Speaker A
Today I'm going to be showing you guys a sampling technique called the blur, where you can take any vocal sample and pretty much instantly make a cool beat out of it.
Learn the blur technique in FL Studio to sample vocals and create balanced beats using convolution reverb.
Key Takeaways
- The blur technique helps make dense vocal samples usable in beats by reducing their presence without losing melody or rhythm.
- Fruity Convolver in FL Studio is an effective tool for applying this technique, with key parameters to control the effect.
- Using white noise as a reverb profile creates a unique ambient blur that can be shaped for creative vocal sampling.
- This method allows quick creation of alternate beat versions (A and B sides) by switching the convolution reverb on and off.
- Understanding and adjusting plugin settings like dry mix, stereo separation, and stretch is crucial for optimal results.
Summary
- The video demonstrates a vocal sampling technique called the blur to create beats from dense vocal samples.
- It explains how to reduce the presence of a vocal sample while maintaining melody and rhythm using convolution reverb.
- FL Studio's Fruity Convolver plugin is used, with a free convolution reverb download provided for other DAWs.
- Key plugin parameters such as dry mix, stereo separation, delay, self convolution, stretch, and EQ are explained in detail.
- The stretch dial is highlighted as the most important control for timing the blurred sample close to the original.
- Convolution reverb simulates different acoustic spaces, with presets like Church Far and Bathroom demonstrated.
- The blur white preset uses a white noise reverb profile to create a large ambient effect that can be shaped with an envelope.
- Instructions are given on how to mimic the blur effect if a convolution reverb lacks the white noise preset.
- The technique can be used to easily create A and B sides by toggling the convolution reverb and adjusting instrument layers.
- Additional resources like the drum kit and white noise sample are available in the video description.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
What I did was I took this sample here.
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And I use this technique to make this beat right here.
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So although you can use this technique on any vocal sample really, it's especially useful whenever you have a sample that's just a little bit too dense to use as it is.
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And the sample just takes up a little bit too much room to make a good beat out of it.
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So for example, if I tried to make a beat out of the raw vocal loop as it is, this is how it'd sound.
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So as you can hear, the sample just has way too much presence in the beat.
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It's just going to be near impossible for an artist to use.
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The thing is though, I really like the sample, I like the melody.
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I like the texture of it, I like the rhythm.
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And so the blurring technique that we're going to use is going to basically reduce the amount of presence that the sample has in the beat.
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Meanwhile, it's going to maintain the things that we like about it, such as the melody and the rhythm.
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So to do this technique, we're going to need a convolution reverb.
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The good news is FL Studio actually comes with one.
Speaker A
But if you don't have one with your DAW, I've actually included a free download for one in the description box below.
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All right, so now we go into FL and we select the channel that our vocal sample is on.
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And we're going to insert a Fruity Convolver plugin on top.
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And so now I'm going to go into the presets and select one of the options under the blur section here.
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First, I'm going to play how it sounds with just the stock preset on top.
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So as you guys can hear, it's just really ambient and a little bit too reverby for me.
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So what we're going to try to do is bring back some of the presence into the sample.
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There are only really a few dials that you have to worry about here.
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But I'm going to walk through each and every one so you guys have an idea of what they actually do.
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All right, first step is dry.
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So what this does is it introduces the original sample back into the mix.
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So this is useful if the sample now sounds a little bit too blurry, a little bit too reverbed out.
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What we can do is just introduce a little bit more presence back into the sample.
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So we have two stereo separation knobs here.
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What we're more concerned about is the wet stereo separation.
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Fundamentally, what this does is it controls whether it's going to play back in stereo or mono.
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If your beat has a lot going on in it and it has a lot of layers playing, what I'd recommend doing is turning this to a more mono or merged setting.
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So it takes up a little bit less room in the mix.
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Or if you have a more spacey ambient type of beat, turning this left so the sample takes up more room in the beat would be a good idea.
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So next step is delay.
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What this is going to do is control how quickly the blurred version of our sample is going to play.
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I would recommend keeping this down to zero because what this is going to do is throw off the timing of our vocal sample if we start increasing it.
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Next step is self convolution.
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I'd recommend turning that all the way down.
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Basically, what this is going to do is stack a reverb on top of another reverb, which we don't need in this instance.
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Now the stretch dial is probably the most important dial for this technique.
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So turning the stretch all the way down to 50% here will help shape the blurred version of our sample to be as close of a mimic to the original sample in terms of overall timing.
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So this is how it sounds if we completely stretch out the sample.
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And this is how it sounds if we completely reduce the amount of stretch that we use for the sample.
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So the EQ here is a little bit self-explanatory.
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It sort of controls how much EQ we want in the shaping of the reverb.
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If you go to the equalizer tab here, you can control basically what type of EQ you want for the output of the reverberation.
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All right, so to quickly explain what convolution reverb actually is.
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What it does is it basically mimics or simulates a unique space.
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So for example, if we go into the presets, we can see we have a whole host of different types of environments that the convolution reverb is going to mimic.
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So for example, if we select Church Far.
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And we hit play.
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What it's going to do is take whatever sample that we use this on and mimic that exact same type of reverb that we have here.
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Whereas if we select something like bathroom.
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It's going to sound a lot less reverby compared to our previous selection.
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So what we're doing when we select the blur white preset is we're basically using a wall of white noise as the reverb profile.
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So what this does is it creates a huge wall of reverb and we can then control and shape it based on the volume envelope as you can see here.
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So what you can do if you have a convolution reverb that doesn't have this type of preset is you can just load up a whole bunch of white noise and use the envelope shaping tool that comes with it to mimic this type of shape here.
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And if you don't have any white noise, I've included that in the description box below as well.
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So another thing that's pretty useful with this technique is it allows you to make a B-side pretty easily.
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What I do is I'll take the convolution reverb and completely turn it off and I'll introduce the original dense sample back into the song.
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And I'll pretty much remove all of the instruments except for a couple.
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And so this is a quick and easy way to create an A and a B side.
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And then I reintroduce all the sounds back.
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And put the convolution reverb back on and we have a quick and easy switch up.
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And that is the blurring technique.
Speaker A
If you guys have found this technique useful or interesting, please leave a comment down below and let me know.
Speaker A
Also, the drum kit from this song is available in the description box below as well.
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Please do subscribe and hit the like button.
Speaker A
And I'll see you guys next Tuesday.
Topics:vocal samplingFL Studioconvolution reverbmusic productionbeat makingFruity Convolverblur techniqueaudio mixingmusic tutorialvocal processing
