Sounds like Lustmord.
September 14, 2011 1:09 PM Subscribe
How do I make huge cavernous droney music?
This question got me thinking: how do artists like Lustmord and Lull get those gigantic, cavernous drones? I've always assumed its some kind of pad, oscillator, or other sound source run through a bunch of delay and reverb, but I've never been able to recreate it on my own with various musical instruments and softsynths. There seems to be some kind of texture that underlies this stuff that I just can't reproduce. So: how do they do it?
Examples: Lustmord, Rapoon. Open both at the same time for double the drone!
This question got me thinking: how do artists like Lustmord and Lull get those gigantic, cavernous drones? I've always assumed its some kind of pad, oscillator, or other sound source run through a bunch of delay and reverb, but I've never been able to recreate it on my own with various musical instruments and softsynths. There seems to be some kind of texture that underlies this stuff that I just can't reproduce. So: how do they do it?
Examples: Lustmord, Rapoon. Open both at the same time for double the drone!
The Lustmord one sounds an awful lot like a recording of an airplane from the outside (i.e. from the ground), and the Rapoon one sounds like a recording of an airplane from the inside.
Maybe they're recordings of airplanes, played through a sampler? That would be the simplest explanation.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:48 PM on September 14, 2011
Maybe they're recordings of airplanes, played through a sampler? That would be the simplest explanation.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:48 PM on September 14, 2011
Best answer: A couple of different ways to get drones...
Set up a feedback loop through your mixer, run it through various effects (spring reverbs, etc.) and mess with the desk EQ (make sure you have a comp across the output).
Set your delay (extra credibility if it's a tape delay) to high feedback
Use granular synthesis and then heavily reverb it
Use a time-stretch algorithm like Extreme Sound Stretch (see his example files)
Etc.
There are many ways. Play around with effects chains, play around with feedback.
posted by Spacelegoman at 2:04 PM on September 14, 2011
Set up a feedback loop through your mixer, run it through various effects (spring reverbs, etc.) and mess with the desk EQ (make sure you have a comp across the output).
Set your delay (extra credibility if it's a tape delay) to high feedback
Use granular synthesis and then heavily reverb it
Use a time-stretch algorithm like Extreme Sound Stretch (see his example files)
Etc.
There are many ways. Play around with effects chains, play around with feedback.
posted by Spacelegoman at 2:04 PM on September 14, 2011
Or you could take just about any sound-generating device down into a fourteen-foot deep cistern.
posted by aparrish at 3:05 PM on September 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by aparrish at 3:05 PM on September 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Experiment with saturators/exciters for subtle distortion. Use multiple layers of sound – e.g. one or more droning synths, a simpler sub bass synth, and airy pads.
One thing about the Rapoon track that caught my… ear: the wide stereo image. Some of the mid- to high-end sounds are slowly moving from left to right, and the higher frequencies are gradually cut off to make the whole monster recede into the distance.
[Aside: I've added Lustmord and Rapoon to my shopping list!]
posted by quoz at 4:23 PM on September 14, 2011
One thing about the Rapoon track that caught my… ear: the wide stereo image. Some of the mid- to high-end sounds are slowly moving from left to right, and the higher frequencies are gradually cut off to make the whole monster recede into the distance.
[Aside: I've added Lustmord and Rapoon to my shopping list!]
posted by quoz at 4:23 PM on September 14, 2011
Best answer: One thing that I remember being recommended in Computer Music a while back was to take a sound and put it through a huge reverb. Timestretch the result by 100% and then put it through a huge reverb. Repeat until it sounds right.
posted by mukade at 4:25 PM on September 14, 2011
posted by mukade at 4:25 PM on September 14, 2011
I don't know how easy to find it'd be online or in the library, but Michael Gira of Swans has talked extensively about his production process in TapeOp, if that helps any.
posted by ifjuly at 5:27 PM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ifjuly at 5:27 PM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: By far the easiest way to get that kind of richness is to start with acoustic, not computer-generated (or even analog equipment-generated) sounds. Recordings of real physical phenomena.
They don't need to be remotely as exotic *or* real-world-loud as an airplane's sounds. Collect anything interesting and sustained (wind, waves, vocal effects, whispering, low sustained notes from an acoustic instrument, etc., etc.). Make various versions of these sounds, starting by pitch-shifting them down to various degrees including WAY down (try the simplest type of pitch shifting, where duration increases as pitch lowers). Play with lots of reverb. You'll already be starting with some real richness.
Experiment, as many people do, with making long fields of sound (minutes or more) exclusively from one interesting acoustic sample (a few seconds long). I've made surprisingly rich drone fields out of one human "Shh," one piano note, one rustle of dry grass in wind, etc. The more high partials in the original sound, the better (e.g. vocal sounds, esp. whispery/raspy/breathy).
Start with layering versions of organic sounds and you'll be amazed where you can end up after basic kinds of processing -- like pitch-shifting, reverb, and carefully choosing how to stack the versions you made in your multitracking software (choosing by listening and trial and error, and not letting your software snap them to any grid).
posted by kalapierson at 3:01 AM on September 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
They don't need to be remotely as exotic *or* real-world-loud as an airplane's sounds. Collect anything interesting and sustained (wind, waves, vocal effects, whispering, low sustained notes from an acoustic instrument, etc., etc.). Make various versions of these sounds, starting by pitch-shifting them down to various degrees including WAY down (try the simplest type of pitch shifting, where duration increases as pitch lowers). Play with lots of reverb. You'll already be starting with some real richness.
Experiment, as many people do, with making long fields of sound (minutes or more) exclusively from one interesting acoustic sample (a few seconds long). I've made surprisingly rich drone fields out of one human "Shh," one piano note, one rustle of dry grass in wind, etc. The more high partials in the original sound, the better (e.g. vocal sounds, esp. whispery/raspy/breathy).
Start with layering versions of organic sounds and you'll be amazed where you can end up after basic kinds of processing -- like pitch-shifting, reverb, and carefully choosing how to stack the versions you made in your multitracking software (choosing by listening and trial and error, and not letting your software snap them to any grid).
posted by kalapierson at 3:01 AM on September 15, 2011 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the answers so far! Lots of new ideas to try. I had considered extreme timestretching and/or pitch-shifting, but hadn't pursued it past a few false starts in which I got weird low-pitched stutters with lots of empty space.
posted by googly at 5:13 AM on September 15, 2011
posted by googly at 5:13 AM on September 15, 2011
Probably cheating, but hey, super easy - record something and instantly timestretch it with this iphone app.
posted by naju at 9:41 PM on September 15, 2011
posted by naju at 9:41 PM on September 15, 2011
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posted by rhizome at 1:27 PM on September 14, 2011