How to get "warm sounding" saturation and reverb with the native effects?

Help, Support & Bugs Beginners Questions - Renoise
1

I have my own ways of achieving this but it’s mostly by trial and error and doesn’t get the best results, so I was wondering what other people here do.

  1. How do I get a “warm” sounding saturation effect or tape saturation effect with the native effects? I try to use distortion for this (haven’t experimented with cabinet simulator that much) but for either of those two native effects which parameters should I avoid or use to get this effect? Or if there’s another way to do it easily in Renoise, let me know.

  2. Similarly, I find the native mpreverb is often too metallic, harsh, cold, or “ping”-y. How should I change the parameters to get a more warm reverb? I’m especially interested in the kind of warm, spacey, and long style of reverb that something like an Empress reverb pedal can produce.

Thanks in advance for any ideas! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

2

Good questions; ok, let’s try to input here.

‘warm’ sound - say we have a bass sample…

  • C-4 01 40 40 … | C-4 01 40 C0 … |

    • Play that in one track panned towards one direction at half volume, also play the same sound
    • in another track but at a very slightly higher pitch, half volume, panned opposite direction.
    • This fattens up stereo or mono samples; can be interesting to modulate the volume columns.

  • Cabinet Simulator device is great, so is the Convolver, totally experiment using those with distortion!!

‘warm’ mpReverb

  • Use the Low Cut filter, set it around 400Hz, no color here, gradually bring in the ‘wet’ volume.
  • Set the Duration pretty high, around 5000ms.
  • Modulate the wet/dry mix.

Please do give us some update when you can. :)

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3

“warmth” is usually a combination of multiple voices/unison/chorus phasing effects, pitch drift, and gentle (or more extreme) low pass filtering.

that said, the distortion unit’s shape mode, with relatively low drive, tone, and wet/dry balance (to taste) is my usual go-to for native gentle saturation. You can also overdrive the compressors to get some warm grit, depending on the source, although sometimes it breaks up the signal in potentially undesirable ways.

I would second @Jek’s recommendation to play with the cabinet simulator and convolver devices as well. Custom impulses in the convolver (especially short ones with high signal values) can create some really interesting and unique distortion effects,

Then, low pass everything :slight_smile:

Warmth on the reverb/convolver is also going to related to low pass filtering. you can use the color slider and low cut slider, or place the reverb on a send and filter it post signal processing with one of the many native filters if you want more character

definitely spend some time with the convolver if you’re interested in spatial effects. it’s very versatile!

HTH

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4

  1. You can get a warm saturation from the analog filter… Just use LP and set cutoff high and reso at default value (I think 12.5%). Then tune in the “Drive” parameter. To get additional warmth without overdriving you can try to place an exciter before that even, avoiding to make the highs too harsh.

  2. Try Lowpassing. Try using the convolver with warm reverb IRs. I like the idea of using the reverbs with dry on mute and 100%wet on group or send, sending the dry signal in parallel. So I can EQ, filter, sidechain etc. the reverb wet only, and with this can work wonders to shape a reverb tail and make it more warm.

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6

If you really want to go hard, a multiband rig might be in order. A filter > dirt > filter setup on each band can give you a shitload of control, or maybe just route all 3 through a final filter instead of capping each with a filter. Swapping out distortion for saturation or vice versa on each band can give you quite a lot of detail, too.

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