Last week I found myself in a super secret, private lair with Akash Thakkar.
I casually mentioned to him earlier in the day that I had built a sampler of sorts in ChucK (an audio programming language), recorded myself manipulating a goofy trumpet sample, and sent it off to him.
He replied back to me with “Cool!” and was all for learning how to play with my new self-made sampler himself.
So, in that super secret private lair – that’s exactly what we did.
In very short order we had adapted code meant for my MIDI keyboard to his, and he was taking samples from all across his library and manipulating playback positions, playback rate, and reverb mix to turn things like a cuckoo clock into an underwater horror ambience like you’d hear in BioShock.
(In fact, you can see/hear exactly that on his Instagram – making that literally took him 3 minutes)
The best part was, when he “figured out” what he was doing and how to use what I’d built – his jaw dropped at the sound design possibilities. I walked him through the code, step-by-step, and he understood it all immediately.
He ended up playing with sound until at least midnight (hours after I left) and was downright pissed that it was easy enough for him to understand, but he didn’t know how to build it on his own yet.
It probably didn’t help that I told him I built the tool in under 30 minutes as a fun exercise to relax my brain. Oops.
Build Your Own
Have you ever thought
“It would be ridiculously cool if I knew how to make my own plugin. I’d love to do that!”
I’m sure plenty of you have.
Here’s the thing – if you don’t know C++ and DSP math (depending on what plugin you want to make) then “making a plugin” has a hell of a learning curve. It’s not something you can just “pick up and do”. It’s also not something you can do after completing a free online C++ course.
So while that’s disheartening – it’s not the end of the story for this dream of yours.
Because you can, in fact, make your own custom sound-manipulating software and route the output and input to and from your DAW – effectively making your own plugin. That’s exactly what I did last week, and exactly what Akash used to tweak a cuckoo clock into that crazy sound on his Instagram.
Guaranteed – if you’re a sound designer and know little-to-nothing about code – you can do this yourself.
How?
Well, I’m in the middle of writing a guide on ChucK programming which will teach you how to build the exact program Akash used to make that cuckoo clock, among many other things.
(Note that he also used some plugins and Reaper to get the final sound effect – ChucK alone didn’t make that sound – but you know how to use a DAW and plugins, right?!)
The best part?
You won’t need to know any prior programming and you definitely won’t need to know any DSP or DSP-related math. You can pick this book up as just a sound designer and build your own completely custom MIDI and OSC-based samplers and tweaking tools by the end of it.
I promise it’s not as difficult as you imagine – in very short order you will be making magic that you thought was out of reach, with only your hands and brain.
Interested? Sign up below (or at the bottom of this page if you’re reading by email) and you’ll get more updates from me and a notification when the guide goes up for pre-sale (it won’t be long from now).
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