Effect that "diffuse" a sound?

[foosnark]

For diffusion specifically: NI Replika, Sonic Charge Echobode, Valhalla UberMod. (All three excellent tools.)

I'll second MTransformer as a good FFT option that can render things unintelligeable/unrecognizable. I've written a few experimental plugins that do a few of its tricks specifically (removing all but a few frequency bands based on their intensity, for instance).

Plogue Chipcrusher has quite a few tools that will lower the quality.

A ring modulator and telephone bandpass filter can do a lot for it (Star Wars movies tend to ring modulate voice comms to give that degraded sound).

For offline processing, doing a couple of rounds of format conversion can do the trick (e.g. to 8Khz WAV, and then to a low-rate MP3).

[Tearing Riots]

Convolution with short noise samples works well.

[kvaca]

Using blur has a similar effect as reverb, except it happens in all directions whereas reverb only "blurs" (diffuses) in one direction.

and thats NOT true, since any decent convolution reverb can diffuse sound in all directions, too

in fact, convolution is one of the most powerfull fx to achieve all kinds of sound mangling...

[DJ Warmonger]

Using blur has a similar effect as reverb, except it happens in all directions whereas reverb only "blurs" (diffuses) in one direction.

and thats NOT true, since any decent convolution reverb can diffuse sound in all directions, too

in fact, convolution is one of the most powerfull fx to achieve all kinds of sound mangling...

No idea what "all directions" you mean, but convolution is a linear effect and can't go beyond that.

No idea what OP means either, the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "blur" is chorus. Use nonlinear chorus to smear the signal in spectrum domain. This, or microtuning or harmonizer.

[jens]

Yes, it's hard to describe. Imagine you have a quality picture that you want to make less HD, like this; https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/ima ... _77272.jpg (searched on diffuse effect on google)

A short reverb at 100% could do the trick, haven't though about that earlier for this. Chorus do the trick sometimes, but usually it's too obvious. Will also take a look at Disperser. Thanks!

if I interpreted your aim correctly, then bit- and samplerate-reduction might get you closer than adding reverb, chorus and what not. You have to be careful not to reduce either (bithdepth, samplerate) too much or it will start sounding nasty*, but what this basically does is taking away information about the processed material. You could compare it to looking though a dirty window. The dirtier it is, the less you are able to see through. Also adding a lowpass-filter** will make it - with decreasing cutoff frequency - progressively... "mumbly"?

*12bit, 16khz might be a good start...
**perhaps sonething like 3-3,5khz could do the trick

[modernrockstar]

Thanks again! I will try them all out for sure, this will be a lot of fun

[jens]

Oh, I forgot something:

(the free) Izotope Vinyl can do wonders in that regard too.

[pheeleep]

Air Diffuser Delay has a diffuse knob as well

Echoboy has diffusion amount and size knobs under the "Style Edit" menu.

[Terrafractyl]

Unfiltered Audio's Sandman Pro is another delay plug that has a 'Diffuse' knob.

I actually have fallen in love with this feature in delays, and maybe need to investigate some of the other options mention in this thread...

[simon.a.billington]

By diffuse I guess you mean like smear or take away track focus and send it back further in the mix.

There's a few ways you can accomplish this, reverb and chorus is one.

But you could also extend chorus to extend other modulation effects like phasing and flanging, especially stereo effects. With reverb I'd say it's almost essential for diffusing to make sure you have next to no predelay.

You could always try removing the transients with a little eq, compression and/or a transient enhancer like SPL's Transient Designer

Expanding sounds to take up stereo space this will help remove some focus. Tools like bx_control or bx_stereomaker can work here. IK also have an interesting multiband imager. Again be careful of phase cancellations.

There is actually a tool designed to do this, or help bring focus to a stereo signal. It seems to be quite unique, it's the only one I know of. Check it out here

[timyork]

Ubermod, Replika and Vapor are all excellent diffusing tools.

[e@rs]

+1 for Sonic Charge Echobode.

[Muied Lumens]

Using blur has a similar effect as reverb, except it happens in all directions whereas reverb only "blurs" (diffuses) in one direction.

and thats NOT true, since any decent convolution reverb can diffuse sound in all directions, too

in fact, convolution is one of the most powerfull fx to achieve all kinds of sound mangling...

No idea what "all directions" you mean, but convolution is a linear effect and can't go beyond that.

"All directions" in an image is up, down, left and right, and everything in between that. In audio this means both in the time and frequency domain. And in between those too.

And yes, convolution can be similar to blurring audio in an image editor, except that you will have to reverse the file to get backwards reverb, and if you do this on the same file you are smearing the same audio twice. Nothing wrong with that of course, but it will give a different result. Blurring audio as an image file will smear the frequency as well as the time axis, and this happens uniformly, whereas with convolution the frequency smearing (using noise as an impulse response) is limited.

The problem with convolution is that in the vast majority of cases the IR is static. It's great for effects which do not change, such as a room reverb or a guitar amp cabinet, but not so suitable for dynamically changing effects like chorus or phasing.

It's not a bad idea to use convolution though. To kill transients with convolution you can create a short volume swell (equal attack and decay times) using pink noise, say 50-100 ms long, then load that up in a convolution reverb. That should give you an idea and a starting point for further experimentation. Make sure it's set to 100% wet so you only hear the convoluted sound.

[Dreamw]

I guess you could record out through a crappy analogue mixer and back through to interface a few times - or even get an old reel to reel if you wanted to go full hipster....

[Neon Breath]

OP: I did a test to blur a simple loop.

Right-Click download the file and tell me if that's the type of blurring effect you're after. (first loop is dry, then others blurred more and more)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwxiw9is844pbuy/Blur.wav?dl=0