Shoegaze/atmospheric sound ala Explosions in the sky/Outrun the Sunlight/Deafhaven

crg123

crg123

Experienced
Hey guys,

Theres this sound/technique that I really like that some bands have been getting lately.This is probably an easy one to get but I'm not sure exactly how they do it. It might just be something layered in the studio that I can't copy. It's this really spacey sounding tremolo picking sound, almost siren like. Some times its just one bent note and sounds even more extreme like in the second video.

Here's some examples of what I mean.

[

You can hear it in the background here.

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a little more prevalent here around 2 minutes and 3:34 in.

Obviously it sounds better in the mix but I'd like to figure out how its done, against probably something stupid simple. Thanks for the help.

Closest I can seem to get is a slightly modified version of Simeon's Strymon Timeline emulation patch he helped me with. Check out scene 2 with the fuzz pedal one (low mix) to see what I mean View attachment Simeon TimeLine - Post Rock.syx (XL only patch)

I use my volume knob or the foot controller on my FCB1010 for the swells while doing chord bends. I think I'm getting close but it doesnt sound 100% right for the tremolo picking stuff.
 
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Thanks for posting this!

Deafheaven (first few minutes) reminds me of the best parts of HUM.

If you have access to Axe Edit, you can rapidly and easily exchange locations of effects to find the secret sauce. Lacking that: roll-off the high freqs (in the amp most likely), add some Vibrato/Phaser (mild), Plate Reverb, compression, then some Room Reverb (and pick quickly).


EDIT:
Actually, Alcest @3:54 mark I think that part of interest to you is composed of octaves and not single-note-lines (bear with me, I'm not familiar with this genre and this may be a 'given') and that will alter the character of the overall effect somewhat.
 
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Bump, I'm also interested about this. I've seen a few great shoegaze bands and getting more into to the genre lately. I've sometimes had a talk with the guitarists after the show. They just always laugh that they're complete guitar nerds and mess with their gear a LOT.

I've heard these sounds come off from Digitech Whammy, 2 different fuzz pedals (other one set to 11), Crybaby, Memory Man, Line 6 multi-delay and some reverb pedal. I'm sure you can end up doing it with much less.

Sounds like some particular Memory Man setting would be something you could try to emulate with Axe (it doesn't have tremolo but it has vibrato!) in combination with a delay acting as the Line 6 one (that one is a programmable digital effect so there can be millions of different sounds, most probably tape echo would be best). Then add some reverb to that, hall maybe. All effects set in front of the amp.

The effect order is very important, just like happycritter mentioned. I have to try this out sometime and see what I can come up with. Some further advice is appreciated if you have some knowledge about shoegaze effects! :)

Another typical shoegaze effect is the screeching wah kind of thing with fuzz. I've come somewhat close to that with a fuzz in front of a wah. I saw one guitarist doing it with Whammy pedal full to toe position and then messing with fuzz and wah. I wondered what he did with that Whammy pedal... low or high octave maybe? It has something to do with the whammy effect I think.
 
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