How to make audio clip sound distant and diegetic

[Bartizanier]

Hey, hope I can make my question make sense.

I'm trying to make some ambient, soundtrack-esque stuff, and of course I'm just another guy inspired by Vangelis's Blade Runner score.

I'm going to make a song or two, and then I'm wondering how I can accomplish having the song be played as though its on a distant radio or broadcast in the background of the soundscape - the foreground might be rain, or people talking or something.

Is the answer just simply reverb and level mixing? Does anybody have specific tips about reverb or other techniques that can be used to make this sound really great and immersive/diegetic?

Thank you.

[NAD]

In addition to reverb I'd suggest also trying low- and high-pass filters and maybe even a speaker simulation or cabinet impulse response. In fact a relatively clean guitar amp sim might do the trick. Instead of reverb you might want to consider using slap-back delay, i.e. <100ms with little to no feedback. As for reverb, try to go with realistic rooms or halls, again IRs may be the ticket.

[NAD]

Also something I've wondered about is you know how when you hear like a distant stage at a festival on a windy day and the volume sort of fluctuates with the wind? Anyhow, I'm not quite sure how to achieve that but one idea I had was using a plugin that can add random drop-outs such as XLN Audio RC-20 or Wavesfactory Cassette and maybe Chow Tape Model. Let me know if you come up with anything.

[j wazza]

youd want a radio emulation or impulse response for that part and then some spatial plugins, eg 2c precedence and breeze to add distance, or more IRs

[whyterabbyt]

record it onto tape, play through a small speaker, rerecord.

https://designingsound.org/2012/12/31/a ... ldization/

[BertKoor]

record it onto tape, play through a small speaker, rerecord.

... from the next room with the door closed.

[JerGoertz]

If you have cash to burn, Speakerphone is right up your alley

[Bartizanier]

record it onto tape, play through a small speaker, rerecord.

https://designingsound.org/2012/12/31/a ... ldization/

Duh! I've gotten so into computer-based and in-the-box production nowadays that I don't even think of practical solutions like this. Will definitely try, thanks.

[Bartizanier]

If you have cash to burn, Speakerphone is right up your alley

Wow you weren't kidding its over 600$ CAD, looks cool but I'll have to find a stopgap solution for now.

[lobanov]

1. Reverb.

2. Filter (high frequencies tend to disappear with a distance, so moderate low pass filter is your first friend).

[arkmabat]

1. Reverb.

2. Filter (high frequencies tend to disappear with a distance, so moderate low pass filter is your first friend).

This. Pretty sure all they do for the effect in movies is slap a lowpass filter on the song playing.

[SantaClaus]

Pre fader reverb is another possibility.