Freddy Todd

T

Trip Lykely

New member
I've searched all over the interwebs but am struggling getting what I'm looking for. Long story short, I have no musical background but really like glitchy-bass music and would love to be able to make stuff like Freddy Todd. For those who've got ability, and patience, what skills/techniques can I look into (links to tutorials would be great) to begin making stuff like this. Any input on his bass/sound design would be appreciated as well. One thing I'm struggling finding is how to arrange drums like this also. A few good tutorials but most of them are way too basic.

I know this isn't a simple question/request but there is a lot of talent on this forum that I'm hoping to tap into. Any and all help is much appreciated.

(I'm aware my answers are probably buried in this forum, figuring out what terms to search to find those posts is my struggle)

PS I've been messing with FL Studio for a while and have it pretty well understood. Just starting to dive in Massive for sound design but have a hard time finding the right tutorials as I don't know what you'd call his basses (again, no musical background/experience). I've just got a new setup and can hear a lot more detail.

I understand this is a ridiculous request.

 
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I don't hear a lot of bass on that track.. .lots of mid range distortion though :P

Anyways, getting the right tools is half the job (not quite but you catch my drift)
Massive is a good one to start with. From there I'd suggest FM8 because it does well.. FM.. hard to explain what that is and kind of ***** to learn..
but for this type of music: learn to love it!

If you really want to get serious about glitchy messed up sounds, there's none better than Reaktor.. bit hard to suggest that to a beginner though, the idea is you make
your own synths and effects with it. You don't have to because it comes with a huge library of synths, sequencers, samplers and effects.. and there's an even bigger user library..
which has some really wild stuff in there, perfect for glitch. I just found this synth called Lazerbass, guess what it does? :P
So maybe not for now.. but definitely look up Reaktor sometime.

Also a good distortion unit is essential.. ideally something that does multiband, you can drive boring synth sounds into it and make them sound awesome pretty easily. Huge timesaver.
Izotope Trash is ridiculously handy for this type of stuff. I put it on 90% of my bass sounds.. Fabfitler Saturn is also amazing, but expensive. All Fabfilter stuff is, but with good reason.

As for the drums... glitch it up, basically. And layering.. go crazy. Programming a rhythm with some samples isn't gonna get you there. Look up this guy called icicle on youtube.
I don't like his music, but he is crazy talented and gets pretty in depth on drum layering and making bass sounds.

Also in fruity, SliceX is your friend.. put a drum loop in, timestretch it to hell and back, chop it into tiny pieces randomly... I always got amazing sounds that way. Works just as well for basslines as drums.
 
I really appreciate your in-depth response to a question that doesn't have a specific answer.

localspace said:
I don't hear a lot of bass on that track.. .lots of mid range distortion though :P
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Noted ;)

Anyways, getting the right tools is half the job (not quite but you catch my drift)
Massive is a good one to start with. From there I'd suggest FM8 because it does well.. FM.. hard to explain what that is and kind of ***** to learn..
but for this type of music: learn to love it!
Click to expand...

Going to have to look into FM synthesis, thanks for pointing me in that direction

If you really want to get serious about glitchy messed up sounds, there's none better than Reaktor.. bit hard to suggest that to a beginner though, the idea is you make
your own synths and effects with it. You don't have to because it comes with a huge library of synths, sequencers, samplers and effects.. and there's an even bigger user library..
which has some really wild stuff in there, perfect for glitch. I just found this synth called Lazerbass, guess what it does? :P
So maybe not for now.. but definitely look up Reaktor sometime.
Click to expand...

How long into focusing on production did it take you for your skills to hit a point where it made sense to start dropping money on things like this?

Also a good distortion unit is essential.. ideally something that does multiband, you can drive boring synth sounds into it and make them sound awesome pretty easily. Huge timesaver.
Izotope Trash is ridiculously handy for this type of stuff. I put it on 90% of my bass sounds.. Fabfitler Saturn is also amazing, but expensive. All Fabfilter stuff is, but with good reason.
Click to expand...

Can you got a little more in-depth on this? Any cheap units I could get while I develop my skill? Its been interesting trying to train my ears to hear all of what's happening in the tracks I enjoy but a little more on how I can use distortion would be much appreciated.

As for the drums... glitch it up, basically. And layering.. go crazy. Programming a rhythm with some samples isn't gonna get you there. Look up this guy called icicle on youtube.
I don't like his music, but he is crazy talented and gets pretty in depth on drum layering and making bass sounds.
Click to expand...

Will definitely check Icicle out. Haven't come across his stuff.

Also in fruity, SliceX is your friend.. put a drum loop in, timestretch it to hell and back, chop it into tiny pieces randomly... I always got amazing sounds that way. Works just as well for basslines as drums.
Click to expand...

I've played with SliceX for vocal chopping but this is definitely something I need to play with. Thanks

Another thought that came to my mind was the use of delay on the drums. A lot of the tracks I like seem to use delay in a genius way to create interesting rhythm. Can you give any tips or point me towards a tutorial or someone I should check out?

Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.
 
Icicle makes some really nasty neurofunk type stuff.. I can't get into it, it's insanely technical though.
Plus he explains it well, not like a lot of the bullshitters that have a youtube channel.

