the "WTF was that" moment

neonblack · Post by **neonblack** » Sun May 03, 2015 5:44 pm

You know that moment. When you're listening to a new song and there's a moment when you hear a tone or an effect and just think "What the fuck was that?"

What's your favorite wtf moment? That tone you wish you could replicate, that just punches you in the face or makes your head spin.

What effects/combos do you use to make people say WTF? Not just pure noise, I mean insane but still musical.

My favorite that I can think of right now is the main riff to this song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsUKQWCzGEc[/youtube]

And now that I'm looking at it, it seems like a lot of the tone comes from the synth doubling her guitar, but still.

tremolo3 · Post by **tremolo3** » Sun May 03, 2015 6:08 pm

That was cool. I know she uses Eventide stompboxes, so it might be possible with a few of the pitchfactor algorithms in series.

Mine is really simple, but few years ago was like "huh?"

Around the 3:00 mark, it's just another weird alternate tuning.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dknzzBkX7U[/youtube]

Sparrow · Post by **Sparrow** » Sun May 03, 2015 6:18 pm

.. That was Rad

lordgalvar · Post by **lordgalvar** » Sun May 03, 2015 6:23 pm

There is ring mod in there too in the st Vincent thing. It doesn't always sound like that live either. My wife has been on a st Vincent binge since we saw her and I swear I hear freqbox, harmonizers, octave up fuzzes, and an octave divider on the all over the place on the two newest albums. Live everything sounded more fuzz-based with less of the synth guitar sounds (and no ring mod). Live, she as a different power and sound than the albums and I think there is quite a bit of tinkering with the sounds.
Edit; yeah, probably all eventide stuff haha

I do agree that there is synth doubling going on though.

Anyway, my moment was Melt Banana "Chain Shot to have some fun" from Cell Scape when Agata breaks into the main riff at around 20 seconds in the video below. That guitar sounds was so aggressive and bad ass. Still trying to get there, haha and not a clue how he does it (but his board was like all boss at the time).
[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZjkQE4BNE[/youtube]

I only did noise because I was thrust into a band never had played an instrument, but I made a kid's ear bleed with a sovtek, EHX frequency Ana;izer, and a boss mt2. Bastard noise/someone related to him or mistb contacted us once trying to find out how we made this one sound. It was my old grey gameboy overdriving a shit preamp.

neonblack · Post by **neonblack** » Sun May 03, 2015 6:26 pm

What band are/were you in?

lordgalvar · Post by **lordgalvar** » Sun May 03, 2015 6:27 pm

Haha. Same as my handle. Hasn't existed in 7-8 years though. And the recordings out there aren't really mine which is a long story that I'll save everyone from hearing.

Bellyheart · Post by **Bellyheart** » Sun May 03, 2015 7:05 pm

I remember the first time I heard that sonic youth song. I lost my mind when it started musically melting. Then it comes back?! Insane.

Unfortunately live they did not do this.

D.o.S. · Post by **D.o.S.** » Sun May 03, 2015 7:39 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8LI6u6ovmQ[/youtube]

rfurtkamp · Post by **rfurtkamp** » Sun May 03, 2015 7:55 pm

lordgalvar wrote: Anyway, my moment was Melt Banana "Chain Shot to have some fun" from Cell Scape when Agata breaks into the main riff at around 20 seconds in the video below. That guitar sounds was so aggressive and bad ass. Still trying to get there, haha and not a clue how he does it (but his board was like all boss at the time).
[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZjkQE4BNE[/youtube]

If I'm limited to all boss, I'd look at the Hi-Band Chorus/Flange and the EQ, plus any of the high-gain stuff to get you there.

I got absolutely unholy stuff out of my all Boss (plus Space Echo) rig in the early 90s and the hi-band Flange/Chorus was huge in the 'how to get ugly weird' that most folks don't get.

lordgalvar · Post by **lordgalvar** » Sun May 03, 2015 8:18 pm

rfurtkamp wrote: If I'm limited to all boss, I'd look at the Hi-Band Chorus/Flange and the EQ, plus any of the high-gain stuff to get you there.

I got absolutely unholy stuff out of my all Boss (plus Space Echo) rig in the early 90s and the hi-band Flange/Chorus was huge in the 'how to get ugly weird' that most folks don't get.

I just remember seeing them around the time and it seemed like all Boss on Agata's pedal board (plus I hear a lot of Boss DD in there sound) (this was around 2002 and they are from Japan so it makes sense). I actually tried the flanger route, but I went with the EHX DEM at the time which was probably the wrong choice (I always found it lo-fi and kinda muddy at least into a dirty sovtek).

DD, Boss Chorus, and dirt was pretty much the accepted schematic at the time for all the "weird" non-blues/metal/r'n'r guitar players at the time in my town but I wanted to overthink my setup and went with an "always on" ring mod

. Thanks for the tips, bud. Always interesting to do sonic deconstruction.

Iommic Pope · Post by **Iommic Pope** » Sun May 03, 2015 9:14 pm

The lead sound in A Chorus of War by Zozobra (can't post a video on this damn phone).
Look it up. get ready for weirdness at about 25 seconds in.
I don't know what it is but I love that sound.

kbit · Post by **kbit** » Sun May 03, 2015 10:24 pm

There's a ton of these for me, but this is the only one I can think of at the moment, starting at 3:45:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKZkkBFCceY[/youtube]

Now I'm pretty sure it's a guitar with a shit ton of gain and delay, then one of em screaming into the pickups at 3:57, but it had me stumped for a while. I love that sound.

backwardsvoyager · Post by **backwardsvoyager** » Mon May 04, 2015 1:41 am

Iommic Pope wrote:The lead sound in A Chorus of War by Zozobra (can't post a video on this damn phone).
Look it up. get ready for weirdness at about 25 seconds in.
I don't know what it is but I love that sound.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXA13R73GSI[/youtube]
at the 10:40 mark

i'm hearing subtle phase shifting into pitch shifted delay like a Boss PS-3 kinda sound but i'm not entirely sure, you're right though that is wicked.

lordgalvar wrote:[youtube]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QgZjkQE4BNE[/youtube]

man this is one of their best tracks for sure. i'm pretty sure more of it than people might think is just his fingers, Agata is insanely good with slides and muted strumming and stuff and i noticed when seeing them like half of the wacky sounds were just extended technique and not pedals. he could play a set with 2 or 3 pedals and it would still sound wacky as hell.

rustywire · Post by **rustywire** » Mon May 04, 2015 2:19 am

Boards. Of. Canada.
Most recently on Tomorrow's Harvest, Cold Earth.
First at 1:43 and again at 3:07...and the now infamous "one sound" at 1:55.
But yeah numerous times per record, as a general rule.
Also...about 300 tracks by Richard D James

Iommic Pope · Post by **Iommic Pope** » Mon May 04, 2015 5:47 am

backwardsvoyager wrote:
Iommic Pope wrote:The lead sound in A Chorus of War by Zozobra (can't post a video on this damn phone).
Look it up. get ready for weirdness at about 25 seconds in.
I don't know what it is but I love that sound.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXA13R73GSI[/youtube]
at the 10:40 mark
i'm hearing subtle phase shifting into pitch shifted delay like a Boss PS-3 kinda sound but i'm not entirely sure, you're right though that is wicked.

Legend! Thanks dude.
Yeah, orignially I thought it was some intensely glitchy whammy meets something else....some kind of modulation I can't put my finger on.
It's such an unexpected sound for this kind of record as well (in that the rest of the album is so straight up).

ilovefuzz.com

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