How was this sound effect achieved?

Help for Audacity on Windows.
Forum rules
ImageThis forum is for Audacity on Windows.
Please state which version of Windows you are using,
and the exact three-section version number of Audacity from "Help menu > About Audacity".


Audacity 1.2.x and 1.3.x are obsolete and no longer supported. If you still have those versions, please upgrade at https://www.audacityteam.org/download/.
The old forums for those versions are now closed, but you can still read the archives of the 1.2.x and 1.3.x forums.
antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:56 pm

Trebor wrote:
Sun Dec 13, 2020 1:13 pm
Inaudible Infrasound.
Well is there any effect or Nyquist code snippet that would apply infrasound by developer mistake?

This effect sounds similar to some effects used in cartoons. Sounds like a belt slipping in a low-RPM motor, if you ask me. Is it possible this is an effect that transforms soundwaves to a sound of a Record-player belt slipping or a Record-player needle slipping on the vinyl?

Trebor
Posts: 9852
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by Trebor » Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:44 pm

antoniu200 wrote:
Sun Dec 13, 2020 3:56 pm
... is there any effect or Nyquist code snippet that would apply infrasound by developer mistake?.
Any old effect can cause that artefact,
(it's existence only excludes profe$$ional plugins, as they would filter it out by default).

antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:38 pm

Trebor wrote:
Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:44 pm
Any old effect can cause that artefact,
(it's existence only excludes profe$$ional plugins, as they would filter it out by default).
Understood, thanks!

If you have no more ideas, as I ran out, I hope somebody more creative than us can come along and shed some light on this effect.

Trebor
Posts: 9852
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by Trebor » Sun Dec 13, 2020 10:50 pm

antoniu200 wrote:
Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:38 pm
If you have no more ideas ...
As a final tweak add 33% rectifier distortion ...

after-target.flac
(183.14 KiB) Downloaded 20 times

steve
Site Admin
Posts: 80752
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:43 am
Operating System: Linux *buntu

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by steve » Mon Dec 14, 2020 12:35 am

Trebor wrote:
Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:35 am
(tick "version 3 syntax" box)
A little tip: You can force the Nyquist Prompt to use the more modern syntax (version 3 or later) by adding this line of the code:

Code: Select all

;version 4
(You could also use ";version 3" but you may as well enable all new features).

Also, just as a "heads up", when Audacity 3.0 is released, it will finally abandon that check box. The Nyquist Prompt will assume version 3 or later unless the code specifies ";version 1" or ";version 2".
9/10 questions are answered in the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Mon Dec 14, 2020 11:53 am

I achieved a new best, in my opinion, after separating the whole hook vocals from the mix. I realized that the first part of the edit is done with an equalizer that works similar to the Telephone preset, but without eliminating the low frequencies. After that, on the first third of length of the target vocals, a Sliding Time Scale is applied with initial -50% Tempo change and -12 semitones pitch shift. The second third is left as is and on the last third is applied another Sliding Time Scale is applied with final -25% Tempo change and -6 semitones pitch shift.

The second part of the edit is left to question: is it some distortion or some other effect?

I will soon post the whole hook vocals on YouTube as an unlisted video, since I don't think it's ok for me to post copyrighted content here on Audacity Forums. Maybe it'll be useful to hear every single instance of that effect.
Attachments
personal-best_target.wav
(383.19 KiB) Downloaded 8 times

antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Mon Dec 14, 2020 7:13 pm

Here is the full chorus, both extracted from the track using the inverted instrumental (0:01 - 0:58), and the raw vocals track (from 0:58 onwards): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJwa59Tr7rU

antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Wed Dec 16, 2020 8:09 am

Situation update, I think I got the whole trick.
What makes the difference between what we did here and what they did was they cut off the bottom ends of the waveform at some value. Not sure if they did this before doing a Pitch Shift or after, but that's experimentation.
My question is: how did they do that descentering? Sure, they added infrasound, but how? And what frequency and volume? To me, it seems the distortion is made by that descentering, since the cutting doesn't seem linear.

Trebor
Posts: 9852
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by Trebor » Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:26 pm

antoniu200 wrote:
Wed Dec 16, 2020 8:09 am
... cut off the bottom ends of the waveform ...
Rectification does that, (bottom or top makes no difference to the sound).
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier#Si ... rectifiers

Audacity has a rectifier option in the distortion effect.

antoniu200
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2020 8:47 pm
Operating System: Windows 10

Re: How was this sound effect achieved?

Post by antoniu200 » Wed Dec 16, 2020 12:36 pm

I know how to cut the ends off, that's not the issue. What I think is that the ends got cut off because, when editing, the track was at max digital volume. Then, they inserted that discentering (with infrasound) and, when the track got exported, that cut off the bottom ends that were clipping.
This is what I'm seeing. If I'm wrong and what I'm saying here is not true, please explain. But as thoroughly as you can, as I'm not familiar with the equations of oscilating waves, especially when applied digitally.

Post Reply