Input on how to do this IDM technique (rhythmic noise, melody...not sure what you call it)

[liteshinebrite]

You seem to hear this in stuff that is on the ambient side of IDM. Listen for the washing machine-type sound that comes in @ ~2:34 and remains throughout much of the track.

https://youtu.be/jeGa-Mk926g

Or in this case, 18:31

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7VcGqAx5Xc&t=1490s

What is even going on here, with either of these?

My current setup is basically Renoise and Serum, with an Octatrack in another continent. And would consider myself an amateur in synthesis, but these looping, melodic, whatever-you-call-thems just suck me in. And I'd like ideas concerning technique, and soft/hardware synths that are good for this sort of stuff. I'm currently eyeing the soft synth Zone, as it seems good for rhythmic noise. It's my birthday; help me out here

So basically, how does IDM just roooolllll along like that?

[highkoo]

The FSOL one sounds almost like it could be an actual drum brush loop with some effects on it, maybe chopped with a delay.
The other one sounds like some kind of percussion tick bitcrushed with the mid range scooped out, and sequenced with some lil pitch mod.

[highkoo]

Oh yep you changed that second link.
I was looking at the red mushroom one.
Im not sure what sound you are looking for in this blue baby one.

[liteshinebrite]

Oh yep you changed that second link.
I was looking at the red mushroom one.
Im not sure what sound you are looking for in this blue baby one.

well, in that one it's just the intricate percussion (even without the extra stuff going on making it a polyrhythm)...but it flows along in such an intricate/fast way that to me anyway, it's practically not even sounding like drums as we generally think of them (hip-hop, dnb, whatever) and is instead almost some..."other" category. and i wonder how ppl efficiently sketch out that sort of thing. i know proem doesn't use a tracker, so that's not it. and he uses soft synths almost exclusively (but FSOL ofc used a massive array of hardware synths, including to modify samples as needed).

on the proem one, if you just listen for a 10 sec. or something from ~18:34, you'll see the rhythm i'm referring to. and your comment on the proem track i deleted in exchange for another proem track will still be useful ofc

starting to think these examples aren't like-for-like enough to share a thread but hey, whoever finds it interesting etc. is welcome to chime in

[liteshinebrite]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Bi_9nOu5Y

is another example of it just rooollling along. the drum pattern throughout the track, basically. like a delay/echo or something

[Gamma-UT]

I wouldn't be surprised if the FSOL example is a bucket of water splashing, though it could just as easily be a brush roll shoved through a flanger with high feedback.

The Proem one doesn't seem all that intricate in IDM terms (on a scale from 1 to Autechre) but to work out what's going on you need to separate out the different layers. You've got a fairly conventional kick+backbeat going on with some tops loops, some of which seem to be getting effected at different times or which could be automated "drilled" samples - rapid-fire repeated sample triggering with different interval timings. As it's a live performance, I expect what's happening is that there is a loop with some sparse sampled percussion (probably short glitch-length samples of something vaguely percussive) that's fed into a short delay with a lot of feedback and the performer is just hitting the send or the return at different times (and is messing with the delay time in between).

With Renoise, you've got all you need for those drill-type sounds. However, Reaktor's library has a bunch of IDM-in-a-box percussion ensembles/modules.

[liteshinebrite]

well, concerning the FSOL track...whether the rhythm is from a brush, or water, or a drum brush, or whatever...i just noticed that @ ~3:15, it starts sounding less processed, so that could be a clue

but then again maybe the hi hat sound that it fades into was there all along and it was some additional effect that got faded out @ ~3:15

and in case there was any confusion, i def wasn't referring to the splash-like samples...i'm referring to the washed-out rhythmic loop. thx for all comments so far, for sure.

just grabbed audiaire zone specifically for this type of rhythmic-noise usecase, so in my case there's now that and renoise processing.

[liteshinebrite]

btw it's quite serendipitous that you brought up autechre god mode, b/c today i found a real gem and have listened to that part maybe 15 times now. like once in a decade (or life) lvl of discovery. for whoever it's new for and wants to check it out, i'd say wait 'til you have the time and start @ no later than ~ the 29m mark and have it be a 15m experience instead of going straight to the apex. the fuckin' ultimate. some other IDM OGs are more consistently awesome, but man...when autechre shines, it's like a supernova. i live for this shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSnkEqbnHhE&t=1600s

[JO512]

The sound you point to in that first one sounds to me like a delay with feedback and possibly some modulation inside the feedback loop. Satin, Colour Copy, Tube Delay, Replika, and other similar plugins can do similar things. Better is to setup a feedback loop in your DAW either through routing or by using a cable, and then delay the signal and add effects inside the feedback loop.