I'd like to know from those who do EDM and techno songs if the distortion plugin Ohmicide could be replaced by free plugins or if it is really that essential for such productions.
Is there any distortion effects in EDM that free plugins could not emulate at all?
What's your experience?
Synths like Vital or Serum usually come equipped with some basic distortion effects. On top of that you'd definately need something like bitcrushers but luckily there are some good ones like Krush available and they are also completely free.
What other distortion effects would you recommend and what's your opinion about that plugin Ohmicide? I see a lot of advertisement for it but they never really tell you what's so special about its distortion effects, what they are really based on and if you couldn't get them with the other plugins.
free distortion plugins for EDM vs. Ohmicide
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 527 posts since 4 Dec, 2019
C'mon, there must be something that you do in your life besides sleeping or working? And then for the first time he was really thinking and what did he reply: I watch TV!
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- KVRist
- 204 posts since 24 Sep, 2019
The good ones will cost you money. you can do things with the free, yes... but to a certain degree. not more.
From the cheep ones, you can try :
Trash1
CamelPHAT (one of THE best. not for sale anymore) or CamelCrusher (free but hard to find. at least the 64bit flavour)
d16 Reduptor\Devastor (really great)
Voxengo Boogex (free)
TONS of free bit-crushers
Do not try to assign a plug to a certain genre. any plug can work at any genre - given the appropriate sound it is processing and the sound you you're after.
From the cheep ones, you can try :
Trash1
CamelPHAT (one of THE best. not for sale anymore) or CamelCrusher (free but hard to find. at least the 64bit flavour)
d16 Reduptor\Devastor (really great)
Voxengo Boogex (free)
TONS of free bit-crushers
Do not try to assign a plug to a certain genre. any plug can work at any genre - given the appropriate sound it is processing and the sound you you're after.
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- KVRAF
- 7340 posts since 9 Jan, 2003 from Saint Louis MO
What's special about Ohmicide is lots of weird algorithms and feedback and some dynamics processing and just sort of the whole package. I don't really use it anymore, but it's more than just a distortion plugin. It's not meant to emulate anything in particular.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 527 posts since 4 Dec, 2019
Aha, so my first impression is that this Ohmicide is not really something that's typically used in EDM productions (whatever that may be; I just mention that genre because I'd mostly use the distortion plugins to that purpose). Surprise, surprise! I was expecting everyone to reply that they could never live without Ohmicide and that there's no way of making music without it.
Let me check the ones you suggest there and see for myself what they are all about.
Let me check the ones you suggest there and see for myself what they are all about.
C'mon, there must be something that you do in your life besides sleeping or working? And then for the first time he was really thinking and what did he reply: I watch TV!
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- KVRAF
- 4050 posts since 2 Jul, 2005
If you have a way of bandsplitting your signal so you can process things in a multiband fashion then you could get pretty close to Ohmicide's functionality with some dynamics and a waveshapers on each band. It turns out that many of the distortion modes in Ohmicide do some odd things though so you wouldn't necessarily be able to copy all those behaviors. Then there is the excellent feedback that Ohmicide has.
I think it's worth getting if you want super harsh distortion (it can do more subtle things too, but that's not the area it excels in). Trying to match it exactly would require lots of time in something like mxxx which is far more expensive.
For extreme distortion on the cheap I'd get the Melda free bundle and use the waveshaper in that.
I think it's worth getting if you want super harsh distortion (it can do more subtle things too, but that's not the area it excels in). Trying to match it exactly would require lots of time in something like mxxx which is far more expensive.
For extreme distortion on the cheap I'd get the Melda free bundle and use the waveshaper in that.
Don't F**K with Mr. Zero.
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- KVRAF
- 1568 posts since 1 Aug, 2006 from Italy
It's been ages since I last used Ohmicide. I still have it on my system, but I never use it.
It's a cool plugin, it has a lot of strange distortion algorithms and it packs a lot of features (for example there's a sort of transient designer for each band which can emphasise the attack or the body of the band), it can really mangle the sound into something else... perhaps it's too easy to get into a "too much" territory?
Mind you: I'm into house (and maybe a little bit of techno), I'm not into EDM (which I mostly don't like); but I think Ohmicide is not an essential plugin for EDM. I think it's good if you want to really mangle the sound (maybe for some techno?), it wouldn't be my choice if I want something "subtle" (while it can be used in a subtle way, I think it's designed for "bolder" shaping).
Ohmicide is one of those plugins doing their own thing and it has it's own sound...
Another (not free) option is Kombinat by Audio Damage. It's a multiband distortion, like Ohmicide but with less features, different algorithms and (of course!) a different sound.
