How to get a specific sound

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The Mysterious Creep
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by The Mysterious Creep »

After giving it a listen, it sounds like feedback is going to be your friend. A synth-style filter (with a resonance control) would likely be best for that, as a high-pass filter with jacked resonance will quickly start screaming and cut off most of the "guitar sound," especially with feedback. But knowing Borbetomagus, that's likely just high-pitched guitar feedback since they're not known for lots of effects. High feedback, in my experience, requires just a sizable amount of gain (distortion), the tone knob cranked, and low-end reduction (turn down the bass knob, cut the low frequencies on an EQ, etc.). Then, once you get that high, piercing sound, just tilt the guitar and move around until you can get it to change pitch. Bass guitar pickups seem to be more likely to do this, I'd never gotten those sort of microphonic screeches until I got a cheap P-bass clone. If your guitar has potted pickups (most come standard unless you've got a real cheap-o), try looking up how to remove the wax coating that stops them from turning microphonic - and note that once you remove the potting, you won't be able to use that pickup in normal contexts anymore until you replace it. It'll screech like a microphone placed too close to a monitor when you add distortion.

Edit: I didn't remember the contact mics. Just use those and go lower on the effects, that'll likely solve your issue. You can't really apply that effect to notes without some kind of sampler to play back feedback at pitches, but getting that kind of feedback would be trivial with contact mics (which already go microphonic with distortion). Noise doesn't care about notes, harmony or riffs, the texture of the squeals is what matters.

If you really must get certain pitches out of screeching feedback, take the Fripp method - Determine where you're going to play and have your amp set up, then don't move anything! This will set how sound is going to reverberate in the room. From there, get feedback going. Now, move around the room and use a tuner app (nothing that mutes your signal or uses vibrations from the guitar rather than room sound) to determine where you have to stand to get feedback at the desired pitch. Mark those spots on the floor. Then, when you need the notes, just go to the spots where you marked them. You can't really play melodies like this, because notes might be very far apart, but keeping in key with a looped drone or somesuch would be plausible.
Even if you took a few years and learned all the chords you'd still have a limited number of options. If you ignore the chords your options are infinite and you can master guitar playing in one day. - David Fair
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Glass_Season »

Interesting idea.
Maybe I missed the point, or didn’t read closely enough, but do you think that there’s any way, such as removing only some of the wax or using a good Compressor and/or Noise Gate (or 2), anything I could do to get that sort of vicious feedback sound, with coherent (enough) notes*, and make it easier to control? What do you think?..
And sorry for the delay, I didn’t think anyone else would be responding, so I kinda gave up on the post - I really appreciate the response!

* I’m in a tough spot because I’m aiming for a decent mix of textures & notes.
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by The Mysterious Creep »

Glass_Season wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 6:58 am Interesting idea.
Maybe I missed the point, or didn’t read closely enough, but do you think that there’s any way, such as removing only some of the wax or using a good Compressor and/or Noise Gate (or 2), anything I could do to get that sort of vicious feedback sound, with coherent (enough) notes*, and make it easier to control? What do you think?..
And sorry for the delay, I didn’t think anyone else would be responding, so I kinda gave up on the post - I really appreciate the response!

* I’m in a tough spot because I’m aiming for a decent mix of textures & notes.
Like I said in the edit, I missed that you had contact mics on your guitar. Put distortion on those and they'll already deliver piercing microphonic tones unless you put them through a very bassy EQ. Trying to use them to play notes is going to be nearly impossible unless you're an Airbender, though. If you really want those high, piercing tones but with defined pitches, you're probably best off with the cranked filter I suggested - high-pass, not low-pass, and with a resonance control you can turn up. Feedback is generally a hard sound to recreate because it acts so differently compared to a pick on a string. An Ebow might also help, though you'll need to experiment with effects to add harshness to the naturally less harsh sound of an Ebow. They can sorta replicate feedback, since they use magnets to vibrate the string without the attack of striking it.
Even if you took a few years and learned all the chords you'd still have a limited number of options. If you ignore the chords your options are infinite and you can master guitar playing in one day. - David Fair
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by crochambeau »

Glass_Season wrote: Wed May 26, 2021 6:58 am * I’m in a tough spot because I’m aiming for a decent mix of textures & notes.
Heavy compression on the feedback element can result in such control, but the compressor becomes a big player in the end sound, which may or may not be to your liking. I've used a 3630 on a bed of feedback numerous times, though the result is kind of a focused/controlled sound and less of a living organism type sound (I don't know if that makes sense, but my words are not forming up any better right now).
When in doubt, add resistance.

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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by FLORIDA MAN »

A bit crusher and a glass slide on guitar?
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by RUBBISH »

Maybe some would consider it cheating but midi samples of noise triggered by the guitar?

You would have to create a multuide of samples specific to each note but then you could get the exact noise you wanted every time you played a certain note.

Is that possible?
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Glass_Season »

RUBBISH wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 9:09 am Maybe some would consider it cheating but midi samples of noise triggered by the guitar?

You would have to create a multuide of samples specific to each note but then you could get the exact noise you wanted every time you played a certain note.

Is that possible?
At 1 point I was looking for a device that I could use 1 way or another to emulate the 'cough keyboard' scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off ( ) with certain samples.....Needless to say I didn't have much luck....
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by RUBBISH »

Glass_Season wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 10:08 am
RUBBISH wrote: Thu May 27, 2021 9:09 am Maybe some would consider it cheating but midi samples of noise triggered by the guitar?

You would have to create a multuide of samples specific to each note but then you could get the exact noise you wanted every time you played a certain note.

Is that possible?
At 1 point I was looking for a device that I could use 1 way or another to emulate the 'cough keyboard' scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off ( ) with certain samples.....Needless to say I didn't have much luck....
I'm not sure what Ferris is using but for me the Casio CS1 with a sample function
First affordable/accessible,I think was almost $100 or 1984 or 85 so not affordable so much keyboard with an easy to use sampler. I guess a lot of rappers got one as a kid also....you can loop beats if your good with pushing and letting off the sample button just right. I used to hell out. Great for looping 'fucks' and fart sounds. You can make some early NON sounding stuff with it.
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by crochambeau »

The keyboard depicted in that scene is an EMU Emulator II.

I have not played with one, so I am not certain it will allow fanning as many different samples across as many different keygroups/regions as the movie would have us believe (those sounds typically go in at post, and so realism is not required) - but most any studio grade sampler can be set up this way.
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Re: How to get a specific sound

Post by Glass_Season »

Dumb question, but is there any way I could plug 1 of those Sampling Keyboards, or any sort of Sampling device, into my guitar (or into pedals that are plugged into my guitar) and 'play' a short sound sample (like in the Ferris Bueller's Day Off scene with the cough noises) with my guitar? I don’t know much of anything about those things….
And if so, any recommendations on Sampling Keyboards that could do this that are real cheap, easy to use, easy to find, and that I can save samples to?
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