Laptop Noise

[auerbachnsn]

My personal live equipment consists of a laptop and an iPad.

The iPad is usually the sound source, documentary samples etc.

The laptop filters the voice.

My biggest issue is finding pedals that can do the things that a laptop has the capability of doing such as four band distortion with multiple effects, glitch effects, pitch harmonisers. Also the laptop was a lot cheaper than a hefty chain of pedals. On top of that I still get the ability to actually do something with midi controllers.

As I know there are a lot of purists out there I would love to know your method of attempting to push the envelope of sound in noise.

[Cementimental]

Jasuto is hands down the best iOS synth for noise, and there's a new version coming out soon! Highly recommended.
http://www.jasuto.com/main/

http://laptopnoise.com/ - funny site :D

I'm not totally opposed to laptops but only ever used one live once. For me I get harsher, more immediate and more effortlessly non-linear results with hardware. Plus I spend way too much of my live in front of a computer screen as it is.

When it comes to distortion especially even dance producers use hardware, it's hard to find a VST that comes close, tho indeed multi-band plugins are amazing.

Currently looking for some good software old enough to use on the various Powerbook G4s i acquired recently.

[auerbachnsn]

Jasuto! No tim!

Alchemy is a marvelous iOS synth, the remix pad blows all other iOS ones away and the layer synths just great.

It's funny I get more harsh, to my ears from a laptop. I suppose it depends on the source. I usually use an appeggiator, alternative the scale. Fl studio is bliss for that ;)

The next challenge is getting this all work on Ubuntu, I've dabbled with rose garden and whole host of other DAW's in the past but for live I found it too unstable and didn't want to take the risk.

Who the fuck made that site ;)

[Cementimental]

Well yeah there's different sorts of 'harsh' i guess, certainly digitally you can get the cleanest squarest waveforms and full frequency range..

Alchemy looks really nice, will give it a go, thanks for the tip. Seems like more of a traditional keyboard-centric synth tho, what I like about Jasuto is that it's totally modular so really good for un-musical, chaotic and complex sounds. plus it has noise-setup-friendly things like you can use the mic (or iRig etc input) in realtime connected to any effect/generator/math thing. It has nice sounding soft clipping of the whole mix too, most synth software assumes you're a musician and won't be clipping at all :D

I guess really serious laptop noise people use Max or Pure Data or whatever but i can't get into programming type stuff really... on the other had one of the best wall noise sets I've ever heard (A View from Nihil) was done just using Fruityloops without I don't think even any fancy extra VSTs :)

Who the fuck made that site ;)

It's this guy Michael Oster, a pro sound designer/engineer who uses a lot of circuitbent + digital noise techniques in his paid work and has some noise sideprojects/sites/jokes too. :)

[tinnitustimulus]

Granular Synthesis

FM Synthesis

Wavetable Synthesis

these things are best on laptops. this is what people do when they have max or PD. people have made plenty of patches from these, though sadly they are getting harder to find. I make pretty rudimentary things are just I flat out copy and slightly modify any patch I find useful.

I found this Granular PD patch particularly useful in timestretching

can't seem to link my favorite Max granular patch, which can granulate live signals in realtime, quite fun in a overdistorted feedback loop.

[Häkkis Atte]

Granular Synthesis

FM Synthesis

Wavetable Synthesis

these things are best on laptops. this is what people do when they have max or PD. people have made plenty of patches from these, though sadly they are getting harder to find. I make pretty rudimentary things are just I flat out copy and slightly modify any patch I find useful.

I found this Granular PD patch particularly useful in timestretching

can't seem to link my favorite Max granular patch, which can granulate live signals in realtime, quite fun in a overdistorted feedback loop.

Here is nice tutorial page for making granual synthesis with Pure Data:
http://www.pd-tutorial.com/english/ch03s07.html

Also SuperCollider is worth to check out: http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

SuperCollider is more programmer oriented than Pure Data but it is also more dynamic to use.

[jesusfaggotchrist]

I do studio noise. I really can't afford to play live and I don't understand why people make a big deal out of noise artists using FL Studio to make their stuff. If it sounds good, who cares?

[secondplanet]

one thing I like the idea of is using Arduino, so you get the software aspect you'd want from laptop noise and the fiddly bits that make pedals nice

Audacity is great for making noise, especially with these LADSPA plugins http://www.plugin.org.uk/

[Leewar]

We have used laptops a couple of times, though we tried to go another way around it.

Some kind of VST synth - laptop speakers mic'ed up - run through various pedals - into a 4 track.

Great for feedback/overloaded type sounds.

[Cementimental]

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2013/12/26/top-20-free-vst-plugins-best-2013/

[pentd]

wheres the difference in using "trve" methods at one stage (f.ex. tape sources) then editing / retouching / compiling / "composing" on a computer?

here comes a shock revelation: everybody's favorite "here be lions" by vanhala is finished up on (*gulp*) a LAPTOP

and yes it looks idiotic on stage, its very fragile, and if something goes wrong it's very very wrong. i remember yamatsuka eye goin on stage, everybody held their breath as he was preparing to do that lightbulb-ritual, then nothing happened, until the "apple power-on" chord blasted through the PA

but what powerful tools the computers provide!! just think bout reaper, reaktor, pd, ableton....  that list that tim pointed out: many excellent devices!!

edit: its a good/bad sound source as any, in the right /wrong hands yknow...

[moth1334]

I really like Alchemy, Reaktor, Kontakt, and FM7. for more ambient sounds, you can't go wrong with H.G. Fortune. Most of them are free and the ones that are paid are quite cheap. For distortion, my go-to is Izotope Trash.

[czadco]

I was introduced to Fruity Loops in 1999 and I think it's swell. It's very effective at taking samples of your choosing and adding a multitude of effects.

[Levas]

Caustic is quite nice synth for android. I haven't tried iOs or Windows versions.

[mdtdeath]

Caustic is quite nice synth for android. I haven't tried iOs or Windows versions.

Very nice app, it resembles another ios app, nanostudio. I've use it in many different tracks overall as a sampler