Glitched-Out Beats
Repeating, stuttering and mangling effects can easily kick-start rhythmic experiments. We explore how to turn simple percussion tracks into glitching grooves
Throughout these tutorials, you’ll notice we’re prone to bouncing processed signals to new audio tracks. Glitch effects are often erratic and tend to spit out bizarre results – ideal when searching for inventive sonic variations, but not if you only require a small dose of disorder within a track. Exporting the effect’s output as an audio file (or recording the channel to a new audio track) prints an exact snapshot of that signal, which you can then sift through and resequence to compile your ideal ‘take’. The procedure of rendering also encourages you to reach for audio editing tools, promoting further experimentation.
In this example, our source beat is purposely unconventional, but you don’t need to be a full-time glitch addict to benefit from these techniques. Try crafting interesting percussion loops by stuttering simple ½- and ¼-note sections of busier grooves, or generate an off-kilter fill within a regimented build-up section.
edits and ‘turntable stop’ effects are widely heard both on the radio and in the club.
Glitch techniques
Glitch-style edits have traditionally been achieved through laborious, time-consuming editing sessions. An audio editor or DAW allows the user to zoom in on a waveform and perform minute edits at sample level. To craft fast repeats and stutters, larger sections of audio can be chopped up into small chunks, which are then duplicated, repeated and re-sequenced directly on a host’s arrange page. Each individual slither of audio can then be time-stretched, pitch-shifted, reversed or chopped up further. Various audio effects – reverb, distortion, filtering, modulation, you name it – can also be applied on a per-segment basis.
As we don’t all have time to spend a week on a single edit, dedicated glitch plug-ins are now commonplace. Stuttering tools and signal-repeating plug-ins – such as Ableton Live’s Beat Repeat and DestroyFX’s free Buffer Override – sample incoming audio in a buffer; the buffer’s information is then processed and replayed at various user-defined rhythmic intervals. Idiosyncratic effects such as Sonic Charge’s Bitspeek and the Glitchmachines range of plug-ins transform signals into malfunctioning, mechanised squeaks and beeps reminiscent of gremlin-infested machinery and malfunctioning circuits.
Fast-paced IDM-style edits demand the use of several different processes in fast succession, so many modern glitch plug-ins provide an array of useful processors within one user interface. These powerful multi-effects – Illformed’s Glitch 2, iZotope’s Stutter Edit and Sugar Bytes’ Effectrix and Looperator being just a few – offer a way to trigger their modules’ influence within a scale of beat divisions. Synced with your host’s tempo, the effects are triggered via incoming MIDI notes or a step sequencer interface, making them ideal for on-the-fly remixing and laptop-based live performances.
Due to their rhythmic nature, drums and synth sequences respond particularly well to glitch processing: a lacklustre percussion loop can quickly be rearranged in real time; a vanilla rhythm track can be spiced up with a particularly ear-grabbing edit; vocals are prime candidates for glitching, as they command the listener’s attention in a mix; sustained synth sounds can be stuttered, transposed and delayed to form sparser, glitched-out sequences. Try treating all manner of sounds with glitch-style processing for unexpected results.
Drums and synth sequences respond particularly well to glitch processing