Techniques on glitches, 8 bits and strange sounds -slicing

[eddu]

Hi,

I've been doing this kind of music (Prefuse73 style, to be concrete) for some time now and i've found the following to be the better way to achieve good results.

1. Take a beat and pass it thru some glitch plugin (or generate sounds with a weird synth).

2. Render some bars and analize which parts you like best.

3. Map this parts of the sample with some sampler and trigger them when they fit well with the song.


This is a bit laborious and takes time. I'm interested on how do you minimize this time, what samplers you use and in general how do you do it FAST.

I've used kontakt, intakt, and battery, but i must recognize i am no expert on exploiting all of their posibilities. I gave a look at GURU in the past and i remember i saw some features that could improve the workflow on doing the glitch thing, like the automatic mapping of kicks, snares, etc., but i never used it back again as there were some other things which i disliked.

Ok, so...any tips?

Thanks

[Debutante]

dblue glitch 1.3.03 is a good start...

[eddu]

Dblue Glitch is fine for the 1st part of the techinque i explained. However if u want quality glitches you have to be more carefully than only using this plugin IMHO.

[dblue]

Dblue Glitch is fine for the 1st part of the techinque i explained. However if u want quality glitches you have to be more carefully than only using this plugin IMHO.

I agree

[stk]

I still use the old commandline version of Glitch, run craploads of wavs thru it with a batch file (jazz solos, radio chatter, whatever).
Then (maybe edit, and) whack the resulting files into Fruity's granulizer, with a random lfo modulating the sample start point and a bunch of other modulators screwing around with various granny parameters.
..or, whack into Fruity Slicer and let it autoslice them into itty bitty bits of crackly glitchy goodness.

Good stuff.

[xoxos]

use a host with decent audio sequencing :p

i 'print' a long section of processed audio, import the wav and slice that up and move the slices around. still takes a while, but probably a bit faster than importing 'the good slices' to a sampler vsti.

[eddu]

I use Live and i am completely happy with its audio sequencing. For some more obvious thing s moving the slices with the mouse is faster, yep. But mapping it to some MIDI notes get you to a higher level of creativity. You can try things playing and then decide which one fits better with your song. Similar to writing notes on the scores or playing them live with the MIDI keyboard.

[bekenone]

theres toooooo many ways to make the so-called glitch stuff now adays.
the most original is still done in a "TRACKER with the 9x, repeats, note cut and pattern break" or A decent "PIANO ROLL that lets you get up to at least 32nd triplets and set duration at the paint level".

some of the glitch VSTs out there are pretty lame except "dblues GLITCH" and some of "DESTROY FX's"
or you could use ALL what I mentioned rendered down to a long wav file and have your sampler chop it up and build your own kits out of it all.

[spacefox]

Hi,

I've been doing this kind of music (Prefuse73 style, to be concrete) for some time now and i've found the following to be the better way to achieve good results.

1. Take a beat and pass it thru some glitch plugin (or generate sounds with a weird synth).

2. Render some bars and analize which parts you like best.

3. Map this parts of the sample with some sampler and trigger them when they fit well with the song.


This is a bit laborious and takes time. I'm interested on how do you minimize this time, what samplers you use and in general how do you do it FAST.

I've used kontakt, intakt, and battery, but i must recognize i am no expert on exploiting all of their posibilities. I gave a look at GURU in the past and i remember i saw some features that could improve the workflow on doing the glitch thing, like the automatic mapping of kicks, snares, etc., but i never used it back again as there were some other things which i disliked.

Ok, so...any tips?

Thanks

Guru is absolutely brilliant for making broken, mangled, f**ked up beats. It has the best step sequencer around and a killer interface.
Some of the content is even designed with glitch/ experimental stuff in mind.
Next version will offer a MIDI out so it can be used to trigger other samplers and synths. I plan on using it in conjunction with the mighty uTonic.


Devine Machine Lucifer, if you give it some time and effort, can do wonders on that department. It gives you a great deal of control and is designed for live performance, so you can "play" your glitches like a turntablist/ beat juggler would. It offers many automated and random options, so it's not all hard work.
It can stutter, chop, scratch, reverse, pitch and serve as a tempo sync multi-fx.

Liveslice is a great beat slicer that can be used as an effect. It's very fast and fun to work with.

[eddu]

Ok, after reviewing again GURU i found what i dislike.

It analizes the loop file and then takes what it considers the most important 16 hits. I can see this is usefull specially for beats, but not for noises. Imaging i have a 8 bar lenght sample full of robotic noises, bleeps, short stabs...and i want to automatically slice and map them. 16 hits its not enough, maybe i got 50 different sounds to take off from my loop file, and i want all them mapped.

I think what i am looking for is some sampler with the ability to analize transients, chop the file, map the slices and then when i hit a pad or MIDI note it lets me modify the start position (using the grid it has applied to chop the sample) by using MIDI CC, so i can quickly change the sound associated to this note directly with my MIDI controller, thus saving a lot of time.

[cron]

I agree with Bekenone. Trackers are still unsurpassed in this area.

[spacefox]

Ok, after reviewing again GURU i found what i dislike.

It analizes the loop file and then takes what it considers the most important 16 hits. I can see this is usefull specially for beats, but not for noises. Imaging i have a 8 bar lenght sample full of robotic noises, bleeps, short stabs...and i want to automatically slice and map them. 16 hits its not enough, maybe i got 50 different sounds to take off from my loop file, and i want all them mapped.

I think what i am looking for is some sampler with the ability to analize transients, chop the file, map the slices and then when i hit a pad or MIDI note it lets me modify the start position (using the grid it has applied to chop the sample) by using MIDI CC, so i can quickly change the sound associated to this note directly with my MIDI controller, thus saving a lot of time.

Guru isn't a beat slicer, it just uses beat slicing as a way to extract some resource material from loops.
If you want beat slicing, be sure to give Liveslice a try.

[xoxos]

mapping it to some MIDI notes get you to a higher level of creativity.

i think you meant to say is that it gets you to a higher level of creativity.. i would find it very inconvenient!

[justin3am]

1. Live, Lucifer, Kontakt, Dblue Glitch, Buffer Override, Scrubby, anything Ohm Force and Pluggo!!!!
2. Bounce 10-20 times.
3. Find the tastiest peices.
4. Bake at 450 degrees in Pro Tools.

3am

[vurt]

rip loops to audio cd
treat with wire wool
play back and record from duff old cd walkman
et voila
lots of new stutters and such for your audio mangling pleasure