These four audio examples demonstrate various elements of the Drum Machine sound design process described in the main Cubase workshop article.
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-14-new-drum-machine
Cubase 14 Drum Machine Sound Design Audio Example 01
This example demonstrates the three types of sounds, plus an additional riser, in isolation. Each sound is demonstrated at different MIDI velocities to give a sense of the variation available within each sound, even though each has been created using just a single layer. The riser sound is based on a single impact sample that was reversed using Drum Machine’s Sample playback engine.
Cubase 14 Drum Machine Sound Design Audio Example 02
This example demonstrates the sounds used in a short ‘tension/suspense’ cue. It’s not intended to be a ‘finished’ cue but the additional sounds, all courtesy of Retrologue presets from the Dark Mass expansion, provide useful context for the designed sounds.
Cubase 14 Drum Machine Sound Design Audio Example 03
This example demonstrates the same four designed sounds individually, but in this case they all have a second layer blended in with the original sound. In each case, I used a sample-based layer just to add a little extra character.
Cubase 14 Drum Machine Sound Design Audio Example 04
This example uses the same musical cue as the second audio example but with the layered versions of each of the four designed sounds. The differences are subtle, but you should be able to hear that each sound has a little more depth and character. You could take the sound design much further by fully exploiting the additional layers and processing options for each of Drum Machine’s pads.