# Choppy, Glitchy, Fuck Yeah! - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2008-04-06 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2008/04/choppy-glitchy-fuck-yeah/ As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I've been pondering a thread starter on glitch programming; nothing has really come to me that wouldn't take the form of a tutorial (which I don't find that interesting, at least to make) or a rant. So I'll just provide some materials and we can go off on whatever tangent is appropriate. Don't you wish I was your teacher at Full Sail? An education at that place might almost have been worth something. In any case, what got me started on this whole thing was [this video](http://youtube.com/watch?v=LtxX0VEpMSI&feature=related) on GooTube, in which this Pix fellow demonstrates far better than I could type the CTRL-AL engine in the MachineDrum. I use this technique extensively, and while I kind of discovered it independently, I hadn't taken it to the lengths that he has. Also, I'm trying to work out a plugin concept (much to Adam's bemusement) based loosely on the technique exhibited in [this video,](http://youtube.com/watch?v=jcGB8BFrG04) which takes advantage of a quirky behavior in Live. It is fairly complicated to pull off, and can't be done in real time, but the result is kind of nice, which is why I've been pondering how to do it in a plugin. In any case, Replicant aside, I tend to do most all of my glitchy programming by hand. This is time consuming, of course, but once you get the hang of whatever your DAW uses for dealing with small chunks of audio, it is fairly productive. Currently, assuming I'm using the MachineDrum for rhythm, I'll use the CTRL-AL "feature" to come up with something interesting, record the section, then go in and start chopping and moving about the audio file in Cubase to end up with what I want. Since I tend to record separate parts, I throw everything in a folder track when I'm done so it can be dealt with like an individual loop. What's your favorite methodology for doing this sort of thing? Are there any crafty videos on YouTube that I haven't seen? Or are you just gonna say "I went to Full Sail, and look at me now, bitch! I'm the patchbay monkey in the finest studio in Pittsburgh!" **EDIT:** I almost forgot the excellent videos from our good friends Sonniccouture that deal with using their KSP scripts with Kontakt. You can find them [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfegO0dOcmc) and [here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk2PQlV5ulE) ## Comments (10) **mike kiraly** (2008-04-06): In my "go-to" order: 1. Replicant - duh. 2. Reaktor -more specifically, the ensembles Vierring (most underrated processing ensemble ever), Vectory and Massive (no, not THAT Massive) 3. Sugar Bytes Effectrix - just recently discovered this and it's pretty useful. 4. Live's Follow Actions - useful for this, but I tend to abuse Follow Actions more as generative music creation. For example, I load 30 - 40 midi clips of 5 or 6 chords in a given key, each having a few different durations and/or inversions, then set the follow action parameters and let it go to town. 5. Cut and paste. **tngregory** (2008-04-06): my go-to app to get the initial rhythm bed down is sonic couture's konkrete 2. http://www.soniccouture.org/tutorial/konkrete2-tutorial1.mov the trigger keys built into kontakt 2 or 3 kick start the process for the break down. then i will often capture/assign that and take it into the hyper editor in logic which is still quite effective for visualizing beat builds. i also like taking audio slices into the empty "sample kit" in ultrabeat and using its step sequencer to further chop and stab. the chaos engine in stylus rmx can often yield interesting results that are easy to capture and further slice. and finally, beat repeat from ableton's live is terribly good fun to just set up and let it do its thing. replicant can then do delicious things to any of these approaches. something about the blade runner names puts me in the mood. **stevo83** (2008-04-06): If i want the easy life ill use Glitch the plugin (which i think has been mentioned on here before) or Replicant. If i want the hard life i chop stuff up in Lives arrange page till i get it how i want it (same as in Cubase or anywhere). I usually then Consolidate Sections and then play around with clip envelopes on pitch, volume etc. Live does seem to excel at that kind of thing. "For example, I load 30 - 40 midi clips of 5 or 6 chords in a given key, each having a few different durations and/or inversions, then set the follow action parameters and let it go to town. 5" - Thats a cool idea Mike, im gonna check it out! **quantize** (2008-04-06): Lucifer shame he never got the appropriate props! **vae** (2008-04-06): Even though I've pretty much stopped using them these days, there's one thing where trackers shine: the "doing glitchy programming by hand"-route. It's not like you can't do similar stuff with whatever else, it just feels much faster with