like drum layering or
compression and you'll be
making some seriously grimy
drums in no time.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Reverb - The Little Secret To
BIG Sound On Maschine
1. What Is Reverb?
2. Why Does Reverb Sound So Damned Good?
3. How Can You Use Maschines Reverb To Make
Great Sounds?
47
What Is Reverb?
Using reverb wrong is the difference between a track that sounds like it
was produced by a 15 year old in his bedroom and a track that sounds
like it was produced by a professional producer.
Used correctly, reverb adds a more realistic and lush sound to your
track. Reverb takes an otherwise boring sound and makes it more inter-
esting to listen to.
We hear reverberated sounds all the time. Imagine screaming "HELLO!"
in a big church cathedral. Reverb is the thousands of little distinct repeti-
tions and reections of a sound bouncing around the room, hitting off of
the walls, oors ceilings and other objects in the room.
Unlike delay, with reverb there are so many individual repetitions and re-
ections that you can't identify each one individually. This is why music
without reverb sounds so unnatural. We hear this sound all around us all
the time.
Be careful not to confuse the properties of reverb with audio delay. De-
lay is one (or a few) distinct repetitions of a sound: "Hello..Hello..Hello."
Reverb is thousands of repetitions and reections of the single sound
that blend together.
Why Does Reverb Sound So Damned Good?
Every space has its own sonic signature. Imagine the difference be-
tween playing a drum set in your bathroom and playing that same drum
set in an old Roman Cathedral.
Section 5
Reverb: The Little
Secret To BIG Sound
On Maschine
48
The two environments would produce two totally different sounds. The
reason they would sound different is because of the different reverb
qualities of both of these two rooms.
Back in the day, professional recordings were made in special locations
to give tracks the reverberation characteristics of a particular room or
environment. Theres going to be huge differences between recording a
band in a huge concert hall vs a garage.
Detroit's Motown records even had its own dedicated reverberation
chamber where they re-
corded specic tracks in
their songs.
Artists like The Supremes
recorded their claps in this
reverb chamber that had its
own built in skylight. The sky-
light created a unique echo
that can be heard in a lot of
old Motown records.
Hip Hop producers like Jay Dee and 9th Wonder get their heavily rever-
berated claps from old records recorded in Motown's huge reverber-
ated skylights.
The digital reverb FX in Maschine is an attempt to recreate these unique
recording environments, to make your tracks sound more lush and realis-
tic.
How Can You Use Maschine's Reverb To Make Great
Sounds?
The reverb plugin in Maschine has four different sections of parameters
to adjust your sound: room, position, eq,and output. Play around with
these parameters on different sounds.
First, Ill explain what each adjustment does:
1. Room - Allows you to adjust the size of the hypothetical room
your sound is in. The size of
the room effects the lengths
of the tail of the sound. A
large room will give you a
huge tail sound, it will hold
on longer. I tend to keep my
room size pretty small,
larger reverbs sound unreal-
istic to me.
2. EQ - allows you to adjust the eq properties of the reverberated
sound. You can boost or reduce the low and high frequencies to
achieve your desired effect. There are no hard rules, just experiment
with it.
3. Position - allows you to change the panning (left or right) and
the stereo width of the audio signal. You can automate these to give
movement to the reverberated track and help it sound less digital.
These are good parameters to automate. (More on automation next sec-
tion)
49
4. Output - gives you the option to freeze the track. This basically
holds whatever reverberated sound is currently playing over your speak-
ers. This is cool to use with automation as well. And of course the mix pa-
rameter let's you control the ratio of dry (untreated signal) vs. wet (rever-
berated signal)
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Keep Your Beats From Being
Boring, Use Automation
1. How Automation Makes Your Beats Better.
2. What Is The Goal Of Automation?
3. How Do I Automate In Maschine?
50
Automation is one of Maschine's most important features. But why? The
reason is really simple. Subconsciously, your brain becomes used to re-
petitive sounds within your songs.
The last thing you want is for people to get bored listening to your mu-
sic. Automation allows you to make your beats more interesting to listen
to by adding more excitement and variation.
How Automation Makes Your Beats Better.
Automation allows Maschine to remember the adjustment of your faders
when you play back your music.
You can adjust the settings of your FX in real time to make for a more ex-
citing, appealing and interesting mix.
Maschine makes it very simple to automate sounds using knobs instead
of clicking with a mouse (boring). Its really easy to get up and running
with.
What Is The Goal of Automation?
On of my goals when creating beats is to make a soundscape. A sound-
scape is simply a sound or combination of sounds that are used to form
an immersive musical environment.
