Every music style involves percussion sounds; they are indispensable. These occur through a disturbance in the pressure or density of a surface, which in turn produces a vibration. As the name suggest, they are generally produced by percussion instruments.
While creating a track, users often reach a point where they decide to write a specific melody. Examples of these are an arpeggiated melody sequence or a lead melody. This new sound involves a long trial and error process to achieve the desired rhythmic pattern of the melody sequence. It also works better when combined with other elements of the mix.
What About Percussion Sounds?
To process percussion elements in a mix, users generally need more than one effect. This, as you can imagine, tends to be quite time-consuming. Because of this, multi-effect processors have evolved dramatically.
Users tend to apply a wide variety of techniques to transform a simple melody into an interesting one. A quite common method involves layering accents to particular melodies by emphasizing top notes and layering them with percussive sounds. By doing this, the overall drum groove is modified, and the tune produces a more dynamic sound. For this to work out, and for the user to be able to identify the location of the MIDI notes, it’s essential to choose short percussive sounds and place them below the melody channel.
Another option is to add diverse percussion sounds and place them on different notes of the melody. The first percussion hit is a tom sound, which is positioned in the lower part of the frequency spectrum. It produces a specific pitch.
JJP Cymbals & Percussion
Waves Audio’s JJP Cymbals & Percussion is a perfect example. This processor has a wide variety of features. Just to mention some, one is mid-range and serves to create brighter sounds on tambourines. Lo-fi effects, on the other hand, fatten up shakers. Dirt and distortion, as another instance, creates grittier sounds on tambourines. This processor also increases the high end of the spectrum.
Additionally, the JJP Cymbals & Percussion’s interface involves several features. Firstly, there is overall sensitivity of the added processed signal. Then, basic dynamic controls. Others are EQ controls, center section faders, and master faders that control the master output signal level. Finally, there is a meter section that combines input and output modes.
