Schwerkraftmaschine by Tegeler Crushing Drums with Analog Magic
Tutorial | Mar 29, 2024
In this video, I showcase the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor by Tegeler, a Berlin company, which I received for a 14-day trial period. I demonstrate how the hardware compressor affects drum breaks, recording and speeding them up to create drum and bass break beats, and discuss the various settings and modes available on the device. While I find the compressor to be expensive, I appreciate the analog sound it adds to the drums, although I will likely have to return it due to the cost.
You can watch the Video on Youtube - support me on Patreon
I explored the Tegeler Schwerkraftmaschine compressor, a high-end hardware piece aimed at studio environments but tested in my home studio setting. Tegeler offers a 14-day trial for anyone interested, allowing users to experience its capabilities before committing to the purchase. The device, priced around $3,000, integrates seamlessly with digital workflows through a plugin that acts as a remote control, enabling real-time adjustment of physical knobs and saving settings within project files for recall.
My experimentation focused on processing digital breakbeats with the compressor in various ways:
- Bypass and Activation: Demonstrated the compressor's impact by switching it between bypass and active modes.
- Dynamic Control: Adjusted attack settings for pronounced compression effects, useful for enhancing perception on headphones or streaming platforms.
- Mix Control: Explored the balance between dry and wet signals for nuanced sound blending.
- Sidechain Filtering: Utilized the sidechain filter to exclude the kick drum from compression, catering to mixes with dominant low-end elements.
- Mode Selection: Experimented with multiple compressor modes, finding the multi-band and drum smasher modes particularly effective for my breakbeat and drum processing tasks.
- Analog Clipping: Combined the compressor's effect with analog clipping from my audio interface's preamps for added warmth and character.
- Bitwig Studio Workflow: Recorded the processed audio back into Bitwig, employing various recording techniques and stretch modes to achieve desired sonic characteristics. This process included speeding up the breaks for a distinct drum and bass feel.
The exercise provided insight into the Schwerkraftmaschine's potential for enhancing digital sounds with analog warmth and dynamics. Despite its appeal and the unique qualities it brings to digital production, its high cost remains a barrier for casual or home studio use.
I'm processing some Drumloops atm, and there will be a sample Pack soon on patreon for sure!
Questions & Answers #
Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:
What is the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor by Tegeler and how does it work? #
The Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor by Tegeler is a hardware compressor that can be controlled remotely through a plugin. It allows you to change the compressor settings from within the plugin and see the knobs on the physical device turn accordingly. The compressor can be used on various audio sources, such as drums, to add tonality, overtones, and control dynamics.
How does the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor compare to digital plugins? #
The Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor offers a different sound compared to digital plugins, adding analog characteristics and harmonics to the audio. It also provides the convenience of being able to recall settings within your projects and control the hardware device remotely. However, it is a more expensive option, making it more suitable for studios or professional producers.
How does the speaker use the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor in their music production process? #
The speaker uses the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor on breakbeats and drum samples to add tonality and overtones. They record the processed audio into their production software and then speed it up to create drum and bass breakbeats. They mention experimenting with different compressor settings and recording multiple takes to create a variety of samples.
What are the speaker's overall thoughts on the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor? #
The speaker enjoys the sound and effects that the Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor adds to their music. However, they acknowledge the high price and mention that it may be out of their budget. They express their enjoyment of using the compressor on drums but also mention the possibility of exploring its use as a mastering tool in future videos.
Transcription #
This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.
[00:00:00] So some of you may already have seen it.
[00:00:02] I own a Schwerkraftmaschine Compressor by Tegeler, which is a Berlin company.
[00:00:07] And they sent me one device.
[00:00:09] This is how it looks like here in my setup.
[00:00:11] Very shiny, very nice, very blue.
[00:00:15] And they sent me one device for 14 days.
[00:00:18] And that's not something they did just for me because I'm rich and famous and a YouTuber.
[00:00:24] In fact, everyone can head over to their website and just register and they sent you a device
[00:00:29] here for 14 days.
[00:00:31] And if you like it, you just pay the price and keep it or you send it back.
[00:00:36] So that's the deal.
[00:00:37] And that's just what I did and try to figure out if actually a hardware compressor is something
[00:00:43] I need in my life.
[00:00:46] And this compressor is very expensive.
[00:00:48] It's around 3000 bucks.
[00:00:51] So it's maybe something more like for studios and not like for me, for bedroom producers
[00:00:59] who work with a lot of digital sounds.
[00:01:04] But I try to figure this out basically.
[00:01:06] So what I have here is a plug-in version of the device itself, which is a remote control
[00:01:13] actually.
