| StoreTags: distortion, techno
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Hey peepz, I did that liveset on stickam on saturday, and I think it's the first liveset I did that I think I really like. I dunno really how things started falling into place, but I have the impression that I'm finally finding something that would be "my voice". Funnily that went through a lengthy process of copying things (richie hawtin sets namely).
So, one of the thing that I found out was that I really liked about the webcam recording of the set was the massive distortion and filtering that went on, and how "creamy" and smooth the result sounded. So I started trying things out, and put a massive disto and compression on my set. I think I may need to multiband it, because it makes my kick a bit BROOM, but the result has those magic "ghosts" in it that I really appreciate in DE9 - closer to the edit.
Here is the recording straight out of the machinedrum:
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and here what I did (it's louder, so you may need to adjust the levels)
link
I did the disto using a few dynamic tubes in live, and a reaktor ensemble called "vintape", pushing the dist quite high. I know people here will know that stuff pretty well, so I'm asking, that distinctive early minimal techno sound / detroit sound, is that due to tehm overdriving their mixers? Them using some analogue compressor with distortion? Am I just imagining things, or is the second mp3 above really more enjoyable? Am I overdoing it (I think so, I think I've got nasty ear fatigue by now)? Is it bad if the kicks suddenly go BROOZM. I think playing live I'll keep to the machiendrum straight out, cause clean sound on a big PA just kicks ass, and there is enough room around it to create all the weirdo goodness. But for records / listening at home, should I start overdriving it all? | |
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06/17/08
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daswesen
i meant multiband distortion, not compression.
06/17/08
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jdg
try some slew rate distortion.
but overloading levels is the trick.
06/17/08
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monkvolcano
well... imo, i'd say yes, varying degrees of distortion on everything. I like that. Whenever I use my analog mixers (which is not as much as I'd like because I can't afford a really flexible set up this way) i love overdriving the individual channels. it really adds character. there's something to be said for a an awesome crystal clear mix as well, but I tend to usually like a descent chunk of distortion.
06/18/08
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cbit
dw said: "and there is enough room around it to create all the weirdo goodness. But for records / listening at home, should I start overdriving it all?"
i think this is a good question. i don't have a good answer. I'm stuck to the idea of single, canonical version of a track. In other direction, taken to its logical conclusion, you end up with a rash of versions: club mix, ipod mix, noisy bar mix, radio mix. There's something ugly about that.
but the result has those magic "ghosts" in it that I really appreciate in DE9 - closer to the edit.
Great sounding description, i'm not sure what you mean by ghosts, but i'm interested to find out.
06/18/08
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cbit
Did you try what jdg suggested in that other thread, parallel compression, with the compressed mix being distorted too (maybe multiband to stop the oontz).
06/18/08
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daswesen
Yeah, trying that stuff out. I have a good result with a bandpass on upper mids going to heavy disto and massive sidechained compression. By ghosts I mean those quirky noises / pumps in the mid to high end range that "float" around. For example, you take a very low vocal looop, quite noisy, and it pumps around. You can't really hear it unless you're really stoned in a dark room with headphones on, but it's there and adds to the funk.
I'm all for canonical version of the track as well, I was more referring to "I'm gonna distort it when I record it on the pc to make a track, but when I play live, I'll just put the machinedrum straight into the PA". The more I get further into this, the less I want to have anything else besides the machinedrum. Everytime I take it for a jam (for a liveset), I discover new ways to add to the depth of the sound and stuff, it's really quite amazing. Even the act of adding an additional synthesizer that is entirely contorlled by the MD kind of breaks the flow, but I will try that a bit more though.
06/18/08
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cbit
By ghosts I mean those quirky noises / pumps in the mid to high end range that "float" around.
Ah yes, those squanks. Live's saturator, set to waveshaper mode, can be very good at summoning these, but in a not-so-subtle way. The interesting stuff often happens at the ends or beginnings of sounds, while the level is changing.
06/18/08
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dach
needs more distortion
06/18/08
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bla
if you can get a good analogue dj mixer then you could overdrive that in a liveset with your machinedrum- use the seperate outs so youre not overdriving everything
06/18/08
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skab
i just an art dual pro preamp
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runs on batteries (if you want) and you can get loads of gain out of it. the MD has multiple out puts, right? why not route the mid-range stuff through a pre before the mixer, leave the low end stuff alone. this would be great live, in conjunction with something like this
link
i know what cbit is saying about the waveshaper . distortion is really hard to get right with software, but much easier with hardware.
06/18/08
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lilt
put everything through lots of distortion all the time
everything
awesome
06/18/08
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lilt
oh and then sample it at 32k 6bit
then add distortion
more awesome
06/18/08
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lilt
update:
distortion is still awesome
06/19/08
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daswesen
lol lilt, the synth i'm building now has 6 bit @ 32 khz. HOW COULD YOU KNOW?!? ARE YOU SPYING ON ME THROUGH THE INTANETZZ?
06/19/08
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lilt
wow!
that really is amazing
wow
i chose the 32k cos thats what the korg es1 samples at and 6bit just cos i like bitcrushers sound strangely good at that level (something to do with their harmonics... or lack thereof)
but still amazing wow!
(update: more distortion = more awesome)
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