Hi! Wanted to share a set I made that uses a “burst” sound design technique I discovered with the help of @Mason + @stevenz . Basically, this technique allows you to send multiple hit messages with one strike of the drum. In this case, every time you play the kick, it turns on a metronome object, which repeatedly triggers a macro and then turns itself off. The macro is assigned to the “play” button on a group of re-pitched trumpet samples, and it’s controlled by the kick. The harder you hit the kick, the longer it takes to turn itself off. The burst of messages goes from fast to slow, which creates the decelerating “ratchet” effect. Think the sound of train slowing down on railroad tracks. Once you’ve got it set up, you can assign this macro to “ratchet” any sound in your set, or even MIDI generator modules.
Here’s everything going on this particular user pack, which has just one set:
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“Ratcheted” trumpet samples from the Cymatic Habitat sound pack on the kick.
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Re-pitched saxophone growls from Cymatic Habitat on the snare rim.
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“NO” vocal samples from Ben Sloan (shared with his permission) on the floor tom rim + kick rim zones. Hitting the floor tom rim turns tonal elements from minor ←→ major. Hitting the kick rim turns on/off delay.
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Random perc sounds all over the kit, including some from the Black Cat sound pack.
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A macro knob for the left channel of the stereo delay effect controlled via floor tom rim.
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A macro that turns on “loop” for small granules of a trumpet sample. Use at your own peril; this one can get high-pitched and annoying pretty quickly.
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Gated crowd noise sample on the kick (every time you play the kick, it opens up the gate momentarily so you can hear this sample).
I named it “Ráfaga” because that means burst/flash in Spanish and when I can’t think of a good name in English, I just use the Spanish translation of a relevant word lol. Curious if any native Spanish speakers have other associations with the word “ráfaga”, though. It appears to also be the name of a cumbia band from Argentina.
Attached is a quick clip of me playing these sounds at a recent live show, where I took the whole flash/burst thing pretty literally by incorporating lights:
Download the “Ráfaga” user pack here:
Ráfaga.spz (57.1 MB)