Hi all, I find I'm not using effects very much these days, maybe just a bit of reverb, compression, and the odd rotary simulation. My pet hates are phasing, flanging, and worst of all Vocoding, it always reminds me of Herbie Hancock, done to death. And if anyone still thinks its cool to loop a 1000ms delay they need to question their musical judgment big time, especially guitarists. Anything cyclical drives me mad.
If I want to use phasing flanging or auto-pan I always try and use more than one device, to give it a random element. Even though there have never been so many effects units to choose from they are still based on the old stable of delay based effects which are essentially non-random processes. If you still want to use theses effects the only way to generate true randomization is to chain together a big pile of rubbish, stomp boxes, rack units, anything, just to inject a bit of instability into your sound, it always makes it more interesting.

Take care,

Tony

I hate exciters, really hate exciters.

Yes, Exciters, how could I forget those ? has to win by a length against the Vocoder as the most hated effect I guess.

Take care !

Tony.

Have to agree with you on some aspects - things like phasers and flangers can drive me up the wall if they're set in a certain way. But saying that, it also depends on the effects unit. For instance the fireworx phasers/flangers arnt exactly perfect, but it works, where as compare it to something like the orville, and its a whole different league. I've made some pretty beautiful sounds using the orville.

Sidechaining is also an 'effect' I've long ditested! Mainly because the guys who use them feel that a strict rule of application should be used for the genre. House music being the perfect example. Music is about experimenting guys, not format/production.

Digital amps & distortion units. I'm sorry, but if you're going to put a guitar through something, then use the real thing. It's getting better probably, but I can still pick out the 'virtual amps'.

Now, I have to defend vocoding though - I own a Roland SVC-350 vocoder, and you shouldnt feel limited to using only your voice - if people opened their heads a little then you can input anything... for instance, I use Ensoniq ESQ-1 for the instrument feed, then place the Arp 2600 in to the vocal input - the 12-band filters arnt great, but you can do some pretty nice tricks. experiment people experiment!!

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Lawrence Eldridge - Obscuresounds

mornin' arpangel

I suppose it depends on genre/instrument as much as anything else. There are times when slapping a big stereo phaser across the whole drum track sounds fantastic (for a quick half a bar reversed shove into a break down, not the whole song...) and a lot of synth sounds rely on dely-based fx just to give them some movement- you can either detune a bunch of oscillators or you can slap a chorus across them- once it's it's buried in the mix it might not make that much difference...

Sometimes it's perfectly appropriate to bury everything under a ton of reverb- (let's face it, Enya would be lost without her 40 secs + of Lexicon... and personally speaking, I hope that happens one day) and in the end it's the same old rule. If it sounds good, it stays, if it doesn't it goes... though I am beginning to get just a little tired of filter sweeps (most forms of dance music), sync'd drum delays(at 8ths/16ths- if they're crossing(counting 3 over the 4) it's a lot more interesting), and the obligatory hi feedback vocal delay that always seems to turn up on the last verse and chorus in most pop tunes...

Some artists (Robert Fripp for example) rely entirely on fx to create their music, and as long as they do something interesting, I really don't care how they get there. But yes, standard vocoded disco artists? Shoot the lot.

tomafd

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http://anotherfineday.bandcamp.com/ http://anotherfineday.co.uk http://apollomusic.co.uk

Heavy chorus on guitars. As overused by the Police and the Pretenders.

Urgh.

A.

Surely there's one effect that should just go forever and never be in vogue again, not even in 30 years' time: the intentionally over-corrected Autotune (which was fab on the Cher track, but...)

What about guitars with distortion pedals? Don’t they just drive you nuts? If you want to talk about a sound that has long since past its sell-by day, then this is the one.

It’s over 35 years since Hendrix died, and there are still those psudo-Ted Nugent twiddly-widdly weirdoes out there.

Boring!


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Corridor Etiquette
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

An effect I LOVE 2 LOVE is the timeless reverb used on "Running Up That Hill", by Kate Bush. THAT drone (C and D# if memory serves me correctly) is beautiful that plays throughout! The sound source is the famous breathy SaraIIx sample from a Fairlight...

Ok, back onto the subject, I can't stand that autotune "Cher" effect. It worked really well on her track, back in '98, but since then it's been done to death and annoys the hell out of me!

