Journal
Plain guides to the tones people spend years hunting: the shoegaze wall, the doom low end, one bass that fills a whole room. Written by a working composer, not a marketer. Where a Siesta plugin gets you there in two knobs, I'll say so. Where a free one does it better, I'll say that too.
The shoegaze wall, doom that doesn't collapse, one bass that fills a room, and 2000s lo-fi haze. What actually makes each sound, and how to get there in two knobs.
Read → Bass · Sound likeThe short answer up top, then the history, Mike Kerr's split-bass gear, and the exact plugin chain. One bass, two rigs, a whole band.
Read → Shoegaze · Sound likeGlide guitar, reverse reverb, and reverb before the fuzz. How to get convincingly close to Loveless.
Read → Doom · Sound likeThe tone that invented heavy metal and doom. Down-tuned, dread-filled, and how to keep it huge.
Read → Grunge · Sound likeThe grunge tone is a dynamic and a fuzz, not a secret pedal. The history, the gear, and the chain.
Read → Shoegaze metal · Sound likeCrushing riffs and dreamy atmosphere at once. The two-worlds tone, and the chain for each side.
Read → Lo-fi · Sound likeTape wobble, filtered warmth and nostalgic haze. Turning a clean recording into a memory.
Read → Psych / lo-fi · Sound likeSwirling phaser, tape warmth and drenched drums. The psychedelic lo-fi glue, step by step.
Read → Lo-fi hip hop · Sound likeThe drunk off-grid MPC swing and dusty samples. The technique, plus a free plugin chain.
Read → Dream pop · Sound likeCascading reverbs, long delays and shimmer over fuzz. The dream-pop wash, explained.
Read → Genre history · GuideWhere it came from, what defines it, and the bands that built the wall of sound.
Read → Tone guide · GuideWhy distortion eats your low end, and how the heavy bands keep the floor under it.
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