This is the second part of my series, in which I describe the new knowledge that I have gained from working on the new album. What I am writing in this series is nothing groundbreaking that will revolutionize music history, just insights that others probably already had before me, but I have never given any real importance.
In the previous albums I designed drum sounds according to the following principle: First make a sound really noisy, then change the time sequence so that the sound is there quickly and then disappears again very quickly (the insider term for this is called envelope). That was all i needed für a drum sound.
This aspect can also be heard in the new album, but now many drum sounds (especially the bass drum) are supplemented by their own click sounds. By click sound I mean very short sounds (much shorter than the actual drum sound) at the beginning of every beat, which is mostly very high and piercing. This gives the drums a bigger presence and can also be heard better when many other instruments are already mixed in. The interesting thing is that this click sound already makes the drum sound sound much more present, even if the click sound alone is barely audible. Nevertheless, it manages to provide the ear with clear information that the sound has started.
For the metal fans among you: You have heard this effect from all of the metal kick-drums which also have a click on every kick drum beat - which can be heard particularly clearly with double bass rhythms.
But not only with the drums, but also with melody sounds, i realized that it is useful to add quiet clicks to some sounds. So it is now possible for me to use sounds which are quite noisy and unclear on their own, if I add a short melodic click, so that I can use them for melodies without any problems.