Anyone can go anywhere on youtube and learn how to use this plugin or that, or how to recreate this synth sound and blah blah. What is significantly harder to find is a collection of ideas for sound mangling, sound design, or just plain old sweetening. I propose we all share ideas and everyone walks away with a better repertoire. Don't be afraid to post something that's basic to you - someone may not know it.

For instance:

Metallic reflections: Drop a very short delay (10-30ms) on a sound and turn up the feedback. A short, simple delay at 30-50% wet with no little or no feedback can also be used to give certain synths a very 'jagged' sound.

Granular piano roll: This is one I came up with messing around Ableton, but it will work with any sampler with assignable midi controls. Set up a sample in Sampler or Drum Rack with a quick attack and release. Turn on adaptive grid in piano roll, zoom way in and just go nuts in Draw Mode. Play with the zoom while you do it so you get different grain sizes. Then assign velocity to a parameter. Filter frequency is a good one, especially with one of Sampler's morph filters. You could also do amount or frequency on a non-retriggering LFO. Now start drawing velocity ramps (in the velocity editor under the piano roll hold ctrl + mouse drag. You can also highlight certain notes and draw a velocty ramp beyond them which will only affect these notes). You can automate sample start position for a truer granular synthesis effect. The possibilities are pretty vast here.

Drum bus risers: You can do all sorts of funky things by setting up a delay that goes from <1ms to about 200-300ms and putting it on your drum bus with the feedback way up. Make sure it's a delay that will repitch when the delay time is modulated. Now set up a couple midi controls (or macro knobs if you're in Ableton) to modulate speed and wet/dry. You can create sort of a slowdown effect by adding in some wet signal and turning the delay time up. Obviously turning it down makes a riser. Adding some wet in with the delay next to nothing makes a cool metallic squealy sound that can change pitch with slight modulation. this is a fun one to play with.

Just the sides (Ableton only): - Drop a Utility on any track and crank the stereo width to 200%. This will remove the center of the stereo field. Addendum courtesy of @audioplg: bxcontrol and Voxengo msed will serve the same purpose in other DAWs.

Kick drum riser: I got this one from an ill.Gates workshop. Drop a kick in the Arrange view and timestretch it to hell. Anyone who's done drum synthesis knows that a fast and dramatic pitch envelope is used to make a kick drum from a sine wave. We're taking advantage of that. Reverse the stretched kick drum and the riser potential should already be obvious. Now if you're in Ableton you can use the clip properties to spice it up. Play around with the algo and the "preserve" parameter - texture is a good one. Automating grain size or transposition will give you some control over the pitch (and grain size can do lots more). Automating flux will make the grains glide together smoother or clash against each other, according to your taste and needs.

Orchestral synth (Ableton): This doesn't have to be orchestral samples, it's just what I've had the most success/fun with. This is a lot like the granular piano roll trick. Load up a library of instrumental phrases and activate the morph filter in Sampler. I like Zero-G libraries for this stuff because they have a reasonably high success rate with being imported to Sampler and they tend to have very varied phrases in one patch. Tweak the morph and resonance until modulating that filter will give you a nice, swishy synth sound. I like to assign a slow LFO to this filter so there's always some movement. You can modulate it with velocity, keytrack it, aftertouch, etc. Or assign them to macros. For even more mangling, macro the FM or AM parameters on Sampler and go to town. Frankly I've used all of them at once and it's lovely. Waveshaper helps to make it even more unrecognizable. Now you've got an instrument that can sound like a dozen different synths on one track.

Stubborn sibilance (vocal sweetening technique):
This one is born of my years of frustration with being a sibilant rapper recording into low-end Rode condensers, which can turn your HF content into a heap of shards. Sibilance is a bitch. You can eq, compress, de-ess that nasty peak only to have another one pop up as a result of the imbalance. Here's what I finally came up with to fix the worst cases
Get a de-esser that lets you choose bandwidth, or a compressor with a sidechain filter that you can fully manipulate. I like Fab Pro-DS for this. Now just squash the hell out of your S's. Sometimes I take everything from 5khz to 14 or 15khz until it's practically lisping. Now drop in a multiband saturator. Exciters work too, but I like the control you get from Fabfilter Saturn. I make a band starting at 5khz and add some warm/clean tube or tape sat--something mellow--and crank to taste. The saturation is much rounder and smoother than any EQing that I've been able to manage.

