When Did Everything Start To Sound Like It Was Underwater? (1 Viewer)

[rockaction]

Modern artistic sounds sound garbled, distant, and almost like they are underwater.

Check out the new Dancing With The Stars commercial. Check the music. It’s supposed to be dance music. Instead, it’s so heavily compressed and filtered through sound effects that it sounds horribly distant.

Rap has been doing this for seven or eight years, but I figured that those sounds or overriding aesthetic would stay in its lane. It hasn’t.

It’s a noise nuisance. It makes everything sound like gargling mouthwash.

Anybody else notice this or have a professional knowledge of what this is? What these filters are?

GET OFF MY LAWN

Here's the Dancing With The Stars commercial. It's the "oooweooo" that gets me. It sounds horribly distant.

Underwater

 

[rockaction]

And, no, it's not "Heads Will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who I was going to do for MAD 31.

It's the music above at the link.

 

[bigbottom]

Low pass filter. And compression. And reverb.

 

[rockaction]

Low pass filter. And compression. And reverb.

I was hoping you would comment.



What does a low pass filter do?

 

[rockaction]

Thanks again. I wouldn't cop the self-effacing and indignant jokey attitude if I knew I could dial up an earnest answer like that. Thanks, bb.

I really don't hate the stuff. It's just that it's out of my element to know where it's coming from, who is making that decision to do that, and why they're doing it.

There usually seems to be a seed or germination with how stuff like that comes to be, and it usually starts at one or two distinct points, like T-Pain and Kanye and autotune.

So let me step back from my seeming negative judgment to a disposition of wonder.

 

[bigbottom]

Low pass filter. And compression. And reverb.

I was hoping you would comment.



What does a low pass filter do?

Filters out the high frequencies. Often combined with a sweep as you open up the higher frequencies. A low pass filter creates that muffled sound (often heard in EDM). Compression limits the high and low volume spikes. And then there is tons of reverb in the video you linked.

 

[zazale]

Low pass filter. And compression. And reverb.

I was hoping you would comment.



What does a low pass filter do?

low-pass filtering basically suppresses higher pitch frequencies. the reverb and compression help with the acoustic feeling of being in a dancehall/arena

 

[rockaction]

And then there is tons of reverb in the video you linked.

I think it's me hearing the reverb, because I just watched a video on the low pass filter and East Coast '90s Hip Hop, and I was awfully familiar with it. (I just never would have known the name.) It must be the compression and reverb that makes it sound the way it does to me - gives it a really distant, spacey feeling. I know when I hear reverb on guitar, just not in electronic music I guess.

Fascinating. Thanks again for your posts.

eta* Like I'm just finding out about its prominent role in groups like Lords of the Underground, A Tribe Called Quest (The Low End Theory is a double entendre given the cover art, but would seem to be the low pass filter), and other groups.

 

[rockaction]

low-pass filtering basically suppresses higher pitch frequencies. the reverb and compression help with the acoustic feeling of being in a dancehall/arena

Very cool. Thank you. You'e an EDM guy, right? Do you create sounds in real life? Just a curious personal note.