Here’s a technique that I stumbled across while experimenting. Sometimes I like to put a micro sample (a sample that is a fraction of a second in length) through a massive reverb. This particular sample is perhaps a tenth of a second of music from an old television commerical. When I do this it’s usually on its own track with lots of other stuff going on around it.
This example is the micro sample through the reverb alone so you can hear the texture that it creates. Most of the time I will run it through a high pass filter before it gets to the reverb, and in this case I’m also running it through a slowly modulating auto filter so that it has a slightly different timbre each time it occurs. Hearing this alone makes evident a high frequency overtone that starts to ring throughout the recording. You can hear the same sample in context in the track Electric Sheep that I linked in this post.
Micro Sample With Massive Reverb
This large clay ocarina was a gift from my friend Jerry who purchased it from his friend Barry who used to craft them and then sell them at Camden Market in London. This recording is from 2003 and was used on an experimental improvisational piece I worked on with Dr. David Means during my Music Technology studies at Metropolitan State University. I originally ran the sound through all sorts of processing including delay and reverb, but here I’ll include it in its original state. You can still hear some room ambiance, and a curious high frequency overtone created by the hardened clay resonating.