'Bass Harder' - per Seamless
Some ways to make cool basses. FM synth + vocoder. If your vocoder has the option (such as IL Vocodex) choose wide bandwidth for bass. Also layering an automated or modulated bandpass into your bass is a nifty way to add movement. Apparently a good way to get a sort of fuzzy/super distorted bass is to phase, resample into additive synth, add harmonics to taste, phase, resample, rinse repeat. This one I've not personally tried yet but going deep on an additive synth is high on my to do list.

OnOff - I learned this one from Baxter and others when I was new here. A great way to create what I describe as a 'jagged' sounding synth is to gate it at really fast intervals - like 1/32. Get creative with your 'gate'. I mean, yeah you can sidechain a gate, but you could also link an LFO to a lowpass filter, you can work with the LFO shape... Pulse/square for straight up on/off, sine can be more mellow, depending on the sound, saw wave can be rather percussive. All results are of course dependent on the sound, the speed of the LFO, and probably other factors that i'm not thinking of right now.

Resonator on snares - I was just reading this thread (years after posting it) while listening to a track I'd made and since i'm already here, this one is pretty simple and helpful. If you're trying to make those pitchy KOAN Sound type snares, a (very) subtle amount of resonator can really do the trick sometimes. Doesn't always work great, with a simple resonator like Live's native on or Kilohearts resonator, it's quick and easy enough that you lose practically no time just trying it out to see how it sounds.


Courtesy of ArticStorm:
- for recording asio stream on windows you can use Voxengo recorder plugin and later drop the audio reocrding into camtasia. (http://www.voxengo.com/product/recorder/) not sure when it will be updated to x64 and vst3, but i hope at some day, but you can always bridge it. ok thats not sound mangling, but its helpful for tutorial makers or when you want to show something to a friend
- use the wrap mode for crazy fx and textures.
- long reverb(30+ seconds) on arps and you have shimmering pad
- Grain Delay (in Ableton) for sweep fx or just to add some unstable pitch glitches to the sounds you have loaded
- Erosion to add Noise to your source material, really often use that for drone
- LFO the Reverb in Ableton - LFO the Shape or the Density, it will create a crackle fx, but also a noisy sound
- load vocals or pads into the simpler, slam reverb, utilities and delay on to create soundscapes
- cut out 4-10 seconds part from acapellas and use as ambient bed (field recordings or just record digital noise from hardware devices) and then stretch them with paulstretch (http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/)
- also check out the Corpus plugin and Resonator, they are really great to produce textures with Noise input. [Ableton]
- Vocoder on acapellas with Input of synths, to create vocal pads. (turn the release high and you have a wonderful vocal pad!)

From audioplg:
get a convolution reverb plug-in and throw random audio files into it some will be just boring
some will produce interesting and unexpected results
try using http://mourednik.github.io/argotlunar/
(free granular plugin)
on a arpeggio chord to make chorded pad sounds.
that you can bounce as audio and throw into a sampler.

From Zenarcist
Not really a sound mangling technique .. but play some guitar chords into Melodyne, convert to MIDI and then load up a VST synth and experiment with removing some notes. If you are lucky you will discover some nice harmonic patterns

Contributed by @bluerover

Not a sound mangling technique, but the following technique can lead in that direction.

Background : I started my sample library in 1997, and back then we had to rip CDDA discs (95% of the time) and chop samples by hand in COOLEDIT PRO, or download extracted sample disc tracks. So, my library is huge. Instead of sifting through folders, or using RESONICA or various tools to navigate the directory structures, I'll approach the problem creatively........randomly >

Question : So, what else can you do with 500,000,000+++ *.wav and *.aiff files?

