Sound Design With U-He Triple Cheese

About

u-he Triple Cheese is a freeware VST synth plugin. It uses very short, chromatically tuned delays to create sounds. 

The plugin comes with a couple of dozen of presets from various sound designers. The plugin is available in 32 and 64-bits VST2, VST3, AU and AAX formats for Windows and Mac. 

This instrument is the winner of the 2006 KVR Developer Challenge. As a bonus there is a PDF document for user guide.

Main features

• 3 sound generators
• 2 ADSR
• 2 LFOs
• 1 FX section with 5 parameters each
• 16 voices polyphony
• MIDI learn
• custom patch browser with easy navigation
• resizable interface with predefined values (from 70% to 200%)
• gamma can be set (from lighter to darker)

There are 11 generator types

• pluck
• saw pluck
• square pluck
• bowed
• blown
• noise
• DC
• crackle
• resonator **
• damp **
• stressor **

** = for second and third generator

Generator parameters are

• tone
• damp
• tune
• detune
• vibrato
• volume
• pan

The effects selection are

• chorus
• flanger
• phaser
• delay
• reverb

Project Basic Settings

• tempo 120 BPM 
• scale C-minor 
• rhythm signature 4/4 

Workflow

For the purposes of this tutorial, I’ve started with the idea of the bassline, the sub part then I selected a square pluck sound for it. I’ve continued with the other bass sounds from lower to upper octaves then created the lead and pad in the mid range.

In the second part of the workflow I’ve designed a white noise type fx sound then added some drum loops.

BassSub

I used a square pluck type generator for this sound. The ADSR is set to minimal attack, medium decay, maximum sustain and minimal release. The notes played are: G#1, A#1, C2, D#2, D2, C2, A#1, C2. 

I’ve set the tone to maximum and damping to 10 o’clock to have a bit of attack. Then I’ve cut the top of it with an EQ Eight normal LP filter.

BassHi

This bass is in an upper octave and plays very short notes. The generator type is saw pluck.

I’ve used a Reverb to color the sound (size 1, predelay 36 ms, 750 ms decay, reflect 3 dB, diffuse 4 dB, 46% dry wet). I cut the low end with EQ eight and boosted the top end in sides mode (M/S setting).

BassHi2

Similar to the previous sound but I used square pluck and eight notes.

BassNoise

This esoteric filler sound uses a bowed generator, the tone is set to 30% and the dampening is set to 100%. The Reverb and EQ is just copied from BassHi.

Lead

This is a pluck type sound with around 66% of tone and damping settings. It creates a very sharp, spiky sound. 

For seasoning I’ve used a Ping Pong Delay with 45% feedback and 50% dry wet. I’ve also set the center to 2 kHz and lowered the bandwidth to 2.43.

Pad

I chose the bowed category for the pad and set the envelope to slow attack, no decay, full sustain and slow release. 

I’ve also used a Reverb set to 2.8 sec decay and 47% dry wet with 100 size, 1 db reflection and 3.8 dB diffusion.

I used a sidechain compressor for the pumping effect. The ghost bass drum is feeding into this plugin to help fitting into the mix.

Fx

The FX is a simple crackle generator sound with a very short decay. 

I then used a Utility to amplify it, put some Reverb onto it, used a sidechain compressor for pumping and finally I made a low and high cut with EQ Eight (680 Hz and 3 kHz).

Breaks

The main breaks loop was a bit boring, so I boosted 187 Hz by +8 dB and cut 51 Hz by -4 dB. This provided enough energy to cut through the mix. I also removed the low end in mid/side mode from the sides part.

Top1 and Shaker

I panned the to the sides and used EQ Three to kill the low frequency content.

Top2 and Loko

First I panned them slightly left and right, then I removed the low end with EQ Three and Ithen put a small Reverb for the Loko track  with a 1 one second decay, 46% dry wet, 12 ms predelay, 6 size.

GhBd

This is a simple 4/4 ghost bass drum for feeding the sidechain compressor. 

I have turned it off but the signal is working properly for the stock Ableton Compressor plugin.

Grouping

Typically, I create four or five groups which are these

• drums
• bass
• mids
• fx
• vox (vocal)

On the mids group I cut the low end at around 200 Hz for letting enoguh low end from drums and bass.

Mixing

I’ve mixed as I went along the project, constantly adjusting volumes, EQ and some effects. I’ve removed the low end with EQ where it was necessary.

Mastering

I checked the mono compatibility by turning on the Utility module for a couple of seconds. I turned it off and cut the low end at 40 Hz in mid and 300 Hz in side mode with EQ Eight. Then I set up the limiter to amplify +2 decibels and the ceiling to -0.5 dB.

Finished Composition

This is the final version.

Conclusion

In this tutotial, I showed you how to create sounds with u-he Triple Cheese. I showed you how to create bass, lead, pad, fx and added drums from wav files. Then I showed you how to mix and master the project.