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junon 6 days ago

Pretty sure this is also why, when you stand at the right spot in a techno concert, the music starts to sound like a jet engine.

We also have this in game development, where if two sound effect emitters play the same effect at the same time with just a bit of offset, phase, whatever, they sound like that.

meindnoch 6 days ago | parent | next [-]

If the offset is fixed, the effect is called a comb filter. If the offset is changing, the effect is called flanging. The name stems from recording engineers rubbing their fingers against the flange of a reel-to-reel recorder's tape reel, to brake it slightly, which adds increasing delay to the sound.

junon 5 days ago | parent [-]

Huh so a flange is just a combing effect that shifts around? I'd never considered this. Also neat fact about flanges, didn't know that either. Thanks!

AStonesThrow 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

In the 1960s through 1980s, producers of audio recordings were striving to achieve something which they called “Wall of Sound”, which I suppose was influenced by producers like Phil Spector’s releases with the Beatles. It is a dense, all-encompassing sound with the drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and sometimes vocals too having equity in the mix, and not too much separation from left to right but a spacious “soundstage” effect, and just a solid onslaught of music for the duration of the track.

Well, there was a legend about a certain band fronted by Stan Ridgway. In the late 1970s they were in the studio and the producers were tweaking knobs and sliders to approach the desired sound. And one of them asked whether it was a “Wall of Sound” yet, but another replied, “it sounds more like a Wall of Voodoo!”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Voodoo#Formation