Yeah, FM synthesis can get you those brutal growling sounds. But it can get complex.. or weird, rather.. a slight tweak can completely change the sound and often not in good ways.
To be honest, I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing with FM synths most of the time. Once I make it past the oscillator section, called 'operators' in FM because FM is for nerds, I'm fine.. but holy shit.
Just start with Massive, it's super flexible and there's a ton of tutorials out there because everyone has it.

But there's a million ways to do it. You can get complex with synthesizers, but you can also take a very simple, clean synth sound (or sample) and pass it through a bunch of filters, distortions and mix those in and out to create movement.. or sample it and chop it up, anything really. Just go crazy, if it gets you the sound it gets you the sound. Once you get the hang of this kind of toying around you'll join me in laughing at all the kiddies who need to
get sample packs for a decent sound :P. Saturation and distortion are really a mixer's secret weapons. Definitely a topic to look into.

Delay is great, just make sure your main drums stay centered and (mostly) mono. If not, it can sound really bad on big systems because of phasing (another topic to study)
I keep everything under 200hz mono as a rule almost. Not sure if there's tutorials on delays, they're all pretty straightforward.. the Fruity Delay Bank can make really weird sounds if
you use the grain section together with the filter. You don't have to use delays necessarily for the effect either.. all they do is just repeat the sound with some changes to it, something you can do yourself as well.

As far as spending money on gear and plug-ins.. i'd say: don't, but get a taste for what's out there. As your first investment you're gonna want to get monitor speakers and a good audio interface anyway because everything you make will sound unprofessional and flat before you do. Those things really make a difference. By that time, when it comes to buying plugins or hardware, you'll know what you want and why... and you won't be another sucker
hoping to buy some inspiration by getting yet another synth.

That said.. Trash has been dirt cheap over at the Izotope page for a while.. 39 dollar...you get an afwul lot for that. Trash 3 is probably on the horizon. I got it somewhere else with some expansion for 45.
It also does delay, reverb, compression/limiting and filtering. So if you're desperate to spend something you can't go wrong with that. It won't do anything you can't get in FlStudio or free plugins though,
it just does it very well in a handy package ;) Normally it's 99 dollar and that's still a good price for it actually. Summer is always a good time for shopping because a lot of manufacturers have deep summer sales.
I'm broke as hell now.. but I got amazing deals. 45 for Trash, 200 for NI Komplete, the rest of the Izotope stuff. But if you're new, getting that much in one go isn't gonna help you.. where do you even start?
 
localspace said:
So if you're desperate to spend something you can't go wrong with that
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Definitely not desperate to spend money! When I successfully get a head besides my own to nod I'll start spending

where do you even start?
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly - on the whole process lol. So much too it. Its never-ending, which is part of the fascination.


Also, you make some interesting stuff. Seems real technical to me. Still at work right now but I'm going to give a thorough listen later.
 
Trip Lykely said:
I've searched all over the interwebs but am struggling getting what I'm looking for. Long story short, I have no musical background but really like glitchy-bass music and would love to be able to make stuff like Freddy Todd. For those who've got ability, and patience, what skills/techniques can I look into (links to tutorials would be great) to begin making stuff like this. Any input on his bass/sound design would be appreciated as well. One thing I'm struggling finding is how to arrange drums like this also. A few good tutorials but most of them are way too basic.

I know this isn't a simple question/request but there is a lot of talent on this forum that I'm hoping to tap into. Any and all help is much appreciated.

(I'm aware my answers are probably buried in this forum, figuring out what terms to search to find those posts is my struggle)

PS I've been messing with FL Studio for a while and have it pretty well understood. Just starting to dive in Massive for sound design but have a hard time finding the right tutorials as I don't know what you'd call his basses (again, no musical background/experience). I've just got a new setup and can hear a lot more detail.

I understand this is a ridiculous request.

Click to expand...


Freddy Todd is an amazing producer. Been a fan for a long time. I'm mainly a guitar player (18years), but for the last couple years I've been experimenting with Ableton, mostly for live performance/ editing recordings. I've also been wiring and running live sound for most of my life. Just a lil background.

Anywho, back to the style of Freddy Todd. It is easy to tell that he is not only a great producer, but he can actually play an instrument (or a few) quite well. I've seen him live and he played keys and guitar during his set, but you hear his keys chops in all of his music. Not only does playing an instrument enable you to record in parts, which can provide a much different, more natural feel than just drawing midi. Playing an instrument, especially jamming with other people, gives you a different feel and understanding of groove.

Also, there is a TON of variety and versatility in his music. It is important to open yourself up to all genres of music, and listen to as much as possible. Nobody want some to listen to someone who sounds just like their biggest inspiration. Allow music from all genres and time periods to influence you in the ways you like.
Also Freddy Todd uses a lot more sounds than most of his peers. He never uses the same bass sound or lead sound for a while song. You may want to spend a lot of time just doing sound design, building a large arsenal of sounds that all fit your style. That way when you're making a song you can easily add variety and keep the creative flow going without having to dive into your synth to make a new sound half way through making a song.

Hope some of this sheds a little light on the path to you becoming the musician you want to be. Never quit. Much love.
 
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