Re: distortion, overdrive,fuzz,crunch,special sauce, secret goo

["Art Simon" <simart@gmail.com>]

Amen Rick!

The harmonic content of a distorted sound is vastly more complex than
a clean one. So a single boring clean note can be a dancing symphony
of harmonics with distortion. You can't play jazz chords or complex
phrasing through distortion, it's too jumbled. But you can play simple
stuff, and with distortion it becomes complex. It all depends on what
you are listening for. There are no chops in Alvin Lucier's "I am
sitting in a room," it's all about what distortion (and looping to
stay on topic) introduces to the sound. The line between noise and
music I think is the dominant post Cage stream in modern music. That
doesn't mean I think all distortion is good, but I think it becomes a
medium much like the guitar in itself.

On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 8:53 PM, Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com> wrote:
> I've been following this thread avidly because I am currently in love
> with distortion, fuzz and overdrives in my own work lately
> (and have spend stupid money that I didn't really have buying
> up stomp box pedals in the vein).
>
> I totally hear what both Krispen and Bill are saying, viz a vis, the fact
> that
> heavily distorted guitars over heavily overdriven amps at high volume can
> cause
> a compression of both volume and a compression of timbre that can really
> both limit nuance and dynamics and also, potentially, hide poor 
>technique.
>
> At the same time,    I'm not a guitarist (though I own several) and I 
>don't
> tend to think like a
> guitarist.
>
> I have neither skill or nuance in my 6 string playing, but I do think 
>like a
> multi-instrumentalist
> and a composer and I love the timbral range that is available with all 
>kinds
> of different distortions, overdrives,
> feedbackers  and fuzzes.
>
> If I was only playing guitar in my peformances, then I think I would
> probably avoid the kind of
> tones that can potentially put  Krispen and Bill off of Nels Clines' 
>sound.
>
> As a composer, though,  I find his sound absolutely fascinating, 
>sometimes,
> specifically because
> it IS linear and non dynamic.      I've also found that it is 
>efficacious in
> some composing to
> juxtapose musical lines that are very uni-dynamic against things that are
> much more so.........the
> resultant contrast makes for interesting and very musical results.
>
> Trent Reznor has been really good at this:   using very monolithic sounds
> (compressed to hell
> frequently) and then using a ton of dynamics in his vocals or in the 
>rest of
> his arrangements
> (even just controlling the volume of his heavily distorted sounds in his
> mix)
>
> Lately,  I'm most attracted to sounds that are ridiculously
> overdistorted........almost to the point
> of obscuring the melody being played.
>
> I recently produced a very small Noise Festival and used my Olympus 
>recorder
> to record my sets
> and the set of Bryan of Rape Shower fame.
> I wasn't able to check my settings and the entire thing clipped horribly
> with digital
> distortion................arguably the ugliest distortion found.
>
> To my delight,  I went back and listened to some of Bryan's tracks 
>which, in
> a digital sound editor
> looked like solid black.   He had started his set out in a cool way , 
>just
> playing an old blues
> song, fairly straightforward before launching into a very loud and
> aggressive noise set.
>
> The blues tune, distorted to square wave clipping sounded really cool to 
>my
> ears.
>
> Again, as my brother so wisely said,  everyone has their own aesthetic 
>and
> it's valid.
>
> I just wanted to put it out there that there is a lover on this list of
> stupid overly distorted sound.
>
> A student of mine who I just turned on to the My Bloody Valentine body of
> work said,
> "...............I'm also rethinking distortion now; I've never heard so 
>much
> color in distortion before!....."
>
> Noise and the noise-esque sounds you can get with radical combinations of
> distortion
> are the equivalent of White light.   They contain hundres of sine waves.
> To me the after the effect processing of such sounds can yield really 
>subtle
> and even
> quite melodic work.
>
> Yeah verily!
>
>



-- 
Art Simon
simart@null.net
myspace [dot] com/artsimon