Clipping Piano sound

A1A2

A1A2

New member
has anyone experienced with clipped piano sounds as an effect? Someone told me that radiohead used this on Fitter, Happier, so I gave it a shot, and it did sound pretty cool. However, it was really distorted and quickly became real muddy.

So, I was wondering if anyone has some experience or tips to share with this effect.

thanks in advance.

Al
 
Hey Al...

Saw yr Fitter happier post. Actually I am a big Radiohead lover. We play a lot of their songs and have a big influence in my band.

www.sodiumchannel.com

Ok, enough self promotion. Why don't you try to cut the low end real bad on the distorted paino? Use the telephone effect. Cut everything below 1000 Hz and above 3000Hz or even more. Don't use too much delay on it since the wet signal may make it muddy.

Let me know how it went!

Peace...

PC
 
It often depends on where and how the "clipping" occurs... distortions can be a beautiful thing or a complete nightmare. There's digital distortion, analog distortion, even order, odd order, intermodulation, etc... often finding the right distortion(s) takes time, experimentation and patience.

Best of luck with it.
 
I find distortion works best when you run it through a speaker and mic it. It's very rare that effects loop distortion sounds right. So just run your piano through a guitar amp or cheap boombox and crank it up and mic it. See how that sounds.
 
thanks alot for the ideas, guys.

Tex, do you mean overload the mic by playing out loud on the speaker? Or use the preamp to do the clipping?

Anyway, I am gonna have fun playing with all above methods.


Al
 
I mean overdrive the source before it hits the speaker with a preamp or distortion pedal. Overdriving a mic rarely sounds good.
 
TexRoadkill said:
I mean overdrive the source before it hits the speaker with a preamp or distortion pedal. Overdriving a mic rarely sounds good.
Click to expand...

great, that clears my doubt on overloading the mic.

thanks

Al
 
TexRoadkill said:
I find distortion works best when you run it through a speaker and mic it.
Click to expand...

I reckon it kinda depends on how much distortion you're trying to achieve... FWIW, I will often just overdrive something like a tube mic pre for things like this... but it really is highly subjective as to what is and what ain't cool...
 
Try and track one clean also...Split your signal to two tracks ..one distorted and one clean so you have the option to blend to taste..might help you with your mud issues...when you've got a buildup of tracks..what was cool before can end up being too muddy ect.


Don
 
Fletcher said:
I reckon it kinda depends on how much distortion you're trying to achieve... FWIW, I will often just overdrive something like a tube mic pre for things like this... but it really is highly subjective as to what is and what ain't cool...
Click to expand...

Very true. A real tube saturation works well.

If you only have some solid state or digital distortion pedals and effects they can be a bit harsh sounding when your record direct. Running it through an amp/speaker seems to help smooth it out a bit.

I've been on an organic kick lately so I try to mic everything. Reamping vocals through a guitar amp can give you a cool sound pretty quickly that you might spend hours trying to dial in on a processor.
 
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