Sounds or effects in songs you can't stand

[bill5]

For example, this thing...I don't know if there's a name for it, but I just call it the "gorilla sound" as heard in the intro of this song: https://youtu.be/tINekQuJHE4

 

Why you'd want that in a song (unless maybe you're doing a soundtrack for a gorilla documentary) I can't imagine. 

 

Another one is the "orchestral hit" which was used to nauseating excess by Yes of all people in "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

 

[jazzpiano88]

It’s a Cuica (monkey drum). 
 

Put to good use here:

 

 

i thought you were going to post something like this for your example:

 

[ProfD]

Gated kick and snare drums get old real fast.

 

Telephone effect should be used like Allspice.

 

That close/open filter effect on a whole track should be used sparingly.

 

There have been quite a few WTF sounds and effects over several decades. 😎

[analogika]

This is a Cuica. 
 

 

Basically, a Stick attached to the Skin from inside of the drum, played with a wet rag (of leather?). 

[David Emm]

Is Celine Dion's hypersonic voice a sound or an effect?  Sorry! 

[bill5]

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

Telephone effect should be used like Allspice.

 

?

 

Quote

That close/open filter effect on a whole track should be used sparingly.

When I said "effect" I wasn't really thinking stuff like reverb, filters, etc, but yeah why not  For ex I didn't realize how heavy-handed a lot of artists (or producers) are with reverb, esp vocals, until I started trying producing myself and listened to it more closely in recordings

[ProfD]

Telephone effect is when vocals are purposefully recorded thin and lo-fi and sounds like it's being played through a small speaker.😎

[bill5]

ah like in ELO's "telephone line." Yeah hate that. 

[analogika]

8 hours ago, ProfD said:

Telephone effect is when vocals are purposefully recorded thin and lo-fi and sounds like it's being played through a small speaker.😎

 

For my first band's album, we actually put a dial phone handset in a plastic tub, hung a Neumann over it, and called the number to record the effect. 

 

This was twenty-five years ago. 

[DJkeys]

Grateful Dead harmonies are like fingernails on a blackboard for me-

 

-dj

[KenElevenShadows]

On 9/1/2023 at 12:13 PM, bill5 said:

For example, this thing...I don't know if there's a name for it, but I just call it the "gorilla sound" as heard in the intro of this song: https://youtu.be/tINekQuJHE4

 

Why you'd want that in a song (unless maybe you're doing a soundtrack for a gorilla documentary) I can't imagine. 

 

Another one is the "orchestral hit" which was used to nauseating excess by Yes of all people in "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

 

 

I apparently don't like either as well.

 

I didn't know that I didn't like the "gorilla sound", but in both the two examples in this thread, I don't care for that. Then again, I am not a huge Spyro Gyra fan in general. 

 

And orchestra hits had run their course decades ago. But either I don't listen to the kind of music that has orchestra hits, or people stopped using it. Or both. And that's okay.

[jazzpiano88]

On 9/1/2023 at 2:13 PM, bill5 said:

Another one is the "orchestral hit" which was used to nauseating excess by Yes of all people in "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

Yeah that was very overused in the 80s.  Miles Davis fancied it on Tutu.  Great tune except for that.   He  (or should I say, Marcus Miller) had hired a lot of keyboard players for sound design IIRC. 

[bill5]

1 hour ago, KenElevenShadows said:

orchestra hits had run their course decades ago. But either I don't listen to the kind of music that has orchestra hits, or people stopped using it. Or both. And that's okay.

True. I haven't heard it in some time, happily.

[o0Ampy0o]

Owner of a Lonely Heart, wasn't the 80's just last decade? We are coming up on 40 years of 90125 October 24, 2023.

 

The orchestral and gorilla hit have not been the focus of my attention. When I hear the gorilla hit I typically skip the song. It hasn't been specifically the gorilla element so much as the heavy jungle theme.

 

I thought the gorilla hit was someone in the band making those sounds vocally. I think I saw it being done in a more acoustic smooth jazz form of Al Di Meola many years ago. It was an acoustic duo. I guess I just did not identify which thing the other guy was doing to get that sound. He was filling in with a wide variety of international instruments. Part of it included using his voice as an instrument other than singing. His mic had all of this beautiful ambient spatial reverb and echo at times.

 

Rick Wakeman can do orchestral hits upside down (8:06):

 

 

 

 

 

[KenElevenShadows]

The only thing approaching an orchestra hit that I enjoy is the song "The Unforgettable Fire" by U2, where they do it in the breakdown in the middle.

[Notes_Norton]

Auto-tune. If I can hear the artifacts, I'm done listening.

 

As a vocalist:

1. I work very hard to sing in tune
2. I also work very hard to manipulate the pitch out of tune, hopefully in an artistic manner

 

 

Notes ♫

[Joe Muscara]

Sirens, especially while I am driving.