[00:01:14] You can change everything from within this plug-in.
[00:01:17] And when I turn the knobs here, you can see on the device itself all the knobs turning,
[00:01:26] which is a nice gimmick, but also handy because you don't need to reach out for the device
[00:01:31] itself, which may be far away.
[00:01:35] You can also recall all the settings with your project.
[00:01:38] You save basically this plug-in inside of your project.
[00:01:42] And then when you load up the project, all the knobs switch into place to the right positions
[00:01:49] and you have the same sound or the same preset, the same setup of the compressor.
[00:01:54] So in the background here, I have some kind of digital brakes or actually using addictive
[00:01:59] drums to play some samples.
[00:02:01] And I created some kind of breakbeat, a slow breakbeat.
[00:02:07] And at the moment here, the compressor is in bypass mode.
[00:02:09] So the light here is off.
[00:02:11] When this light is on, the compressor is working.
[00:02:15] So I switch this on and off so you can hear the difference.
[00:02:31] So you can change the attack here a bit.
[00:02:42] So I try to squash it a bit so you can hear the effect better on your headphones or on
[00:02:46] YouTube, right?
[00:02:47] So I'm, you know, overdue it a bit.
[00:03:08] Let's put the mix all the way up.
[00:03:10] You can also mix the dry signal and the wet signal.
[00:03:30] There's also this sidechain filter so you can change if you just want to put the kick
[00:03:35] drum out of the equation, right?
[00:03:37] Out of the analyzer.
[00:03:39] And sometimes this is cool if you have a heavy kick drum.
[00:03:46] So sometimes it's better to just keep the kick drum out, you know, and just focus on
[00:03:50] the upper frequencies here.
[00:04:04] You can hear the difference.
[00:04:13] There are also some different modes here.
[00:04:14] I'm using multi-band at the moment.
[00:04:16] And I think this is the best one for this kind of task that I'm doing at the moment
[00:04:20] here.
[00:04:21] But there are also here the old pressure.
[00:04:24] We have a breakthrough stereo transformer, a very tube vocal level, optical compressor,
[00:04:34] some smasher could be also nice.
[00:04:36] Let's try this one out.
[00:04:55] Some hot.
[00:05:14] Yeah, it's smashing, smashing really good.
[00:05:31] Yeah, and each mode has a different use case for this sidechain filter here.
[00:05:37] So it does a little bit different stuff on each mode.
[00:05:40] Yeah, you have to try to figure this out here for yourself then.
[00:05:47] But most of the times I think drum smasher is my most used thing.
[00:05:52] And also you're the first one, the multi-band complex compressor, which is really nice on
[00:05:58] drums at least on the master.
[00:06:00] You probably don't want to smash everything like I do here with drums.
[00:06:05] You need a bit of gain reduction on the master probably.
[00:06:09] But yeah, I want to show you basically the effect of the compressor, how it sounds and
[00:06:13] what it does to the sound.
[00:06:17] Let's use this one here again.
[00:06:43] Okay, so this is what I do.
[00:06:44] I just record these drums or these breaks actually into Bitwig again.
[00:06:50] So I go out to the compressor and back into Bitwig and record everything.
[00:06:54] And then I speed it up to 172 BPM because I try to make drum bass breaks, right?
[00:07:01] But I basically create break beats like back in the day or try to create break beats like
[00:07:06] back in the day slowly.
[00:07:08] And then I speed it up because it has a special sound to it when you speed up these break
[00:07:13] beats then afterwards it does something to the sound.
[00:07:16] I have no idea what, but it sounds better sometimes.
[00:07:22] So yeah, let's actually record something I would say.
[00:07:28] Let's go here out to the audio too.
[00:07:32] So I'm recording here into the second track.
[00:07:36] It's basically just recording at the output of this one.
[00:07:41] Then I mute this and all I have to do is hit play and then record some stuff.
[00:07:59] Okay, so here we have some kind of recording.
[00:08:04] You can see we have a lot of nice attacks here, but there's also a bit of clipping going
[00:08:10] on and I have to explain this because that's on purpose.
[00:08:15] On my audio interface I have some preamps and I squash the audio into these preamps
[00:08:22] to get some analog clipping.
[00:08:25] I show this here.
[00:08:28] Maybe you can see it down here.
[00:08:30] Down here there's a red light flashing when I hit play.
[00:08:35] Right, this is actually clipping.
[00:08:40] These are the transients from the kick and the snare and I just shave them off in an
[00:08:45] analog kind of way.
[00:08:47] So it's basically two processes in one, compressing, analog compressing and clipping and I don't
[00:08:53] need digital plug-ins for that.
