Bit Reduced Down Sampled Fuzzed and Resonated

Absolutely nothing is distinguishable in these samples after all the processing that has been applied. My goal was to make a sequence of random samples sound as nasty as possible by applying down sampling, bit reduction, and distortion, then bring it back into something tolerable by applying some resonance filters and reverberation.

I automated the frequency and dry mix of the resonator so I could create some Theremin like pitch sweeping as well as bring in and out the noise of the bit reduced samples throughout the piece. What I ended up with is a palate of odd textures and diffused noise suitable for frightening the neighbors on a chilly Autumn evening.

Downsampled Fuzzed and Resonated

Filtered Synth Drums at 125bpm

I programmed this beat and ran it through some pretty thick filtering followed by compression with a touch of delay automated in here and there for a few dub effects. Another technique I used to get some different fills going in the pattern was to add a MIDI arpeggiator and turn it on at certain moments to change the feel. The arpeggiator was programmed to randomize the notes in the sequence using specific note durations. I alternated between eighth notes and thirty-second notes.

Arpeggiating at eighth notes slowed down the feel of the beat since the high hat pattern was programmed in sixteenths, while arpeggiating the pattern to thirty-seconds created some simulated fancy fill work. These techniques can be hit or miss, so whenever I use them to produce I generally render the track several times with the random behaviors enabled then scour the output for “gems”. Finally I collect the “gems” and use them as fills selectively. Another example of unnatural selection at work.

Filtered Synth Drums at 125bpm

Dark Chorused Guitar

I am not, nor will I ever claim to be a guitarist, so please forgive the playing in this example. I do like the sound I have achieved here though. To get it I ran a cheap Fender Squire through VST distortion, thickly modulated chorus, followed by delay, and reverb. It’s very 80s, although I was not necessarily going for that. I does seem to go well in the piece in which it was recorded.

Oxotremorine Guitar Sound

Piano with Limiter, Chorus and Reverb

Here’s the piano from the last entry without the distortion applied. I left on all the other processing including limiting, stereo chorus and reverb. Now you can hear why I was not happy with the original recording. The recording is a bit noisey and although I used a nice mic (AKG c4000b large diaphragm condenser), the piano is quite old and suffers from a thin sound along with knocks and rattles that occur when using the keyboard and pedals. One might hear these features as the instruments character, but that rational only goes so far. I do like how limiting is manipulating the dynamics in the example. Adding the stereo chorus and reverb blends much of the rattling and knocks into the overall sound while the limiter expands the noise as the sound decays.

Piano with Limiter, Chorus and Reverb

Piano Destruction

I recorded these gentle piano chords on March 25, 2008 while working on a classically influenced piece of music. While re-listening to this today I had the idea of damaging the recording as much as possible with processing to see what I might end up with. The main reason I decided to do this was because I was dissatisfied with the sound of the original recording and thought, perhaps I could get something interesting by degrading the signal significantly. I tried a few different types of processing but settled with heavy limiting followed by a high shelf into monster distortion, topped off with almost 5 seconds of reverb.

Piano Destruction