Coffee Maker – 1 sample – 4 instruments

What’s up everyone! Glad to have you here

You have probably seen the video that got you here but in case you came here first, here’s the link: https://youtu.be/tHX0lFQJ3vE

Now if we have that out of our way, let’s get into some sound design tips shall we?

I actually was making a coffee one day when I got the idea of sampling the coffee machine sound, which I don’t really like (the sound) but I do hear it multiple times a day 😀
So I guess this is the part of my commitment to be making more stuff with samples, just to practice it a bit and also in search of super cool new sounds. But let’s get back to the project.
At the end of the article you’ll be given 2 links. One to a sample only, the other to the full Ableton Live 12 suite project. Download whatever you prefer and you can create your own instruments with this sample or use it anyway you like. But in case you’d like to just dive into my project, you can do that there. I didn’t create any macros as it is just an experiment. Yet I love most of the sounds I did there 🙂

1. Ok, let’s talk a bit the basics of the sound number one: Bass made with a simpler.

• Simply drop the sample to the simpler and find a region that would loop the best giving as stable sound as you wish.
• Make sure you’re in the “Classic” mode and make sure to uncheck the Snap so you can freely find a nice beginning and the end of the loop. If you do it right it won’t click at the beginning of the loop.
• Go to the controls and tune the sample with transpose and detune, to match a key you’re pressing so you can later play it. You’ll need tuner to do that
• Play with Amplitude envelope, filter and other stuff to make it more interesting and then add some other effects after the simpler.

2. Now the keys sound made in Wavetable

So if you’ve seen the video, you know this one came up accidentaly while I was trying to make a pad sound. Well I do mostly associate the Wavetable synth to be the best for pads but that is a heavy underrating as it is well capable of producing every type of sound. And what’s most beautiful is that you can drop your own sample and it will be translated as a wavetable. Now when you sweep through the wavetable position you can hear that it is quite similar to the sample you’ve dropped into its window. The other beauty is that you don’t need to tune anything now. It is already done for you as the wavetable synth works slightly different from sample based instruments. But anyway, let’s go quickly through some key points of what I did there:

• Simply drag and drop your own sample to the Wavetable’s window. Decide what starting octave you want it to be in (Semi -12, 0, +12)
• Design your Amp envelope to be making the type of sound you want, it this example: very short attack, moderate decay(600ms) to the sustain of -6dB and moderately fast release (also 600ms – It is a default amp envelope when you open wavetable – lazy me :D)
• Unison is usually your friend, try different modes though – Shimmer and Noise modes make wonders
• Then play with filters, You can use them in serial mode or parallel or each one for each oscillator (if you’re using both)
• Then design some nice slow (or fast) lfo’s and in the Matrix apply them to the Oscillator position, filter frequencies or whatever you want. Here is where you want to be creative 😀
• Then of course effects effects. Delays, chorus, reverb, saturation. Just pick random ones or make a more conscious choice 😀

3. Moving on with the same patch – Pad in Wavetable:

I have simply changed just a few bits and designed the effects a bit differently than in the example above:

• Envelope now has longer attack (306ms), twice as long decay as before(1.36s), and much longer release (3.6s)
• Played with the filters a bit differently, and automated them a bit more.
• Added a sub oscillator with an -1 octave
• Effects: Reverb, Saturation, Reverb – this is a recipe for super cool harmonics and a bit of unexpectedness in the results. Try and you’ll love it 😀

4. Last but not least – Drone in Granulator III:

You can use any granulator you like, with multiple other free options available. I might also experiment with Pigments’s one. But here we’re sticking to the Ableton’s own plugins (well a downloaded max 4 live device but you get me).

• Slap the sample in the main window, tune it if you like.
• Play with start position, scan it a bit as well and choose a nice grain size (not too small, not too big)
• Change the classic mode to “Cloud” gives much cooler effects in this case and allows to create a variation of the “Transposition” (when you click the Variation knob)
• Rest is just creating variations so the sound isn’t predictable and repeatable.
• And of course a lot of reverb. I have added a roar distortion as well to make it more interesting.
• I’ve changed the Valhalla Supermassive to a Convolution reverb just not to include external plugins in my exported project.

Yep. If you create something interesting, share with me. I’m super curious what you are up to!

Here’s the link to the Sample and the Project i have made during the tutorial:

The sample: https://busilessmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Coffee-Maker.WAV.zip

The project: https://busilessmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Coffe-Maker-2-Project.zip

If you want to rewatch the video, it’s here: https://youtu.be/tHX0lFQJ3vE

The project above is made using The most up to date Ableton 12 so if you have any earlier versions you might have some issues opening the file.

And if this tutorial helps you in anyway, feel free to buy me a virtual coffee ☕️. I’d really appreciate this.

Thanks ❤️

Dan 🤘😎