The remaining three modules bring proceedings back into more familiar territory, with stages for pitch, filter and amp. In both modes, the Resynth module lets you change the overall sample length and modulate the sample playback speed independently of the sample pitch. This allows you to create new sounds based on the non-tonal components of a sample, and this works particularly well if driven by timbrally rich inharmonic sounds such as cymbals. In Noise mode, the Resynth module uses the original spectrum of the sample to shape a white noise signal. You can also modify the prominence and inharmonicity of the sound’s formant. You can make adjustments to the tonal purity, which is similar to the Decompose tool’s ability to rebalance the tonal and noise components of a sample. In Tonal mode, the original spectrum of the sample is used. The next module, Resynth, separates the incoming sample into its individual frequency and overtone components, and resynthesises new sounds by manipulating those components.
There are also low-pass and high-pass filters, a note-on delay setting, and a switch that sees the layer triggered by note-off rather than note-on messages, which is great for rise and impact-type effects. The first of these allows you to modify details of the sample itself: start and end points, loop type and points, sample fade in and out, and so on. Whether decomposed or used as is, a layer’s sample is passed through a set of five processing stages. As well as changing the tone-to-noise balance of an individual sample, the Decompose tool also means you can combine the tonal component of one sample with the noise component of a different sample loaded into another layer. This separates the sample into tonal and noise components, allowing you to rebalance those components or use just one of them. Once a sample is loaded into a layer, you have the option to use the Decompose tool to pre-process it. Each layer hosts a single sample, which is processed in various ways – some more conventional and others less so – before being mixed with the other layers and the built-in effects processing. It does a good line in basses and sound effects too and, like any good sound-design tool, is only really limited by your own imagination.īackbone programmes are made up of up to eight layers. What Backbone is, then, is a tool that allows you to create original sounds, with a particular emphasis on drum hits and one-shots. This is geared towards creating drum sounds but it isn’t a drum machine and it can’t be set up to trigger different samples by playing different keys. But it’s not a conventional sampler by any means. Thankfully, doing that just become a lot easier thanks to Steinberg’s new Backbone Drum Re-Synthesizer plug-in for VST3, AU and AAX compatible hosts. But how often do you find that, despite giving over gigabytes of storage to reams of marginally dissimilar TR-808 and 909 hits, you still have to edit, modify and resample your sounds to get them to really bed in to your track? Sometimes you wonder if it would be better to just create a custom sound from scratch. The idea behind this hoarding, of course, is that by building up an extensive hoard of samples you’re more likely to be able find the perfect sound for any given situation. Now keep your hand up if the vast majority of your hoarded samples are drum hits.