Extreme Delays

Infinite freezing offers up a whole new mezze of possibilities for hypnotic and filtered delays that can be used to pan, duck & dive their way through an entire track. And once you have a frozen moment, you can manipulate it with resonant filter sweeps to get some instantly cool and very extreme results.

Take an arped synth line or repetitive hi hat that you’re going to send to your delay. Automate the freeze points in your arrangement so that the sequenced notes are sent to the delay at those points. Once you have these snapshots trapped, you can begin to manipulate the audio signal using your plug in of choice.

Make sure your delay can handle infinite freezing or total feedback. The somewhat legendary Ohmboyz from OhmForce may be a good choice here. Not only does it have stereo multi tap, but its resonant filters and (count ‘em) 39 LFOs make it one of the craziest delays out there. Then of course, there are some other cool plug ins like EchoBoy from Soundtoys, the U-HE More Feedback Machine, FabFilter’s Timeless 2, CamelSpace, Logic’s Delay Designer and Rob Papen’s RP Delay. Not all these have freeze capabilities, but most will take you to infinity and beyond. And, hey, that’s a pretty cool place to be. Ain’t it, Woody?

Poke Your EQ

I’m not suggesting that anyone should mess around with the rules & regs associated with EQ in all its brightness, boxiness & mudiness. But within those mapped out parameters there are a host of possibilities that can spice up a mix and add a whole load of sparkle & clarity to the spectrum.

We know for instance that way down in the bowels of your track, the bass and kick are battling for supremacy.  And one way to make them happy is to clear plenty of space down there so they can both fight it out.

If you find the fundamentals of each (90Hz for the kick, 50Hz for the bass), then you can notch out those frequencies on the other sound and create more space.

But this doesn’t take into account all the other instruments which may have overlapping frequencies. Best way to deal with that is to solo your other instruments one by one and decide where they’re going to sit in the mix. Hi hats may sizzle nicely around 12k, whereas the claps crack in at 4 to 5k and mids like guitar and synth at 2 to 3k. Once you’ve decided where they’re happiest,  kick in a high pass filter with extreme prejudice. Whack on a pretty high value so that the sound is aggressively cut from that point westward.

OK, it could be argued that sounds like electric guitar and full bodied synth have a whole mess of harmonic frequencies below this cut off point and just erasing them will have an adverse effect on the over all sound. That’s true, but at the same time, do we want those frequencies swimming around your bass end like a shoal of mackerel?

One concession may be that you shelve the EQ on electric guitar and synth to give a more sympathetic cut, but high end sounds? Extreme EQ is the only way to be sure they won’t interfere with the mix. If they mess with your head, Cut ‘em dead!

Distort your Bass Human beings love to hear distortion. Just like sugar, fat and salt. They crave it. They want it. Bad. And where better to add extra saturated warmth than in your bottom end? Cos, let’s face it, with all that instrumentation going on plus a whole load of vocals, your bass has just kind of well, disappeared out of sight! And now’s the time to claim it back with a huge dollop of over modulation.

 And I don’t mean a full on fuzz attack. Just something to enhance the signal. To make it fatter and more exciting. What could be better than a plug in that’s dedicated to the world of distortion, such as Camel Audio’s CamelPhat ?

Its four distortion modules cater for warm, soft, crunchy and fat settings and its Magic EQ enhances low end with its own special brand of excitement. Bass distortion presets include Arsequake, Subify My Love, The Deep and Trouser Flapper .  But CamelPhat really shines when you grab a preset and edit it. Then use the mix knob to let through as much or as little as you need.

Yep, there are plenty of distortion plug ins on the market. Logic, ProTools, Cubase any DAW you care to mention will have a bespoke plug in. Kontakt has a sublime range of amp simulators. There are even plenty of freebies around such as Togu Audio’s Tal-Tube. But nothing has quite mastered the sheer gutsy extremes of CamelPhat and certainly not for under $100. Perfect for adding a touch of extreme presence to any bassline.

Release The Hounds

So with its additional side chaining, distortion, low pass filters and panning delays, all that’s left now is to release your track to your adoring fans. Safe in the knowledge that if you’ve pitched all these techniques to perfection, this crazy assed sh*t is gonna be just about as extreme as it gets!

Simon Power produces stock music  for TV, films, games & videos as Dream Valley Music.