[Stokely]

Love 90125 overall, Owner is my least favorite song on it.

Unforgettable Fire is a great tune, but ironically the vocals on one of the tunes near the end of that (great) album are so bad I skip it every single time.  Can't even remember the name of it, it's a very slow sparse one.

Anyway, for annoying fads I nominate that bass synth stutter effect used in music oh, 10 years ago or so.  No idea what you actually call it, think Imagine Dragons and the like.   I always think "hey, sounds like the Serum vst" when I hear it.

Fads come and fads go.
 

 

[Joe Muscara]

Now that I recognize it, I’m starting to get tired of the bass drop. I don’t think it’s limited to songs, isn’t it in almost every movie trailer too?

[RABid]

Side chain bass woomp, woomp, woomp. Do a better job composing and mixing and you will not need side chain.

 

That disco electronic drum sound that pew pew's all over a song. I didn't like it in "Ring My Bell" and I still don't like it.

[Stokely]

7 hours ago, Joe Muscara said:

Now that I recognize it, I’m starting to get tired of the bass drop. I don’t think it’s limited to songs, isn’t it in almost every movie trailer too?

Movie trailers are like their own annoying genre with stingers, bramms, drops etc.   Everything has epic war drums banging away.   Lots of vocal libraries (I have a couple myself!)   Sound-wise everything has a crispy overdriven edge to it that probably in 10 years is going to be a look-back fad as well.   

If you are into VST sales, and especially if you own Kontakt, you'll realize there are tons of "movie trailer", or I guess you could say "soundtrack", libraries out there.  

 

[Joe Muscara]

2 hours ago, Stokely said:

Movie trailers are like their own annoying genre with stingers, bramms, drops etc.   Everything has epic war drums banging away.   Lots of vocal libraries (I have a couple myself!)   Sound-wise everything has a crispy overdriven edge to it that probably in 10 years is going to be a look-back fad as well.   

If you are into VST sales, and especially if you own Kontakt, you'll realize there are tons of "movie trailer", or I guess you could say "soundtrack", libraries out there.  

 

I enjoy some of the latest Marvel movies, but the trailers I get before those are annoying. BOOM … BOOM … BOOM … BOOM … and what's even worse is when it's quiet before the movie (or after it) and I can hear the trailers BOOMing in a nearby theater.

[bill5]

3 hours ago, Stokely said:

Movie trailers are like their own annoying genre with stingers, bramms, drops etc.   Everything has epic war drums banging away.   
 

Well at least they stopped saying "In a world......." 

[Shamanzarek]

The "Orchestra Hit" or something close to it was originated by The Moody Blues on the song "Question". It wasn't digital as on a sampler but was a composite of Mellotron sounds.

 

[jazzpiano88]

On 9/4/2023 at 8:27 AM, Notes_Norton said:

Auto-tune. If I can hear the artifacts, I'm done listening.

 

As a vocalist:

1. I work very hard to sing in tune
2. I also work very hard to manipulate the pitch out of tune, hopefully in an artistic manner

 

Exactly!

 

 

[MathOfInsects]

I think it's more a matter of whether something feels organic to the tune or tacked on because it is "supposed" to be there, for me.

Having said that, in general the "non-bass bass" sound of trap (or like in "Turn Down for What") agitates me, because I am constantly wanting more of something.

 

But ultimately the most annoying sound or sound effect in all of music is: opera. 

[jazzpiano88]

One thing that annoyed me for years was when Pat Metheny discovered the guitar synthesizer around 1980 and then proceeded to play every solo on every song for the next ten + years with the same annoying chalkboard grating patch.    I couldn't take it, and for the life of me couldn't understand why he played it, until he remarked in some interview that it was a 'Trumpet' (me SOWL).   

 

What explained it was that he played trumpet initially and his brother played trumpet, and he loved horn solos. 

 

Never mind it didn't sound anything remotely like a trumpet! 

[bill5]

1 hour ago, MathOfInsects said:

I think it's more a matter of whether something feels organic to the tune or tacked on because it is "supposed" to be there, for me.

That definitely can make a big diff. Although for me there are some that it doesn't matter how it's used, I can't stand it.

 

Quote

But ultimately the most annoying sound or sound effect in all of music is: opera. 

??

[bill5]

28 minutes ago, JazzPiano88 said:

One thing that annoyed me for years was when Pat Metheny discovered the guitar synthesizer around 1980 and proceeded to play every solo on every song for the next ten years with the same annoying chalkboard grating patch.  

This times a thousand. Sounds like air being slowly let out of a balloon. Why he got hooked on that annoying sound I'll never know but I have always hated it. 

[Notes_Norton]

Other than the aforementioned auto-tune, there isn't much I'm opposed to, as long as it is used artfully, tastefully and appropriately. Of course, that is all in my opinion, YMMV.

 

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