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Distortion effect like Johann Johannsson uses in the "Bees" album

zoixx

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Hi guys,

Big fan of Johann Johannsson, RIP.

How do you get this distorted destroyed sound he is using here at around 00.30 - 01.10? It is from his lovely "And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees" album. I like that it breaks up and almost stutters, but you still can kind of hear the original sound as well. Is it a special type of distortion hardware? Possible to replicate using e.g. Soundtoys Decapitator?

 
I've achieved this kind of distortion "stuttering" by adding a tiny bit of noise to the original signal, then distortion, and finally heavy compression or a gate with the threshold set exactly to where it starts to randomly turn the sound on/off.

There are plugins like Trash by Izotope that would be perfect for this as it includes a chain of effects.

Do you have Zebra? I think I could cook up a quick patch to demonstrate this.
 
It's a very interesting piece. It sounds like it was done using analog synth modules, but the principle appears to be ...

Set a fairly strong noise/distortion channel, parallel to the original signal. Set the wet/dry mix to zero at the beginning of the piece. At about 29 seconds, begin to pull the wet/dry up from zero so that the listener can hear the wet/dry mix being already modulated by a random control signal. There is some cyclicality but there is also more random information than a cyclical LFO. You could construct it by adding random signals together, or obtaining natural sound sources which have some randomness in them (thunder samples, short wave radio signals or electrical storms for example).

However it's done, it's a lovely sound. After the chaotic distortion is heard, a lowpass filter, begins to remove the higher frequencies.

For an inexact emulation I would run the random noise from Reaktor's Skrewell through a wave shaper and then an LPF, just to see if I could get musically close. Then I would set up knobs and "play" the noise as the rest of the piece evolved.



That's my 0.02. Hope it helps.
 
I've achieved this kind of distortion "stuttering" by adding a tiny bit of noise to the original signal, then distortion, and finally heavy compression or a gate with the threshold set exactly to where it starts to randomly turn the sound on/off.

There are plugins like Trash by Izotope that would be perfect for this as it includes a chain of effects.

Do you have Zebra? I think I could cook up a quick patch to demonstrate this.

Thanks for the input! Unfortunately no Zebra here. I will try something using my own effects chain.
 
It's a very interesting piece. It sounds like it was done using analog synth modules, but the principle appears to be ...

Set a fairly strong noise/distortion channel, parallel to the original signal. Set the wet/dry mix to zero at the beginning of the piece. At about 29 seconds, begin to pull the wet/dry up from zero so that the listener can hear the wet/dry mix being already modulated by a random control signal. There is some cyclicality but there is also more random information than a cyclical LFO. You could construct it by adding random signals together, or obtaining natural sound sources which have some randomness in them (thunder samples, short wave radio signals or electrical storms for example).

However it's done, it's a lovely sound. After the chaotic distortion is heard, a lowpass filter, begins to remove the higher frequencies.

For an inexact emulation I would run the random noise from Reaktor's Skrewell through a wave shaper and then an LPF, just to see if I could get musically close. Then I would set up knobs and "play" the noise as the rest of the piece evolved.



That's my 0.02. Hope it helps.


Trippy sounds there mate! Thanks for the input, I will see if I can cookup something similar.
 
Hi guys,

Big fan of Johann Johannsson, RIP.

How do you get this distorted destroyed sound he is using here at around 00.30 - 01.10? It is from his lovely "And in the endless pause there came the sound of bees" album. I like that it breaks up and almost stutters, but you still can kind of hear the original sound as well. Is it a special type of distortion hardware? Possible to replicate using e.g. Soundtoys Decapitator?


Heavy tape distortion + gate.
 
Cool thread.
I messed around with a Kontakt cello ensemble patch to experiment use of heavy tape distortion and gate (Reaper stock plugin).
Good mileage to be had with the freebie Snap Heap from Kilohearts which gives 5 different rhythmic gates and 7 glitchers/granulators for my experiment.
I created two duplicate audio tracks. Placed IK's Tape Machine-80 and Reagate on track 1. On the second track in addition to the Tape-80, I put two instances of Kilohearts: Chopagate plus granulator.

Attached sample of a cello ensemble morphed per Davidson's tip.
(Note: Was not an attempt to dial in JJ's sound design. Just splashing paint on the canvas....)

