distortion/bit crushing question

dc_wolftown · Post by **dc_wolftown** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:31 pm

Safe,
Despite using this forum on pretty much a daily basis, ive never felt the need to post a topic up to now as basically everything ive needed to know has been covered. But one question thats been bugging me for a while ive not been able to find a post on to so here goes:

I've noticed alot of producers have such a dirty lofi sound to their distorted lines that im finding it impossible to recreate. As far as actually nailing the sounds in regards to the waveforms im pretty much sorted. I use albino 3 and sytrus for fm mod stuff. But my sounds lack that grit and dirt that makes these sounds so in-your-face and hard hitting.
Ive tried loads of different ways such as bit crushing, multiband distortion, soft clipping etc aswell as duplicating the patch one effected by these and the other left pretty much clean. But they always end up sounding like a mushy pile of shit. Alot of these sounds seem to me like they have bit reduction, but whenever i try this (especially on ones hooked to a low pass) the sound breaks up in a shitty trebly way that destroys the original sound aswell and the filtering.

I know this sort of thing takes years to perfect, but does anyone have an idea of where i should start? Im guessing one of the above mentioned techiniques may be the answer but so far im stumped.

Ive strung together a few examples of akira kiteshi, who seem to have this sort of thing nailed to pefection:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/w5nxp3

Peace

DC_WT

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:38 pm

automate your effects

frizzwah · Post by **frizzwah** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:40 pm

are you putting the bitcrusher on an insert or a send?
if you put it on a send and adjust the wet/dry signal, you'll retain some of the original sound as well as the bitcrushed sound.
i could be way off the mark/oversimplifying it here.

Brisance · Post by **Brisance** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:21 pm

1. Get CMT bitcrusher
2. Put something like 4-16x downsampling
3. win

The bit reduction on albino sucks ass.

futures_untold · Post by **futures_untold** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:43 pm

Bit reduction (and ring modulation) has a different sound according to the frequency of the audio passed through it. You may find a few sweet spots on a couple of notes, but that the rest sounds like shit.

I'd recommend bouncing out the sweet spot notes and using them as samples for the rest of the bassline.

If you did this several times, you'd get a decent amount of variation for your 'sampled' basslines.

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:49 pm

Brisance wrote:1. Get CMT bitcrusher
2. Put something like 4-16x downsampling
3. win

The bit reduction on albino sucks ass.

shhh thats one of my secrets
the bit crushing in z3ta is good too
then again i use that 99% of the time and rarely touch albino

webstarr · Post by **webstarr** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:58 pm

Deadly Habit wrote:
Brisance wrote:1. Get CMT bitcrusher
2. Put something like 4-16x downsampling
3. win

The bit reduction on albino sucks ass.
shhh thats one of my secrets
the bit crushing in z3ta is good too
then again i use that 99% of the time and rarely touch albino

where is the bitcrusher in Z3TA? I didn't know it had one

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:26 pm

Webstarr wrote:
Deadly Habit wrote:
Brisance wrote:1. Get CMT bitcrusher
2. Put something like 4-16x downsampling
3. win

The bit reduction on albino sucks ass.
shhh thats one of my secrets
the bit crushing in z3ta is good too
then again i use that 99% of the time and rarely touch albino
where is the bitcrusher in Z3TA? I didn't know it had one

under the tone control for overdrive/distortion in effects page

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:35 pm

bitcrush and downsample more aggressively. take your snares down to 1bit, 4x oversampling, 25db distortion. gate if it creates too much aliasing. distort your basses to 2 or 3 bits, then lowpass- the aliasing before lowpassing creates some serious, oddball energy down there.

basically just work more aggressively. intense compression can create similar effects as well.

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 6:05 pm

One thing I have been doing recently that I found by accident is in Ableton I will find a bass sound I am digging and bounce it to audio. Without the high quality enabled, I will warp and pitch everything up an octave or two and resample then warp it and pitch it way down again. You may need to do this a few times with different variations each time. It is bit reduction with a twist. Makes those distorted lines just rip tho.

POND LIFE · Post by **POND LIFE** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:02 pm

Brisance wrote:1. Get CMT bitcrusher
2. Put something like 4-16x downsampling
3. win

this exactly. listen to my more recent (higher up) tracks, if theyre dirty and hard hitting enough for you then that's exactly how i do it.

deadly_habit · Post by **deadly_habit** » Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:12 pm

yea when you get into basslines like that it's alot of automation and resampling
easy to learn but pain in process imo

akira kiteshi · Post by **akira kiteshi** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 11:45 am

I don't use any bit reduction plugins on my basslines. I use hardware to make most of them and then do a bit of bouncing to my old EMU or Akai samplers and 1/4" tape for extra dirtiness

electronic shaman · Post by **electronic shaman** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:32 pm

ohmicide

you're on the right track with multiband distortion, I have no idea how this thread has gotten so long with no mention of ohmicide. It's just sooo good. I've been playin with the demo of volcano2 which is pretty sweet too for filter automation goodness. As everyone above has said, automation is key. That and layers.

dc_wolftown · Post by **dc_wolftown** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 1:13 pm

quality stuff, cheers for all the responses on this.
The downsampling works a treat, ive always been far to heavy handed with that up to now but a subtle amount works wonders.
Ohmicide is something i really need to spend time with, i can hear theres some class sounds in there but theres so much stuff you can do on it i could do with sitting down for a week and getting stuck in.
Also the same with resampling, i agree wholeheartedly with deadly habits on this one, simple in theory but time consuming when it comes to nailing the sounds.
And thanks to Tommy/Akira for the personal response! Ive seen the pics on your myspace at all the awesome hardware you've got. I've a mate who has a whole room full of this stuff which hardly gets used these days, I'll have to bribe him somehow into letting me borrow some stuff. Also keep up the fucking amazing work. I do live sound for a gig venue in Wolverhampton and regulary force dubs on the unsuspecting punters inbetween sets. Pinball or Boom 'n Pow usually go on straight after a band finish, cue much unplanned dodgy skanking and foaming-at-the-mouth indie kids running over to ask what it is im playing. I might aswell print post-it notes with 'myspace.com/technoirbeats' on to save me writing it out about 30 times a night.
Peace
DC_WT

yunomi donchu · Post by **yunomi donchu** » Sun Sep 06, 2009 11:30 pm

Akira Kiteshi wrote:I don't use any bit reduction plugins on my basslines. I use hardware to make most of them and then do a bit of bouncing to my old EMU or Akai samplers and 1/4" tape for extra dirtiness

I think it's time for a Q&A for you Akira. You one of the freshest producers out there at the moment imo!

distortion/bit crushing question

distortion/bit crushing question

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