These are plugins to mangle the sound... if you exclude bitcrushers (which are used as an obvious effect), often you may want something less "extreme" and maybe work with saturation and such, to enhance your sounds rather than turn them into something else (which is the main goal of Ohmicide, in my opinion).
One possible approach for using a multiband distortion in a "subtle" way is to blend it with the clean signal, for example saturating/overdriving the lows and applying a bit of distortion to the high end, while keeping the mids clean... but in this scenario, most of the time you would use the "cleanest"/"traditional" distortion algorithms avaible, which is not what Ohmicide (or Kombinat) specializes...
It depends on the sounds you want to make...
It's a cool plugin, it has a lot of strange distortion algorithms and it packs a lot of features (for example there's a sort of transient designer for each band which can emphasise the attack or the body of the band), it can really mangle the sound into something else... perhaps it's too easy to get into a "too much" territory?
Mind you: I'm into house (and maybe a little bit of techno), I'm not into EDM (which I mostly don't like); but I think Ohmicide is not an essential plugin for EDM. I think it's good if you want to really mangle the sound (maybe for some techno?), it wouldn't be my choice if I want something "subtle" (while it can be used in a subtle way, I think it's designed for "bolder" shaping).
Ohmicide is one of those plugins doing their own thing and it has it's own sound...
Another (not free) option is Kombinat by Audio Damage. It's a multiband distortion, like Ohmicide but with less features, different algorithms and (of course!) a different sound.
These are plugins to mangle the sound... if you exclude bitcrushers (which are used as an obvious effect), often you may want something less "extreme" and maybe work with saturation and such, to enhance your sounds rather than turn them into something else (which is the main goal of Ohmicide, in my opinion).
One possible approach for using a multiband distortion in a "subtle" way is to blend it with the clean signal, for example saturating/overdriving the lows and applying a bit of distortion to the high end, while keeping the mids clean... but in this scenario, most of the time you would use the "cleanest"/"traditional" distortion algorithms avaible, which is not what Ohmicide (or Kombinat) specializes...
It depends on the sounds you want to make...
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- KVRian
- 986 posts since 8 Mar, 2009
Ohmicide is a unique plugin amongst all those generic waveshapers multiband or otherwise. Besides the standard algorithms, there isn't anything out there that will emulate what the other modes do
"XXX" applies the waveshaper transfer curve to the phase rather than amplitude
"Odd"compands the waveshaping functions between 2 frequency shifters one that shifts up, and another that shifts negatively to get the "original"sound back(not quite though due to the nature of frequency shifting). Whilst you could mimick this in something like, Melda MXXX, it would be a pain in the arse to set up the macros etc to make it all correspond
In the former case you could take something like Creative Intents Temper or the other plugin they did and split it with crossovers, but you probably wont get the exact functions used in Ohmicide. whether or not that matters is down to the individual
In regards to modern production trends in popular EDM, interesting distortion has pretty much took a back seat and upwards compression has become a bigger part of it. I wouldn't think too much about it as most of the distortion doesn't really extend beyond basic clipping. Some of its multiband, but there's nothing particularly exotic or unique about the distorted timbres that would require specialist plugins to accomplish them
"XXX" applies the waveshaper transfer curve to the phase rather than amplitude
"Odd"compands the waveshaping functions between 2 frequency shifters one that shifts up, and another that shifts negatively to get the "original"sound back(not quite though due to the nature of frequency shifting). Whilst you could mimick this in something like, Melda MXXX, it would be a pain in the arse to set up the macros etc to make it all correspond
In the former case you could take something like Creative Intents Temper or the other plugin they did and split it with crossovers, but you probably wont get the exact functions used in Ohmicide. whether or not that matters is down to the individual
In regards to modern production trends in popular EDM, interesting distortion has pretty much took a back seat and upwards compression has become a bigger part of it. I wouldn't think too much about it as most of the distortion doesn't really extend beyond basic clipping. Some of its multiband, but there's nothing particularly exotic or unique about the distorted timbres that would require specialist plugins to accomplish them
I
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heavymetalmixer heavymetalmixer https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=391539
- KVRian
- 692 posts since 8 Jan, 2017
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 527 posts since 4 Dec, 2019
Trance and techno from the 90ies like in these songs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9346vKpsh1E
Kleine Maus at 31 sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1akxy51P8
Love sees no color at 2:20 min. e. g.
or some special saw sounds with vocal qualities etc. as in here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUsqIPurNQ
Herz an Herz, at different passages
I don't know if you would call this EDM but to me it's nice music to dance to and it's electronically made so I call it EDM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9346vKpsh1E
Kleine Maus at 31 sec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX1akxy51P8
Love sees no color at 2:20 min. e. g.
or some special saw sounds with vocal qualities etc. as in here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUsqIPurNQ
Herz an Herz, at different passages
I don't know if you would call this EDM but to me it's nice music to dance to and it's electronically made so I call it EDM.