Thanks @Tusker ! Your demo got Reaktor put high on my list of gotta get.
Cheers, Bill
 

Attachments

  • Tape Distortion plus 2 gates.mp3
    813.9 KB
Last edited:
Cool thread.
I messed around with a Kontakt cello ensemble patch to experiment use of heavy tape distortion and gate (Reaper stock plugin).
Good mileage to be had with the freebie Snap Heap from Kilohearts which gives 5 different rhythmic gates and 7 glitchers/granulators for my experiment.
I created two duplicate audio tracks. Placed IK's Tape Machine-80 and Reagate on track 1. On the second track in addition to the Tape-80, I put two instances of Kilohearts: Chopagate plus granulator.

Attached sample of a cello ensemble morphed per Davidson's tip.
(Note: Was not an attempt to dial in JJ's sound design. Just splashing paint on the canvas....)

Thanks @Tusker ! Your demo got Reaktor put high on my list of gotta get.
Cheers, Bill
Nice stuff. Lots of applications for this to build a crescendo etc. Just gotta handle the high frequencies well with some low pass filtering.

Why is the tape distortion significant? Does it suit itself better for this application with more dynamic movement which makes it easier to work with using the gate?
 
Why is the tape distortion significant? Does it suit itself better for this application with more dynamic movement which makes it easier to work with using the gate?
Others more qualified will have to answer your Q; but, I will give some background on its significance.

Tape distortion was what the early mix engineers had to work with back in the Beatles days (60s). I imagine some Tape Operator mistakenly hit a tape while it was rolling and the mixer liked the effect. Heard a similar story on Phil Collins and Hugh Padgham (quote from a Peter Gabriel's Melt):

"This album’s innovation is apparent right from the jump with the opening track “Intruder”, featuring Gabriel’s former band mate Phil Collins using a new “gated drum” sound that was developed along with engineer Hugh Padgham." The short story is they landed on the iconic drum sound simply by happenchance.

The moral, let's keep exploring.
 
Nice stuff. Lots of applications for this to build a crescendo etc. Just gotta handle the high frequencies well with some low pass filtering.

Why is the tape distortion significant? Does it suit itself better for this application with more dynamic movement which makes it easier to work with using the gate?
It may be the noise I mentioned on my first comment. I imagine tape saturation emulations will introduce a bit of noise.

When you add a bit of noise to a signal and then distort it, this will make it more... grainy? This will help the gate produce the stuttering effect.
 
It may be the noise I mentioned on my first comment. I imagine tape saturation emulations will introduce a bit of noise.

When you add a bit of noise to a signal and then distort it, this will make it more... grainy? This will help the gate produce the stuttering effect.
Good point. For me, that clarifies why there is even a control for noise inside ReaGate in addition to wet-dry controls. I found adding a bit of noise gave better gating results.
A handy datum for later experimentation.
Thank you,
Bill
 
I think the noise, distortion, gate and layer solution sounds right. I have had similar result using a comb filter creating feedback. Adjusting the filter and feedback upwards, whilst keeping the mix at 50%, gives a similar mixture of the original sound and a growing noisy wildness. Perhaps done as a 50% send to an fx bus, and with a gate on the comb filter, it would work similarly. You'd also need a limiter to stop the feedback getting too painfully out of control.
 
This is gated feedback; but I couldn't try what I wanted, which was to add the effects on a 50% send to a an FX bus. That's because the effects were all inside of the synthesiser. It might have been possible to do it there (Falcon), but I don't know how. If I can do the same with a send I might be able to get closer.
 

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  • Gated Feedback.mp3
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I would immediately go to Omnisphere to try to get something like that, randomizing some distortion and rhythmic envelopes should get something satisfying. For a non-synth option, Shaperbox has Drive Shaper now. Here's a string patch with Drive, Volume, and Crush envelopes on it, with the Master Mix automated. I don't like Shaperbox's distortion sound that much though, sounds thin to me.

Screen Shot 2021-10-22 at 12.49.28 PM.png
 

Attachments

  • crunchy.mp3
    616.3 KB
I would immediately go to Omnisphere to try to get something like that, randomizing some distortion and rhythmic envelopes should get something satisfying. For a non-synth option, Shaperbox has Drive Shaper now. Here's a string patch with Drive, Volume, and Crush envelopes on it, with the Master Mix automated. I don't like Shaperbox's distortion sound that much though, sounds thin to me.

Screen Shot 2021-10-22 at 12.49.28 PM.png
Yes, a bit thin; but the effect is very good on those strings.
 
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