Soundscapes create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic
environment. Creating soundscapes will help your listeners to get lost in
your music. You can do this in a number of ways:
Section 6
Keep Your Beats From
Being Boring, Use
Automation.
51
Building Anticipation: this is most recognizable in electronic mu-
sic. EDM uses volume swells to to build up anticipation before the drop.
They automate volume of the track. It will start at a low point and then
increase over time to make for a really interesting sound.
Creating Movement: you can automate the panning of your
sounds. By automating the panning of your sounds from left to right you
can make movement in your tracks. I like to do this with hi-hats.
Shaping
Sounds: using effects
like Maschines built in
lters, reverb, EQ and
metaverb, you can
shape sounds in your
mix that change over
time. Using lters, you
can bring an instrument
in and out of your mix
by adjusting the fre-
quency and resonance.
This technique is used
on synthesizers fre-
quently. Experiment with shaping sounds over time.
How Can You Automate in Maschine?
Automation in Maschine is very hands on, especially when you compare
it to the mouse-clicking automating style of most DAWs. Maschine al-
lows you to turn knobs and tweak things; Maschine will remember the
sequence that you adjusted the FX and it plays them back in the same
sequence as you adjusted them.
Automating in Maschine is really simple:
1. Start by making a few copies of the pattern you plan to auto-
mate. Later youll record different automated versions of this one pattern
to use at different points of your song (intro, chorus, bridge, verse)
2. Once you have
made your copies,
press the play button on
your sequence.
3. To record your
automations, press and
hold the "auto-write" but-
ton (F2 button in early
model Maschines).
4. Adjust the pa-
rameters of your FX, vol-
ume, panning, etc - ad-
just them as you want
them to play back in real time.
5. If you don't like what you've recorded, press: shift + pad 10
(clear automation). If you want to delete a specic parameter that
youve automated, hold the erase button + move the knob of the automa-
tion you want to delete.
52
As always, experimentation is your best friend. Now that you know the
process of automating your sounds, try and use it in any situation that
you can. Get creative with it.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: Making Dirty Synth Sounds
Using Distortion
1. What Is Distortion?
2. How Does Distortion Work? What Is The Point?
3. How To Use Maschines Distortion To Your
Advantage
53
What Is Distortion?
When you hear the word distortion, you probably start to think of some-
thing negative. But really, distortion is a tool that is absolutely necessary
to have when mixing your beats.
Distortion helps add color and enrich the harmonics of an audio signal.
So whether you want to make some hard hitting drums, a lthy baseline,
or a grimy synth -- learning to use distortion properly is the key to bring-
ing out that distinctive fat, warm quality to your mixes.
In today's age of digital audio signals, its more necessary than ever to
dirty up your sounds. Top audio engineers use some form of
distortion consistently throughout all of their tracks.
But before you begin to implement distortion in your mixes, its important
to know how to use distortion properly.
How Does Distortion Work? What Is the Point?
What's the Point of distorting your audio signal? The point of the distor-
tion plugin is to emulate the magic sound that old analog gear provides.
Its very similar to, but not exactly the same as saturation. The idea be-
ing, there's something amazing about the way that old analog audio
equipment naturally alters an audio signal. Distort you sounds to add
weight, warmth and volume to your mix.
In order to understand Maschine's distortion plugin, you rst have to un-
derstand how distortion works on old audio gear.
Section 7
Making Dirty Synth
Sounds Using
Distortion
54
Distortion refers to any type of processing that manipulates or damages
an audio signal. Back in the day, distortion occurred when you you over-
loaded an old analog circuit.
Today's digital distortion plugins are made to emulate the effect of run-
ning a sound through old analog gear and damaging the audio signal.
On analog gear, distortion occurs at the point when the audio signal
starts to clip. The waveform of the audio signal gets squashed because
analog circuits cannot handle the volume of sound passing throughout
the circuit.
When the audio signal clips,
it produces unique coloration
and enriches the harmonics
of the sound.
How To Use
Maschine's Distor-
tion To Your
Advantage.
The distortion module on Maschine is pretty simple to use. It allows you
to really add some color and harmonics to your audio signal without
making things overly complicated. Its an easy way to get fat, fuzzy, over-
driven sound.
Experiment with using a bit of distortion on your drums, bass, guitars,
and synth sounds.
Here's a really simple explanation of how all of the different knobs on
Maschine's built in distortion effect work:
Drive
Amount: the amount knob determines the overall amount of dis-
tortion that you're applying to your audio signal. Increasing the amount
will give you more of a distorted effect. Depending on the sounds youre
going for, adjust the amount accordingly.
