Polyslax - Shattered

[polyslax]

Lofi ethno-ambient round.

I hijacked a short theme from my previous track and made this rather long, melancholy piece with maddening glitches and clicks in it.

Once again, the fascinating Permut8 was deployed on most parts.

Shattered

Also available at SoundCloud:

http://soundcloud.com/polyslax/shattered

Thanks to all who have a listen.

[core]

Really liking all that skip action of permut8. Lovely listen

[ThoughtExperiment]

mmmmm....music to get lost in

Lovely piece of music, drifting but not fluffy - nicely done

[macmurphy]

fantastic. makes me think of rain on a hot day..

neil.

[polyslax]

Thanks a bunch Ronnie, Mike + Neil.

[oddson]

Really liking all that skip action of permut8. Lovely listen

Can't stand that click sound... reminds me of every piece of vinyl I owned that was less than perfect. And even twenty-five years later it's not a good sound for me.

I've made loop software with instantly adjustable read points and added a temporary low-pass (that engaged for a few MS after a change) just to get rid of that discontinuity sound.

Otherwise I liked it.

[polyslax]

Really liking all that skip action of permut8. Lovely listen

Can't stand that click sound... reminds me of every piece of vinyl I owned that was less than perfect. And even twenty-five years later it's not a good sound for me.

I've made loop software with instantly adjustable read points and added a temporary low-pass (that engaged for a few MS after a change) just to get rid of that discontinuity sound.

Otherwise I liked it.

I know it drives some people batty. I mentioned the maddening clicks in the OP in an effort to alert listeners such as yourself. Anyhow, glad you heard some hope beyond the clicks, thanks oddson!

[oddson]

More than a little hope... lovely piece. Makes me want to try to filter those out myself but I don't own any pop-removal software used to improve vinyl downloads.

Maybe younger people don't have the negative associations with that sound.

[D.H. Miltz]

I'm not sure yet about the clicks. Clicks aside, I'll add another lovely. Thanks.

[polyslax]

More than a little hope... lovely piece. Makes me want to try to filter those out myself but I don't own any pop-removal software used to improve vinyl downloads.

Maybe younger people don't have the negative associations with that sound.

I'm sure I don't qualify as a younger person... I wish. But I know what you mean. It doesn't irritate me, but I certainly understand the issue... I actually looked at de-emphasizing it with eq, but found it smothered the overall sound a bit. In the end I threw caution to the wind and put it out there with a warning label.

I'm not sure yet about the clicks. Clicks aside, I'll add another lovely. Thanks.

I hear ya. Thanks DHM.

[oddson]

I'm sure I don't qualify as a younger person... I wish.

I meant some of the comments above are undoubtedly from people that didn't HAVE to listen to music from vinyl and who didn't curse when their favourite disc suddenly had pops from where their drunken friends dropped the stylus looking for the start of the one song on it that they liked. I've seen the picture of yourself you posted on Soundcloud... you look almost as old and decrepit as I do. So I don't know why you don't have my aversion to the sound.

I actually looked at de-emphasizing it with eq, but found it smothered the overall sound a bit.

That's the thing with pops. Because they have a very short duration they effect a wide part of the upper frequency range the only way to eliminate them without killing the upper frequencies is to smooth just in the vicinity of where they occur and that means you need to detect them. With my delay example I already know exactly where they are and a very simple low-pass starts where the tap changes with a very low-cutoff but one that rises with each iteration (sample) until it's well outside the audible region in a handful of milliseconds. (If these are from the discontinuity of the signal as similar approach would work. If it's just an impulse a simple algorithm should be able to detect them more easily.)

So is what you're saying the pops are unavoidable when you use Permut8? 'cause that shouldn't be.

I assumed it was an intentional decision to include them.

Anyway.. enough about that. Love your work. Keep it coming.

[polyslax]

you look almost as old and decrepit as I do. So I don't know why you don't have my aversion to the sound.

Thanks for the reality check!

Yup, I certainly lived through the days of trashed vinyl records. It's not just that I don't mind clicks, I actually like them. Could just be that my hearing is shot.

That's the thing with pops...

Yes, I actually used to run a vinyl clean up suite when I first started digitizing records... name escapes me now but I know the company folded. It actually worked pretty well at moderate settings. No miracles but much improved.

So is what you're saying the pops are unavoidable when you use Permut8? 'cause that shouldn't be.

I assumed it was an intentional decision to include them.

Anyway.. enough about that. Love your work. Keep it coming.

Permut8 can completely destroy your audio or just add a hint of colour, or anything in between. Pops and clicks are certainly avoidable. I'm still feeling my way around the plugin, so it's quite likely I could have achieved a more subtle variation of the effect I was using.

Thanks again oddson.

[seismic1]

That intro reminded me of No Quarter, but the track quickly developed an identity of its own. I found the different layers combined to create a very beautiful but melancholy piece of music. The sound choices were spot-on. This was a relaxing but very powerful piece of music, Matt.

I may have to take advantage of that Permut8 offer.

I think goldwave does a decent job of pop/click filtering for old vinyl recordings (although I'm obviously too young to have purchased any myself):oops:

Good work

[polyslax]

Many thanks young man!

[polyslax]

So is what you're saying the pops are unavoidable when you use Permut8? 'cause that shouldn't be.

I assumed it was an intentional decision to include them.

Anyway.. enough about that. Love your work. Keep it coming.

Permut8 can completely destroy your audio or just add a hint of colour, or anything in between. Pops and clicks are certainly avoidable. I'm still feeling my way around the plugin, so it's quite likely I could have achieved a more subtle variation of the effect I was using.

Well I guess the clicks are intentional after all... just found this comment from Magnus on the Sonic Charge forum:

I am aware of the clicks in Permut8, and not only with program changes. Permut8 clicks a lot. That's what you get with primitive hardware. Normally, clicks and aliasing is something you avoid like the plague as a dsp developer, but this time I decided to view it as a feature.