____twoism

I'm referring to the sort of mechanical "whirring" that takes place throughout the whole thing. I know some users have described it as unnerving but it gives me a calming feeling, almost like I'm watching a giant waterwheel or something.

Do you think this is a synth creation or just a very abstract sample? Any ideas/theories would be appreciated no matter how ridiculous they are. I've always thought it was a sample but maybe someone else will have some better insight.

I remember hearing from interviews around the Geogaddi period that they had some pretty elaborate home-made recording devices. One of which being a microphone attached to a spinning/rotating icecream tub on an electrical motor. I always ascribed the sound to that. Heavily altered and messed with in post production though.

it was always sound to me like some sort of mechanism in the elevator shaft, tho i never heard it in real life, so this arguable, but this track really gives that scene of descend, maybe that echo effect, also adds to this

i always thought it was a really stretched out sample of something.

It's actually just a simple white noise pad which then has an amplitude modulation (tremolo) applied to it, the rate of the amplitude modulation is then tied to another either saw or sine LFO so that it speeds up and slows down over time. You can achieve it quite easily in for instance Ableton using the autopan tool and then changing the rate.

edit: if you have Max Live you could then use the LFO tool to attach an LFO to the rate of the autopan et voila.

Wildfire wrote:It's actually just a simple white noise pad which then has an amplitude modulation (tremolo) applied to it, the rate of the amplitude modulation is then tied to another either saw or sine LFO so that it speeds up and slows down over time. You can achieve it quite easily in for instance Ableton using the autopan tool and then changing the rate.

There is actually an example of the variable (sped up and then slowed down) tremolo done manually on the song 'bones' by radiohead. I remember seeing live versions and wondering why the guitarist would crouch down at certain parts of the song, it was to adjust the tremolo pedal or whatever. I always thought boards would be more inventive than to just use a tremolo setting or pedal though, I think the microphone on an ice-cream tub would have a similar effect whem tracks are played into it. They did mention that it was a variable motor if I remember correctly (then again I could have seriously just imagined that part, hazy memory)

Valotonin wrote:

Wildfire wrote:It's actually just a simple white noise pad which then has an amplitude modulation (tremolo) applied to it, the rate of the amplitude modulation is then tied to another either saw or sine LFO so that it speeds up and slows down over time. You can achieve it quite easily in for instance Ableton using the autopan tool and then changing the rate.

There is actually an example of the variable (sped up and then slowed down) tremolo done manually on the song 'bones' by radiohead. I remember seeing live versions and wondering why the guitarist would crouch down at certain parts of the song, it was to adjust the tremolo pedal or whatever. I always thought boards would be more inventive than to just use a tremolo setting or pedal though, I think the microphone on an ice-cream tub would have a similar effect whem tracks are played into it. They did mention that it was a variable motor if I remember correctly (then again I could have seriously just imagined that part, hazy memory)

It's a romantic idea but there's a couple of things that make me think this was definitely done with amplitude modulation and *maybe* an LFO, one is that the sine wave that the rate of the amplitude modulation follows is perfect. The other is that at the peak of the cycle, the LFO is modulation so fast that if that was done with a spinning microphone, the thing would be doing about 500 rpm. It's going so fast it almost generates a new tone. Kinda like fractal audio!

The one place where I like to think they did use an ice cream tub sample is Gyroscope.

Wildfire wrote: The one place where I like to think they did use an ice cream tub sample is Gyroscope.

I am in total agreement with that oui, the constant fading in and out of the synth combined with it audially being sharpened and dulled as it does is a sure sign of such a device being used.

They channeled the Hexagon Lobster and this was the sound he conjured up

I always figured it was something recorded but going very very slowly to the point the sound degenerates from a whole sound into individual chunks. No idea if that's actually doable on any kind of tape or what.

MrMessiah wrote:I always figured it was something recorded but going very very slowly to the point the sound degenerates from a whole sound into individual chunks. No idea if that's actually doable on any kind of tape or what.

If that was the case the frequency of the noise would change dramatically, but it just rises and falls gently like the wind.

Wildfire wrote:It's actually just a simple white noise pad which then has an amplitude modulation (tremolo) applied to it, the rate of the amplitude modulation is then tied to another either saw or sine LFO so that it speeds up and slows down over time. You can achieve it quite easily in for instance Ableton using the autopan tool and then changing the rate.

This sounds about right, thanks! Definitely a neat sound.

It sounds to me like a changing rate on an amplitude envelope of noise. This could be done on a synth with an arpeggiator. I made a quick video sketching out how it could be done:

Found this exact whirring sound while messing with a Roland Space Echo emulator. Could also be a different tape delay unit, but the Space Echo sounded spot on. Ring modulator effects also give quite a similar sound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_RE-201

my bet is actually on a ring modulator. if you use the LFO on the ableton frequency shifter in ring mod mode, it sounds exactly like this.

to wit, just bounced this down in ableton to demonstrate:


lfo is probably set to a lower frequency but this gives you the general idea
settings:

I always believed it to be a time-stretched growl. Someone even reported hearing a voice after speed-up, but we all know how crazy us twoismers can be.

niceeagle wrote:my bet is actually on a ring modulator. if you use the LFO on the ableton frequency shifter in ring mod mode, it sounds exactly like this.

to wit, just bounced this down in ableton to demonstrate:


lfo is probably set to a lower frequency but this gives you the general idea
settings:

That too! I know the boys are big ring modulation fans. TH is full of it.

I've had a creeping notion that this sound is a person's voice stretched and distorted throughout the entire track.

The voice says 'Geogaddi - Come in, Over'
Entire track needs to be sped up, Pitch corrected and half of it needs to be reversed.
I dont have the means to prove this with audio files at this point in time but with some tinkering im sure someone else here can crack it.