Tubular Grunge

how do i get shit to sound like the guitars in tubular bells??

i listened to that again yesterday, was thinking about the nice guitar sounds. i put a smashing pumpkins album on just now and i like the riffs, but the guitar all sounds like it was recorded in a futuristic space bathroom. it's all smooth and clean, no dirt, sterile.

i'm not sure if it's the distortion, the recording medium, or how they mic the amps or some shit. or all.

i'm just some guy that plays synths and i want my synths to have that grunge, what do i do?

hardware amp

tape reduction

tube distortion

or the vst equalivent of all of the above

the atlantis filter vst can produce some very dirty and unique sounds

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futuristic space bathroom

dibs on album name

  chimera slot mom said:

hardware amp

tape reduction

tube distortion

 

or the vst equalivent of all of the above

 

the atlantis filter vst can produce some very dirty and unique sounds

would VSTs really cut it?? i'll check out atlantis, thx.

i got a 30watt marshall amp, but it's not exactly classic tube. it leaves me underwhelmed, as such i use it to amplify guitars as opposed to chewing up synths.

should invest in/clone some classic pedals?

of those three, amp, tape, tube dist, what does what? what matters most? could i just have two? i mean, i suspected all three of those myself (given the era, i'm sure that's what they used), and your reply just confirms my suspicions. it doesn't really give me a grasp on the issue. i'm looking for a quick and efficient route to getting my synths to sound that way.... i don't need it entirely spelled out but some direction would be nice

i should add that amplitube and guitar rig can get the right grunge to a degree, but it's too thin and digital for me...

at 0:50 in this track

check the synth line that comes in. this is a perfect example of where i want tubular grunge.

  chimera slot mom said:

  Quote

futuristic space bathroom

dibs on album name

only if i get to do a track or two for it

  hahathhat said:

at 0:50 in this track

 

http://www.nevenen.com/audio/tunnelone.mp3

 

check the synth line that comes in. this is a perfect example of where i want tubular grunge.

shit, that's already pretty damn grungy...

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  Quote

hardware amp

tape reduction

tube distortion

 

or the vst equalivent of all of the above

 

the atlantis filter vst can produce some very dirty and unique sounds

 

would VSTs really cut it?? i\'ll check out atlantis, thx.

 

i got a 30watt marshall amp, but it\'s not exactly classic tube. it leaves me underwhelmed, as such i use it to amplify guitars as opposed to chewing up synths.

 

should invest in/clone some classic pedals?

 

of those three, amp, tape, tube dist, what does what? what matters most? could i just have two? i mean, i suspected all three of those myself (given the era, i\'m sure that\'s what they used), and your reply just confirms my suspicions. it doesn\'t really give me a grasp on the issue. i\'m looking for a quick and efficient route to getting my synths to sound that way.... i don\'t need it entirely spelled out but some direction would be nice

they add irregularities to the sound which is what getting a grungysound is about. a synthesizer is designed to sound perfect.

some vst\'s i found and love

karmafx filter (because it has a 6db low pass filter.. rare among vsts, easiest way i know to de-digitalize sounds.. 6db means smoothest rolloff you can imagine)

ferox (all-in-one tape plugin.. very realistic, you can choose tape speed and even insert tape noise/hiss)

voxengo overtone EQ

antares tube (the little devil setting on it should be all the grunge you need)

all of the new wave compressors, the SSL ones for instance

any tube simulator

compress after EQing rather than before, it tends to add irregularity

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http://www.nevenen.com/audio/tunnelone.mp3

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check the synth line that comes in. this is a perfect example of where i want tubular grunge.

It\'s too clean and thin.. add noise, chuck in very low-level crap audio

 

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futuristic space bathroom

dibs on album name

 

only if i get to do a track or two for it

awesome!

Theres always NI guitar rig

edit: btw hat, that track you posted is fucking amazing, hit me up when you are done!

do you have any synths where you can use oscillator output to modulate another oscillator's frequency? if you get a little feedback going that way it's grungy. cool bassline btw

oops I forgot that's what fm is. what I meant by feedback was have each oscillator modulating the others and being modulated by them, then using the osc levels to control the amount of noise that results.

I thought all you needed was a big muff, maybe an octave pedal...

  Glass Plate said:

I thought all you needed was a big muff, maybe an octave pedal...

i agree with this. it seems like this thread has gone overly complicated...

have you tried playing around with speakerphone and softube amp room yet?

speakerphone speakerphone speakerphone

i was digging around for some other old thread, and i spotted this one. i have since found out that the smashing pumpkins recorded the album i mentioned on tape, without computer, allegedly. from wikipedia:

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The band's insistence on recording live to tape, without click tracks or editing, was met with distaste by most producers they spoke to.[13] One executive at Reprise suggested using American Idiot producer Rob Cavallo, in the name of commercial success.[13] The band held out until they met someone willing to record analog, and with the right energy and philosophy, eventually choosing producer Roy Thomas Baker, who they considered "a real soul mate."[13] Terry Date also contributed, and, according to Corgan, Date's production style helped the songs "resonate on a physical level".[14] The album was largely recorded in the home studio of former Catherine drummer (and D'arcy Wretzky's ex-husband) Kerry Brown, on the same 24-track tape recorder that 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was recorded on[10]—in fact, no computers were used for the recording of the album.[15] As with the other Smashing Pumpkins albums, Zeitgeist was recorded in twelve-hour days, six or seven days a week, until it was finished.[10] The mixing process also differed from previous albums'. According to Baker, "everything had sort of an on/off switch. So instead of having various degrees of volumes, we'd have the approach of, 'It's either on or it's not'".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist_(Smashing_Pumpkins_album)#Recording

if both albums use tape, this leaves but three possible explanations for the sound difference:

a. the smashing pumpkins use shit tape [recorders]

b. the smashing pumpkins are shit at using tape.

c. tape is not responsible for the sound difference.

2. if it's not tape:

a. something to do with this, er, "on/off" dynamics approach of theirs

b. differences in recording technique (mics, direct, etc.)

c. differences in fx

d. some other shit i haven't thought of

your thoughts plz

(my thoughts? i need to get a big muff, maybe an octave pedal)

They probably didn't dist the tape.. So I guess, B