Sorry to bump from so long ago. I am finding it very hard to get that warmth and feel to my tracks. I don't mean musically, I mean the actual sound of the drum hits, the bass, the production - theres something I am missing and I really cannot for the life of me figure it out!
You can hear the influences from artists like Evenings (coincidence hes posted on this actual page!) and Shlohmo perhaps - but I really want to know how that real warm feel is achieved (especially when it comes to the sound of the kicks and snares). I am using Kramer MPX Stereo to achieve the subtle effects of tape saturation and compression, and even using exciters and have spent time EQ'ing to try and recreate the sounds but its still too far! I am not looking to copy the exact sounds, only trying to understand how they are achieved!
the easiest way would be just to use analog—synths, effects, processing, etc., or plugins that emulate analog very well. even with the best analog emulations, it still takes a lot of effort and elaborate processing chains to approach the sound of analog. in my experience, with actual analog it becomes quite effortless.
I bounced stuff to a portable cassette tape recorder from the late 90s with an Automatic Level Control (ALC) in my sig. It basically brick-walled it, and made it sound like noise.
Maybe do a mix to send to tape and back, and blend that with the digital mix.
EDIT: Cassette tape doesn't support subbass or very highs, so what you can do is double the speed when you send the kick and bass. Similarly, half the speed for the cymbals.
hello everybody. i started making glo-fi/chillwave music in may and haven't stopped working on it since. i'm pretty much into all of it but Ernest Greene/Washed Out is my biggest influence at the moment. i've studied a lot of his music and most of it is in the key of E major.
i'm really looking for a community to start sharing ideas with so I hope this thread keeps up.
Use a lot of A#'s. Black keys in general are great for glofi and chillwave... in fact Chopin's black key etude is a fantastic study in early glofi technique. While many fans of this genre focus on the production techniques and sound design, it's really some of the most sophisticated music ever written from a theory standpoint.
Use a lot of A#'s. Black keys in general are great for glofi and chillwave... in fact Chopin's black key etude is a fantastic study in early glofi technique. While many fans of this genre focus on the production techniques and sound design, it's really some of the most sophisticated music ever written from a theory standpoint.
Is A# really a good key? To me it's the opposite, too high key to give some solid bass (and not plausible too get down an octave). The key of E seams to be much better to electronic music of this kind.
Blacked gives for sure a smoother timbre in music in general because of the harmonics, but it's not always lractical for other reasons like kick and bass. Keyboard based music is many times in black keys (and brass music almost always), but it's the opposite with guitar based music, including bass (simulating bass guitar groove) based music
Is A# really a good key? To me it's the opposite, too high key to give some solid bass (and not plausible too get down an octave). The key of E seams to be much better to electronic music of this kind.
Blacked gives for sure a smoother timbre in music in general because of the harmonics, but it's not always lractical for other reasons like kick and bass. Keyboard based music is many times in black keys (and brass music almost always), but it's the opposite with guitar based music, including bass (simulating bass guitar groove) based music
What about relative keys? If you use A sharp/B flat you could pair that with C minor stuff and F with augmentation, etc. As long as you can harmonize a full or facsimile root note scale with bass that sounds decent it doesn't matter.
I actually kind of like atonal kick drums if it's not too wavy.
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I am the great mixoliooooo! I need PT for my bongo!
Yayyy this thread lives again! :p Wanted to come check it out coz I feel I've learned a lot since my last post here. Check out this track I made months ago, around the time I was furiously experimenting with these techniques:
I also wanted to write just now, because I got a really nice "glo-fi" track in the works and I'm gonna share it as soon as it gets ready! FYI, the things I've found to be the most important in this stuff are
-Some good soft synths likeImpOSCar2, TAL U-NO LX , PPG Wave 2.V and Sylenth1 -good f*cking drum samples to begin with!!! -my casette walkman
-the "Kramer Master Tape" and "H-Delay" plugins by Waves
-Eos, a "superhall" reverb plug by Audio Damage (seriously, I almost overuse this nowdays, absolutely love it)
-Ableton's own "Vinyl Distortion" and "Dynamic Tube" plugins
-iZotope Vinyl plugin, especially the "wear" slider!!!
-cutting some highs of with eq
-good vintage style compressor plugins, especially for your drum group!
I'm lucky to have for example all Waves plugs available at our school, but I'm sure can also achieve pretty much the same results with any kind of plugins or gear, it may just require much more work. These expensive & special ones just make things much easier and are more of a "preset" way to get what you're aiming at. Good drum samples are a key thing in my opinion, if they sound good enough, you don't even need any processing
I have collected some neat drum samples ripped from various sources like old vinyls, I'll upload them for ya when I got more time!
good samples, lot of reverb, compression, sidechain (sidechained reverb!) are very important. This one is done in Ableton Live with stock effects, some Goldbaby samples and TAL ELECTRO. Some stock synths from ableton as well.
1) Loop parts from mid-70s to early-80s records. MOR, Yacht Rock and Light Fusion. Run thru phaser. Run thru bit crusher for distortion. Run thru limiter.
2) Load up Oberheim DMX kick and snare, run thru bit crusher for distortion.
3) Limit/compressor on mix bus. tape and vinyl simulators help too (saturation, EQ, and wow/flutter simulation).
4) Revel in your 2009-ness.
I found the use of sidechaining, delay and reverb very important.
The track i've posted is almost a year old, but in that time i've found the best way to get that lo-fi drum sound is by running all your drum samples through a high-mid EQ
Obviously ot a glo-fi example, but a cassette tape overdrive example. I imagine it'd sound pretty dope pushing reverb, delays, synths, whole drum buses, and whatever else through it. I might just try it later tonight. Awesome thread btw.
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