Any good cheap/freeware plugins to properly lay waste to a recorded tone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DrewPeterson7
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RAMI said:
One of the regulars here, I can't remember who, once posted something about taking a wav. file, putting it in photoshop, and screwing around with it in there. Then, bringing it back into the DAW.

I never tried it, but it was bizarre enough that I never forgot reading it.
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I've tried it. Gaussian Blur can make it sound sort of reverby in a grainy sort of way.

Can be cool for noise type stuff.
 
Mmm, I love smashing things up. For me, standard weapons of choice are...

Trash, Guitar Rig, jb_ferox and the UAD 1176 in all-buttons-mode :)
 
RAMI said:
One of the regulars here, I can't remember who, once posted something about taking a wav. file, putting it in photoshop, and screwing around with it in there. Then, bringing it back into the DAW.

I never tried it, but it was bizarre enough that I never forgot reading it.
Click to expand...

what....

....that's freakin' awesome.
 
mattr said:
Guitar Rig
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Guitar Rig, when not thought of as a guitar amp/distortion modeler can be a wonderful source of all kinds of crazy stuff.

The key here is to use the modulation modules (LFO, Step sequencer, etc) to drive controls on things that one normally wouldn't on the "real" things.

For example, many of the amps have bias, sag and other similar controls that have strong effect on their output. By modulating them, you can create some really cool rhythmic textures that are not possible by any other means. Same goes for the stomp boxes, delay modules, reverb etc. Try it out. It will open up a world of tripped out coolness :)
 
noisewreck said:
Hey Drew, how confortable do you feel with modular software environments? If you don't mind some DIY type stuff check out Plogue Bidule and AudioMulch.

PlogueBidule hosts VSTs inside, and itself can be a VST inside another host, so you can load Plogue Bidule into your DAW, and then load your other VST FX inside Bidule to connect and route to each other in some fucked up ways, including creating feedback loops. So, you could for example take a filter plugin, route it into a delay module, then feedback the output of the delay back into the filter, while modulating filter cutoff. Obviously you'll need to take care not to let things get too out of hand when playing with feedback :D

I don't believe AudioMulch can be used inside a DAW, it's a standalone program, but it too has some rather interesting built-in modules and you can load stuff in there to help you mangle audio in any which way you please. It's got a built-in sample player, so you can load your audio into it, pass it through some contracptions and off you go.
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Noisewreck - not comfortable at all, actually, but also not afraid to fuck around for a while and learn. If I get hung up midway through, would you mind if I tossed a couple questions your way? I'm reading the page and I'm intrigued.

D Vincent - you seem to have missed the cheap/freeware part. :p My budget at this point is pretty low - what cash I have to spend on recording gear is mostly going to have to go to more mics and better pres, and while I'm down for spending where I have to (I dig the shit out of the Reaper business model and it's a great product, so I was proud to send them $60 for a liscense, for instance), I'm trying to work as much as possible with freeware. Reaper, Goldwave, the Antress plugs, etc - there's some totally servicable stuff out there, and frankly I could see really twisted stuff originating from guys coding for the pleasure of it more than I could a corporate shop.
 
RAMI said:
One of the regulars here, I can't remember who, once posted something about taking a wav. file, putting it in photoshop, and screwing around with it in there. Then, bringing it back into the DAW.

I never tried it, but it was bizarre enough that I never forgot reading it.
Click to expand...

I also think that's the coolest fucking idea ever. :yesway:

That said, for obvious reasons I'm kind of big on non-destructive editing. I'm not that up on the process, but as I understand one would go about creating an impulse file using an unprocessed file and then the same file with the desired "processing" already performed, so you could theoretically do an impulse file that replicates that effect?

EDIT - googled it, and yes, that's about how it's done. There's also a number of freeware apps to create impulses from two wave files. Iiinteresting...
 
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DrewPeterson7 said:
Noisewreck - not comfortable at all, actually, but also not afraid to fuck around for a while and learn. If I get hung up midway through, would you mind if I tossed a couple questions your way? I'm reading the page and I'm intrigued.
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Anytime. Haven't used the new version of Audiomulch and last time I used it was about a couple of years ago, but the concept is still the same, except much cooler than 1.0

Bidule can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.
 
RAMI said:
One of the regulars here, I can't remember who, once posted something about taking a wav. file, putting it in photoshop, and screwing around with it in there. Then, bringing it back into the DAW.

I never tried it, but it was bizarre enough that I never forgot reading it.
Click to expand...

That sounds fricken' amazing! Does photoshop allow you to do that natively? I just tried opening a wav in GIMP, but it wasn't having any of that.
 
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