Answer : Download a "RANDOM FILE COPY" program to randomly gather a specified quantity of a certain file type (e.g. 30/*.wav files/any size), or to randomly gather a specified KB/MB amount of files (e.g. 15 MB/*.wav/no max quantity) etc... into (for example) an empty folder on your desktop.

Reason : This is a great way to collect random files from 1,000s of folders to assign chromatically across your 25,49,61,88 key controller or launchpad etc... and experiment from scratch to create unique ideas, or start a foundation for a song/track, or song section/overdubbed stems, atmospheres, whatever --> you can fill in the blank __________. Ableton can already span a selection of files chromatically, and it can also slice-up a large file according to transients, and span those 'slices' chromatically too. So, having a randomized selection of your library is golden (to me). Anyway...


From @maximoman
Old-school backwards Reverb tail riser thingy

Do the classic thing where you feed a snare, a word from a vocal, the first chord after a break ot whatever, into a long-ass reverb. Bounce the reverb tail 100% wet so you get no direct signal at all, just the feel of the sound washing into eternity. Reverse the audio and place it before your dry snare/chord/whatever so you get that backwards sucking effect. Put a gater like Xfer LFOTool on the backwards sound to give it some motion, or just automate a highpass or lopass filter sweep on top. Great effect to put where you'd normally place a riser or an up sweep.

Sidechain Vinyl crackle

This is something I sometimes do to make sampled vinyl noise sound a little less fake when added on top of a non vinyl sound/loop. Edit your vinyl crackle to remove or weaken the really prominent pops that stick out and form almost an audible rhythm when looped, you want more of a vinyl fizzle than a series of clicks. Now sidechain the vinyl noise using the sound you’re adding it to as input. This way your noise will breathe in time with your loop. Takes some tweaking of your vinyl noise sample to get it right but usually sounds pretty convincing.


From Stevitch:

Removing inhalations and other sounds from vocal tracks:
Export dry (including no EQ) vocal track from DAW; import them into Audacity.
Select the pauses between vocal phrases and convert them to Silence.
Apply Amplification and/or Leveling if desired (see the following).
Export/import back into DAW.

Pre-compressing/leveling/boosting:
Export a dry audio track from DAW and import it into Audacity.
Apply Amplification to max without allowing clipping.
Apply Leveling (at least at Moderate setting; sometimes higher than that for vocals)
Export/import back into DAW.
(Not just for lead vocals, but also for pre-mixes, such as of background vocals, orchestral backings, uneven stereo drum kit recordings, acoustic instruments in need of sustained presence in the mix, and so forth.)

Note: Leveling tends to emphasize lower frequencies; this can be exploited for improving thin-sounding audio or boosting bass presence, or rolled-off when back in the DAW. However, the same process can tend to distort audio, especially when a considerable low-end is already present – hence:

Brutality: Deliberate mis-use of Leveling, especially on exported/imported drum and/or bass tracks (dry-exported) can result in the very sort of overdriven harshness which some costly plug-ins are made to produce.

Removing peaks (or "spikes") from mixes no or little compression on them (laborious but worth it):
Import audio into Audacity.
Apply overall Amplification, if necessary for working or desired for result, though not permitting clipping.
Individually select each outstanding spike in the waveform and apply a negative value of Amplification such that it levels-out with the neighboring waves or remains appropriately higher but "tamed."
Apply Amplification again, to boost the level, or moderate Leveling + Amplification to add greater presence.
This will remove distractive or distortive spikes in level, and enable raising the overall level without clipping; even making the track seem "louder."

Other effects of personal interest in Audacity:
Bouncing-Ball Delay with Pitch Shift
Dual Tape Decks
Ring Modulator[/QUOTE]


_________________________________________________________________
SOUND DESIGN, MIXING AND CREATIVE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

SeamlessR - This guy is just a gold mine of sound design and other musical knowledge. If you like loud, distorted bass (especially if you use FL Studio) this is your channel

Vespers - Lots of great stuff on here. Very Ableton-centric channel with tips from sound design to creativity optimization.

