Creating Realistic Rain Sounds in Bitwig

Tutorial | Jan 30, 2023

I was creating a dense rain sound effect by layering different noise modules and then changing the volume of the noise with a multiplier. I then added layers to the sound with a sample and hold, a bandpass filter, and a convolution with a room. Finally, I modulated the EQ to change over time.

You can watch the Video on Youtube
Download the Rainmaker Preset: http://bit.ly/3jnacoS

Whats the best way to create rain? #

The best way to create rain is to use two noise modules to create stereo white noise, then use a multiply to modulate the noise and add a volume slider. You can also add some layers with ADSR envelopes, band-pass filters, and convolution to create a more realistic sound. Finally, you can modulate the filters over time to create a more dynamic sound.

Transcription #

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[00:00.000] So you just take noise
[00:06.760] and maybe a volume slider here.
[00:10.400] So this gives you basically just white noise,
[00:17.440] stereo white noise.
[00:19.760] And then you can take a multiply,
[00:23.600] just multiply the same noise here with this
[00:28.320] and also with the volume in there.
[00:53.680] This is basically dense,
[00:54.960] dense, heavy rain kind of.
[01:00.080] At least sounds like this way.
[01:01.920] Need of course a bit of EQing.
[01:16.320] Put the dates in the preset names.
[01:17.920] Yeah, but it's always a hassle to find out the current date and type it in.
[01:34.960] Up is at the end, yeah.
[01:39.760] Let's use the label.
[01:40.800] So this is dense rain.
[01:50.320] I think why it works is that when you use your two noise modules,
[01:56.880] these have different seats and I think that's why it works.
[02:02.320] And then when you use pink noise here
[02:04.080] and then modulate basically pink noise with the multiply,
[02:07.520] you change the volume on different amounts.
[02:11.840] So it sounds like a bit fizzled out.
[02:25.760] So this is dense rain.
[02:27.360] And then you have to add some layers to it,
[02:29.280] of course, because it's on its own.
[02:32.240] It's a bit boring maybe or maybe it's exactly what you need.
[02:43.120] Then you can do something with ADs or with an envelope at least.
[02:52.480] And you trigger this one here also with noise.
[02:54.720] And because only everything above 0.5,
[03:07.440] so when you look at the noise, right, you have this signal here.
[03:13.360] So you can increase the loudness then.
[03:15.840] And everything that passes here 0.5 is a trigger.
[03:20.000] So when you find you at the sweet spot where some of these noise bits go over the line,
[03:28.080] then you trigger basically the AD.
[03:29.840] And you get something like this.
[03:41.280] So it's also nice for creating a windmill brackle probably.
[03:59.680] Also need some filtering here.
[04:01.040] So this is something you would probably use for.
[04:25.840] Can you slow down the noise?
[04:27.120] Not really, but what you can do is you can use a sample and hold here
[04:38.240] after search for random.
[04:40.240] This one here.
[04:42.720] So this basically also generates noise in a way.
[04:46.080] When you take this output basically and go up here to kilohertz,
[04:59.360] then you can slow down the noise.
[05:02.720] So it's basically also just noise here.
[05:04.880] It's a sample and hold, or it's a sample and holds noise.
[05:22.880] And then we can create some drops here.
[05:30.160] Let's see, some noise.
[05:38.720] There we are.
[05:42.080] And we do basically the same thing as here.
[05:50.000] Relative, so we can change this.
[05:51.920] And then we can use an bandpass filter here.
[06:07.600] Maybe I use...
[06:18.800] Let's use a second one.
[06:49.760] So you get some drops there.
[06:53.280] Of course we have to modulate this.
[07:01.760] Dice.
[07:06.160] So we can even bring in now a chance here.
[07:09.280] To reduce drops a bit more.
[07:18.240] So every time we trigger a drop, we want to trigger a dice and then modulate here the frequency.
[07:38.000] And we find here a nice range.
[07:51.120] So this is what we want to change.
[08:14.320] We also want to change a bit here the modulation amount.
[08:23.840] And also the envelope and then we have to
[08:52.000] find probably some kind of room.
[09:22.000] Yeah, it's always hard to find the right settings for everything.
[09:52.000] Convolution and maybe select a room here.
[10:22.000] And a bit of a cure.
[11:22.000] Yeah, with the resonances too much then you get this.
[11:52.880] Write these tones.
[11:54.880] So we need to find the sweet spot there.
[12:25.280] And then we have to find a nice EQ setting here for the track.
[12:31.600] That fits the track.
[12:43.600] Yes, it would be nice if actually the EQ would change over time because the rain is not constant
[12:49.280] in the real world, right? Sometimes it rains more and then it rains less and so on.
[12:56.400] Maybe I'll modulate a bit for you.
[13:56.720] What a high pass here.
[14:09.520] Okay.
[14:39.520] We can even modify the macro.
[15:09.520] Would be probably nice also to modulate here the filters over time.