needly, crackling static sounds..

[mono tony]

looking to make very finely detailed, spacious webs of "static" sounds.. can't achieve this with a current setup, which includes amplified turntable, records, etc.

besides using a recording of "static" -type sounds, how could one do this? i suppose mixer feedback sounds are an approximation. .

assuming that artists like fennesz, alva noto, pimmon, et al are using digital processes to get these sort of airy, static sounds. are there alternative ways?

[orangettecoleman]

I am also interested in this question. I normally take advantage of grounding issues on my guitars by brushing a section of guitar string along the bridge, creating intermittent static, and layer it with a delay, but it's only an approximation. I tried running a radio through a noise gate hoping to cut off everything but the "spikes" but that didn't work either because the gate envelope was gradual.

[RFKorp]

looking to make very finely detailed, spacious webs of "static" sounds.. can't achieve this with a current setup, which includes amplified turntable, records, etc.

maybe I'm misunderstanding exactly what you're looking for, but in my experience, a turntable is the BEST source for alternately prickly and airy "static" sounds.

guitar pickups are pretty good too.

[orangettecoleman]

looking to make very finely detailed, spacious webs of "static" sounds.. can't achieve this with a current setup, which includes amplified turntable, records, etc.

maybe I'm misunderstanding exactly what you're looking for, but in my experience, a turntable is the BEST source for alternately prickly and airy "static" sounds.

guitar pickups are pretty good too.

Is a hard noise gate the right way to go to get more "space" and silence into these sounds? My attempts with turntables and pickups have been usable, but too "dense" in sound and I'd like to filter some of that out...

[RFKorp]

you mean to cut the underlying hum when you're not actively "playing" the pickups? yeah, a gate would probably work great. I don't generally fuck with effects much but noise gates are definitely among my limited future purchase consideration set.

[billygomberg]

a graphic EQ pedal or multi-mode filter could also be of great benefit

[kp*]

Yes on gate. A fast gate with the threshold set high.

I used to carry a DOD FX30 around for this purpose and now used the gate on one of my other pedals for this. Since I play guitar a lot these days I go at the p/ups with ferrous objects and set the gain and gait threshold to where I need it for the desired texture. One of the few things I get set before a show is to get that threshold depending on what my ever changing set up is. If you are turntabling set the gain going into the gate and then find the threshold on the gate that gives you the density you want. When laptopping I also use a max patch I have that spits out tiny grains or you could do it with a storm of impulses [click~] or pulse train maybe. I have a patch that uses impulses.

Obviously avoid compression upstream on your signal path. That wont help.

Admittedly, it isn't clear to me what kind of sounds you want.

YMMV,

-kp--

[bryan]

If you took your source and split it out through different eq/filters (gating would be cool too) and used some delay and reverb then you'd get a layered sound with a sense of space.

A specific example of what you want to achieve would indeed help.

[jkudler]

i used to get what i think you are talking about with a bit-reducer, which effectively works as a kind of gate when at high settings (the coarser bit setting just sees a quiet sound as silence and a slightly less quiet sound as fairly loud). i got totally sick of the sounds therein, but i used the now-coveted (?) alesis bitrman for this. that might be what i'm using in some of the older clips on my website, eg:
http://www.white-flag.org/mp3/stl_clip1.mp3

oh, i just realized i had that same dod pedal as kevin for like 5 minutes before it died (purchased used).

-jesse

[mono tony]

i've been using a califone turntable (cartridge of questionable quality) and some beat-up records, through various effects/amplified. the percussion sounds i'm getting are dull, and i attribute that to the quality of the needle/turntable.

also been using a cheap effects unit with a 'hard' gate effect, getting more pronounced, novel-sounding, popping percussions, though i'm trying for more clean, finely-detailed 'snap, crackle, pop' action. like that of a nice sounding turntable/hi fi setup, but very magnified/large-sounding.

as an approximate reference, there's a track on fennesz' plus forty-seven.. album, track 7 or 8 with very glassy, airy, fine-point, prickly texture. sounds digital for sure..unlike the sound of a stylus in a groove.

thanks for the responses. i'll try some of the EQing suggestions

[orangettecoleman]

I will say that the MXR Smart Gate isn't a good option for this, I got one for this specific purpose based on good reviews but the gate opens and closes too slowly for me. Tried fooling around with a couple of unlabeled internal trimpots but it didn't seem to have any effect... the gate is too "soft" sounding, it's like an automatic volume pedal

[sourdisc]

There are plenty of califone replacement cartridges on ebay: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid ... Categories

may I suggest getting a replacement? mine is pretty clear and crisp, and I do use it to pick up needle noise a lot... but it was also in mint condition upon purchasing.

[theblackplume]

Hi there,

Have you looked at SuperCollider? It has a few crackly-type u-gens that can produce really nice digital static-type sound like Fennesz, Raster Noton etc, as you say.