SOS Synth Secrets - Big ass synthesis manual. Much of it seems to be geared toward reproducing real instruments

Ill Methology Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 - Excerpts from a workflow/creativity workshop

 

Last edited: Dec 18, 2020

hello, all concerned,

thread bookmarked, certainly will be back.

thanks for the idea, all the best...

 

Added a couple more in the original post. When others chime in I will copy their ideas to the top post as well.

 

Just the sides (Ableton only): - Drop a Utility on any track and crank the stereo width to 200%. This will remove the center of the stereo field.

you could use bxcontrol and solo the side.
or maybe use http://www.voxengo.com/product/msed/ which is free.
so then you can do it in any daw.

 

get a convolution reverb plug-in and throw random audio files into it some will be just boring
some will produce interesting and unexpected results

 

try using http://mourednik.github.io/argotlunar/
(free granular plugin)
on a arpeggio chord to make chorded pad sounds.
that you can bounce as audio and throw into a sampler.

 

Love it. What an inspirational thread.

 

I normally find if I take 5 grams of shrooms everything sounds mangled. But then I never get fuck all done!

 

Great stuff in there. I'm a big proponent of Erosion. In a year and a half on Ableton I've somehow managed to avoid using Grain Delay the whole time. I just looked it up and good lord does that little device look applicable to my style . Much obliged, Arctic

 

Home run :dancing:

 

Not really a sound mangling technique .. but play some guitar chords into Melodyne, convert to MIDI and then load up a VST synth and experiment with removing some notes. If you are lucky you will discover some nice harmonic patterns

 

Last edited: Jul 27, 2015

Yessir! I'm a huge fan of Corpus. So many ways to make myself sound like a competent sound designer with that little gem

Thanks for all your contributions, Arctic.

 

Oh man, this thread. An idea of pure awesomeness. Bookmarking it, telling people about it, and hope I can tribute further down the road when my knowledge about sound design grows, as I've just started exploring sound-mangling techniques. A thread like this, in a place like this could have a large potential.

 

Not a sound mangling technique, but the following technique can lead in that direction.

Background : I started my sample library in 1997, and back then we had to rip CDDA discs (95% of the time) and chop samples by hand in COOLEDIT PRO, or download extracted sample disc tracks. So, my library is huge. Instead of sifting through folders, or using RESONIC or various tools to navigate the directory structures, I'll approach the problem creatively........randomly >

Question : So, what else can you do with 500,000,000+++ *.wav and *.aiff files?

Answer : Download a "RANDOM FILE COPY" program to randomly gather a specified quantity of a certain file type (e.g. 30/*.wav files/any size), or to randomly gather a specified KB/MB amount of files (e.g. 15 MB/*.wav/no max quantity) etc... into (for example) an empty folder on your desktop.

Reason : This is a great way to collect random files from 1,000s of folders to assign chromatically across your 25,49,61,88 key controller or launchpad etc... and experiment from scratch to create unique ideas, or start a foundation for a song/track, or song section/overdubbed stems, atmospheres, whatever --> you can fill in the blank __________. Ableton can already span a selection of files chromatically, and it can also slice-up a large file according to transients, and span those 'slices' chromatically too. So, having a randomized selection of your library is golden (to me). Anyway...

FREEWARE download : http://www.bernd-leitenberger.de/randomcopy.shtml

---------------------------------------------

Also, give me a couple of hits, if you can, on my new little side project : SUNSHINE MINORITY

It's a "random" mix of different INDIE/ROCK/METAL styles :

https://soundcloud.com/sunshine-minority

 

Last edited: Aug 1, 2015

^^ That... is a wonderful idea! thanks for sharing bro

@farao I'm happy to try and add something to the community. I hope you find it helpful.

 

Loving these great ideas for sound mangling that everyone's contributing. Looks like this is the start of a really useful community collaboration. Thanks to all the guys that have been sharing techniques here.

bluerover
I don't know what I like better, your Front Line Assembly FLAvour Of The Weak avatar or your creative idea for randomizing a kit. Love the spontaneity of your process and I can envisage how it can be extremely helpful in getting out of a creative rut. Thanks for the share.

 

Added an educational resources section. Would love it if some others would chime in.