Alright, I'm stumped. How the heck did they create this?

[Navron]

Here's a popular sound I've heard in many electronic songs. Only problem is, I have no idea how they make it.

I can definitely tell it's some kind of synth, but beyond that, it's perplexing. Only thing I can think of is a gritty bass with a gate side-chained to something such as the drums.

The sound I am referring to is this glitched synth/bass sound:

Sound @ 2:10


Sound @ 2:50

[Markelius]

I've heard the sound plenty of times before, but never tried to make it, lemme give it a shot.

EDIT: I fooled around in FM8 for a bit and created some noisy sounds, but I got bored so no cigar. I could probably take a look at the waveform and figure it out, but other people appear to be helping you with this so I'mma go back to listening to Burial.

[Flutter Rex]

In first video it's probably granular synthesis destroying some harsh samples. On the second, I would say strong harmonizer filter. If I'm wrong, which is not so impossible, you could still make something very similar with this two techniques.

[Friv]

In first video it's probably granular synthesis destroying some harsh samples. On the second, I would say strong harmonizer filter. If I'm wrong, which is not so impossible, you could still make something very similar with this two techniques.

All of this. Although you could probably make something similar with a simple FM bass.

[the4thImpulse]

In first video it's probably granular synthesis destroying some harsh samples.

This.

Second video is the same thing with extra post processing chopping and further sampling (panning and possibly pitch shifting) to create more complex melodies.

Granular synthesis is essentially a form of sampling where you split the original sound into very short, <50 ms, parts (called grains) and then loop them and combine them with other grains.

[Navron]

My version of Cubase comes with a granular synthesizer called Padshop. More suited for creating ambient effects, but if I upgrade to the pro version I can utilize my own samples.

My question would be, how would I replicate this effect? Would it involve loading a sample into a granular synthesizer such as Padshop, or is there an actual technique in the sampling process to split a sample into grains?

[Freewave]

I don't know a lot about this (glad it has an official name) but have played with microsound a lot early on extended some very small samples as loops to get similar and interesting effects as this while mucking about (used Acid tbh).

Based on this wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_synthesis
and then this 2008 article with lots of programs that allow you to do this (propbably very outdated now)
http://www.emusician.com/gear/0769/goin ... ain/140170
in fact the article states at one point "Be aware that many of the programs were created by small, independent developers. Though they are free or relatively inexpensive, they may be lacking in support or thorough documentation. Moreover, there's no guarantee that any of them will continue to be developed by their creators — some have dates that are several years old."

Also found a resource website http://www.granularsynthesis.com/

Two youtubes and software's highlighted on yt are:
This one is a little dry and it isn't a tutorial but he talks about the theory and the software.


This one actually shows you how to do it and makes it look pretty fun to actually play around with and get very interesting results


Cool stuff and it looks like it has gone from small independent developers to full blown vst integration in more current synths which is a good thing. Certainly has me interested in checking it out.

[prettiestPony]

To get the higher pitched part of the sound in that first example, you could use granular synthesis (as others have recommended), or you could time stretch something way too far using a low-quality algorithm. (Say, take a high hat, stretch it to four seconds long, then cut out the parts that sound interesting.) You can also do it manually by "retriggering" a sample over and over again very quickly, which is to say, take a percussion instrument and make a series of extremely short (128th note, or perhaps even below that) notes. If you have it play quickly enough, it'll stop sounding like separate hits, and kinda blur into one metallic-sounding tone.

It's basically the same principle--repeat a small chunk at high speeds.