How do I make my digital recordings colder?

[Jafo]

I find most reverbs to be icy and metallic, especially of the FreeVerb sort. "High quality," my ass...

[Optomadic]

Interleave pitched clobbered baby seal crys and liquid nitrogen freezing the aftermath live. Locale field recording should add ambience.

[Aroused by JarJar]

Hi,

How do I make my digital recordings colder? They are just too warm for my tastes. I've tried big icy reverbs like glaceverb, but it's just not cold enough. I want it to feel like sleeping in an ice cave when listening to my music. My drums need to sound like icicles gouging your ears out. Compression just makes them sound fat and warm. Can anyone help me out?

Thank you in advance.

http://www.bigfishaudio.com/4DCGI/detail.html?1614

The demos for this are very disappointing as far as "cold and wintry".

Say I am just trying Glaceverb- nice sound design tool! Some 4-5 years ago I piddled around with something like this in Csound, same concept of "living walls", but never got anywhere except for the world's lamest spring reverb ever on one hand and on the other hand a good interactive live instrument that sounds strikingly similar to the "machine room" preset in Glaceverb. On the third hand I gained a lot of respect for people who program groovy reverbs.

Been trying all day to make truly cold and wintry sounds and the closest I can get is about autumn.

[vespers75]

The demos for this are very disappointing as far as "cold and wintry".

Yeah...hence the " " in my post. The link was intended to be a joke. But just as we think it doesn't sound "cold", some others obviously must.

As for "cold" sound, I think its too subjective to find a definitive way to achieve such sounds. I've heard black metal albums that sound rather 'cold' to me, but that doesn't mean it does to someone else. Same with people mentioning using crappy lofi reverbs to attain a cold sound; some folks will think that sounds cold while others will think it just sounds like a shitty reverb. It all depends on how an individual interprets the sounds they are hearing.

[Aroused by JarJar]

The demos for this are very disappointing as far as "cold and wintry".

Yeah...hence the " " in my post. The link was intended to be a joke. But just as we think it doesn't sound "cold", some others obviously must.

As for "cold" sound, I think its too subjective to find a definitive way to achieve such sounds. I've heard black metal albums that sound rather 'cold' to me, but that doesn't mean it does to someone else. Same with people mentioning using crappy lofi reverbs to attain a cold sound; some folks will think that sounds cold while others will think it just sounds like a shitty reverb. It all depends on how an individual interprets the sounds they are hearing.

Yes the subjectvity of it is interesting, but it's also interesting how many shared feelings there are. It's strange when you get a feeling about something then five years later you read something where someone completely different and far away from you says the exact same thing.

I think in the example you posted it's a clear case of what I call pseudo-mimesis, where you get something that "sounds like..." not because it actually sounds like what it is supposed to be suggesting, but because it sounds like something that is similar to something that is reminiscent of something... and so on, back to the original (which may or may not have been mimetic itself).

Like a solo flute or oboe over the long shot of the fields in a film- when was the last time you saw a shepard in a field playing a flute? That's where that cliche came from- it was once directly mimetic of something from people's real lives. Now it's one of our po-mo "simulacra", or maybe like a word in a language. It certainly has historical value; it would suck if nobody did it anymore because it's now more realistic and convincing to sample the frightened bleats of sheep running from lonely cowboys or whatever. But in and of itself, it's not "pastoral".

Anyway I tried (and failed I think) to make a more or less cliched "cold" ambience today but it'll work for other things:

http://dl.kibla.org/dl.php?filename=TheWrongVillage.wav

[Dean Aka Nekro]

http://www.mediafire.com/?5nm2mnulmmm - my efforts from 04! A buggered drum machine and Reverb with panning. Cold? im not sure...

Icy Sounds: Well there are definately a few Black Metal Recordings with a very cold atmosphere to them but the sounds used not really cold themselves. I will route for some examples in my cd's

*But it might just sound like it was recorded on an old bashed up dicatophone which is actually deliberate*

[vespers75]

*But it might just sound like it was recorded on an old bashed up dicatophone which is actually deliberate*

I've always preferred the "recorded on a boom box through a cheap mic inside a tin can without a bassist" approach to black metal recordings

[Aroused by JarJar]

http://www.mediafire.com/?5nm2mnulmmm - my efforts from 04! A buggered drum machine and Reverb with panning. Cold? im not sure...

Icy Sounds: Well there are definately a few Black Metal Recordings with a very cold atmosphere to them but the sounds used not really cold themselves. I will route for some examples in my cd's

*But it might just sound like it was recorded on an old bashed up dicatophone which is actually deliberate*

Strangely enough that does give me some sensations of cold, it would work with the right visuals, cool. Whereas mine is definitely on the more desolate/rusty side of things.

BTW my son (going on 5 now) likes both the original and the Chipmunks version of Sabbath's "Iron Man" equally, speaking of tinny metal.

[hibidy]

more cowbell is definitely cold, but also more early reflections will help. And remember, the higher the price, the colder they are.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

http://www.mediafire.com/?5nm2mnulmmm - my efforts from 04! A buggered drum machine and Reverb with panning. Cold? im not sure...

Icy Sounds: Well there are definately a few Black Metal Recordings with a very cold atmosphere to them but the sounds used not really cold themselves. I will route for some examples in my cd's

*But it might just sound like it was recorded on an old bashed up dicatophone which is actually deliberate*

Strangely enough that does give me some sensations of cold, it would work with the right visuals, cool. Whereas mine is definitely on the more desolate/rusty side of things.

BTW my son (going on 5 now) likes both the original and the Chipmunks version of Sabbath's "Iron Man" equally, speaking of tinny metal.

Yeah i agree your sounds in have a bleak/desolate like quality to them which i like

I have two myself (son 6 and daughter 4) my daughter likes some metal but my son has none of it and his song of choice is 'computer love' by kraftwerk - they keep me more than on my toes dude and then some!

Cheers for the comments, it definately has a sort of damp and claustrophobic like feel i think (even though its soaked in reverb!)

(it was done in 04 on a boss br-series digital multitrack crap box lol but i still have it for fun and the cool thing i like doing with it is feeding the headphone outs back-in to the mic-pre's for some controlled nasty feedback on whatever is on the the main outs and it gets no mercy! and the built-in reverb is especially worthy of a mention for sounding crap but just the job for certain things - i might fire it up again tomorrow for the first time in ages and see what i can get out of it)

In the meantime i am going to see what i can get any results ITB. So i will speak to you soon friend and (hopefully) have some results as well

All the best to you

Dean

[Meffy]

Everybody chill!





... not the discussion, it's just another technique for coldifying your tracks.

[hibidy]

Everybody chill!

I'm already frozen, coldest winter ever for this part of the country.......

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Yeah its actually been snowing and ponds and what not have frozen over - i prefer it to a boiling hot summer as i find its easier to get warm in winter climes than cool down in the summer blaze.

However the heating bills are not good at all!

[Pleasurehead]

I find it helps to,
1) Put big, thin, matt black metal sheets around everything when recording. If possible, store them outside and only bring them into your studio once everything is rehearsed and perfectly ready for a take.

2) Make sure that all your phasing is correct so that all the bottom end is cancelled out of everything.

3) Enforce your No Smoking ban that you've been meaning to practice.

4) Buy white wine instead of red.

[camsr]

Put your CDs in the FREEZER. THE FREEZER!!!