P

Hi ! Fireworx, Orville, ARP 2600 !!!! yeah, just a few bits of kit I may have lying around somewhere, just like most of us I don't think ! My effects roster is typical of a lot of home studios I guess, a Zoom a Boss and a cheap Lexicon, I had to sell my Eventide H3000 to pay my bills !

Take care !

Tony.

You know what I cant stand? People playing the piano. Always reminds me of bloody Herbie Hancock...

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www.myspace.com/benjunctionbox

MMMMMm, I never did connect with Herbie Hancock anyway, in the 70's all my mates were playing his records and I couldn't figure out why, fusion was definatly a wrong turn. Sex Pistols were good though.....they came along like knights in shining safety pins.

Take care !

Tony.

Quote arpangel:

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Sex Pistols were good though.....they came along like knights in shining safety pins.

Take care !

Tony.

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The Sex Pistols were the Spice girls of punk. Manufactured nonsense.



(runs away, terribly fast)

I hate Autotune. It makes me feel dead queasy.

Regards

Stephen

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New Henry Fool album (Featuring Phil Manzenera and Jarrod Gosling) out now. https://www.burningshed.com/store/henryfool/

Quote arpangel:

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Hi ! Fireworx, Orville, ARP 2600 !!!! yeah, just a few bits of kit I may have lying around somewhere, just like most of us

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cheeky monkey.

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Lawrence Eldridge - Obscuresounds

Quote arpangel:

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....My pet hates are phasing, flanging, and worst of all Vocoding,

Tony

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I'm not a big fan of vocoding although it can be effective. I've found myself listening to Neil Young's "Trans" a lot recently.....what a great collection of songs. Massively processed vocals (on many of the tracks) but so superbly done.

I still love flanging and phasing, probably due all the dub I listened to years ago. Can be horribly over-done though.

Mmmm, come to think of it, I don't really hate any effects so long as they work in context.

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"Qui habet aures audiendi audiat"

listen to yourselves

it shouldnt take long if enough people add to the thread, until EVERYTHING will be damned to hell.

me, i hate music, oh i cant stand it.... there... the thread could probly be closed now

Edited by Trendannoyer (09/03/06 12:48 PM)

I hate all of these when they're too obvious in the mix :

- cheap valves being overdriven (that must be the one I hate most, like the one on that Korg groovebox, makes me puke everytime)

- the MPC 2000 (or S2000) lowpass filter with resonance (how worse can a digital lowpass filter be ?)

- bit decimation (became sooo boooooring over the past years)

- trance-gates on supersaw lead sounds.

- supersaw / hoover sounds (ok not really an effect)

- heavy distortion on lead guitars - reminds me your average saturday afternoon in denmark street (or Pigalle in Paris) : there's always a guitar-head playing "smoke on the water" first chords somewhere in a shop. or van halen stuff.

- hall reverb on hihats. yuk.

I do really hate that effect that radio DJs use in between (and often over) the songs they play. You know, the one that sounds like they're talking but if you actually listen it's just all bollocks?

Whoever decided to give those prats microphones deserves a very unpleasant death.

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"Qui habet aures audiendi audiat"

Vocoding is my big all-time hate. Funny, when the first Roland unit was launched, the tech writeup made it sound like something big and revolutionary - it wasn't!

Obvious pitch correction on vocals follows as a close second in my hate list.

Phasing and flanging if it's overdone. The sound got from two tape machines is nearly always quite nice though.

AutoWha I hate too, especially the dull warble that was on a lot of BBC TV themes like for "Yes Minister".

Something that's really starting to get to me is the telephone/intercom effect used in TV adverts. Almost always on the last line for some reason. Realllyyy getting my teeth grinding.

I hate the "radio" voice effect. Well past the sell by date

Quote Shivanand:

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I do really hate that effect that radio DJs use in between (and often over) the songs they play. You know, the one that sounds like they're talking but if you actually listen it's just all bollocks?

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Otto-tune. I hate it. Antares should burn in hell.

Mike

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www.ehsound.co.uk - Live Sound Hire & Services

Shivanand made me chortle. Agreed totally. And also the interminable idents with echo...echo...echo... on Radio 1 at night time.

But let me stick my neck out and say I rather like vocoding. As done by Underworld and Kraftwerk at least. But I really, really hate that horribly artificial over-compressed thing where everything else ducks out at every bass drum hit. Like that record that borrowed from Steve Winwood's Valerie.

