Hiiii! I make lots of movies and when you make movies, with certain lenses & depths of field you can get this amazing, textured, sexy beautiful thing when you're capturing light, especially neon light at night, where it kind of mushes on top of itself and streaks out in unexpected directions and then has a very slight halo, kind of like how things look when you breathe on a cold window. I'm relatively new to music production and I was wondering if anyone has specific recommendations of how to achieve that in music. I'm guessing it would be something like a 100% reverb with an eq to increase the "contrast" and then a little saturation on top for the texture? But what reverb & saturation would you recommend if I want just the absolute top of the line, rich, real, tactile, beautiful vibes - will I have to go analog to get the very best hottest "realest" sound? I just don't want it to be faked, I want it to be smushing and stretching the audio for real, the way you watch the light play on the lens (as opposed to trying to add a blurry effect with a filter on the computer, which refers to the "image" of the light but never the light itself)

 

Gibberish. You are not really asking.

All of them.

 

nooooo. i've used lots of them and they all sound fake., they dont sound like you have your head out the window and your heart is broke in love

 

Agreed. So i pasted this "question" into ChatGPT just to see it's response. And I'll be damned, it actually kicked out a decent list of plugins to try.


Creating a rich, textured, and immersive sound in music production that evokes the kind of visual experience you described is definitely achievable with the right approach and tools. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, here are some techniques and recommendations to help you achieve that desired vibe:

1. Reverb Choice: For lush and immersive reverbs, consider using high-quality convolution reverbs like Altiverb or LiquidSonics Reverberate 3. These plugins excel at capturing the nuances of real-world spaces and can provide the depth and texture you're looking for. Experiment with different impulse responses to find the ones that evoke the atmosphere you want.
   
   
2. Saturation and Harmonic Exciters: Adding saturation or harmonic excitement can enhance the texture and richness of your sound. Plugins like FabFilter Saturn, Soundtoys Decapitator, or UAD's Studer A800 Tape Saturation can add warmth, depth, and character to your audio, simulating the subtle analog distortion that contributes to a "real" and tactile sound.
   
   
3. Dynamic Processing: Consider using dynamic processors like compressors or transient shapers to shape the reverb tails and create movement in the sound. This can help simulate the dynamic interplay of light and shadow, adding dimensionality to your audio.
   
   
4. EQ Sculpting: Use EQ to shape the frequency response of your reverbs and accentuate the desired tonal characteristics. Boosting certain frequencies can enhance the texture and depth of the reverberation, while cutting others can help create contrast and clarity.
   
   
5. Layering and Modulation: Experiment with layering multiple reverbs with different characteristics to create complex and evolving textures. Additionally, adding modulation effects like chorus, flanger, or phaser to your reverbs can introduce movement and unpredictability, simulating the organic fluctuations of light and shadow.
   
   
6. Analog Modeling Plugins: While analog hardware can provide a unique sound, there are many high-quality analog modeling plugins available that can emulate the warmth, saturation, and nonlinearities of analog gear. Plugins like UAD's Lexicon 480L or Waves Abbey Road Chambers offer authentic analog emulations with the convenience of digital processing.

By combining these techniques and using high-quality plugins, you can achieve a rich, tactile, and immersive sound that captures the essence of the visual experience you described. Experimentation and creative exploration are key to finding the perfect balance and achieving the desired result.

 

granular is probably what you want
I like this https://isotonikstudios.com/product/density-pulsaret-2/

 

What Clone said in that second post but adding delay to the mix...and keep your sound sources minimal while introducing them individually with not too much overlap as to foster an environment to enable the listener to linger and to take in the aural vista of scenes you wish to create. You can also play with depth, width and height of your soundscape with stereo control plugins and judicious use of equalization whence sometime down the road at which time you gain the feel and experience to do so, young Padawan.

Some wish to believe
That Rome was
Built in a day...
It wasn't..

Having no idea from the description of your post the direction of your sonic vision in the way of genre, I will so offer an example of a song which drenches each element in reverb though each bit is left distinct. Just do the opposite .

Best of luck and we'll catch you around craft services during lunch.

 

Since you make a lot of movies you could provide a gif or some footage that shows precisely what you are talking about to avoid any misinterpretation.

My understanding is that you are looking for a shimmering reverb and that you would need to automate parameters to control the behaviour of the effect according to the image and your feelings. Wet, feedback, diffusion, pitch shifting, Damp and decay comes to mind.

EQ and saturation can be a part of the process depending on how precise you want to be with your sound design but I think you can achieve what you are looking for by using the right sound source and free creative reverbs such as Valhalla Supermassive or Native Instruments Raum.

@clone answer is pretty comprehensive and I agree with @stopped about the granular technique wich is a different approach.

Maybe reverb is all you need, maybe Karplus strong synthesis using resonators is better suited for this task, maybe it's a wild combinaison of wavetables automations with layers of delays and choruses.

Only your own creative process and experimentations will allow you to sort this out for yourself but if you want to familiarise yourself with the vast array of different synthesis techniques and new FX's available you could watch a few of this guy's videos, maybe you'll get some inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/@DataBroth/videos