Hi everybody! i found this track by Jon Hopkins and i find really fascinating the way he "deteriorates" the sound of the piano.
I attach the link of soundcloud:



Do you know how can this effect can be achieved, with a VST or technique?

Thanks a lot

 

Jon uses wow, flutter, saturation, filtering, etc. Much like old tape. There are tape emulation VSTs, even freeware.

If you want to use a sampler you can assign noise LFO, fast Sn'H LFO, very slow sine (or noise) LFO on pitch. You can also assign different LFOs to filter cutoff, sample rate value/"bitcrush" , and other parameters to simulate old tape/VHS.

 

This is great! Without those effects imho it would've sound cheesy. But now it's deep & warm!
Jon Hopkins .. Will look it up! Thanks @silso for posting, @bax for explaining ..Q: Fast sample and hold LFO on an audio input, what kind of tools can do that? Izotope Trash, NI Absynth?

 

Not sure about those plugins. Edit: Absynth can be used as a processor, so I'm pretty confident that it can do it.

On acoustic/recorded sounds (like piano, guitar, vocals, etc) you can use a sampler that has built-in LFOs, such as noise, random and Sn'H (Sample and Hold). There are various Tape emulators out there that does flutter, wow, hysteresis, added noise, high cut/rolloff, etc. Waves, u-he, Sknote, etc:
http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/8-great-tape-simulators-547406

When using synths, they often have these LFOs built in. You then assign the LFO to pitch and turn up the amount (pitch range) to taste and speed (very fast Sn'H) to make it "deteriorate" or "degrade".
Then you can add a very slow sine (or noise) LFO to pitch, to make it more warbly like any other Boards of Canada track.

 

Indeed, boomoperator! He has a great musical mind that makes simple melodies and harmonies sounds really interesting, but that's the magic of sound design!

Thanks Baxter for the info! i'll try to figure out what you wrote. Can i start from a Tape Emulator like the one from Waves? do i have to write an automation that changes the wow/flutter parameters or i have to set a LFO?

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2016

As far as I know - The best way to deteriorate sound is to run it through a PC

 

The free wow & flutter vst, by The Interruptor, is a good option and can be found here:
http://www.interruptor.ch/vst_donationware.shtml
It simulates many tape effects like pitch fluctuations, flanger, etc.

 

To give you other options to the mentioned already, you could use Vinyl Strip plugin (by AudioThing) in order to get that oldie sound. I've been using it in some of my projects and sounds/works fantastic. Or, you can simply go straight to the point and get the Old Tape Piano (by Wavesfactory), which is a piano but recorded with a very old machine, I have it and it sounds %100 legit, you wouldn't notice it if somebody didn't tell you.