I'm interested in creating / molding digital sounds from scratch (like prodigy/NIN)
- Thread starter dreamache
- Start date
Fireal402
Eyeballs! OH MY GOD EYES
Best way is either a PC or Mac system running Ableton Live, with the plugins iZotope Trash, Moog Modular (for Bass), and some sort of sampler (I prefer Kontakt or ESX24).
Make sure to use the BeatChopper(?) Live plugin a lot, and duplicate the drum tracks, leave one dry, and trash and beatchop the hell out of the duplicate.
I've figured out how to do pretty much anything NIN can do, so find some specific sound or beat or sample or effect and I'll tell you how to do it.
EDIT: Also, whine a lot.
Make sure to use the BeatChopper(?) Live plugin a lot, and duplicate the drum tracks, leave one dry, and trash and beatchop the hell out of the duplicate.
I've figured out how to do pretty much anything NIN can do, so find some specific sound or beat or sample or effect and I'll tell you how to do it.
EDIT: Also, whine a lot.
Last edited:
noisewreck
New member
NIN actually always experiments with connecting things the "wrong" way 
And BTW, many of his sounds aren't really digital, they are result of hooking up all kinds of guitar stomboxes, amps, whatever effects he can get his hands on... and just going with it. So... the key to creating these kinds of sounds is:
1. Open up your mind
2. Let your imagination soar free
3. Play your effects boxes/plugns like instruments
4. Sample, mess with it, resample, mess with it, resample, mess with it... resample.... ad infinitum
5. Extreme timestretching
6. Extreme pitchshifting
7. Granular deconstruction/reconstruction (Absynth, MelOHMan, Kontakt, Reaktor, MAX/MSP, Kyma and many more products have this kind of capabilities).
8. Synth layering
9. Recording nature sounds, then processing them via whatever.
10. You think that requires hard work and is extremely time consuming? You betcha!
BTW a lot of time what you percieve as some distorted sounds is not really distorted in the "traditional" sence in that it's not really distorted in a guitar distortion pedal or cranking up an amp or overloading the inputs of a mixer way... they are mutilated by other means.
And BTW, many of his sounds aren't really digital, they are result of hooking up all kinds of guitar stomboxes, amps, whatever effects he can get his hands on... and just going with it. So... the key to creating these kinds of sounds is:1. Open up your mind
2. Let your imagination soar free
3. Play your effects boxes/plugns like instruments
4. Sample, mess with it, resample, mess with it, resample, mess with it... resample.... ad infinitum
5. Extreme timestretching
6. Extreme pitchshifting
7. Granular deconstruction/reconstruction (Absynth, MelOHMan, Kontakt, Reaktor, MAX/MSP, Kyma and many more products have this kind of capabilities).
8. Synth layering
9. Recording nature sounds, then processing them via whatever.
10. You think that requires hard work and is extremely time consuming? You betcha!
BTW a lot of time what you percieve as some distorted sounds is not really distorted in the "traditional" sence in that it's not really distorted in a guitar distortion pedal or cranking up an amp or overloading the inputs of a mixer way... they are mutilated by other means.
Ironklad Audio
New member
compress the shit out of stuff, too
Fireal402
Eyeballs! OH MY GOD EYES
Trent Reznor, along with some of us, have the "microprogramming" attitude, where we will spend HOURS tweaking a single reverb tail for a five second sound that will only be heard once, and it sets the producer/musicians apart from just the muscians.
I still listen to the fragile and hear things I've never heard.
Noisewreck: Few clarifications. Guitars for broken were Marshalls? direct in prlly fucked with a ton, I heard he used Line 6 live for a while, but in the studio it's iZotope Trash I think. Once you play with it, a les paul into trash, you hear exactly what his shit shounds like.
Also, the practice is the best advice. To do this well you need to do it EVERY day, dedicate your life to learning how to play instruments AND record, and be willing to deal with addiction (A given in that scene).
Good luck, don't pull a manson though
I still listen to the fragile and hear things I've never heard.
Noisewreck: Few clarifications. Guitars for broken were Marshalls? direct in prlly fucked with a ton, I heard he used Line 6 live for a while, but in the studio it's iZotope Trash I think. Once you play with it, a les paul into trash, you hear exactly what his shit shounds like.
Also, the practice is the best advice. To do this well you need to do it EVERY day, dedicate your life to learning how to play instruments AND record, and be willing to deal with addiction (A given in that scene).
Good luck, don't pull a manson though