C'mon, there must be something that you do in your life besides sleeping or working? And then for the first time he was really thinking and what did he reply: I watch TV!
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- KVRian
- 986 posts since 8 Mar, 2009
No, i wouldn't call any of that EDM
This would be more pertinent to your requirements given these examples https://www.airwindows.com/mackity/
This would be more pertinent to your requirements given these examples https://www.airwindows.com/mackity/
I
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- KVRAF
- 2540 posts since 18 May, 2002 from up on Cripple Creek (CO)
The sounds in those tracks should certainly be possible without something that has as many features as Ohmicide. Seeing that you're after sounds similar to those from the 90's, it's worth considering that nothing like Ohmicide really existed at the time. A lot of people would've just been overdriving equipment meant for other uses (like mixer channels, see TIMT's suggestion), or using guitar pedals. There's a bunch of free emulations of those around, here's some links:
Mercuriall
TSE Audio
Distorque Audio
Mercuriall
TSE Audio
Distorque Audio
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- KVRAF
- 1568 posts since 1 Aug, 2006 from Italy
While "EDM" stands for "electronic dance music", nowadays it is used to mainly refer to that big room festival sound from around 2010 onward (think Avicii, Martin Garrix and so on).
I would label the tracks you linked as eurodance (U96's "Love Sees No Colour") or happy hardcore (the other tracks - but I'm not sure because I don't know well that style, I was way too young in the nineties).
If I were to make that kind of sound, I'd stay away from multiband tools like Ohmicide (and from anything complex, really); I'd keep it simple and raw.
From what I can gather online, the distortion (at least a big chunk of it) on records of that style from that period probably came from overdriving a (cheap) mixer channel and/or using cheap pedals.
I would try Airwindows Mackity to emulate an overloaded cheap mixer (I haven't try this plugin yet, but Airwindows' plugins are a safe bet usually - and someone already suggested it while I was writing this post) and the various classic pedals emulations (TS808, MetalZone, SD-1, DS-1 and so on... for example you may give a look at the Nembrini's take on the TS-808[url] for free as a starting point - I didn' ... m/]Akaizer.
As a rule of thumb, I'd definitely keep it simple for that nineties sound.
I would label the tracks you linked as eurodance (U96's "Love Sees No Colour") or happy hardcore (the other tracks - but I'm not sure because I don't know well that style, I was way too young in the nineties).
If I were to make that kind of sound, I'd stay away from multiband tools like Ohmicide (and from anything complex, really); I'd keep it simple and raw.
From what I can gather online, the distortion (at least a big chunk of it) on records of that style from that period probably came from overdriving a (cheap) mixer channel and/or using cheap pedals.
I would try Airwindows Mackity to emulate an overloaded cheap mixer (I haven't try this plugin yet, but Airwindows' plugins are a safe bet usually - and someone already suggested it while I was writing this post) and the various classic pedals emulations (TS808, MetalZone, SD-1, DS-1 and so on... for example you may give a look at the Nembrini's take on the TS-808[url] for free as a starting point - I didn' ... m/]Akaizer.
As a rule of thumb, I'd definitely keep it simple for that nineties sound.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 527 posts since 4 Dec, 2019
So much input here! And so useful! I like it!
Just downloaded that Mackity old mixer emulation. Sounds great on a first test! I think I'll need it for, well, "Eurodance" then.
I didn't know that EDM refers to something else. Back then we just generally called this music "dance music".
I'm not THAT interested in anything beyond 2000 any more although there may at times be something that catches my interest. But it's no longer as it used to be back then. Now I just try to recreate my favorite songs from the good old days and try to understand how they made them back then...
Just downloaded that Mackity old mixer emulation. Sounds great on a first test! I think I'll need it for, well, "Eurodance" then.
I didn't know that EDM refers to something else. Back then we just generally called this music "dance music".
I'm not THAT interested in anything beyond 2000 any more although there may at times be something that catches my interest. But it's no longer as it used to be back then. Now I just try to recreate my favorite songs from the good old days and try to understand how they made them back then...
C'mon, there must be something that you do in your life besides sleeping or working? And then for the first time he was really thinking and what did he reply: I watch TV!
