the stuttery sound

[antic604]

I've been trying to achieve the stuttery, bursting effect that can be heard here:

Cosmosis - Spores From Space (throughout most of the track, particularly on acid lines)

Martian Arts - Discrete Circuit (on the main melody)

 

(God, such a lovely tunes both of them!  )

 

How is it done? Is it a quick LFO applied to the main sound? If so, what is modulated - volume? filter cutoff? And which shape - a saw? a pulse/square? Or instead of LFO is it maybe painstakingly programmed by hand with automation envelopes? Or maybe it's some kind of beat-repeat / glitch effect, where a sound is sampled and repeated several time in short burst. 

 

I'm getting pretty close with the latter, but it doesn't sound nearly as surgically precise as those

[recursion loop]

Cosmosis: It may be just very short notes with almost zero amp env release (if you mean the TB-like synth, e.g., at 2:12-2:14). Try paiting few notes in a row in a piano roll aligned to 1/32 grid, then shorten the note lenths (not changing the note start position) so that there would be a little gap between the notes.

 

Martian Arts: Idk, some space-time manipulation in a modular hardware, probably invloving some extraterrestial technologies, hope Nectarios will tell what he did here. 

 

Iirc your Ableton should have a plugin called Beat Repeater or something, try it for stuttery effects. Also there is a plugin called Dblue Glitch (the first verison is free but Windows 32 bit only). I use a Reaktor based plugin called The Finger for that. 

 

Also if you have enough time and patience, you can bounce an audio and do it manually on the audio track.

[antic604]

Cosmosis: It may be is just very short notes with almost zero amp env release (if you mean the TB-like synth, e.g., at 2:12-2:14). Try paiting few notes in a row in a piano roll aligned to 1/32 grid, then shorten the note lenths (not changing the note start position) so that there would be a little gap between the notes.

Yeah, I tried that and it works well, but the thing is it relies on my own gut feel of where and how to put it. I find that it works much better if it's randomised. What I did recently, I used Live's Beat Repeat via randomised ghost clips and simply recorded it. I loved how chaotic it got and I could just then edit stuff I wasn't liking.

 

Martian Arts: Idk, some space-time manipulation in a modular hardware, probably invloving some extraterrestial technologies, hope Nectarios will tell what he did here.

So I take it you rather like the album, then? At least from the technical perspective

 

Iirc your Ableton should have a plugin called Beat Repeater or something, try it for stuttery effects.

Yes, I'm using that and there's a lot of alternatives for MaxForLive that I need to give a try as well.

 

Also if you have enough time and patience, you can bounce an audio and do it manually on the audio track.

I have neither And also I like to keep everything in MIDI for as long as I can. I'm a control freak, which - I know - is very unhealthy for productivity

[recursion loop]

If you want more randomness, try Dblue Glitch. It is an insert effect like Beat Repeat, with its own internal sequenser. You may program it so that "something" should happen at cretain point, but what exactly will happen will be left to the discretion of a randomizer.

 

The Finger is also an insert controlled by its own midi channel, when I use it I play the processed part in a loop, hit random keys and record what is happening.

 

I totally admire Marian Arts technical skills and I feel that his husic is not a random mess of farts and glitches but very carefully arranged. It requires some special mood to appreciate though. I listened to some samples from this album, maybe someday I'll dive deeper into it.

[antic604]

If you want more randomness, try Dblue Glitch. It is an insert effect like Beat Repeat, with its own internal sequenser. You may program it so that "something" should happen at cretain point, but what exactly will happen will be left to the discretion of a randomizer.

 

The Finger is also an insert controlled by its own midi channel, when I use it I play the processed part in a loop, hit random keys and record what is happening.

 

I totally admire Marian Arts technical skills and I feel that his husic is not a random mess of farts and glitches but very carefully arranged. It requires some special mood to appreciate though. I listened to some samples from this album, maybe someday I'll dive deeper into it.

 

Thanks, really appreciate your suggestions! Just found two M4L devices that seem to be exactly what I need, although I'll maybe experiment more first with simple & free stuff:

https://gumroad.com/l/UveaJ

https://gumroad.com/l/RGrG

 

And do check that Martian Arts album - it always lifts my spirit when I listen to it! Somehow, despite all the harsh sounds, it's very bright and uplifting. My #1 release of 2017 so far

[Martian Arts]

Hello guys, I used Mutable Instruments Clouds.

Its a granular/texture synthesizer module. Its digital of course and accepts CV (control voltage) and gate triggers to generate grains.

 

More info on the module in this youtube clip

 

 

There are more modules with which this effect can be achieved...Mungo g0, Phonogene, Morphagene, 4ms DLD...just down to what you want to achieve, but with the exception of Clouds which uses the Xenakis concept of granular synthesis, the others use the Curtis microsound techniqu where audio is chooped up into very small segments and a tape playhead reads through them in a glitchy manner.

[Martian Arts]

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a big system, there is the Roland Scooper which does not need a case with a 12V buss and you can do a lot by manual tweaking.

[antic604]

Nectarios, thanks! That's really something   

 

 

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on a big system, there is the Roland Scooper which does not need a case with a 12V buss and you can do a lot by manual tweaking.

 

I'll probably just limit myself to plug-ins for now... 

[Martian Arts]

Bare in mind that this module attempts to do in hardware what is easily done with software.

Ableton has granular processing and is not limited to small buffers available in expensive hardware eurorack modules.

 

Then there is a plethora of plug ins that do exactly that, from the free Live Cut to dBlueGlitch...etc.

 

I just have a fetish of programming all this stuff on my own using patch cables...and pay silly money to do this outside of the computer cause I don't like using computers to generate sound.

[Taika-Kim]

There's also several older 32 bit plugins doing this kind of buffer freeze effects. Might work on your DAW still or not I quite love Livecut: http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/livecut/

 

Loads of great old stuff on the Smartelectronix site btw, check it all out!

 

On that Cosmosis tune I think they're just 32ths.

[fastcare]

does anyone in uk know where to buy Super Pads?

[Imba]

Try Cosmosis albino bank with 1/32 notes, some amazing sounds in there and its free

 

http://cosmosis.co.uk/freebies/cosmosis-albino-and-virus-b-sounds