Vladislav Delay's sound

Been listening to him a lot recently and there seems to be a warm sheen over his sound that makes even harsh stuff sound soft and warm.

Is this at the mastering stage or do you reckon he uses some valve gear to process each sound or something? EQ? compression?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAxbvWCSOQ

I know he uses a Vermona Spring Reverb and URSA Space Station digital delay system, both of which are among the few "dream gear" components (the original URSA 1978 unit especially) I'd love to get eventually.

Decent pictures of his studio here.

i've come to think that "getting a sound" is always the result of hundreds of hours of listening and fine tuning your ability to use EQ, compression, and all the tools available to you.

the basic idea is that its never your ability to get a specific sound, but your ability to use the tools to get any sound you want

the way to get that skill is to see the production studio like a box of paint and you know how to combine paint and get effects

its an overall skill thing

I just wanted to make this post and I know it's probably not particularly helpful, mostly an update for myself on what I've learned

I reckon the way Vladislav got that sound is through a shitload of failure over time

also, as great as analogue and specific tools are (even necessary in terms of production tricks, use 1 bit of hardware, some tape, should do the trick)... for the most part you can get any sound you want if you inhabit the tools you are using. see them as abstract entities to bend instead of looking to the sound you want and trying to replicate it... or at least a mixture of both

then again sometimes this advice is not so good. Fabfilter Volcano vs. the Abletonfilters for instance. tools are very important to a certain extent and I wouldn't just say "use what you got." not quite, but mostly.

I don't know what he uses, but you're right. Even the harsh sounds are somehow warm, and fuzzy. I use additional reverberation when I play his vinyl, through a vintage Pioneer SR-303. My favorite has got to be "Entain". So fucking soothing.

looking at those picture reveals just what I thought i.e. a fuck load of really nice expensive hardware I can only dream of right now!

there's certainly a familiar signal chain of compression or EQ that gives him 'that' sound, it would be interesting to find out what he uses most but I guess we'll never know

the guy looks like he's got his shit together tho

  On 5/3/2013 at 9:18 PM, vamos scorcho said:

I reckon the way Vladislav got that sound is through a shitload of failure over time

 

yeah he's had a long career - a lot of mastery simply takes time

I always figured Vladislav, especially his earlier stuff like Anima to be mostly made in really nice partially self running Reaktor ensembles. His later stuff however sounds like he broke out of Reaktor into different production methods. To me it sounds like he gets his 'harsh' sounds sounding soft and fuzzy simply by running almost everything through traditional low pass filters. Everything has kind of a 'synthy' vibe to it, even the samples. In some ways it reminds me of some of the modern Autechre production, where they run a lot of percussive and sampled sounds through a lowpass filter. That eliminates the high end while also allowing you to make things sound slightly squelchy continuously.

Honestly I believe it's an over complicated explanation to say that his sound is the result of expensive hardware or expert EQing. That alone isn't responsible for the sound at least on Anima.

Besides a handful of others, maybe Oval and Autechre , there aren't many musicians who sound like they employ such a nicely controlled reigned in form of vectorized chaos to compose music with. His stuff has always sounded partially randomly generated to me, and I mean that with the upmost respect possible. Very few can accomplish something so beautiful that sounds so chaotically generated. My guess is it would take someone many years to get a 'song in a box' reaktor patch to sound this good through much trial and error and refinement. If you want to sound like Vladislav delay in spirit, but not through reverse engineering his actual sound I'd check out Reaktor and some of the patches people have made that sort of play on their own and evolve just to get an idea for what he most likely does or did do.

yeah there's no shame in the mix n match approach in fact I'll say most experimental electronic music is made that way especially with the conveniences of the modern day DAW. Hearing something in the chaos then sculpting and arranging it into something interesting requires just as much creativity as anything else its just a case of getting a good workflow.

LPF eh? never though of that one yet it makes complete sense if used subtlety

time to break out the Nord Modular

I thought he’s said in interviews that he uses a lot of analog gear of all kinds, and tends to play (as in, perform) a lot of layered parts.

What a nice studio!

I wish I could get me one of dem

he has a different studio now though, doesn't look as posh.

edit: he still has an awesome studio btw, just lacks the 60s spaceship vibe

His current studio

http://www.vladislavdelay.com/site/?page_id=3685

Are the giant Toblerones above the mixing desk for when he gets peckish ?

  On 5/4/2013 at 5:57 PM, mcbpete said:

Are the giant Toblerones above the mixing desk for when he gets peckish ?

Ans if he ever runs out he can just use that phone to page his secretary for more!

vladislav delay has an extensive background as a jazz drummer and if there's one thing that identifies his music to me, it's his really unique sense of timing. i think his stuff is fascinating to listen to because it is so free-form and yet seems to have this structure to it where every sound seems placed temporally in a way that fits perfectly & makes sense instead of sounding disorganized.

as far as his actual sound goes, i think that's down to using a lot of hardware & analog gear, having nice tools, & really knowing his stuff in regards to mixing & mastering.

  On 5/4/2013 at 5:50 PM, azatoth said:

His current studio

 

http://www.vladislavdelay.com/site/?page_id=3685

OMG. His set-up is ideal. Has me two wet-dream synths the Omega 8 and Sunsyn.

WHY DOES GEAR COST SO MUCH AND I MAKE SO LITTLE?

  On 5/5/2013 at 12:51 AM, Audioblysk said:

 

  On 5/4/2013 at 5:50 PM, azatoth said:

 

His current studio

 

http://www.vladislavdelay.com/site/?page_id=3685

OMG. His set-up is ideal. Has me two wet-dream synths the Omega 8 and Sunsyn.

WHY DOES GEAR COST SO MUCH AND I MAKE SO LITTLE?

All that expensive equipment from his music? How?! I mean those studios are loaded with at least $100k worth gear.

in a recent interview he indicated that he's still paying off the debt he went into for his studio.

  On 5/9/2013 at 7:13 PM, Alcofribas said:

in a recent interview he indicated that he's still paying off the debt he went into for his studio.

Oooo he's a true gearslut... i can relate to him. ;)

  On 5/9/2013 at 7:35 PM, xox said:

 

  On 5/9/2013 at 7:13 PM, Alcofribas said:

in a recent interview he indicated that he's still paying off the debt he went into for his studio.

 

Oooo he's a true gearslut... i can relate to him. ;)

 

brother deserves respect

almost everything in that studio is exactly what I would buy

Absolutely!

Though I'm not that crazy for the synths i understand him but those Manley processors and Genelec monitors are on my wish list.

  On 5/9/2013 at 10:14 PM, soundwave said:

 

  On 5/9/2013 at 7:35 PM, xox said:

 

  On 5/9/2013 at 7:13 PM, Alcofribas said:

in a recent interview he indicated that he's still paying off the debt he went into for his studio.

 

Oooo he's a true gearslut... i can relate to him. ;)

 

 

brother deserves respect

 

almost everything in that studio is exactly what I would buy

 

This topic and the adjoining links make me want to check out VD's stuff... Thanks!

Vladislav Delay is way underrated and has created a truly unique sound over the years.