DIY (And More Flexible) Tape Hiss Effects

Gentle hiss is evocative of tape’s warmth and depth and, like vinyl crackle, it’s a popular textural layer to add in some musical genres…

Not all backgrounds and atmospheres have to be dramatic! Sometimes even the smallest sounds can make a difference, as we’re going to see through the following steps. We’re going to create an artificial ‘tape hiss’ sound using a white-noise generator and then blend this in with a collection of programmed beats, to give them a slightly ‘retro’ quality. As we’ll see, only a tiny amount of volume is required for this trick to make its presence felt, so it’s definitely one of those where if you can hear it clearly, you’re probably using too much of it. In the final clip below, compare the first half, where the sound is running, and the second, where it’s muted. In truth, it could be even quieter…

The tape hiss varies depending on the level of the signal being printed to it. To make our tape hiss layer dynamic we set up a compressor and feed the kick drum parts to this as a sidechain signal. We drop the level further. Compare the first half of...

The white noise is too frequency rich, so we add SoundToys’ FilterFreak with a high-pass filter. We only let through frequencies above 5kHz, so the sound is much less imposing. With the volume dropped even further, it’s blending nicely with the track,...

We’ve got a basic track to which a hissy, tape-like layer might add some value. We set up Logic’s ES2 synth to produce a single white noise oscillator and open the filter so that the sound is bright and fizzy. We won’t need much volume, so we turn this...