And Herbie Hancock did more than fusion. Cantaloupe Island, anyone?

SH





SH

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This message was sent from my I and I-phone, an' t'ing.

Edge

Quote Andy:

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Heavy chorus on guitars. As overused by the Police and the Pretenders.

Urgh.

A.

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And Nirvana & Metallica.

Humm.

My current pet hated effects are the compression and limiting settings used in modern day mastering.

I really wish they would allow some dynamic range back into modern music, instead of the over compressed , over limited, headache inducing masters we currently have to put up with. (Last Rush albums anyone).

May I suggest a compromise. Make all CDs dual sided, one side 1 have the over compressed, car, housework and walkman friendly, no dynamic range version and on side B, a version of the album, that people who actually sit down and listen to a piece of music would enjoy.

Sorry I'm tired and teasy today plus had to listen to the new Depeche Mode album in the car today. (The 5.1 mix is easier to listen to than the CD... Though obviously not in the car).

Rollasoc

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http://www.hairthieves.com
http://www.myspace.com/thehairthieves

Quote Sam Handwich:

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But let me stick my neck out and say I rather like vocoding. As done by Underworld and Kraftwerk at least.

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I agree. Vocoding can still be useful, though not the 'robot-type' stuff - been done already! I got a rather evil-sounding distorted vocal out of one a while ago, monstrous! Made the vocalist sound like Beelzebub incarnate. Most fun!

Quote Sam Handwich:

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But I really, really hate that horribly artificial over-compressed thing where everything else ducks out at every bass drum hit. Like that record that borrowed from Steve Winwood's Valerie.

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Eric Prydz. Indeed! One of the worst mixes, which actually charted, I've ever heard in my life! Nice video, mind...


Autotune? Why can't people just do a good take, in the first place?


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Be cheerful - learn to deny the coffee!

That stupid 'air' effect on vocals.

Quote xandyreverex:

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Edge

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can you elaborate ? don't get it sorry.

the breathiness thing... oh yes I love to hate that one. like on Mariah Carey's voice.

Already (quite rightly) mentioned.

Autotune abuse.

Loudness war style over compression/limiting.

Quote olivier:

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Quote xandyreverex:

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Edge

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can you elaborate ? don't get it sorry.

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Dunno maybe 'the edge' from U2?

I hate it when they put a tambourine with about 2 bars and several bucketloads of reverb on, example on slow ballads instead of a snare.

Over-use of chorus on accy guitars.

Over-EQ'd breathy vocals

Squashed 'loud' CDs

Delays that are on the beat (with a few exceptions)

Bad use of autotune - i.e. the general 'tuning' of singers, not the 'Cher' type.

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PA stuff on FB

Quote EMeist:

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Quote olivier:

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Quote xandyreverex:

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Edge

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can you elaborate ? don't get it sorry.

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Dunno maybe 'the edge' from U2?

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Yeah, The Edge from U2. Some people seem him as a guitar god, but i personally can't stand him, he plays one note and lets the effects do the rest of the song

Hmmmmmmmm hate to be Captain Pedantic.. But Hendrix used Overdrive and Fuzz and cant remember Blackmore ever going near a distortion pedal in his life, overdrive yes distortion ....nope...

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nibbled to death by an Okapi http://www.soundclick.com/tubilahdog

Horses for courses I guess, the Edge is my #1 idol! Breaks the crusty mould that the usual boring guitar sound (and player) can't reach.

My most hated effects would probably be... UltraMaximiser, cheap ringy/metallic reverb, 80's reverb treatments, random step filters, auto-wah, and obtrusive side-chain compression pumping (Madonna - Get Together, Eric Prydz - Call On Me, etc.).

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http://Infekted.org ~ Access Virus news & community

Sex Pistols ? manufactured or not, who cares, they were just what the doctor ordered, and thankfully kicked the blue jean brigade right up the aahhss.

Tony.

Hi, yes, I like The Edge, whether you like U2 or not you have to acknowledge that he's a very good guitarist. He's a master of economy, why play ten notes when two will do, and it works, so much emotion in just one note. As for the Madonna track "Get Together" how could anyone think that compression on that level was desirable ?

Take care,

Tony.

Quote arpangel:

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Sex Pistols ? manufactured or not, who cares, they were just what the doctor ordered

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You need a new doctor.



(Mine's a young Scandanavian female).

Auto- m.f.-tune
Maniac compression overuse/abuse.