Color: the color knob
adds more brightness to your
distorted effect. Say for exam-
ple, you have a really dirty
and gritty bass line. Adding
color will bring out more of
the harmonics in the high
end of your audio signal.
Feedback
Amount: the feedback amount adjusts the way that the distorted
audio signal is fed back and played back again. By keeping the feed-
back at 0%, you're not effecting the audio signal at all. Experiment with
adjusting the feedback hard in the negative or positive range for a cool
sound.
Tone: allows you to adjust the tone of the sound that is fed back.
Naturally, you have to have the feedback in the negative or positive
range in order to adjust the tone of the feedback sound.
55
Tone Mod: modulates the sound of the tone. This is just another
level of adjustment that you can experiment with to create some unique
sounds. Consider automating the tone mode knob to create some inter-
esting variation in your sound.
Output
Gate: the gate button is pretty straight forward. Turning it on al-
lows you to cut off the distorted sound after a set period of time.
Release: determines the amount of time that you want distortion to
be applied to your sound. For example, if you feel that the distortion is
being applied for to long, lower the release time and the distortion will
cut off at that point.
Mix: let's you control the ratio of dry (untreated signal) vs. wet (dis-
torted signal). Again, no hard rules. Experiment and use whatever
sounds good.
What Youll Learn In This Section:
Click Here To Watch: How You Can Use Filters To
Save Your Beats
1. What Are Filters? Why Are They So Important To
Hip Hop Music?
2. How Do The Filters Work In Machine?
3. What Sounds Can You Use Filters On?
56
What Are Filters? Why Are They So Important To Hip
Hop Music?
Filters have been a mainstay of hip hop music since the 90's. They are
responsible for that famous "wah wah" sound that you hear in many old
hip hop tracks.
Using lters on loops is a great way to make your loops more interesting
to listen to. Instead of a stagnant loop that repeats over again, ltering
helps your loops evolve over time.
For a few examples of ltering techniques, check out that famous wah
wah sound on "The Main Ingredient" or "Searching" by Pete Rock and
CL Smooth. During the golden age of hip hop, many artists used lters
on sampled drum loops to keep them from sounding too static.
You can achieve some really cool sounds by using automation on your
Maschine to make lter sweeps. Filter sweeps on your sample can add
a sense of movement, making things a lot more interesting to listen to.
How Do the Filters Work In Maschine?
In the perfect scenario, you want each sound you use in your beats
should occupy its own slice of frequencies within your mix.
You can achieve a similar effect using an Equalizer. But the basic pur-
pose of both are the same. In the end, there should be no other sounds
that occupy the same exact frequency ranges in your mix.
Section 8
How You Can Use
Filters To Save Your
Beats.
57
Why? Your ear can not hear two distinct sound that occupy the same
frequency range. By leaving two sounds in the same frequency range,
you are deliberately muddying up your mix.
This is where Maschine's lters come in:
The high-pass lter (aka low-cut lter) works by letting the higher fre-
quencies of your audio pass through, while removing all of the low fre-
quencies below the set cutoff point.
The high pass lter is useful
when you want eliminate the
bottom-end of your sample.
For example, say you needed
to remove a bass-line from
your sample, throw on your
high-pass lter.
I tend to use the high-pass l-
ter more high frequency
sounds like snares, shakers, hi-
hats -- this makes it easy to know you aren't allowing any ghost frequen-
cies to clutter up the bottom end of your mix.
The low-pass lter (aka high-cut lter) works in the opposite way of the
high-pass lter. The low-pass lter let's all of the low frequencies pass
through while eliminating all of the frequencies above the set cutoff
point.
You should be using low-pass lters to help shape sounds with low fre-
quencies: bass, kick drums, 808's, etc.
The band-pass lter (BP) works like a combination of both low-pass and
high-pass lters. It allows a narrow range of frequencies to pass
through, while eliminating those frequencies above and below the se-
lected cutoff point.
I havent found that many uses for the band-pass lter in my beats, but
Im sure theres some good uses. Just play around with it.
The notch lter (Notch) works in the opposite way of the band-pass lter
by allowing everything above and below the selected frequency to pass
through, it eliminates the fre-
quencies at the selected cutoff
point.
Resonance. Each lter also
has a resonance parameter
that allows you to boost the fre-
quencies at the set cutoff
point. Play around with the
resonance to achieve a cool
sound, especially when using lters on synthesizers and bass sounds.
What Sounds Can You Use Filters On?
You can use lters on literally anything that you can think of. A YouTube
friend reminded me recently that there are no hard rules in music, just
guidelines.
Trust your ear and develop a sense of what sounds best to you, and run
with that.