As the kick, the sound in itself is simple to achieve. The kick is simple to understand, but the range of sounds with slight differences is almost infinite. It’s exactly the same with the range for the kick, from deep smooth kick to trance hard kick. This comes from how hard the pitch envelope is, how both AMP Envelope and Pitch Modulation envelope interact with each other. The last piece is how the LFO acts in terms of timing.
The range in this sound is from a Deep and Soulful STAB, Tech-House STAB to Deep Techno STAB. This depends on the chords and the smoothness of the initial Tone/Timbre and how the modulations are moving in time.
I guess that’s why I like these types of sounds. Also it’s so powerful in the mix that makes an impact on the audience.
What’s a STAB
It is something powerful and may be harsh on its attack… That’s because of the chords and the waveform. Usually the Saw waveform has fundamental and all odd harmonics that this waveform comes close to noise. That’s where it’s power comes from. And on top of that a stab be used to make great chords for a powerful track that can move the dancefloor. The funny thing here is in Dub Techno these noisy and powerful things can become something more downtempo and chill. This is an interesting concept because technically speaking it’s contradictory for it’s original purpose
( Artistically speaking I like contradictions).
Key components for Stabs
- Few SAW waveforms
- One or more Chords (it can be a one finger chord)
- Delay (like the Roland RE 201 Space Echo – Tape Delay)
- Reverb (kind of Lush Reverbs)
So Approaching the Stab start with power and chords. Then the main characteristics are done by using the open/close the cutoffs on the attack portion of the sound. When thinking about Stabs, if remove this behavior and there’s no Stab at all!
One of the main drivers in the Stab sound is the effects section. The analog Four is kind of a good Stab machine « in the box » because of the effects section. The delay is exactly suited for Stab sounds, and the reverb is perfectly tailored to finish the sound.
Then the next thing to consider is how you play and modulate the Stab in time. Here is an example below to give you an idea of the Timbre, The Chord, the effects chain, and how the playability modulates the Stab in time.
We’ll see a Stab in the next patch explained
As with everything, consuming and using something without branching beyond your abilities will let you love something quickly. The problem is if you make a Stab every day for every song while listening Dub Techno everyday you will immediately get bored. That’s not because the sound is good or bad. It’s because it feels like wearing the same blue shirt everyday.
Some Stab Examples:
The Stab from Marc Romboy vs. Chelonis R. Jones “The Beat” is absolutely lovely we can’t hear the introduction, only the main break but it’s a good example of a Stab.
A more Deep Techno Stab example is in this superb song from Rhythm & Sound called “Carrier”
This one too from Yagya “Rigning Two”
You can also achieve some sounds from this Tune from Humano released on Music Man Records.