You could start by experimenting with Crackle and maybe modulating the 'param' parameter:

A simple example:

{Crackle.ar(Lag.kr(TExpRand.kr(0.4,1.95,Dust.kr(1)),5),0.1)!2}.play

You could multiple that by another noise generator or an LFO Saw or thing to give it more character. If you haven't looked at SuperCollider before this might look a bit much but it's worth checking out (and free).

In terms of analogue crackle/static, I have a Deviever Dream Managler which does the job nicely. Put anything (even nothing!) through that guy and it comes out sounding like a more interesting turntable static.

[mono tony]

Hi there,

Have you looked at SuperCollider? It has a few crackly-type u-gens that can produce really nice digital static-type sound like Fennesz, Raster Noton etc, as you say.

You could start by experimenting with Crackle and maybe modulating the 'param' parameter:

A simple example:

{Crackle.ar(Lag.kr(TExpRand.kr(0.4,1.95,Dust.kr(1)),5),0.1)!2}.play

You could multiple that by another noise generator or an LFO Saw or thing to give it more character. If you haven't looked at SuperCollider before this might look a bit much but it's worth checking out (and free).

In terms of analogue crackle/static, I have a Deviever Dream Managler which does the job nicely. Put anything (even nothing!) through that guy and it comes out sounding like a more interesting turntable static.

thank you for this information.. i took a class last spring, learned a bit of SuperCollider. I'll try this patch soon.

is the "dream managler" a piece of hardware? a cursory google search hasn't yielded much information.. i'll look harder. thanks again

[theblackplume]

Yeah. It's a weird two circuit combo pedal thing by Deviever, which was formally Effector 13 (i think). Like two pedals in one with a Joystick to cross-fade between them.

There are a few different variations on the combo of pedals used.

Here's my one:

http://www.analoguehaven.com/devieverusa/dreammangler/

A bit pricy new, I got mine by exchanging a couple of pedals at one of the vintage guitar shops on Denmark Street, London. It seemed to crumble a signal really nicely.

Oh and it's 'Dream Mangler', my mistake.

[orangettecoleman]

It seems to be made by Dwarfcraft now FWIW http://www.dwarfcraft.com/Distortion_and_Fuzz.html
I really really need to learn how to use my laptop and software. For now I made a loop out of Alvin Lucier's "Sferics" and put it on my MP3 player and ran it into the mixer - gets the job done for now...

[Moon]

Yes, Aen now makes all the circuits, but he knows Devi's stuff inside out so it shouldn't be much of a difference.

I used to have the Spectacular Aenima and that pedal works as a standalone white noise generator even. Definitely an awesome hardware solution, plus the most versatile fuzz/distortion pedal I've ever tried, plus 20dB boost. Plus the feedback/true bypass loop and it picks up radio stations.

I can't help but think, when you're mentioning alva noto and fennesz, that what you're really after is a bitcrusher?
They both use it on everything, with a bit of reverb on it. On the track you mentioned, as far as I can tell, it's just random hum and static noises through a bitcrusher and a filter. Could be any source, from touching a jack cable to a dirty pot on your guitar.

Here's some pedals for you, if a laptop is too much:
http://www.frostwave.com/sonicalienator/ - this is the one people usually rave about.

Micro Bugcrusher - this is new, but if it's anything like the normal bugcrushers then it sounds great

some random ones I know nothing about:
http://redpandalab.com/products/tc-bitcrusher/
http://www.effectsdatabase.com/model/al ... fx/bitrman
http://www.copilotfx.com/antenna.html

They're not terribly complicated pedals, shouldn't be very hard to build one yourself with an 8bit chip from anywhere.

And I saw someone turn an arduino into one, if you've got one of those lying around. Actually, I want to do that now.

[orangettecoleman]

FWIW, some cheap multi-effects boxes have a bit crusher effect. I just picked up a DODGS30 with a "pixilator" effect for this purpose, and it has a noise gate as well, it was only 40 bucks. it does pick up radio stations so I keep it on one side of a split signal and mute it at the mixer until it is needed. poking around at the circuit board of an opened Walkman will create lots of great static sounds too, although you might want to run it through a limiter because the spikes in volume can be pretty insane. In any case, keeping an open walkman running into my mixer seems to provide the sounds I am looking for...

[theblackplume]

I found this at the Hell's Kitchen flea market in NYC in the summer. $5.

Sounds really great from the built in speaker too. I haven't tried using it as a sleep aid yet.

The 'rain' setting is the one.

[orangettecoleman]

I found this at the Hell's Kitchen flea market in NYC in the summer. $5.

Sounds really great from the built in speaker too. I haven't tried using it as a sleep aid yet.

The 'rain' setting is the one.

Can't open up a browser window to Ebay fast enough