Earlier tonight I had an epiphany about how to simulate a volume increase and decrease envelope with Caustic 2. I don't know if anybody else has pulled it off like I have, but I wanted to share this.
If you play the track above you can see and hear the volume increasing and decreasing along the track. I swear I did this all using just Caustic 2 by itself, no other tools. Once you see my method you'll understand. And you can kind of tell because of how sloppy it is. I have been experimenting with this over the course of about an hour since I got home from work.
Sorry, I didn't take any screen shots or anything. This technique is actually kind of simple, yet it can be tedious. If you are going to try this with an existing project for any reason, I would recommend backing up before you try this just to be safe.
- How I did it:
1) Create a sequence of patterns. I honestly suggest something you can use in a total series of 8 measures.
2) Take one of your patterns. Go to your sequencer and make it a 1 measure pattern for the whole song.
3) Export the pattern as a WAV and give it a unique name for that pattern.
4) Repeat this process of each pattern you wish to use.
5) Now I suggest taking all these patterns and moving them to a unique folder under caustic/samples/beatbox
7) Open up a Beatbox machine (either in the same project or in a new project using the same BPM).
8) In the Beatbox, open up each exported pattern in each different drum sample slot, preferably in order going from left to right. (I bet some of you guys can already see where this is going.)
9) For the first sample slot, set the volume knob to the introductory volume you wish to use.
10) For all other slots in between the first and the last sample slot, set the volume knobs to a gradually increasing volume.
11) Now go the pattern editor for the Beatbox and set a pattern (i.e. A1) with the lowest volume drum slot for only the first and only beat of the whole measure. Then do this for the next corresponding pattern with the next corresponding volume increased drum slot (A2, A3, A4, etc...).
12) Go to your sequencer and put in your Beatbox patterns all in order of increasing volume.
Congratulations, you now have a set of patterns of gradually increasing volumes. As you can tell. I did this with a decreasing volume effect as well. This also opens up the door for using these patterns and different volume levels during songs and and the giving the song an effect of having different intensities as well.
Special note: I did this on my Motorola Xoom and it handles it with no noticeable issues. I don't know how well any other devices would fare with this task so try this experimentally until it's for sure your device can handle doing this for your song/project.
Well, I hope you guys liked my tutorial on the volume increasing/decreasing trick.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting what you're trying to achieve, but wouldn't this be easier done by creating duplicate patterns with different note velocities, or by recording automation for the volume on that channel in the mixer?
One could also automate-record moving the master volume knob to achieve the same fade in/out effect, but hey there's more than one way to "climb the mountain" as I hear. :)
Nice job. Did more or less the same but with increasing decay settings on a shaker (because automation wasn't an option).
Yeah I have no idea how I would use automation on the things I've come up with. I guess I never truly took into account the use of of the note velocity but I guess it also depends on the sound/effect you're trying to achieve. Just something I was thinking of last night while I was at work. I mean, I know this can be a couple of other different ways as well. I guess it just depends on your definition of insanity then.
Its ok, you think outside of the box..... thats where crazy new ideas come from... :)