[00:08:55] So yeah, it sounds different.
[00:09:00] It's maybe not better or worse.
[00:09:02] It's just different.
[00:09:03] It does something to the sound.
[00:09:05] It adds some harmonics, some overtones.
[00:09:08] Yeah, that's how I do it.
[00:09:27] Let's question some more and let's record something here.
[00:09:46] You can see here the audio signal or the waveform is much fatter now, but you can clearly
[00:09:53] see here the clipping happening and it looks a bit different.
[00:09:58] It looks a bit softer in my opinion.
[00:10:00] It's not that digital, completely straight.
[00:10:04] It looks like a soft clipper actually.
[00:10:11] But yeah, it does something to the sound.
[00:10:13] And then what I do most of the times is I go here to this behavior, tap inside of Bitwig
[00:10:19] Studio and switch here to the default stretch mode on record and bounce.
[00:10:24] I switch to re-pitch, which means every time I record basically here an audio file or an
[00:10:29] audio clip, these audio clips are on re-pitch mode, which is also on purpose because I do
[00:10:37] this multiple times.
[00:10:38] I record basically different takes.
[00:10:40] I change something here inside of addictive drums.
[00:10:43] I change some compressor settings.
[00:10:46] And every time I found something I like, I just record one take into here a new audio
[00:10:53] clip and then I can basically speed this up.
[00:10:57] So I disable this and mute this one here or maybe hit stop here.
[00:11:04] And then I go to, let's say, 172 and everything in here will be sped up.
[00:11:16] Right, this is the original break and then I speed this up to 172 to get some nice drum
[00:11:35] bass break beats out of this.
[00:11:38] This is what I do maybe for a few hours until I have a lot of material and then I save this
[00:11:48] into my sample directory and build basically some samples out of it.
[00:11:53] But it's really nice actually to have this analog compressor here at hand to get some
[00:11:58] different tonalities out of break beats and some nice overtones instead of just using
[00:12:05] digital stuff all the time.
[00:12:09] I have to say I really like how it sounds on the drums, but it's very expensive.
[00:12:17] I don't have the money for this, right?
[00:12:19] So I probably have to send it back, but I try to put as many sounds through this thing
[00:12:25] as possible until I have to send it back.
[00:12:30] It sounds very nice, but I don't have the money for that.
[00:12:33] It's way out of my comfort zone.
[00:12:39] Okay, so let's change some things here.
[00:12:44] We have to go back.
[00:12:46] We have to hit stop here.
[00:12:50] Let's try the drum smash right here again.
[00:12:53] It was this one.
[00:13:46] I don't want to clip too much, but this is what I do basically for hours.
[00:14:03] I try to switch up the sounds, change the settings and then record something.
[00:14:09] Maybe we change here some things inside of addictive drums.
[00:14:33] For these breakbeats here I use this no-arts mode.
[00:14:39] Basically when you turn this off or on it's always the same sample it uses for
[00:14:45] the snare so it's not changing the snare sample all the time.
[00:14:49] It's very nice for making these breakbeats.
[00:15:10] This could sound nice pitched up.
[00:15:18] And here with this fader I can change basically inside of addictive drums
[00:15:22] which kind of sample it's using for the snare drum.
[00:15:26] So I can change the sample and this no-arts mode here keeps the sample.
[00:15:45] These are the hats.
[00:17:08] So let's keep this and just record it here for a moment.
[00:17:28] So we have this.
[00:17:30] Let's keep it a go here.
[00:17:40] And if I'm done creating these breakbeats you then can again send this through the
[00:17:47] Schwerkraftmaschine with different compressor settings and maybe make it
[00:17:51] louder or squash it even more or maybe bring out some transients or add more
[00:17:59] tonality or overtones to it right.
[00:18:01] So this is what I do with the Schwerkraftmaschine on drums.
[00:18:07] I maybe do a video how I use it on some tracks as a mastering tool.
[00:18:14] But yeah I think for this video I just want to show you how I use this on drums
[00:18:19] and how I create some samples some breakbeat samples with it because it's
[00:18:23] really fun to actually just change all these settings try out how it sounds
[00:18:28] and then instantaneously record everything into a folder and then you can
[00:18:33] listen back and select the best breakbeats out of the directory.
[00:18:39] Okay that's it. Again this is how it looks like.
[00:18:43] I put the link to the website in the description below
[00:18:46] for the Tegeler Schwerkraftmaschine and yeah I only have a few days left.
[00:18:53] Thanks for watching leave a like if you like the video.
[00:18:56] Subscribe to the channel see you in the next video. Bye.