that way of thinking. For example, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_TJ78waV8Y - the soundtrack is really quickly made Renoise work. It doesn't go far into the glitch department at all, but the neat thing is that basically everything is done by hand, on the fly while composing. No need to set up slice points or pick out bits from random glitch streams produced by fx. Take a loop, a few percussion samples, whatever, and start going wild with sample offset, sample reverse, pitch up and down and other sample track effects, add some plugin fx automation and off you go. Since the traditional tracker concept is having a (usually quite basic) sampler and a sequencer integrated together and everything and the interface doesn't hide the fact that you're working in discrete time, certain glitch tricks are extremely easy and intuitive to pull off compared to working with normal sequencer environment. Either that, or I'm just more used to micro-level tweaking with that type of interface. It just feels damn easy to visualize what you're doing and controlling stuff when the sample triggers and unified control data are laid out next to each other per tick / subdivision. Kind of like using Logic's event list and hyper editor without having to remember things, do guesswork or do any setup beforehand. I still haven't bought Replicant though, the Beat Repeat type of glitch FX is about the only thing I really miss when working with Logic (the weapon of choice) instead of Live. **thelizard** (2008-04-06): renoise is great. I occasionally sneak some editing time in during classes on my laptop, since I don't need to use my mouse at all. live is amazing, but I'm always way to tempted to go overboard with it. these days, though, edison + slicex in FL8 are an incredible combo. the drag+drop functionality with whatever selections you want in edison take out all the hard work haha. usually I load a drum part I'm working with, and cover it in a few layers of glitch + replicant + reaktor. I'll then record the whole mess for a few minutes in edison, and chop out my favorite selections. from this relatively generative process, I'll then dig into it with slicex and automation envelopes. **inteliko** (2008-04-06): B4 Glitch freebie, I snipetted wavs with delay getting pitched say at the 1 to 20ms range. Mr Kiraly you talking about the Massive groovebox right??..indeed...one shots + the randomise button to a good pattern. **mike kiraly** (2008-04-06): Yes, the Massive groovebox ensemble is what I am referring to. If you're familiar with it, or have access to it, here's my favorite trick: Create 10 short, single note audio samples using 10 different synth patches - mind you, I mean all the same note, i.e. 10 short duration C3's with different patches. I find that bright sounds with lots of harmonics work the best. Then use these ten samples to create a sample map within Reaktor. Then load this sample map into any or all of the channels in Massive and go. Since most of the presets focus on drums or percussive type sounds, it's easy to forget that you can create some of the most amazing melodic patterns, glitchy or not, by loading melodic samples and starting to mess with all of the different modulation options. It becomes a glitchy step sequencer on steroids and I've never been able to generate such interesting melodic content by just programming a synth or plug in. Every time I use this trick in a composition, invariably someone I've never met before emails me and asks how I got that particular sound. **mike kiraly** (2008-04-06): stevo83 - glad you like the idea. It takes some time to set up, but once you do, save the project as a template and you can always go back to it. As you can tell between this tip, and the one above about Reaktor, I have almost zero innate musical ability and therefore I rely on the machines to give me a little help :) **drewkeys** (2008-04-06): All of these different approaches are very interesting. Great thread! Here is my take on the populist DAW approach: I get a lot of mileage out of creating glitches in Logic's arrange window. First, I get a sample (and maybe the same sample reversed), zoom very close, and start auditioning extremely short loops with the Loop Arrange function. Once I find one I like, i'll cut it out, move it to another track, and use the repeat function to paste several copies in a row. Then I use the glue tool to make a new file and repitch if desired and apply fades etc. I usually have several different effects open on different channels so I can quickly move the glitches around to find a combo I like. Also, if i want to repitch I'll open the file in a new EXS24 instrument and do it in the sampler. Once it's set, I arrange them into loops that work with the track and quickly bounce them. Finally, I mute the tracks I was working on, put them in a folder, and hide it, and move the bounces to one stereo final glitch track. It's all fast with key commands, plus the glitch programming gets saved with the track which is easier for me to find later.