Outside Scoop: How to Create a VST Synth, Designing Sound for Video Games, and More

The VST synth that Sadowick has created using SynthEdit.

This was quite the week for unique audio-related articles and videos. There was a large assortment of content published, ranging from creating VST synths to designing sounds for video games. If recording, mixing, and mastering are more your thing, there’s something for you in this Outside Scoop as well. Regardless of what you’re after, I’m quite confident that you’ll find something worthy of bookmarking below.

How to Create a VST Synth

Using SynthEdit, Sadowick demonstrates how he makes a synth from scratch. This is a more advanced production video and may interest SonicScoop’s more tech-savvy readers. Do you need to create your own synths to make great music? No, but it’s super cool, and may turn into a great hobby! Watch both video 1 and 2 for a detailed explanation of how to make your own VST synth.

7 Tips to Cut Your Mixing Time in Half

Black Ghost Audio provides a variety of ways in which you can optimize your time spent mixing music. Focusing on capturing high-quality recordings, learning your tools, sorting your plugins, and using reference tracks are just some of the many pieces of advice in this guide. Read the full article to learn how you can take advantage of macros to automate certain processes within your DAW.

5 Reasons You Should Record to a Click Track

Graham Cochrane of The Recording Revolution explains the importance of recording to click tracks, and why they’re absolutely essential to great songs. He addresses the benefit a click track has on timing, editing, workflow, and loop-based production. Cochrane also makes the case that playing along with a click track will help you improve as a musician; to work as a studio vocalist or instrumentalist, you need to be well acquainted with click tracks since they’re such an integral part of the recording process.

Improve Your Stereo Recordings with a Jecklin Disk

Recording sounds in stereo can pay off big time, and provide full, wide recordings. The downside is that recording in stereo isn’t always that easy. Bobby Owsinski says that these issues can “include a hole in the middle of the sound field, an unnatural spaciousness, or mono-compatibility.” A Jecklin Disk, which is a hard material covered with an absorbent one, can help overcome some of the issues that come along with recording in stereo. Using a Jecklin Disk involves placing it between two omnidirectional mics that are separated a few inches apart, which is meant to emulate the way we hear with our ears. The end of this article includes an informative video on how to build your own Jecklin Disk.

The 200 Best Free VST Plugins

There are always a couple “Best Free VST Plugin” guides kicking around the internet, but this roundup by LANDR is perhaps one of the most comprehensive that I’ve found. It’s broken down into different sections that include synth VSTs, drum VSTs, guitar VSTs, effect VSTs, and utility VSTs. It also allows you to jump to the part that you’re interested in reading, making the article easy to navigate.

Critical Mastering Meter Tips with Produce Like a Pro

I don’t typically cover specific gear in the Outside Scoop, but this video by Produce Like A Pro offers a unique perspective on how to go about mastering tracks with NUGEN Audio’s MasterCheck plugin. Warren Huart provides lots of insightful mastering tips and tricks, so feel free to take what you learn and apply it to your own mastering process.

Top Down Mixing in PreSonus’ Studio One

Top down mixing is a particular mixing technique that involves placing processing on your stereo buss or master bus before you begin mixing individual tracks. This can save time while mixing and limit the number of plugins that you need to use. Graham Cochrane walks through how you can perform top down mixing in Studio One, but you’re able to apply the same concepts to your DAW of choice.

The Basic & No-So-Basic Ways To Use Reverbs & Delays

Austin Hull of Make Pop Music covers when it’s appropriate to apply reverbs and delays to your music, and whether it’s a better idea to utilize these devices as track inserts, or place them on aux tracks. He explores some different types of reverbs and explains when it makes sense to use one type over the other. This is an in-depth tutorial with plenty of examples, so it’s definitely worth watching.

What Splits Are and Why You Need to Think About Them Now

LANDR jumps into the world of the music business and offers up some valuable information regarding copyright types. This article explains that there are two different copyright types: masters rights and composition rights. It’s described in the article that “The master right is the ownership of the sound recording, most commonly owned by the label,” and that “The composition right  is the ownership of the underlying song, sometimes referred to as the publishing right.” It’s the composition right that gets split between songwriters and publishers, ensuring each party receives a share of the profits. Read the full article for more information on what constitutes a fair split.

Designing Sounds for Video Games with Sound Libraries

The world of game audio may be somewhat foreign to a lot of producers and engineers who came up in the music industry, but it’s something that’s a lot of fun to get into. One of my favorite game audio YouTubers, Akash Thakkar, has created a video demonstrating how he’s gone about designing the sound for a portal opening up in a game he’s working on. The plugins he’s using are probably quite familiar, so this little introduction into game audio shouldn’t be too overwhelming. Make sure to watch Part 1 and 2 for the full walkthrough.

Charles Hoffman is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer at Black Ghost Audio. After graduating from the University of Manitoba with an English degree, Charles completed his education at Icon Collective in Los Angeles, CA.

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