Amplitude Based Clichés

Molto Allegro Con Tremolo?

What slap-back is to the world of time-based clichés, tremolo is to amplitude based clichés. Famous as a feature on old Fender guitar amplifiers, tremolo’s roots lie in guitar sounds of the 50’s. Evocative on electric guitar, tremolo is an effect just waiting to be applied elsewhere. And you may be surprised to find out that you already have a ‘tremolo unit.’ Using one side of an auto-panner patch in a DSP box is probably the most common approach. But modulating volume through MIDI (via Channel Control Change 7) or a mixer’s automation will work just as well.

Tremolo can give a new texture to a worn and weary patch. Optimize its effectiveness by keeping these thoughts in mind. First, because the effect is generally so audible, it will draw attention to itself. This suggests that the track may want to sit lower in the mix on average than if it weren’t ‘tremoloed.’ So if you’ve been working on a mix and have gotten the general balances correct and then decide to add tremolo to a part, it is probably wise to pull its fader down a bit. The tremolo effect will highlight the track for listeners so its level can be lowered without reducing the richness of your arrangement or the depth of your mix. That’s a good thing. With the track now lowered in the mix, you will likely have some more room – room for another part, another effect, or simply more space for the vocal. There’s another consideration about tremolo I find particularly interesting. Tremolo sounds like an effect. It isn’t a simulation of some much sought-after, real-life, natural acoustic phenomenon. It is as artificial as they come. Someone or something is playing with the volume knob, right? Right. So given its clear roots in electrified music, try it on some very acoustic sounding tracks, patches and samples. Strings and pianos are my favorite. It is a trip to hear a convincing, rich orchestra play with tremolo. Depeche Mode goes for it with the piano in “Condemnation” on Songs of Faith and Devotion – proof that clichés can roll with the punches and change with the times.

The More the Merrier

The Leslie speaker is a mechanical testament to the seductiveness of a combination of clichés. With its rotating speaker it offers acoustical pitch shifting through the Doppler effect (that change in pitch, of a train’s horn as it drives by for example, due to the change in relative velocity between the sound source and the listener). Tremolo is created through the periodic motion of the speaker as it rotates toward and then away from the listener/mic during its rotation. Finally , the signal itself passes through an oh-so-sweet-when-it-breaks-up tube preamp. Leslie cabinets spit out a fantastically distinct sound utilizing pitch, EQ and amplitude clichés in symphony. Zoiks!

Is This the End?

Another amplitude cliché is the fade. Perhaps the most used cliché, it is so common we rarely stop to think about how unnatural it is. But watch a band lip-sync to their record on television and you’ll find the fade comedic. Small jazz groups will occasionally attempt to fade out live, usually with pretty confusing results: “Are they done yet? Can we clap? They’re all still moving but all I hear is the kick.” While the fade out is standard fare in pop music, there are more unusual fade techniques. The Beatles fade in on Eight Days a Week. And you’ve also heard the fade-out-and-then-back-in trick used almost anywhere in a song, assumably to hide unfixable mistakes in the tracks. More traditionally, countless tunes, like this article, simply fade out at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Countless tunes, like this article, simply fade out at the end. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Countless tunes, like this article, simply fade out at the end. Yeah, yeah . . .

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